You control one of the wanderers of a special mighty order. He witnesses an evil ritual taking place and tries to disrupt it, but in doing so he gets caught in a flow of energy which transforms him into a demon. He has to try to regain who he once was piece by piece by looking for a special artefact, but hordes of demons stand in his path.

                My first thoughts on Demon Skin are that it looks pretty cool graphically. You get broken in gently to get to grips with the combat which has a few different techniques to master. As this is 2D the combat will always have some limitations, but they have added a degree of complexity to make it interesting, tough to master and does not always hit the mark for me. The framework of the combat is sound, you can attack and defend high, medium, or low by controlling your stance. But you can use a vast variety of weapons that are found around the levels and dropped by the enemies. Each weapon has an attack score and a defence score and some of the weapons have a negative defence score but a higher attack score which holds more risk to use but is potent if you are confident in your attack.

                There are many varieties of enemies to contend with in all shapes and sizes and each of them are more susceptible to attacks at different heights. For example, a skeleton with a shield is vulnerable to lower attacks while other enemies can only be hit in the middle. Each weapon type has some combos that can be used, and certain special weapons can perform a special move. But neither of these can be spammed as you have a stamina bar which will prevent you from going gung-ho and you must build up your special meter to use the special attack. You can also throw your weapon which is required in some situations, but you want to make sure you do not throw your best weapon as you have to retrieve it afterwards and that may not always be possible.

                As you progress you level up, allowing you to put upgrade skill points into the three main trees; attack, health, and stamina. Each of them is just as important as the other so you will want to keep a balance upgrading them. Progression in the game does come with a steep rise in difficulty. Luckily there are checkpoints on the level to respawn at should you fall, and you will fall a lot. There is no punishment for falling other than to your pride when the game reminds you how many times you have died.

                Later levels have some cruel elements to them in the form of tricky platforming events which involve impressive reflexes and pattern recognition. This is because a lot of what you face will be trial and error. There is one part of the level where you have to avoid a giant boulder looking to crush you. But there are panels you have to break down, pits to jump over and spikes to avoid. Any slight misstep or hesitation will see you fail often, and it can become a struggle. It does give you joy when you finally overcome the situation but some of the tricky scenarios do not have a checkpoint nearby which makes the situation very chore-like at times.

                The game has quite a short campaign, but the last section of the game is extremely tough to an almost Dark Souls style degree where you have to be precise in when to attack, when to dodge, and when to block. With checkpoints being quite sparse on each level you cannot really afford to get careless as you will get punished for it. But that is the nature of tricky games like this as they get notoriously harder to make the feeling when accomplishing it feel all that more rewarding.

Conclusion

Demon Skin has done an immense job of bringing a lot of complexity to the 2D hack’n’slash genre. The story may not be too detailed but the focus of this game is on the atmospheric level and character design and the hellish combat mastery. If you want a short but challenging 2D game which looks great and puts your reflexes to the test, then this is a solid game to pick up.

This game was tested and reviewed on Xbox Series X/S. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by publisher.

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At its core, Inscryption is a card-based game. It is split up into multiple acts and while the card-battling gameplay is largely the same the mechanics surrounding the card game evolve over time. The first act sees you stuck in a creepy, dimly lit shack. You are the captive of an odd mask-wearing man named Leshy who forces you to play a card game with him. This is facilitated by what amounts to a roguelike board game, where you move a wooden figurine along a map that has various paths to choose from. There are many different spaces you can land on, some of which will start a card battle, but plenty of others offer different powerups, boons, and benefits, the most common being adding a card to your deck from a choice of three. In between rounds of the card game, you can get up from your chair and explore the one-room shack. Almost immediately you will realize that there are secrets and puzzles throughout the room, and there has to be something that you can unearth that will aid you in escaping. This part of the game is very much like a first-person adventure game or escape room. This was a great design choice from the developer because the two unique game formats seem like total opposites but fit together wonderfully. When it was actually time to escape, I was a little sad and considered staying with Leshy a little longer because the gameplay loop here is so satisfying.

The actual card game involves building a deck of cards that you can use to defeat your opponents. Each card has two numbers: attack power and health. You play on a board with four columns and three rows. You are only able to play your cards on the row closest to you. The middle row are the cards your opponent currently has played and the final row shows what cards they are playing next turn. Leshy dons different masks to simulate different opponents, each one is creepy as heck, especially with his spiraling yellow eyes. There is a scale to the side of the board indicating both you and your opponent’s health. At the end of your turn when your cards attack, if the space in front of the attacking card is empty then the damage is applied to the opponent. The scale starts in the middle and has five notches on either side. As you take your turns the scale will tip back and forth, but the first player to tip the scale past the fifth notch wins. If you have a good deck of cards and solid strategy a match can end very quickly, but other times the match will be a back-and-forth affair; however, I never once felt like the matches were drawn out. This allows the game to keep moving and prevents things from getting stale.

Unlike other card games, the cards in Inscryption are not just tools for battle – they also have a story behind them. Each card represents a creature or character in the game, and as you play, you will learn more about their backstories and roles in the world of Inscryption. By interacting with the objects in the small shack you will also learn more about the game’s lore, and some of the most interesting and useful cards can also be found in the room, though they typically require you to solve a small puzzle first. Clues for these puzzles can be found all over, so make sure to keep your eyes peeled.

One of the most impressive aspects of Inscryption is its creativity. The game’s developer, Daniel Mullins, has created a world that is both eerie and captivating. The game’s graphics and sound design are top-notch, and the game’s story is both intriguing and unsettling. Mullins makes use of multiple art styles throughout the game, and although the card-battling mechanics are the central part of each act, each one almost feels like a brand-new game. I appreciated the fact that the mechanics expanded with each act, which is just another reason why Inscryption feels fresh from beginning to end. 

I don’t want to go into too much detail about the various differences in the game and how it evolves as you play. The story in Inscryption is very meta and it unfolds in unexpected yet satisfying ways as you play. It is full of surprises, twists, and turns, and will keep players on the edge of their seats. You are given a fair amount of choices as you play such as being able to build your deck in different ways, but as much as I have enjoyed playing through the game I don’t think it has the replay value to get me to play through the entire game again. Luckily there is a more difficult mode that you can play once you reach the end of the game that will give some players the challenge they crave.

Conclusion

Overall, Inscryption is an innovative must-play game for anyone who enjoys card games, puzzle games, or horror games. The game’s creativity, different styles of gameplay, and mechanics that are easy to learn and fun to master make it a standout title that is sure to keep players engaged for hours on end. I hope this is the first of many games developed by Daniel Mullins to appear on Xbox consoles, as he’s definitely an indie developer to keep an eye on.

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The premise is simple: Golf, but with rocket cars. Up to eight players compete to be the fastest to hit the ball down the twisting and turning courses and land in the hole at the end. At our disposal is a car that can boost, flip, shunt, and glide while chasing the ball down, as well as power ups and weapons dotted along the track to ruin other players runs.

As soon as Go! appears the action is immediate. The short rush to tee-off is the calmest games get – it’s not long before there are cars and giant golf balls everywhere.

Handily, collisions are not allowed, which means we don’t need to worry about someone trolling us by knocking our ball or car out of bounds over and over. I do find though that this gives the racing a bit of a flat feel at times. For all the action displayed on screen, the fact we’re still effectively playing solo is a bit underwhelming. Don’t get me wrong, it would likely be maddening if everyone was bashing each other about, but perhaps allowing us to be able to interact with either the cars or balls might just give a bit more life to the races. We can use the rockets dotted along the track to hit other players, but this isn’t quite as satisfying.

So it’s just us and our ball for the most part then – although just because others can’t mess with us doesn’t mean it’s an easy feat to get the ball down the course first. Much like the aforementioned Rocket League we must charge at the ball and hit it with the bonnet of our car. In practice this is harder than it sounds to be accurate thanks to the rolling hills, sand pits, and floaty physics.

A guide arrow gives us a rough idea of where the ball will go when we hit it, but even a slight adjustment to the angle of attack can see it careening off course wildly, especially if we accidently put spin on the ball too. We have a quick reset to help us get back on track although this will still cost us distance and time. Getting to grips with these physics is proving a bit trickier than I’d hoped, the learning curve quite high in order to be able to hit the ball accurately. More often than not I’m chasing it as it pinballs from side to side in the arena.

As we level up we’re granted various passive and active abilities to equip though, and these can make things easier on the track. One sends out a shockwave allowing us to hit the ball in a 360 radius, while another grants us extra boost at the cost of it depleting faster. We can see what other players have equipped, so if someone is running away with things perhaps it’s worth looking at their loadout for some inspiration.

While the game is primarily an online affair – eight players battle over three rounds – there are some solo challenges too. These task with beating set times on the games courses with up to three stars rewarded for the fastest times. These also unlock abilities and customisation for our car. I did find these enjoyable enough to try and beat, and it certainly made some early dips into online battles easier thanks to the practice. It won’t be the main draw by any means, but as an addition to the online side it’s decent enough.

Overall though, the Turbo Golf Racing experience so far is just missing that something to make me excited to come back often. Just prior to writing this piece I played around half a dozen online games and while I had fun, I’m also not rushing this to get back on it. It’ll be something I’ll pick up here and there, but as I mentioned above, the online action just needs a little something to make it a bit more exciting, be it collision with other racers/balls, or maybe some more variation in the track elements. It’s a nice looking game and tracks all vary in layout but they all look incredibly similar at the same time.

Of course, this is an early access release so there’s plenty of time for Hugecalf to take feedback on board, and hopefully give Turbo Golf Racing the time it needs to become the next big multiplayer game.

This game was previewed on Xbox. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by the publisher.

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Hello Neighbour 2 begins with players being thrust into a tutorial stage set within an abandoned barn. This teaches all the game basics such as movement, controls, and so on. Once you’ve worked through this it’s on into the town and you – a journalist, must uncover the truth of just what it is that’s happening before you.

Now whilst much of the previous entry was restricted to one main house, this time around players are encouraged to explore more openly with multiple houses and buildings to enter and rummage through. Annoyingly there are some sensitive barriers in place that look to stop you from going out of bounds, namely in the form of an annoying bird that would appear and cause you harm if you go too far from the boundaries of what you are supposed to be exploring, but there is more than enough to look around at this stage to keep things interesting.

That said, you’ll need to do plenty of thinking outside the box once more with Hello Neighbour 2 if you are hoping to progress at any reasonable rate as once more. You’ll have no clear indication of how to move forward and each tiny step of progress is usually met with more barriers and obstacles to overcome. The only way to figure it out is usually to try, try and try again so you’ll need plenty of resilience if you’re hoping to see just what the neighbour is up too.

The one early irritation however with Hello Neighbour 2 is the fact that even the tiniest of mistakes can be enough to have you sent back to the starting area, sometimes with little knowledge of what it was that you did wrong exactly which can be somewhat frustrating.

As briefly explored in the previous outing, Hello Neighbour 2 is once more looking to utilise A.I behaviours to judge your gameplay patterns, and it’s fair to say that even at this early stage it does so much better than its predecessor. It only took one or two attempts of me trying something to then be entirely blocked thanks to a rampaging enemy looking for me in that exact location and that was early on so to think this is something that we’ll be facing for an entire game is quite the daunting prospect.  

One new feature that looks to excite is the status effects, with your neighbour able to be affected by dirt, water or temperature effects, which they will then look to overcome by doing certain actions. Not only is this a time to change things up a little and try a new approach but it also brings an entirely new gameplay element to look forward to for those that like to experiment before taking a shot at an obvious route. Visually things look improved upon too. With some fantastic attention to detail within its cartoony appearance as well as some comical inclusions such as a padlock on a car door which serves as humour service if nothing else. Hello Neighbour 2 may still be several months away yet but if what we currently have to experience is anything to go by, then this could well be the game we all hoped the original was, and one that is capable of a good jump or two along the way also.

Overall if things progress at the current rate and we see a few more new features added and maybe a little less limitation on boundaries then this could yet be one of the surprise hits of the year. So keep an eye out for December 6^th 2022 when we finally get to see just how much our neighbourhood enemy has evolved.

This game was previewed on Xbox. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by the publisher.

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The concept goes that our character, Melody, has been sucked into a strange world named Symphonia on her way to work. Here, she finds a world that bobs and pulses to a musical beat, with even the trees swaying in time to the rhythm. Naturally, Symphonia is under threat: the evil Discord has returned and is threating to stop the music! And so, she must help defeat them and keep the music playing in order to find her way home.

It’s a light-hearted set up to give purpose to the gameplay, but it’s this gameplay that is going really grab players attention.

As I say, it combines dungeon crawling with rhythm gameplay. The former is fairly self explanatory (kill enemies, grab loot, level up etc), but when mixed with the rhythm it opens the challenge up to a whole new level. Now it’s not just about how we’re smashing enemies in, but when.

Each level is based around a singular song. This informs things like ideal completion time as well as the tempo that we need to keep. At the bottom of the screen in a metronome which helps us keep to this tempo. Using attacks or dodge moves on the beat grants them extra power and a combo meter buffs our score the longer we can keep to the rhythm. Attacking off beat won’t interrupt the combo, but it will significantly reduce our effectiveness and likely let enemies get close enough to hit us (which will reset the combo).

As levels are only a few minutes long, the ideal scenario is to keep one long combo running obviously. This is easier said than done though as it’s easy to get overwhelmed or let old dungeon crawling habits take over, trying to attack as fast as possible and get out of rhythm. By the time I’d reached the end of the demo area I was really struggling to keep time and avoid taking damage.

The opening areas songs that we’ll be playing along to are all pretty decent, which is a good thing considering how important they are to the gameplay! A variety of genres are set to be featured within the games 140+ song library, and these can be modified with several difficulty modes depending on how brave we’re feeling. In the demo we only had access to Warmup and Moderate, but even these early tracks were a challenge just on that second setting, so I dread to think how tough things will be later on.

Drastic Games have kept things easy enough to grasp though so as to help us out. Traversal and combat play out in the traditional twin-stick style, with only a handful of option available to us at a time, at least in these early stages. There isn’t much in the way of having to remember a ton of different buttons or commands, just a couple of attacks and a dodge.

Variety comes in the form of loot drops. Most enemies and crates scattered around will drop currency or health pick-ups, but occasionally we’ll get a new weapon or piece of armour. We can equip or sell off items in between missions and even in this brief experience I ended up with a pretty stacked inventory.

This will no doubt come in handy later on when we reach newer areas or find new enemies, but it’ll also help when playing with friends. Up to four can play on or off line though the online wasn’t a part of this demo and I didn’t have chance to play local play just yet.

I came away from my time with Soundfall pretty impressed. I can already see it’s going to be a hell of a challenge to keep the rhythm once enemy waves and difficulty ramp up, but this small slice was a lot of fun. Combining music rhythm and dungeon crawling seems like a bizarre combo, but if the full game can keep it up then we could be in for a treat.

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We’re used to checking out the Warhammer universe in either the traditional shooters or top down strategy genres, so playing this 2D side scrolling twin stick action title is a fresh look for the series. Combat is separated up into smaller rooms that need either clearing of enemies or a switch or the like flicking to open the exit. One saw us throwing a lever which caused electricity to slowly move towards a gate, having us defend ourselves against an onslaught of enemies until it reached its destination. This demo had around 5 or so combat rooms before a final boss, and I’m not sure the action ever let us (apart from when I died). It’s pretty full on, but importantly not overwhelmingly so.

Enemies come in various forms, with easily dispatched grunts backed up by meatier – and I mean meatier – Orcs with guns or melee weapons. The chunks that explode when we hit one with our shotgun is both violent and comical, but we don’t get long to chuckle before more are on our case. Speaking of weapons, we got to check out the shotgun, machine gun, pistol, and incendiary grenade in this demo. The pistol felt a bit weaksauce but both the other weapons had enough power to be satisfying to use. The grenade was a highlight – those that know me know my love for flame-based arsenals – and was great fun to lob at enemies.

The final boss fight showcased some rather lovely audio visual work, backed as it was by an Orc metal band while flames, bullets, and a huge bastard all filled the screen with action. My only nit-pick so far based on this small sample would be that it was occasionally easy for the enemies to blend in with the background thanks to a lot of the same colours being used for both, though I’m hoping further levels will branch out from browns and greens to a bit more of an adventurous colour palette.

We’ve got to wait until later in 2022 to get our hands on the full release for Warhammer 40,000: Shootas, Blood & Teef but based on this small sampling it looks to be a fun alternate take on the series known for its gritty violence. One to watch out for, and if you’ve a Steam account you can check it out in the Steam Next Fest soon!

This game was previewed on PC (via Steam). All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by the publisher.

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We play as Miku, returning from the first game with her brother Taku once again in tow. Another destroyed, sunken city awaits us, and this time out we need to scale certain landmarks in order to find the restorative seeds hidden within. Returning these to a key point at the locations see the black mass release its grip, allowing nature to bloom once more.

There’s no combat in Submerged: Hidden Depths. Instead, the game is described as a ‘Relaxploration’ title – we simply explore the area at our leisure, hunting out the seeds as well as various collectibles and trinkets along the way. From this limited slice it certain hits the relax part of that genre well. Simply bobbing around the waves looking for somewhere to dock is oddly soothing, helped in no small part by some utterly lovely visuals. The character models might not be the best out there, but there’s no denying the world around them is gorgeous to look at. Soft bloom, lovely lighting, excellently animated waves, beautiful flora and fauna, plant-based dolphins skipping along the surface of the water; even the presence of the black mass doesn’t detract from the almost postcard-esque scenes.

Once we dock at an area we enter what amounts to a simple, yet very enjoyable, parkour run up a dilapidated building. From the few areas I’ve played so far these feel very much like prettier versions of the towers from a Far Cry game. There’s only really one way up, but the route isn’t always straight forward. As we progress up we’re treated to yet more lovely visual work as well as story beats in the form of diary entries. It seems we’ll need to collect a fair few of these before we get access to the full tale, but again so far these have been easy enough to find, and are even highlighted to us when looking at the map or through our telescope.

Speaking of which, it’s this telescope that allows us to find new areas of interest, as well as hidden items and upgrades for our boat. Perhaps my only niggle so far is that it’s a little bit fiddly at times to use this, but that’s mainly because it requires us to sail out and stop in hopefully a good enough position to be able to see enough new stuff.

However, from this limited slice of the game I can say that my seven year old intrigue has been well and truly reignited. With around a month until the full release, we don’t have long to wait to see if the full game can stick the landing, or if the slow pace might be to its detriment.

This game was previewed on Xbox. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by the publisher.

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The story as we know it so far begins with the player taking the role of a shrine maiden, and your immediate job is nothing more than basic tasks such as drawing some talismanic symbols, sweeping up the floors and even doing some clothes washing whilst your uncle pops out. When he doesn’t return and night falls, the concern is raised and it’s your job to trek and find out what has happened.

The start is pretty slow in terms of putting any scares into you, but once you leave the comfort of the temple, it doesn’t take long for things to kick in with demons, and a cursed item leading to a flurry of yokai horrors making their way to your current path, however, it has to be said that these never caused things to feel overly scripted and whilst there is a typical chase scene to contend with, the scares on offer early on do feel surprisingly natural, which is helped by the slow build-up.

Another nice touch that is firmly on display is the interactive controls. Things such as doors and cabinets aren’t simply a button press to open and instead require a full open-swinging motion with the mouse to fully reveal their contents or open a door. This may seem like a fairly basic feature, but it certainly helps keep engagement up as you interact with various objects and is something that should be included more in gaming.

Onto the artistic side of things and IKAI is certainly one of the more pleasing titles to look at with fantastic visuals that bring plenty of detail to the environments and the many items within them. It’s not quite photorealism, but there is a real sense that the developer has managed to truly capture that Japanese folk horror within the atmosphere and especially the enemies.

The other key artistic area that affects IKAI is the audio and throughout the current hour and a half run-through, I have to say the audio is pretty impressive and only helps to aid the creepy feel and aesthetic that is on show. There is the occasional jump scare that is catered to well with audio cues but there is no reliance on these for things to feel alive, creepy and well designed.

Whilst we only have a bitesize portion of the game to experience at this time, with the same level of care and attention to detail, IKAI could very well be one of the better horror games to release in 2022, and one that does the horror of Japanese folklore proud.

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And yet, those crafty bastards at 1047 Games have delivered something recently that has got me hooked, causing me to shirk my duties elsewhere. Splitgate is the first online shooter in sometime to truly get under my skin, and I’m only writing this now as I’ve been kicked off the Xbox by my kids, otherwise I’d still be playing!

Released back in May of 2019 in early access on PC, I’ve had my eye on Splitgate for a while. The consistent phrase “Halo X Portal” was enough to pique my interest, but as above, plenty of other titles distracted me from getting to it (well, that and the lack of a decent PC). It’s finally dropped on Xbox, albeit in a somewhat limited roll out due to the servers not coping with the huge demand. Even now it’s likely that when loading up the game we get placed in a queue to even hit the menu, let alone get into an actual game. Thankfully it’s not often a long wait.

But don’t let that dissuade you from downloading the free game as once we’re in…man…it is a lot of fun! Let’s get back to that “Halo X Portal” phrase, shall we?

Splitgate is an online. team-based shooter. Squads of four battle in various game modes, from team deathmatch to VIP, Oddball, King of the Hill, and more. Halo players should recognise most of the modes, as well as the combat flow. While it lacks the three pillars of Halo exactly, what’s here is a very close representation of it, and as such I was able to gel with the combat and movement pretty quickly. There’s a very deliberate feel to the movement and combat, and for me it feels almost perfectly paced. The base weapons everyone loads in with are more than capable to get some kill streaks going with, but grab a power weapon from around the map and those kills rack up even easier. Time to kill is great, and even if a player or two get the drop on us there is enough time to react and potentially win the fight most of the time. Weapons feel meaty to use, the impact showing up clearly on the armour of the enemy, and some punchy sound effects help sell the damage well. A melee is present – that will also one hit kill enemies hit from behind – but the grenades here are used to deal with the portals only; we’ll get to them in a second. Quite simply, the combat here is satisfying as fuck to get into, and it’s one of the more rewarding feeling games I’ve played in a while.

Combat is only one part of the equation though, and it’s those portals that give Splitgate it’s hook. Literally working in the same manner as Portal, we can fire one left and one right portal out which then creates a passage we can go through to instantly move from one spot to another. It worked excellently in a solo puzzle game, and here it elevates the online shooter to the next level. Only certain surfaces can host a portal, so it becomes part of the strategy to not only be on the look out for enemies, weapons, and ideal pathways to get around, but also strategic places to drop our portals for a quick escape or surprise drop on the enemy.

Not only can we move through these portals, but we can actually shoot through them too. It’s incredibly clever stuff, and the first time I killed someone through a portal was one of them “holy shit, it works” moments. This opens up the playing field immensely, as the amount of tactical plays we can go with is incredible. One favourite of mine was to grab the sniper, portal up to the highest point and use the portal itself to watch for players run past, at which point I’d use my vantage point to snipe them down. Or open a portal in front of me, and one slightly higher, then kite an enemy towards it, go through and literally drop behind them from the higher portal. I’ve no doubt that much higher skilled players than I have done some insane stuff, and I can’t wait to get back into it to see what else is possible.

I don’t believe it’s possible to traverse though enemy portals, but we can destroy them by lobbing the grenades at them, preventing them from using it. Even when I was on the receiving end of a portal kill though I can’t help but be impressed by just how well it works. The only downside to the portals so far is how few people seem to be using them. In the games I’ve played, only about half of them seemed to be filled with players using portals often. It can seem bewildering to get used to, but I really hope more people get involved with them as I can’t understate just how great they are.

As a Free to Play release, there’s also the expected season passes, daily challenges etc to check out. This side of things never really factors in for me personally – I tend to just play and not worry about that – but in the interest of information I want to include some details. So it seems that the Battle Pass is free, but you can buy levels to increase it, as well as skin packs and emotes. These cost Splitcoins, which can be purchased or earned in game. Naturally earning them is slow, so a pack goes from 100 for 79p, up to 13500 for a whopping £83.49. The skins and emotes range from between 400 coins to 4000. It’s not the worst item shop I’ve seen, but it’s something to be wary of as usual.

That aspect aside, Splitgate is already sliding up my personal GOTY list. Combat is incredibly fun to play, and adding in the portals is genius, offering up a truly unique blend of tactical options. Sure, the “Halo X Portal” might seem like marketing fluff, but it is probably the most accurate descritption of the game there is. Taking the combat flow of Halo and adding in the versatility of Portal‘s, well, portals, it comes together to make an incredibly fun shooter. I can’t wait for more people to get in and try the game, and hope it finds the audience it so truly deserves.

This game was previewed on Xbox Series X|S. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version.

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Played from a top down view point, we control the inventively named Guy in his bid to win the The Great Tournament, and with it, the Princess’s hand (in marriage, we hope…). As a lowly pauper he must overcome the odds to beat the other competitors, and along the way will cause endless grief and destruction for the people of the town. The story and setting are – much like the rest of the game – firmly tongue in cheek, with the everything played for laughs. Even his bland name is catered for in lore, being blamed on unimaginative parents.

We suspect that the tale is merely a back drop for some fun action and adventuring though, as it’s clear the focus is on the comedy weapons and over the top on screen happenings. Weapons and extras are based in historical accuracy, with the history books then thrown out in favour of fun. While we get to use things such as halberds, swords, and horses in our adventure, there are also more fantastical elements such as Holy Hand Grenades, digging up dinosaur bones, and just generally causing chaos for those around us. The local police will give chase if we cause too much shit, and in another example of the strange mix of history and comedy will have blue and red flashing lights going as they chase u, while reversing a horse meanwhile gives a repeating beep beep.

Perhaps the best mix-up of styles though is in the Bard. Much like GTA’s radios, they will provide a backing track to the action and learn new songs as the story progresses. To change the tune? Just give them a whack. Monty Python was cited as an inspiration and it’s clear to see how.

Rustler has been available on Steam Early Access for a while, and Jutsu Games have used this period to refine all elements of the game ahead of the console release later this month. From difficulty to controls and more, they hope to have a finely tuned experience come August 31^st. It’ll also run at 60fps on the Series consoles, with a 30fps cap on last gen, though we didn’t quite catch resolution numbers. Even through a Discord stream it still looked decent though.

Players will have access to home bases to store items and weapons, and will be a respawn point when they inevitably die. As we progress we’ll gain new ones, though we didn’t get to see them in action this time out. We can also use skill points to improve Guy, be it more health or damage, up to a perk that allows us to keep weapons after we die. Again we didn’t see the skill tree but we told it is fairly large and allows for players to choose their own path of upgrades. Finally, it was confirmed no multiplayer this time round due to several factors, including lack of interest and time of their part to implement.

Conclusion

While our demo time was short, a medieval GTA-like with tongue firmly in cheek has our interest peaked. It looks like a lot of carnage-based fun, and could prove to offer up a good revival of the classic top down action gameplay of the 90’s.