Ubisoft announced its E3 2021 event and shortly after, revealed a bunch of details about which games they plan to touch on during the show. From a world premiere of the upcoming Tom Clancy game to updates on Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Watch Dogs: Legion, and more, fans are in for a show that already looks to be filled with plenty of news about current and upcoming Ubisoft games. If you don’t want to miss out, here’s everything you need to know about how to watch and what to expect.
When is Ubisoft Forward at E3 2021?
The Ubisoft conference at E3 2021 takes place on June 12 and officially starts at 12pm PT/ 3pm ET/ 8pm BST. Or June 13 at 5am AEST for our folks in Australia.
We’ll be kicking off the festivities early, however, with an IGN pre-show that starts at 10:30am PT, 1:30pm ET, and 6:30pm BST. That’s 3:30am AEST on June 13.
How to Watch Ubisoft Forward at E3 2021
Since Ubisoft’s conference is a part of E3 2021 (which is also part of IGN’s Summer of Gaming), you can count on us to carry the livestream on all of our usual platforms. Here is the list of places you can watch Ubisoft Forward at E3 2021:
Ubisoft revealed the show will start with a one hour pre-show focused on updates on live games such as Watch Dogs: Legion, For Honor, The Crew 2, Brawlhalla, Trackmania, and more.
As for the main show, that will include news on Ubisoft’s upcoming games, including a world premiere featuring gameplay and trailers of the upcoming Tom Clancy game that received it’s final name, Rainbow Six Extraction. More details on Far Cry 6 were promised (make sure to check out our first Far Cry 6 preview), as well as news on the upcoming extreme sports multiplayer game, Riders Republic. Updates on upcoming content from Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and Rainbow Six Siege were confirmed for the show, too.
Outside of games, Ubisoft mentioned there would also be some information about the Mythic Quest series and Werewolves Within film.
It remains to be seen if we’ll get some unannounced surprises sprinkled into the show, like news on Beyond Good and Evil or the recently announced The Division Heartland. Updates on delayed titles like Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake, Skull & Bones, and the Avatar game would be welcome, but it may also be too soon for that. We’ll just have to wait and see.
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Felicia Miranda is SEO Editor at IGN. You can find them on Twitter at @FeliciaVagabond.
Back in 2017, then global sales chief and now PlayStation boss Jim Ryan made an infamous remark regarding PS1 and PS2 versions of Gran Turismo he had seen at a recent showcase, and it’s followed him ever since.
“They looked ancient,” he said. “Why would anybody play this?”.
His quote was reported by Time, which was interviewing Ryan about his thoughts on bringing older games to the PlayStation 4 library. In context, Ryan was trying to make a point about why Sony wasn’t prioritizing backward compatibility. But in a new interview with Axios, Ryan wants to set the record straight.
“It goes with the territory, but I get a little bit frustrated at still being hit over the head with this one,” he said. “The point I was trying to make — obviously not very well — was just how great the PS4 version looked and how far the series had evolved. I certainly wasn’t trying to be disrespectful to our heritage.”
Ryan then pointed to Astro’s Playroom, with its many homages to past PlayStation games, as an example of the company honoring its classics.
That said, it seems that PlayStation and Ryan are both holding the line on backward compatibility with older titles. In the 2017 interview, Ryan suggested that it was a much-requested feature that was nonetheless “not actually used much.” And now, in 2021, that still seems to be the case.
“What is important to recognize when considering this question about designing a new platform, is that time, engineering resource, and money are all finite, and that important trade-offs have to be made in terms of what’s included, and what’s not,” he said to Axios.
All five episodes of Lupin Part 2 are currently available to stream on Netflix.
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Lupin’s second season picks up wherePart 1 left off, diving headfirst into the ongoing cat-and-mouse game between Assane Diop (Omar Sy) — a modern-day Parisian swindler taking after Arsène Lupin, the fictional gentleman thief — and Hubert Pellegrini (Hervé Pierre), the ruthless businessman who had Diop’s father framed for theft. The French thriller’s first five episodes were largely set-up, but they make way for a second-half filled with mile-a-minute payoffs since the police and other forces are hot on Diop’s heels when the season begins. Part 2, despite its bizarre penchant for diffusing tension at key moments, is much tighter than its predecessor, and it allows Sy to embody a much more interesting version of Diop, a man now dealing with the ripple effects of a criminal life he had hoped to leave behind.
Lupin: Part 2 largely surpasses Part 1, and it even overcomes a few genuinely deflating rug-pulls to create a season with swift pacing, alluring characters, and a clockwork action climax right out of a spy thriller. Part 3 has already beenconfirmed, but this second block of episodes is a fun and satisfying conclusion to Diop’s story — at least, for the time being.
Last season’s finale, “Chapter 5,” ended with the gripping one-two-punch of Diop’s son Raoul (Etan Simon) being kidnapped just as detective and fellow Lupin enthusiast Youssef Guedira (Soufiane Guerrab) caught up to the master thief. “Chapter 6” has an admittedly awkward start, since Guedira finding Diop doesn’t seem to line up with what Part 1 had teased. However, once its dramatic questions are clarified, the show falls back into its rhythm of entertaining action peppered with social commentary, largely born from placing non-white characters in traditionally white settings, like those of Maurice Leblanc’s original novels. Diop, the son of working-class Senegalese immigrants, is looked upon with far more suspicion than Arsène Lupin, even (and especially) when disguised as an aristocrat, while North African policeman Guedira — the modern equivalent of Leblanc’s Inspector Ganimard — doesn’t command the respect of his white peers the same way.
The season’s first episode pits them against Pellegrini’s Black henchman Léonard (Adama Niane), and what ought to play out as a standard chase to save Diop’s son is imbued with surprising intensity, when all three men are forced to tiptoe around scornful onlookers in a small, mostly-Caucasian town not far from Étretat, where Part 1’s finale took place and where Leblanc himself once lived.
While the season frequently breaks the promises of its cliffhangers, its narrative still feels more incisive than Part 1. The show’s childhood flashbacks, previously deployed to fill scattered elements of Diop’s backstory, now portray episodic events from his early days as a teenage hustler (where he’s played with charm by the young Mamadou Haidara). These stories not only flesh-out his early relationships with ex-wife Claire (Ludivine Sagnier/ Ludmilla Makowski), best friend and accomplice Benjamin (Antoine Gouy/Adrian Valli De Villebonne), and former flame Juliette Pellegrini (Clotilde Hesme/Léa Bonneau), but they offer meaningful contrast with the current timeline, as both past and present see Diop navigating the consequences of his schemes, and their effects on the people around him.
These people become much more important in Part 2. Previously, Diop’s father Babakar (Fargass Assandé) was the only character who felt like a living, breathing human being with a recognizable personality, and he was already long dead by the time the story began. This time around, every character extends beyond their mere plot function starting with Diop himself, who not only feels more debonair, but more conflicted, and brims with anger and intensity after being backed into a corner by familiar foes. The difference between the two seasons is quite stark in this regard. Even the most minor characters leave lasting impressions, like Pellegrini’s scheming financial advisor Philippe Courbet (Stefan Crepon), who only features in a handful of scenes but has a mysterious, serpentine presence.
Diop and Pellegrini’s dueling revenge ploys unfold during a string of charity events organized by Pellegrini’s foundation. While these parties and concerts function mostly as backdrops, they continue to imbue the series with relevant subtext (in this case, about the perils of billionaire philanthropy). Where characters like Diop continue to shoulder the real brunt of systemic racism — his father, falsely accused of jewel theft, was an easy target in Pellegrini’s insurance scam — the show’s wealthy villains use philanthropy towards less-fortunate, non-white peoples both as their public-facing personas and as money-laundering schemes.
The challenge with a villain like Pellegrini is that he makes it damn near impossible to speak truth to power since he owns so much of the police force and can so easily have dissenting journalists killed. He’s an embodiment of systemic rot, and Hervé Pierre personifies his power in delightful fashion; the stench of his arrogance is nauseating, even when the character doesn’t speak. However, Pellegrini’s all-encompassing menace doesn’t often push Diop or the show to find innovative solutions. More often than not, the season’s ideas feel like variations on things Diop has already tried.
Part 2 lacks the slickness and novelty of Part 1’s episodic heists, but its story moves smoothly along a linear path, rarely meandering like its predecessor, and always twisting its narrative screws. The directorial duties this time are split between Ludovic Bernard (Chapters 6-7) and Hugo Gélin (Chapters 8-10), who help make the season more visually and emotionally engaging overall. The color palette rarely escapes Netflix’s all-too-frequently washed-out look, but the camera often matches intense moments with tight, unsettling framing, and romantic moments with telephoto portraits in free-flowing motion, all tied together by Mathieu Lamboley’s playful, jazzy score.
Of course, these scenes are also elevated by Omar Sy’s performance. Where Diop was previously defined by his single-minded mission, he now balances fleeting moments of honest joy, stolen from some fantasy life he hopes to live with Raoul and Claire, with a constant awareness of the dire consequences putting that future in jeopardy. The story, instead of living in the dialogue, lives in Sy’s changing expressions as the walls close in.
While plot and character details are sparse at the moment, Bacon will be going up against Game of Thrones actor Peter Dinklage, who is starring in the film. The cast also includes Jacob Tremblay and Taylour Paige. I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore director Macon Blair is helming the upcoming reboot.
The original Toxic Avenger movie was released in 1984. Directed by Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz, the film followed Melvin Ferd, a janitor who is submerged in toxic waste and transforms into a disfigured superhuman. With its basis in environmental issues and wicked sense of humor, the splatter film garnered a reputation as a cult classic. It also spawned three sequels, as well as an animated TV show, a video game, and a stage musical. Both Kaufman and Herz are attached as producers on the upcoming reboot.
It is not currently known if Dinklage will be playing the role of Melvin Ferd, nor what the upcoming film’s exact relationship with the original Toxic Avenger series will be.
Bacon has been somewhat absent from movies in recent years. The actor last starred in the 2020 thriller You Should Have Left and the 2016 drama Patriots Day. Bacon is currently starring in the Showtime series City on a Hill, which will begin its third season sometime in 2022.
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J. Kim Murphy is a freelance entertainment writer.
Amazon Prime Day has been officially confirmed for June 21-22, which means there’s just a few days left until the retailer’s biggest sale outside of Black Friday. Prime Day is a great time to shop for some new tech, making it an opportunity to upgrade your personal computing situation. We’ve rounded up the best Prime Day laptop deals ahead of the two-day event, with some amazing deals already on offer before Amazon discounts more for its big sale.
Last year, we saw great deals on many popular ultrabooks and gaming laptops, including the enduring Dell XPS 13 line, HP Spectre X360, Razer Blade 15-Inch, and Microsoft Surface Laptops. It’s likely that a lot of these will be on sale again this year, albeit their 2020 models that are now making way for newer 2021 models currently. There’s nothing wrong with a 2020 laptop though, especially one that might be equipped with AMD’s 4000 series CPUs or RTX 20-series graphics cards.
Dell’s XPS 13 is one of the easiest ultrabooks to recommend. The XPS line has been consistently fantastic, with its stunning design, slim screen bezels, fantastic keyboard, and consistent performance. This model comes equipped with Intel’s 11th-generation Core i7 processor, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and Intel Iris Xe graphics. That makes it one of the few laptops that qualifies for Intel’s Evo program, which lets you know you’re getting some of the best performance on the market today.
Microsoft’s Surface Laptops have been great go-to devices that strike a good balance of being both sleek and powerful. While the design has endured for multiple generations now, you’re still getting a top-of-the-line keyboard, an accurate 13.5-inch touch display, and a gorgeous matte black aluminum chassis. Pair that with 8GB of RAM, an Intel Core-i5, and a slew of ports (that aren’t just USB-C), and you’ve got a capable machine that can go anywhere with you.
The Razer Blade is as close as you can get to a gaming laptop with the profile of a MacBook, and even though it’s due for a hardware refresh there’s still some great deals on 2020 models. Just like this powerful Razer Blade 15 Base configuration, which comes equipped with an RTX 2060, a 10th-generation Intel Core i7 (6 Cores/ 12 Threads) CPU, 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD. That should be more than enough horsepower for popular shooters like Apex Legends and Fortnite, while also providing enough processing grunt for mobile video rendering and editing.
While Dell’s XPS 13-line balances performance with portability, its XPS 17 line is for a more power-hungry user. While it’s still relatively thin for a laptop of this size, you’ll benefit from the 10th-generation Intel Core i9 CPU, 32GB of RAM, 1TB of SSD storage, and RTX 2060 for graphics. That’s all the encoding and rendering prowess you need for a fast and efficient laptop that can easily be popped into a backpack, and although you’re paying for that luxury you are able to snag it for an attractive price today.
This might not be the best price on Apple’s latest 13-inch MacBook Pro, but you’re still saving on the amazing M1-powered laptop that launched last year. Apple’s first attempt at producing its own processor has been a massive success, with the MacBook Pro helping the chip push itself even further with the addition of a fan for cooling. There’s still the OLED touchbar at the keyboard, but the keyboard itself is also the latest iteration that does away with those terrible butterfly switches. It’s one of the best thin and light laptops around.
If the Dell XPS 13 is just a bit too high for your budget but you like the performance it offers, then Dell’s Inspiron range has become a great middle ground for exactly that. You get an Intel 11th-generation Core i7 CPU, 12GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and Intel Iris Xe graphics, which is almost on par with the above Dell XPS 13. But instead of just a 13-inch display, the Inspiron comes equipped with a 14-inch FHD touch display in a convertible design, which gives it a bit more flexibility if that’s what you need.
Asus is known to make some impressively thin and powerful laptops too, and this ZenBook Flip S 13 laptop is no exception to that rule. The near bezel-less display crams in a 4K resolution with an extremely impressive OLED panel that can display HDR content with up to 400 nits of brightness. That will come in handy with the laptops convertible design for content consumption, but when you want to get some work done you can equally depend on the 11th-generation Intel Core i7 CPU, Intel Iris Xe graphics, 16GB of RAM, and 1TB SSD for storage. That’s an impressive package in a small, and discounted, package.
Chromebooks are extremely popular choices for students and users who just need something to get through light workloads and word processing, but Samsung has managed to turn even the most modest of laptops into a premium piece of tech. The 13-inch Galaxy Chromebook comes with an AMOLED display, Intel Core i5 processor, 8GB of RAM, and 128GB of SSD storage, which brings it ever closer to the entry specifications of ultrabooks. You will of course have to be comfortable with ChromeOS and its limitations, but if you’re willing to pay a bit more this is one Chromebook that you’ll keep around for a long time.
Watch live streams, videos, and more from GameSpot’s summer event. Check it out
Red, as everyone knows, is the best primary color, so it was extremely exciting to hear PlayStation announce a new Cosmic Red colored PS5 controller last month (along with a Midnight Black variant). The two new PS5 controller colors–which officially came out today–landed on our desks recently, so we snapped a few pics to see just how vibrant that new red is in the real-world (the Midnight Black one is, suffice it to say, pretty sleek and cool. But it is, at the end of the day, not red.)
As you can see from the images below, Cosmic Red in a living room setting turns out to look a little more magenta, but it’s a pleasing if not altogether striking shade. The brightness is certainly muted compared to the PS4’s Magma Red color (also shown below), but the new Cosmic Red certainly still stands out. For further comparison, I also took pictures of the new red controller with other red objects, but it was also likely done just so I could show off some neat things around my house.
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Here’s how PlayStation describes the two new color variants: “Midnight Black features two subtly different shades of black with light grey detailing to reflect how we view space through the night sky, and Cosmic Red offers a striking black and red design inspired by the unique vivid shades of red found throughout the cosmos,” PlayStation’s Isabelle Tomatis said on the PlayStation Blog.
Both new controllers are available to order now through multiple retailers, with the Cosmic Red controller costing $5 more than Midnight Black (on account of the redness, one would assume). You can order it online from retailers such as Best Buy and GameStop.
The products discussed here were independently chosen by our editors. GameSpot may get a share of the revenue if you buy anything featured on our site.
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Xbox and Bethesda have announced that Fallout 76 will be completely free on Xbox and PC for the entire E3 week. Get out your acoustic guitar and call John Denver, it’s time to take the country roads home to West Virginia.
Live now through June 16, players can download the full Fallout 76 game on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC free of charge. The game will also be heavily discounted all week long for those who choose to join permanently, with progress from the free trial carrying over to the full game after purchase.
The free week of Fallout 76 features double XP throughout the entire trial and includes a chance to test the game’s Scrapbox and Survival Tent memberships through a special in-game item. In order to access the pass trial, the official blog post for the announcements tells players to “head to the Atomic Shop to claim the free Fallout 1st Limited Preview ‘item,’ then unlock the Scrapbox from the Shop’s Fallout 1st page, and head in-game to try out both features.”
Players who decide to visit West Virginia for the first time through this trial can reference a handy Fallout 76 Newcomer’s Guide on Fallout.com, which offers early mission walkthroughs and general tips for the wasteland’s newest citizens.
Fallout 76 is a first-person shooter MMORPG set in West Virginia during the post-nuclear apocalypse. The game originally launched in October 2018, and was recently updated via the Locked and Loaded update in late April 2021.
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Publisher EA has been breached by a crew of hackers who stole 780GB of game data, according to a Motherboard report. The stolen data reportedly includes FIFA 21 source code and tools from the Frostbite engine, although EA says no player data was taken. A subsequent report states the hackers used company credentials purchased online to trick IT support members into thinking they were employees.
According to the initial report, the hackers have access to not just FIFA 21‘s source code but also the code for its matchmaking servers. And in addition to Frostbite engine tools, the hackers claim to have stolen proprietary EA frameworks and software development kits that streamline game making.
A source with access to the forums where the hackers posted the stolen data showed Motherboard screenshots of messages written by the culprits, with one that read you have “full capability of exploiting on all EA services” once inside EA’s corporate networks.
In a follow-up Motherboard report, representatives for the hackers explained exactly how they got EA’s data. It started by first buying stolen cookies belonging to employees for $10 and, in a perturbing cyber-body-snatcher kind of way, used those to pose as these individuals in the company’s official Slack channels. The hackers then requested a multifactor authentication token to gain access to EA’s corporate networks after telling IT support they “lost” their phones. This was apparently successful twice, and led to access to EA’s network and the ensuing theft.
An EA representative said the company is investigating the incident but assured fans that “no player data was accessed.” The representative also said the company has improved its security infrastructure to prevent this from happening again and is in the process of working with law enforcement to dig into it.
“We are investigating a recent incident of intrusion into our network where a limited amount of game source code and related tools were stolen,” the spokesperson said. “No player data was accessed, and we have no reason to believe there is any risk to player privacy. Following the incident, we’ve already made security improvements and do not expect an impact on our games or our business. We are actively working with law enforcement officials and other experts as part of this ongoing criminal investigation.”
We’ve reached out to EA for an additional comment on the hackers’ methods and will update this post if we hear back.
According to Motherboard, the hackers are also holding onto documents on things like PlayStation VR, how EA creates virtual crowds in titles such as FIFA, and information on AI in games. In total, the hackers claim to have 780GB of EA data and are reportedly looking to sell it on online hacker forums.
Watch live streams, videos, and more from GameSpot’s summer event. Check it out
Don’t be fooled by the exceeding cuteness of the Rot, the tiny black spirits that hang out with you in Kena: Bridge of Spirits. Though they sport big eyes, hilarious hats, and a goofy demeanor, those little creatures can be dangerous in a fight–especially in big groups. Luckily, they’re on your side.
GameSpot recently got a chance to spend about an hour playing an early portion of Kena: Bridge of Spirits, venturing into the world surrounding a central village that has been beset by calamity. As Kena, a Spirit Guide, you’re working to find out what happened at the village and to help some of its inhabitants’ restless spirits to move on. The catch is, some kind of corruption has infected the area around the village and the spirits themselves, so venturing into the wilderness finds you battling twisted enemies constructed of wood and plants.
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Luckily, the Rot is there to help. The little folks are spirits of decay that inhabit the world, renewing life and restoring balance by recycling things that have died. You can find Rot all over the place, often hidden under rocks or secreted in corners, and the more of them you add to your group, the more powerful they become.
Kena wields a staff imbued with her Spirit Guide powers, and when you run into these enemies and fight them, it’s your primary weapon. Combat feels pretty similar to what you’d expect from other action-adventure games, like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, with Kena sporting a fast, light melee attack, and a heavier swing she can charge up. She can also dodge attacks with a quick roll or block and parry attacks with an energy shield, leaving foes reeling and open. But it’s the integration of the Rot into fights that sets Kena apart.
In combat, you can dispatch the Rot to help you against enemies, often distracting and disabling them, or to interact with objects on the battlefield that can give you an advantage, like special flowers that heal Kena. The Rot also help you to destroy “hearts” of corruption on the battlefield, which allow you to drive back the pestilence infecting the world, and to stop new enemies from spawning.
Those interactions are usually done with a single button, so you’re usually not trying to control the Rot as their own entity while also running around and fighting as Kena. But the Rot aren’t always up for a fight–they’re pretty small, after all, and not particularly strong when they’re not working together. So to pep them up, you need to fight enemies yourself to fill a Courage gauge; when it’s full, the Rot feel comfortable enough to jump into the battle with you, opening up their actions.
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You can dispatch the Rot to do certain things while you fight, and as you level up in the game, you can find different ways to use their abilities. Fighting and exploring the world earns you Karma, which you can spend on new abilities and upgrades for Kena, and these include different Rot attacks that can use the little guys in cool ways. As we played, we unlocked the Rot Hammer ability, in which the Rot swirl around Kena’s staff so she can bring it down in one big powerful slam.
But even out of combat, the Rot are an essential part of Kena’s journey. You might find objects blocking your way, and often, you’ll need to send the Rot to clear the path. Throughout the forests surrounding the village, you’ll find things like damaged shrines and knocked-over statues, but with the Rot’s help, you can repair those things. Fixing them gives you more Karma, so it’s worth exploring the environment and leaving the main path so that you can find new things to interact with.
“A lot of the gameplay… it kind of helped just form that connection with the player organically.”
A theme of restoration and repair runs throughout the gameplay and the story, linking the two together. As we climbed a mountain and explored the area, we found places where the Rot could move statues to solve puzzles, or join them together in a droplet of water to form a sort of spirit amoeba that could move objects and even water plants to restore them. It all helps the Rot to quickly become your constant, amiable companions, popping up on ledges as you’re jumping and climbing to encourage you, or swimming along behind you when you jump into a body of water. Their presence is one way through which developer Ember Lab looks to tell the game’s story and bring players into its world, co-founders Mike and Josh Grier explained in an interview with GameSpot.
“A lot of the gameplay, especially with the Rot because they’re used so much, it kind of helped just form that connection with the player organically,” Mike, the studio’s chief creative officer, said. “That was something that we kind of knew what we wanted to do with that, but that’s something we had to figure out as we’re in development quite a lot.”
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Much of the game seems to be about making those character-driven connections. Though Ember Lab’s background is in animation–it first gained some fame with a short animated film set in the world of The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask–Ember’s chief operating officer, Josh, said that the game isn’t brimming with cinematic cutscenes (though we did see a few of those hands-off moments in our time with it). Part of the reason for that was keeping the game’s scope reasonable, because animating cutscenes can require a lot of work, and Ember is a small studio with only about 15 core members. But part of it is because the developers looked to tell Kena’s story through moments of gameplay and interaction, like in using the Rot.
Kena’s goal of helping spirits move on is largely about uncovering their story and finding ways to connect with them. In our hands-on, we set out to find the spirit of a village named Taro, and to do that, we had to try to find relics of his to summon him. Those relics contain some of Taro’s memories, revealing the tragic story of what happened to him. But we also spent time with his relatives, learning more about him along the way.
Mike said one of the inspirations the team drew on for the game was the Akira Kurosawa film Rashomon, which provides different points of view on the same events. In Kena, you’re uncovering the story of what happened to the village by revealing the tales of the people who were there, and hearing the perspectives of the people who knew them.
“I think that we thought that we would have to have these really meaty ending cutscenes to really sell the story, but I think, because it’s the pace of the game, it allowed us to be a little bit more conservative and just let your experiences with the characters throughout gameplay really inform a lot of the stuff that you learn about Taro towards the end,” Josh said. “You just have a lot more time.”
That’s not to say there aren’t cutscenes; Ember Lab took a few opportunities during our playthrough to move the story forward with cinematic moments in which Kena learned more about her abilities as a spirit guide, such as when she learns to turn her staff into a spectral bow, opening up new abilities in fights and new ways to traverse and interact with the environment. It was a handy ability, because we soon needed it for some battles with tougher enemies, either to snipe spirits fighting from trees, or to nail weak points on big, tough wooden knights.
A lot of these battles, especially against mini-boss creatures, take on the feeling of a combat puzzle, in which you need to find ways to block and parry enemies with precise timing, nail their weak points, and utilize the rot to disable them. One fight against a creature called Kappa saw the spirit disappearing into the ground before summoning smaller enemies to fight for him. The only way to really do any damage was to use the Rot to hold Kappa in place, so that Kena could lay into him with her strong attacks.
“f you’re doing your job well as a spirit guide, this is all about the spirit that you’re helping, and helping them let go.”
And combat can get pretty tough, it seems, despite the easygoing look of the game. Enemies are fast and deadly, and your timing with parries and dodges needs to be well-honed to keep from getting rolled by them. Utilizing the Rot well, knowing the scope of the battlefield, and finding ways to keep enemies off-balance are all essential. Mike and Josh said the difficulty can go higher if you want it to, adding elements like losing Courage when you take damage, which makes it tougher to use the Rot to distract enemies or heal yourself, but it can also be made easier to keep players who would rather just focus on the story from getting overwhelmed.
Ultimately, though, fighting the corruption and beating back enemy spirits is about freeing Taro from the blight so the spirit can move on, and from the sounds of things, you’re really doing that by forming a connection with him. The game might look bright and the Rot might be cute, but there’s an element of sadness and tragedy that pervades throughout.
“If you’re doing your job well as a spirit guide, this is all about the spirit that you’re helping, and helping them let go,” Josh said. “So you do have to form a personal connection with them to understand what’s wrong with them, but then ultimately, you’re saying goodbye to them…. You build relationships with all the spirits that you help on the way because at some point to complete your mission, you have to let them go. And I think that kind of bittersweet ending was a goal, inspiration for us as well.”
What seems to make Kena: Bridge of Spirits stand out, though, is the way it blends a lot of different approaches and ideas. It has gameplay reminiscent of a lot of favorites, such as Zelda’s combat, the climbing and environmental exploration of something like Uncharted or Tomb Raider, and the ability to unlock new portions of its map in a bit of a metroidvania way. Its storytelling draws on inspirations from the likes of film and the works of animation studios such as Pixar. But in our time with the game, we found that the mixture of those things elevated the individual parts to make the world of Kena a deep and fascinating one–and worthy of exploring further.
Kena: Bridge of Spirits is slated to release on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and PC in August.
