2023 has seen the closure of more big multiplayer games than, well, any time I can recall in recent memory. One after the other, developers’ dreams of making the next big Destiny-like have gradually collapsed in on themselves. Like a deflated concertina, their last honks of life have been crushed down to desperate, fizzling squeals as servers lie empty and the cost of maintaining them spirals out of control. Some are still hanging in there, sure, but the genre as a whole feels like it’s at a tipping point – and I couldn’t help but sigh as five more multiplayer shooters joined the fray last night as part of Sony’s PlayStation Showcase.
It was back in Eiji Aonuma’s 10-minute gameplay demonstration for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom that we first got a glimpse at the possibilities of shield fusing. The series producer took a Puffshroom, stuck it to Link’s shield, and faced a Construct head on, sending up a cloud of smoke around them both.
At the time, this was hardly a game-changing revelation. “Great,” we thought, “we can make some weird-looking shields and take on foes with various mushroom abilities”. Then the game came out and we discovered that shield fusing had the potential to be so much more than just some fungal fun.
Bungie has shared a new video documentary about Marathon, its newly announced sci-fi PvP extraction shooter.
Announced at yesterday’s PlayStation Showcase, the new Marathon is the first entry in the franchise since 1996. The game is PvP-focused and won’t have a single-player campaign, but it will honor the mythology and story of the original Marathon games.
We’ve already learned even more details about the upcoming shooter thanks to a six-and-a-half minute video Bungie posted after fans quickly solved one of the developer’s famous ARG (alternate reality game) puzzles.
We’ll get to the scavenger hunt Bungie fans went on yesterday to uncover the ViDoc, but first, let’s get to the content of the video itself.
In Marathon, you play as a Runner exploring the hostile world of Tau Ceti IV while searching for artifacts and weapons. Bungie showed off concept art for the Runners, describing them as a combination of fashion, sci-fi, and cyberpunk.
Bungie says players will be a part of the narrative in Marathon that will unfold over the course of a season. For example, one extraction team may find an alien key that unlocks a new zone. The responsibility then falls on those players to figure out how to unlock the zone for everyone else.
Marathon is releasing on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC, and it will have full crossplay and cross progression. No release date was given, but Bungie said it is marching towards its alpha. The team plans to go dark for a while to work on the game, saying we will see gameplay the next time Marathon emerges.
Bungie Fans Follow a Trail of Breadcrumbs to Unlock the Marathon ViDoc
It turns out Bungie hid a ton of secrets in yesterday’s reveal trailer, including one puzzle that involved Bungie developers posting cryptic images on social media. When the community tracked down all 12 secret images and overlaid them, it revealed a sequence of dots.
Thanks to some hints from a well-hidden Marathon Twitter account, the community discovered this was a binary sequence that needed to be run through a punch card decoder. This led the puzzle solvers to a stream that needed 7,777 viewers to unlock the full ViDoc. Destiny YouTuber Skarrow9 solved the final step of the puzzle yesterday evening, and posted a video explaining the solution in full.
There are even more secrets hidden within Marathon’s reveal trailer. In fact, Skarrow9 shared a Google Doc that is tracking all of the secrets Bungie fans are working on uncovering. In less than 24 hours since the reveal, the Marathon community has already put in a ton of legwork, as this document stretches across 37 pages of clues and findings.
The unsolved mysteries include decoding pages of a Marathon Zine, figuring out purchase order and memo documents, and a lot more.
Bungie is known for teasing fans with these scavenger hunts, digging a number of deep, winding rabbit holes for Destiny fans to discover throughout the years. The developer’s ARG history stretches all the way back to the Halo days, when it promoted Halo 2 on a website called ilovebees.com.
Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN covering video game and entertainment news. He has over seven years of experience in the gaming industry with bylines at IGN, Nintendo Wire, Switch Player Magazine, and Lifewire. Find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.
A hefty new Warhammer 40,000: Darktide content update arrives in the next week, adding two new missions as well as possibly preparing to let players on Steam and the Windows Store (that’s you, Game Pass gang) play together. It won’t fix the fundamental flaws of the grimdark Left 4 Dead ’em up but these are welcome changes. Darktide is also adding new cosmetics to earn by playing (yeah!) and resuming the release of new cosmetics sold for real money (yeahhh).
Insomniac finally revealed the first gameplay for Spider-Man 2. In an 12-minute long trailer, it showed off several new gameplay changes coming to Spider-Man 2, as well as some important new plot details. Without further ado, let’s swing into all of the big, new details we learned from the latest Spider-Man 2 trailer.
Peter Parker Gets the Symbiote Suit
Right off the bat, Insomniac confirmed that Peter Parker will get the Symbiote Suit. While we’ll get to his new powers in a bit, this turn of events poses some interesting questions, especially when taking into account the ending of the first Spider-Man game.
After the credits of Marvel’s Spider-Man, it’s revealed that Harry Osborn, Peter Parker’s best friend, is ill and fused with the Venom symbiote. He’s last seen floating in a green tank covered in the symbiote while his father, Norman Osborn aka Green Goblin, promises to find a way to cure him.
Naturally, this suggests it’s Harry Osborn, not Eddie Brock, who is the Venom that Peter Parker and Miles Morales face off against in the first Spider-Man 2 trailer. And at some point, Peter potentially takes the symbiote from Harry. This could be why Harry’s life is in danger during this trailer and why Peter and Miles must rescue Curt Connors / Lizard to save a weakened Osborn.
With Great Power…
Peter’s symbiote suit means he’ll be getting some new powers, which were on full display in the new trailer. While facing off against Kraven’s henchmen, Spider-Man is able to extend his reach and smash enemies against walls using the Symbiote. He’s also able to use the Symbiote to create multiple tentacles (Spider-legs?) to barrel into enemies.
At one point those tentacles can also be used to shield Peter from attacks and parry enemy blows to send them flying backwards. And lastly, he’s able to use his new arms to grab multiple enemies at once and slam them into the ground, taking out groups of enemies at once.
Kraven’s Hunt Begins
Kraven the Hunter’s backstory is revealed in the new Spider-Man 2 trailer and it’s not so different from his comic book origin story. A wealthy wild game hunter, this version of Kraven seems to already hunt people for sport. But having grown bored of his existing prey, his men suggests Kraven go to Manhattan where he can hunt not only Spider-Man, but several of New York City’s superhumans. Again, not so different from how he’s portrayed in the comics, but sometimes if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
Kraven’s Targets
Speaking of New York City’s prey, it seems like Spider-Man isn’t the only one Kraven is looking to hunt. When shown a list of possible targets in Manhattan, Kraven’s men include Black Cat, Prowler, Wraith, Tombstone, Taskmaster, and Miles Morales. Later on in the trailer it’s shown that Kraven is hunting Curt Connors aka The Lizard. Rather than just hunting Spider-Man, it looks like Kraven is hunting every superpowered being, whether or not they’re Peter Parker’s allies or enemies.
Double Trouble
Would Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 star Peter Parker just like in the first game, or would it resume the adventure of Miles Morales? The answer is both. Insomniac confirmed that while there won’t be any co-op component, players will be able to switch between Peter Parker and Miles Morales during certain segments of the game.
In the instance that was shown in the gameplay trailer, Peter Parker realizes he’s too far away to help Lizard escape Kraven’s men, but Miles isn’t and it’s here players can switch to Miles and head to the dock before Peter can get there. This also raises some interesting story possibilities we’ll dive into in a bit.
New Suit Gives You Wings
Speaking of teaming up with Miles Morales, it looks like he’ll also be getting some new abilities in Spider-Man 2. Along with an upgraded suit with wings that lets him glide across New York (Insomniac confirmed both Spider-Men will have wingsuits), he seems to have mastered some new abilities with his venom blast, looks suspiciously like Goku’s Kamehameha from Dragon Ball.
Once in the warehouse, Miles shows off some new stealth abilities too including being able to spin a line he can tightrope across to sneak up on enemies.
New York, New York
New York City will be a little bit bigger this time around as Queens gets added as one of the new boroughs that will be explorable in the game. In the past, only Manhattan was available, but Insomniac is teasing multiple new areas for the sequel, including Brooklyn across the river. Just how big is this city?
What’s Happening With Harry?
Throughout the trailer Peter says Lizard is the only one who is able to save Harry Osborn. As we know, Harry’s not in a great place having been last seen covered in Symbiote goop. But with the Symbiote seemingly with Peter Parker, what’s going on with Harry Osborn? This appears to be the central storyline of the game that will likely connect Venom, Peter Parker, Miles Morales all together.
A Possible Showdown?
At the end of the trailer Miles and his best friend Ganke are visibly worried about Peter, who thanks to the Symbiote suit is acting more and more aggressive. Now that it’s been confirmed that you can play as both characters in Spider-Man 2, there’s a chance players will have to play as Miles to try and stop Peter from falling further and further into the dark side. Can you imagine the awkward conversation after that?
This is everything we saw in the new Spider-Man 2 gameplay trailer. Let us know what you noticed in the comments below.
Matt T.M. Kim is IGN’s Senior Features Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.
Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 offered another gameplay trailer today as part of the Warhammer Skulls Showcase, and this one finally shows off the waves of Tyranids you’ll need to stomp through in this surprise sequel. There’s a solid view of both the shooty parts and the stabby parts of combat, as our superhuman hero rips through enemies with the mechanical teeth of his chainsword. Wholesome fun below.
PQube and Octeto Studios have today revealed a brand new JRPG set in the open skies, as we got our first look at Sky Oceans: Wings for Hire which will be “coming soon” for Nintendo Switch.
This one wears its Skies of Arcadia inspirations proudly on its wing (still waiting for that Switch remake, by the way). You take on the role of Glenn Windwalker (fantastic name), the captain of a group of sky pirates who jets off on the adventure of a lifetime. There are various islands to explore both on the ground and in the sky as you go about recruiting your crew and catering to their individual strengths to achieve the best results in battle.
Amazon Prime subscribers can claim 13 free games during the month of June. Well, at no extra cost to their Prime subscription, anyway. That’s on top of the recently announced extras that are available for the next few weeks, including Turnip Boy and Calico. But next month’s lineup of freebies – which includes the ever-lovely SteamWorld Dig 2, Neverwinter Nights and Autonauts – starts on June 1st, with more free games being made available every single week after that, so be sure to check back every Thursday.
Whether it’s a book, a movie, or a video game, creative works generally exist for a reason. Sometimes it’s to delight, by entertaining with stories or fun gameplay. Other times it’s to inform, with news or by exposing the audience to different perspectives. Or it makes you think, with interesting ideas that challenge you to consider or reflect. The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, however, is a game that does none of these things. Instead, it thrusts you into the role of the titular character without doing anything meaningful with his defining internal conflict, and sends him on a series of missions that are neither fun to play nor interesting to experience. The one question it poses is: why would someone want to play this?
Playing as Gollum sounded like it might’ve been a decent pitch for a game, since he’s one of the more interesting and famous characters in J. R. R. Tolkien’s fantasy universe. He and Sméagol are two sides of the same coin; the good person that was Sméagol was tragically corrupted by The One Ring, twisted into this pathetic creature. It’s his clammy bare feet that we step into, ostensibly with the goal of regaining possession of the Ring from Bilbo Baggins. However, most of your time is spent experiencing Gollum’s time as a prisoner during the years between The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ringin a linear, story-driven series of levels. Prison Simulator: Mordor Edition is sadly less interesting than it sounds. I couldn’t shake the feeling I was supposed to be on a grand Lord of the Rings adventure, and was instead stuck collecting bits and baubles for forgettable NPCs and hiding in bushes to hide from monotonous guard patrols.
There are generally three phases to any level, and they range from uninteresting to just plain bad. There’s the chores phase, in which Gollum goes from one waypoint to another to complete some menial task. There’s always some conceptually different scenario, like crawling through small openings to detonate explosives, but functionally it’s a series of marches across the same areas over and over again. It never feels like there’s any point to it, just busywork. It could be fun to run around with Gollum, thanks to his surprising sprint speed, but he has a stamina meter that depletes in just a few seconds and takes far longer to replenish. Trying to get anywhere involves too little speed, too much waiting, and an unfortunate amount of hearing Gollum choking on his own breath.
The platforming phases are more compelling, but still poorly designed. Spacious rooms with handles to climb, walls to run, and leaps to take bring a faster pace of action, but the loose and floaty way Gollum moves and imprecise controls make it feel like something from the PlayStation 2 era. Having experienced a modern Assassin’s Creed or Tomb Raider game, here it feels far too easy to jump toward the correct point and fall to your death because you drifted to one side, or missed the part of the ledge that has the white line that establishes exactly where you can grab. The paths are rigidly defined, and often involve blind jumps or best guesses at what the next intended handle is. Rather than a throwback, it comes across as outdated; a poor facsimile of classics like the Prince of Persia series.
These issues plagued mediocre stealth games 15 years ago.
Finally there are the stealth segments, which are simply bad. Any time Gollum needs to go from point A to B undetected, it’s going to be a slog. Enemies have extremely limited parol patterns, are terribly nearsighted, and seem to suffer from acute, rapid-onset amnesia, forgetting Gollum ever existed not long after losing sight of him. These are issues that plagued mediocre stealth games 15 years ago, and it’s jarring to see them in 2023. There’s no cat-and-mouse game of outsmarting enemies using interesting abilities and clever level design as you do in something like Dishonored or Hitman, you just exploit their painfully obvious blind spots with no objective outside of reaching the designated point.
Gollum’s only tools are his ability to sneak quietly, throw rocks, and disappear in tall grass or shadows. Because the enemy AI is surprisingly terrible, doing something as simple as standing on a table or knee-high rock can make you completely immune to capture. I was able to navigate a long stealth section in the Animal Pits of Barad-dûr by just jumping and grabbing an overhang anytime someone spotted me. Eventually some of the Orcs get crossbows, but even then the threat is minimal.
There’s no combat per se, which makes sense because Gollum is no fighter when it comes to any opponent larger than a hobbit. You do have the option to strangle enemies, but it comes with some odd caveats. First, it doesn’t work on anyone with a helmet. This makes sense for someone in full battle regalia — Sméagol’s grubby mitts won’t bend steel, after all. However, what defines a helmet in this game is broadly open to interpretation. Is that orc wearing a hat? Decent chance he’s strangle-proof. Also, strangling only applies to orcs. It makes sense you can’t choke beasts like spiders, but other humanoid races like elves apparently have invincible throats, eliminating the only method to bypass enemies apart from stealth. Which, again, is not good.
A few chase sequences change up the pace, though they are a bit of a mixed bag. One places Gollum on a moving object and requires careful dodging oncoming obstructions and archers, and manages to be one of only a handful of fun sections to play through. The other is a Crash Bandicoot-style run toward the camera, made miserable by the imprecise platforming and inability to see obstacles until moments before you need to avoid them. It is frustrating to play as a character who is looking ahead and should see incoming objects but not being able to see them yourself, and die because of it.
There is some potential replayability if you for some reason wanted to revisit Gollum’s lousy adventure instead of playing any of the many spectacular games that have come out recently. Hidden collectibles don’t offer any sort of rewards, you just spread them out on an old piece of cloth to look at while Gollum offers a line of dialogue for each. Even as someone with a natural compulsion to find everything in most games I couldn’t muster any enthusiasm to find the next bat wing or chunk of jar. It just felt pointless to add to his sad hoard of not-so-precious treasures.
What’s it for, Precious?
Hardcore Lord of the Rings fans know Gollum himself is a complex character, both a victim and a villain, but that’s not explored in any meaningful way in this story. There are occasional binary choices to answer questions or take action as Gollum or Sméagol, but it never felt like this altered the story or had lasting effects on Gollum himself. Sometimes there’s a need for one side of Gollum’s personality to convince the other to go along with plans, like when Gollum is hiding from an orc and a painting of the Eye of Sauron sends him into hysterics. The two choices were “Kill the Orc,” which Gullum supported, or the Sméagol-endorsed option to “Keep Panicking.” Sméagol won the argument, but it’s hard to tell if that’s because I made a compelling case for further panicking, or if the multiple-choice options were just too easy to select from. In my 20 hours exploring Middle-earth there was maybe a single instance where the debate didn’t go exactly as expected, which made it feel pointless to engage with.
It’s not very interesting to look at, either. Even with all the PC graphics options set to Epic, places like Barad-dûr look drab and flat, and the empty lifelessness of the Mirkwood stands out in an era of games where lush flora and fauna has become the norm. Gollum’s model looks good enough, including his surprisingly detailed wisps of hair, and his mannerisms are well captured, but other characters suffer from distractingly stiff animations and a haunting lack of facial expression.
The sound design, however, is strong. The raspy, almost choking speech of Gollum is well acted, as is the clearer and more timid Sméagol side of his personality. It sounds exactly like someone who saw Andy Serkis’ performance in the movie trilogy would expect. Even small details, like the clammy sound of Gollum’s hands slapping on different surfaces as he climbs or runs, or the reverberation of ringing bells in certain spaces, stand out as authentic, with impressive attention to detail.
But even if it looked and sounded uniformly spectacular, Gollum would still feel pointless to play, and that feeling turns to despair when technical issues crop up. On three different occasions during this review levels needed to be fully restarted: once because of an unfortunately placed autosave, and twice because parts of puzzles were outright broken, so despite the solution being evident there was no way to advance. They weren’t fully game-breaking problems because restarting fixed them, but they were spirit-breaking – playing through areas that were uninteresting the first time bordered on painful for a second go-around that never should have been necessary.
