Category: IGN

Blizzard has explained its decision-making around the miniscule drop rate for Diablo 4’s coveted Uber Unique items, insisting obtaining one should be a “fall out of your chair moment”.

Diablo 4 players have criticised Blizzard for the extreme rarity of these Uber Uniques, with some saying the chances of seeing one drop are lower than winning the lottery or getting struck by lightning.

Initially, just six of these items were in the game, but following the release of the highly-controversial pre-Season 1 patch there are now seven. Blizzard warned players that this seventh Uber Unique, a World Tier 4 staff called Ahavarion Spear of Lycander, is an “extremely rare drop”. “We wish you luck in recovering it from the armies of the Burning Hells,” Blizzard said.

In an interview with IGN ahead of the launch of Season 1, associate game director Joseph Piepiora defended the drop rate for Diablo 4’s Uber Uniques. “We want players, the moment that these things actually drop, we want that to be a fall out of your chair moment,” Piepiora said. “We want that to be a really critically important thing.”

Piepiora said Blizzard wants to maintain the extreme rarity of these items in order to prevent them from becoming mandatory for builds. “If we make it so, let’s say that over the course of 10 hours, five hours even, you’re guaranteed to get this item, what that really means is that item now becomes kind of a mandatory piece of equipment that’s required for your build to feel successful,” Piepiora explained.

“We don’t want these items to fall into that space. We want them to be these really extraordinary, massive bonuses on top of basically anyone’s build that can occur on occasion. When you get them, the character is just going to feel overpowered. They’re going to feel very, very strong. That is how they’re balanced.”

Earlier this month, Blizzard added unique items to the Helltide Chest loot pool. Helltide Mystery Chests are special chests available from taking part in Helltide events. (For a more detailed look at the Mystery Chest locations check out our Interactive Map. You can filter Mystery Chest Locations at the bottom to clear some of the clutter.)

The change was welcomed by players on the hunt for Diablo 4’s Uber Uniques because the chance to obtain one, however small, from a Helltide Chest at least gave players a clear, singular farming objective.

While Blizzard is leaving the door open to changes based on feedback from the community, Piepiora signaled the developer plans to stay the course on Uber Unique drop rates, so it’s perhaps best not to get your hopes up for a significant change there.

“Now as we’ve been looking at the feedback and seeing how many these have dropped for players around the world, we are thinking internally about sorts of things we want players to be able to do, but we don’t want players to feel that this is very easy to go and target farm them,” Piepiora said.

“We don’t want them to feel like they are mandatory for your build to come online. These are the cherries and fun, exciting things for players to chase. This is a back and forth, and we’re having conversations internally on what we want to do here.”

The debate around Uber Unique item drop rates taps into a more general debate about the Diablo grind. The backlash to Diablo 4’s latest patch was fuelled by the feeling Blizzard’s changes made progression more of a “slog” in what was already considered a slow endgame.

But Piepiora said that for action role-playing games such as Diablo 4, which are meant to be played for years, perhaps even for over a decade, grinding is “an essential part of the experience”.

Blizzard is, however, exploring changes that will make grinding more rewarding, which touches on a common complaint about Diablo 4’s current endgame experience. Piepiora said Blizzard was investigating making it easier for players to look at loot and quickly identify upgrades, so they can decide what’s meaningful and move on. Blizzard is also looking at the general density of monsters so players spend less time running around inside a dungeon or a Helltide going from place to place on the hunt for enemies to kill.

“And we’re regularly looking at the rate at which players are acquiring legendary items, Sacred, and Ancestral items, how many items are getting in their inventory, how easy it is to manage those items in general on the storage side,” Piepiora continued.

“These are all contributing factors when we talk about what the end game of Diablo 4 needs to feel like. And the reality is that there’s just a lot of improvements we have to make, and we plan to make. As a live game, we have that benefit in our favor in that we know that we’re now getting this feedback.

“So while I don’t think that grinding is the problem here, I think it is the nature of the experience while going through some of these activities that can be smoothed out and made cleaner for folks. And that’s the stuff that really can we try to improve.”

Right now the Diablo team is focused on Season 1, titled Season of the Malignant, which is going live now. The new season introduces several new features while rolling out the battle pass system. For more, check out our Altar of Lillith guide as well as the complete map of Sanctuary.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

If you’ve been waiting for an opportunity to pick up the 14-inch-tall Gengar Squishmallow, now’s your time to shine as Amazon has it in stock for $24.99. It’s been totally sold out at other retailers for a while, or avaialable with a huge markup from third-party sellers. But Amazon has it in stock at list price. Make sure to grab it quickly before it’s gone!

Gengar Squishmallow at Amazon

If you’re curious to see more toys and collectibles that are available right now to pick up, or are up for preorder, we’ve got a few worth checking out. In the world of Funko, you can preorder Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Bitty Pops, which are set to release on July 31. These have four different boxes available as well, so you have quite a variety to choose from. One box even has Raphael, Donatello, Leonardo, and a mystery figure in 8-bit format, which is a fun way to have them on display!

There are also Funko Advent Calendars available to buy. Yes, you can kick off your shopping for the holidays right now in July, if you want! These come in two different boxes: a DC Heroes one and a Pokemon one, the latter of which would fit perfectly if you’re picking up that Gengar plush from above. And if you’re truly in the spirit of the holiday season right now, you can even preorder some of Hallmark’s Keepsake Christmas ornaments, which are set to release on July 24. These feature some very fun options as well, from Samus to Shazam to Finding Nemo.

If you’d like to see even more toys and collectibles, make sure to check out our toys and collectibles gift guide for 2023. Here, you can find a wide variety of items that are worth picking up for yourself or someone else in your life, including several different Amiibo, LEGO, and plenty of action figures.

Hannah Hoolihan is a freelance writer who works with the Guides and Commerce teams here at IGN.

The Last of Us Part 1 on PC is being modded by one fan to include a brutal and bloody first-person mode.

As reported by ComicBook.com, YouTube user Voyagers Revenge uploaded an eight-minute video of the mod in action, showing the intense and graphic battles of The Last of Us from a new perspective.

Featuring a handful of sections of the game alongside some modded content, the video shows the player taking on human and infected enemies alongside the creepy clickers and bloaters that are even more terrifying in first-person.

Showing off a handful of weapons too, from grenades to pistols to molotov cocktails and assault rifles, the mod truly displays the goriest side of The Last of Us.

No release date for the first-person mode was shared, though the modder did reveal some other elements of its gameplay. Every encounter is on a custom difficulty to make things as realistic and brutal as possible.

“My First-Person Mode concept showcase lets us survive up close and personal in this beautiful, realistic, chaotic world that Naughty Dog has developed,” Voyagers Revenge said.

The Last of Us Part 1 launched on PC in March but was almost immediately slammed over its performance issues. Naughty Dog quickly released patches for it, though, and after a month released a hefty update that would address most of the issues with the game.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.

Here’s the best deal we’ve seen yet on a Nintendo Switch OLED: Woot has the hybrid console on sale for $289.99. That’s $70 less than the MSRP on the device. The only catch is that this is the Japanese model. Functionally, it’s exactly the same as the US model. You can select English for the language, and the Switch is not region locked, so it can play games from any region, no problem. Basically, you just get a brand-new Switch console for $70 less than the normal price.

Save $70 on a Switch OLED (Japanese Model)

The one other difference is that, instead of the standard one-year warranty you get from Nintendo on a US model, buying this one only gets you a 90-day warranty from Woot. Woot is owned by Amazon, so it’s a reliable company, but the warranty is shorter. That said, you get free shipping if you’re a Prime member (and who isn’t, this soon after Prime Day, amirite?).

You get to choose between the model with white Joy-Cons and a white stand, or the one with neon red and blue Joy-Cons and a black stand. They both look good, but I prefer the white one. It adds a splash of class to the entertainment stand, if you ask me. It also pairs well with the PS5, if you have one of those under your TV.

The only other question is whether now is a good time to buy a Nintendo Switch console. Honestly, it depends on your circumstances. The OLED screen really is gorgeous, and the colors pop way more than on the original Switch. But even at a discount, this would be an expensive upgrade for just a display.

It’s also possible that Nintendo announces its next console pretty much at any time going forward. That would be a bummer for anyone who just bought a brand-new Switch. That said, at this point in its life cycle, the Switch has a game library good enough to stand up to any other console in history.

Also be sure to check out the best Switch deals available now.

Chris Reed is a commerce editor and deals expert for IGN. He also runs IGN’s board game and LEGO coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @_chrislreed or on Mastodon @chrislreed.

Gundam Evolution shuts down this November just a year after launch.

Bandai Namco said the free-to-play 6v6 shooter will end on November 29, 2023, making it unplayable. Gundam Evolution launched on PC in September 2022, then on console in November last year.

In a note to players, executive producer Kazuya Maruyama said the announcement was made “with great sadness”, and issued an apology to players.

“We wanted to create a title that brought FPS fans and Gundam fans together,” Maruyama continued. “We challenged ourselves to create an authentic Gundam FPS game that could be played globally. Unfortunately, we have determined that it is no longer possible for us to provide a service that satisfies our players.

“We want to express our gratitude to everyone who has played the game and supported us to this point. At the same time, we would like to sincerely apologize to our fans and players.”

Despite the shutdown, Season 6 is still set for August 23, and the final season comes out October 25. “We will do our best to ensure that our players can enjoy Gundam Evolution to the fullest till the very end,” Maruyama said.

Sales of Evo Coins, the premium currency, halt on July 26. Any players have left can still be used up until Gundam Evolution goes dark in November. Bandai Namco said it will not issue refunds on previously purchased coins or items.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Blizzard will address the backlash to Diablo 4’s latest patch in a livestream set for this Friday, July 21.

Game director Joe Shely, associate game director Joseph Piepiora, and associate director of community Adam Fletcher host the Campfire Chat livestream on July 21 at 11am PDT.

Diablo 4’s long-awaited pre-Season 1 patch, 1.1.0, sparked vociferous complaints from the game’s community, who accused Blizzard of turning the action role-playing game into a “slog” with a slew of heavy-handed nerfs to all classes, experience point gain, endgame progression and more.

In a tweet (below), Fletcher said the Campfire Chat will address this “feedback”.

“We have been hearing feedback from players regarding some of the changes in 1.1.0 for Diablo 4,” Fletcher said. “We are going to have a Campfire Chat later this week on Friday to talk more about it. We will have more details/timing in the next day. Thanks again for the feedback!”

We have been hearing feedback from players regarding some of the changes in 1.1.0 for #DiabloIV.

We are going to have a Campfire Chat later this week on Friday to talk more about it.

We will have more details/timing in the next day. Thanks again for the feedback!

— Adam Fletcher (@PezRadar) July 19, 2023

Blizzard has already issued a hotfix for Diablo 4 that sorts issues caused by the patch. This addresses the reduced drop rate of Aberrant Cinders in Helltide, which was lower than intended, and re-enables the Hatred’s Chosen buff.

Fletcher also confirmed Blizzard intends to remove the level requirement for World Tier 3 (40) and 4 (60) that were stealth introduced with this week’s patch.

We will be removing the level requirement for World Tier 3 & 4.

— Adam Fletcher (@PezRadar) July 19, 2023

Diablo 4 players hope Blizzard rolls back a number of the controversial changes made by the patch, but in the meantime Season 1, dubbed Season of the Malignant, kicks off tonight, July 20.

Despite various issues, Diablo 4 enjoyed an enormous launch that saw over 10 million people play in June. Diablo 4 is Blizzard’s fastest-selling game of all time, and has fuelled record revenue and profits for the company. If you’re still playing, check out our interactive Diablo 4 map to start tracking your progress as you play.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Going down the cursed checklist, Unholy certainly has enough elements to make for an absorbing horror adventure: it casts you as a desperate and vengeful main character, pits you against a malevolent religious cult that must be infiltrated and overcome, and arms you with a suite of emotion-fuelled special powers in order to get the better of every guard and ghoul who stands in your way. Unfortunately, like trying to crucify someone on a cross made of cardboard, Unholy’s execution just doesn’t hold up. Unresponsive controls, erratic AI, and frustrating instant deaths make for a seven-hour journey that regularly feels about as much fun as a spot of self-flagellation.

Young mother Dorothea wants to escape the grip of a religious cult known as Spring of Eternity, but there’s just one problem: the church’s high priest has snared the soul of her son Gabriel and fled our mortal realm to a cathedral deep in the heart of a supernatural underworld known as Eternal City. With a wizened old crone she meets up with in her father’s apartment building acting as her spiritual guide, Dorothea is able to cross over to this perpetually gloomy netherworld via an arcane ritual, and it’s here she must conquer a disappointingly modest variety of grumpy armoured guards and twitchy zombie types in an effort to rescue her only heir.

The landscape of Eternal City itself isn’t too far removed from the real world, it’s just darker and a lot more of it is on fire. Having said that, there’s clearly been a lot of care put into crafting Unholy’s underworld, with disgusting, tendril-covered subway tunnels to make your way around and streets lined with eerie, candle-lit tributes to the dead to crawl through. Unholy’s apocalyptic environment is by far its strongest attribute, so it’s disappointing that everything that happens there so shamelessly lets it go to waste.

Emotion Controls

Dorothea’s plight is an emotional journey in more ways than one, because in the realm of Eternal City human feelings can be harvested from corpses in the form of coloured orbs that can be used to your advantage – at least in theory. When loaded into Dorothea’s supernatural slingshot, ‘anger’ can be blasted into breakable elements in the environment, ‘shock’ becomes literal bolts of electricity that can fry power circuits from afar, ‘sadness’ serves as smoke bombs to break your enemies’ line of sight, and ‘desire’ can be used as a temporary distraction to lure guards away from their patrolling paths. It’s a shame that my regular feelings of frustration couldn’t also be loaded into Dorothea’s slingshot, because I would have been blessed with infinite ammo during almost every enemy encounter – particularly in Unholy’s latter half.

You see, the problem is that Unholy’s enemies are only momentarily stunned by any of Dorothea’s attacks head-on. The only way to dispatch an assailant is by maneuvering them near an explosive barrel or electrical trap, shooting it, and then hoping that they get collared by the collateral damage. Should you miss, or indeed should the enemy somewhat illogically survive (as was often the case during my playthrough) then you leave yourself open for a one or two-hit kill counterattack that will dispatch you faster than an Amazon delivery, returning you to a checkpoint that typically feels noticeably further back than it should be. Unholy could have perhaps benefited from the inclusion of a melee attack to buy you a bit of breathing space, especially since the way you have to manually shuffle through each ammo type rather than quick-select the one you want makes changing your strategy when cornered substantially more cumbersome than you’re probably used to from other games.

Evading enemy assaults might not have been so bad if Dorothea was even remotely fleet-footed, but unfortunately she moves with all the urgency of a child who’s just been told to brush their teeth. She also gets stuck on pieces of the environment that she shouldn’t, and then often fails to cling to the climbable surfaces that she should be able to grab. It doesn’t help that enemies have the tendency to block your only exit from an area, shuffling around in a circle like they’re the last drunken guest on the wedding reception dance floor, with no way of moving them if you’re fresh out of desire orbs.

Even when I did manage to stumble my way to the safe haven of a locker to hide in, I could never be certain if my pursuer would instantly ignore me and return to their post, or wait patiently outside until I was eventually forced to exit the locker and resume the clumsy chase. Unholy’s largely passive arsenal forces you to adopt a stealthy approach more often than not, which would be fine except that rarely do its stodgy stealth mechanics feel reliable enough to make for an enjoyable sneak through the shadows, particularly against the larger groups of ghouls in its latter half.

Masking Up

As it turns out, there’s a plague running through Eternal City that’s killing all its residents, so it makes sense that Dorothea is told to mask up upon entry. However, this is no surgical-grade N95 shield, but rather a mystical veil with special vision modes that can be toggled on to reveal interactive elements in the world like collectibles, explosive barrels, and the ubiquitous lockers. It can be further upgraded over the course of the campaign to serve as an actual gas mask to prevent Dorothea from perishing in poisonous gas clouds, and eventually as a sort of thermal vision to detect the late-game demons that are otherwise entirely invisible. These are each useful for the most part, although strangely you can’t activate any of these mask modes while you’re operating Dorothea’s slingshot, which makes trying to lure an invisible enemy into a trap an annoyingly approximate task.

Dorothea’s mask does have one additional benefit, though, in that it also conceals her stiff facial animations during cutscenes. Still, it can’t hide her wooden line delivery and charmless attempts at sarcasm, and nor can it prevent her from hyperventilating for comedically lengthy periods at a time even well after she’s out of harm’s way. It’s almost as if Dorothea’s gasping and Unholy’s swelling soundtrack is trying a bit too hard to convince you that your situation is scarier than it actually is. In fact, a few hours into Unholy I got so sick of her umpteenth asthmatic episode huffing through my headphones that I hopped into the pause menu and muted her persistent breathing sounds for good.

I was especially grateful for that option, since elsewhere in Unholy there’s not a hell of a lot of meaningful choices offered. A tacked-on upgrade system sends you sniffing around for special mementos from Dorothea’s past – like a pair of her mother’s sunglasses or one of Gabriel’s letters to Santa – which can be exchanged at special shrines for seven different skill buffs, but few of them make a tangible difference to your approach. Unlocking the ability to carry more than three of each slingshot ammo type is one genuinely handy exception, but I never found a compelling use for Dorothea’s running slide move aside from the initial dash through a timer-based gate that served as the ability’s tutorial.

In fact, there are a lot of elements in Unholy that are introduced and then quickly forgotten. Early on I was able to use a smoke bomb to confuse a motion detector in order to bypass a locked door, but I never found any such similar instances of circumventing security ever again. Likewise, a lantern-toting banshee enemy that emits a high-pitched scream to alert patrolling guards to your presence is featured in precisely one area in the entire adventure, which is a shame given the number of different enemy types I came across in total can be counted on one hand, and none of them are particularly frightening to encounter unless you count the cheap jump scares when the invisible enemy types suddenly appear inches in front of your face.

Puzzles, too, are equally lacking in variety, and never become much more stimulating than solving combination locks or swiveling dials on sealed trunks. Though to be fair, neither seem as redundant as the way Unholy will often require you to spend a precious anger orb in order to shoot the breakable lock on a crate… purely so you can collect another anger orb that’s revealed to be inside it.

All of Unholy’s sins may have been partially forgiven if the plot had been worth the struggle, but unfortunately the payoff for reaching the heart of Eternal City is underwhelming to say the least. It certainly didn’t help that I found Dorothea’s personality too obnoxious to ever really warm to, and so her ultimate fate and that of Gabriel hit me less like a slingshotted shock orb and more like a damp squib. On the upside, I had been dreading the idea of having to endure the unwieldy combat against a potentially tough endgame boss, but thankfully the final encounter is kept within the stress-free confines of a non-interactive cutscene – which would have been a disappointing way to conclude a better horror game, but here it felt like a small mercy.

Though Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision-Blizzard has cleared its biggest hurdle (the FTC), the deal isn’t quite done yet. And all parties involved have given themselves more time to finalize the deal. We discuss that, plus Sony finally signing its 10-year Call of Duty deal with Microsoft, the death of Xbox Live Gold and its somewhat confusing replacement in the form of Xbox Game Pass Core, and more!

Subscribe on any of your favorite podcast feeds, to our YouTube channel, or grab an MP3 of this week’s episode. For more awesome content, check out my recent interview with Todd Howard, who discussed the realization of his vision for Starfield after eight years, how Red Dead Redemption 2 was something of an inspiration, what his future holds, and more!

For more next-gen coverage, make sure to check out our Xbox Series X review, our Xbox Series S review, and our PS5 review.

Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s executive editor of previews and host of both IGN’s weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our monthly(-ish) interview show, IGN Unfiltered. He’s a North Jersey guy, so it’s “Taylor ham,” not “pork roll.” Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.

AI is at the center of the ongoing strikes in Hollywood, as writers and actors are concerned over how studios will take advantage of the rapidly-advancing technology moving forward. Those concerns are also bleeding into the world of video games, specifically in the voice actor community.

Last week, we shared the controversy in the Skyrim community, where dozens of voice actors discovered AI-generated NSFW Skyrim mods using synthetic versions of their actual vocal performances. The characters in these mods sound like the real-life actors, but they’re saying lines the voice actors never actually performed — often in pornographic contexts. Many of these mods are hosted on the mod distributor Nexus Mods.

Now, Victoria Atkin — who played Evie Frye in 2015’s Assassin’s Creed syndicate — has discovered that her voice is also being used in AI-generated pornographic mods on Nexus Mods.

Update on this… AI just stole my voice for this role. @sagaftra @WGAEast @WGAWest #Unionstrong #videogames #performancecapture #eviefrye #AssassinsCreed @assassinscreed @Ubisoft @latimes @Variety @DEADLINE @IGN https://t.co/IUGta4Pssh

— Victoria Atkin (@VictoriaAtkin) July 15, 2023

IGN spoke with Atkin, alongside Tim Friedlander, the founder and president of the National Association of Voice Actors (NAVA), about AI’s continuing threat to the voice actor community.

“I was kind of shocked, really, that it’s been used without my say, without my consent, it’s just out there,” Atkin said of the moment she learned how her voice was being used. “To think that my living could be taken away because somebody could copy it and modify it and make me say whatever they want me to say, it’s extremely frightening… It’s a threat all around. It’s kind of like this invisible enemy that we’re fighting right now.”

To join in the fight against that invisible enemy, Atkin went to the picket line for the WGA strike last month. Atkin and Friedlander explained that many of the issues writers and actors are striking over in the television and film industries also impact interactive entertainment.

“AI is a general threat to labor, and voice actors and writers are labor,” Friedlander said. “We are basically replacing humans with AI and digital technology that can do our job for free, and it doesn’t benefit the voice actors, it doesn’t benefit the writers… It only benefits the very top part of these companies.”

A Lack of Regulations on AI-Generated Content

Since the threat of AI is relatively new, Atkin said that many of the contracts she’s signed throughout her career are not up to date. For example, the contract she signed with Ubisoft for Assassin’s Creed was inked nearly a decade ago, well before fears of AI were under consideration. This means many contracts contain no language addressing permissions for AI content.

As a temporary fix, NAVA released an addendum earlier this year for actors to include in their contracts. The document has companies agree that the voice recording and motion capture performance will not be used for the creation of synthetic voices or machine learning. But Friedlander said widespread change needs to happen in a more official capacity.

“Right now there’s no contract protection and that needs to be in our contracts, very specifically to address AI and machine learning… Many voice actors have been doing this for 10 or 20 years, we have hundreds and hundreds of hours of audio that’s out there freely to be used and for machine learning to train our replacements, to train these synthetic voices that could potentially be used to replace us.”

Friedlander said there’s no software right now that can track voices as biometric data. So, it’s virtually impossible for any actor to keep up with all the instances of AI-generated content featuring their voice. For actors like Atkin who have been in the industry for years, that makes the lack of regulations on AI-generated content all the more concerning.

“I’ve done so many games I’ve lost count, and there’s so much of my voice out there that I would never be able to keep track of… There’s credits that are not even on my IMDb that I’ve done. It’s just frightening… It’s kind of dangerous what they can do with it without my say.”

IGN reached out to Nexus Mods for comment on this, but did not hear back in time for publication. When IGN reached out to Nexus Mods previously regarding the NSFW Skyrim mods, a spokesperson linked to the site’s current policy on AI content, which reads in part, “AI-generated mod content is not against our rules, but may be removed if we receive a credible complaint from an affected creator/rights holder.”

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.

After crusading through the hallowed, freakish 2D corridors of the original Blasphemous in 2019, I wondered how its followup, Blasphemous 2, might iterate upon a solid first stab. As it turns out, despite the rather fanatical setting they’ve created, the developers don’t appear to be afraid of ditching the dogma of the past to shake things up. Nowhere is that more apparent than with how this sequel retains its combat-focused strengths while significantly overhauling the puzzles and platforming to be more in line with its genre peers. From the few hours I’ve played so far, that gamble seems like it will pay off, and I’m more excited than ever to dive back into this sickening, pixelated soulslike.

The main instruments in Blasphemous 2’s greatly upgraded platforming toolbox are the three new weapons you’ll be switching between in order to defeat enemies and complete puzzles. Gone are the days where your trusty Mea Culpa was the only way for you to smite people. Instead you’ve got the powerful, slow swinging War Sensor, the lightning-fast dual weapon Rapier and Dagger, and the reliable middle-ground between those two extremes called the Praying Blade. Not only do each of these weapons have their own advantages and disadvantages in terms of reach, speed, and special abilities, but they also each have a skill tree that can be upgraded along the way, adding things like a shorter wait time for charged attacks and expanded attack combo options.

But the real trick to Blasphemous 2’s expanded arsenal is in how it elevates platforming and puzzles from its predecessor, as they each have their own traversal ability that helps you navigate Cvstodia. For example, the flail-like War Sensor can be used to smack massive bells that open otherwise impassable doors and reveal invisible platforms, the Rapier and Dagger allow you to dash through magic mirrors that send you flying across a level and pass through certain objects, and the Praying Blade lets you slam to the ground with enough force to smash through certain obstructions. Obtaining each of these weapons quickly became a priority during my demo as a means of giving me access to more areas and allowing me to solve puzzles that required clever use of these tools of destruction.

That increased focus on collecting interesting tools, then using them in clever ways to access previously inaccessible areas definitely went a long way to make this sequel feel much more like a metroidvania than the first game, which was an action-platformer that focused a whole lot more on the hacking and slashing part than anything else.

That’s not to say that Blasphemous 2 doesn’t feature a whole lot more of its signature challenging combat – there’s a whole lot of it and it already felt smoother than ever in my first few hours with it. In fact, the addition of multiple weapon options allowed for a lot more variety during 2D confrontations where I was weighing the speed and mobility of the Rapier versus the raw power and reach of the War Sensor. Those options also went a long way to preventing monotony as I retraced my steps through previously explored areas; a major improvement over its predecessor’s sometimes-stale melee.

This was especially true during boss fights. While I’m not able to share footage from the excruciatingly challenging gauntlet I faced at the conclusion of my time with Blasphemous 2, if that encounter is anything to go by, it seems we’re in for some even more demanding trials where you’ll need to put the full weight of your arsenal to use to overcome these harrowing scenarios.

With Blasphemous 2 set to debut next month, I’m more excited than ever to jump back into Cvstodia and see how else this fanatical 2D soulslike is evolving.