Matt Nava must have wild dreams. At thatgamecompany, he was art director on 2012’s universally acclaimed Journey, a minimal but deep, near existential exploration of humanity, played out via the widescreen vistas of the worlds within our heads and beyond our minds.
Since he founded Giant Squid Games, the studio released another pair of titles – Abzû and The Pathless – that sought to further depict the immensity of nature as the de facto meaning of life, drawing these settings in a technicolor style and captivating storytelling format that they believe – with some justification – is unreachable via any other medium.
Review info
Platform reviewed: PS5 Available on: PS5 and PC Release date: August 19, 2025
Sword Of The Sea is Giant Squid’s first game in five years and compounds Neva’s reputation as a figure driven by a fantastical imagination, his vision once again shot through with a vividly absorbing amalgamation of the past, present and future. But despite the otherworldly, psychedelic triggers that ignite this and his other releases, it turns out Nava’s inspirations are rather more prosaic than those salvaged from the far-out dimensions of his psyche.
Because, beneath the ablaze surface – which flickers with activity and adventure – Sword Of The Sea actually has its roots in the everyday. That’s not to say these core inspirations – snowboarding, surfing and skateboarding – are humdrum, pedestrian pleasures, rather the pastimes of the brave and the bold who want to live on the edge of both life and a thick wedge of solid and – ideally – unbreakable matter.
As his previous titles have suggested, Nava is a fan of extreme sports, particularly when they intersect with the ocean and its underwater residents. He believes there is more to these pursuits than a base rush of adrenaline, explaining in a recent interview: “I don't think we can force you to have, like, a spiritual awakening or something. But I do think that we can emulate the kind of environment and conditions that gave me something like that.”
The Wraith's progress
(Image credit: Giant Squid)
You play as the Wraith, a wordless, airborne gladiator who doesn’t need to speak because the blue flames billowing from his skull tell you all there is to know. Something like a Tony Hawk for the Blade Runner generation, he rides a gleaming, indestructible plank that is part board, part sword and is – disappointingly – unlikely to be available in your nearest Supreme stockists anytime soon.
Once more, the premise of the game is simple and the storyline, as such, perfunctory. That said, an allegory for the real world, real time decline of Earth’s ecosystem is apparent as you navigate a vibrantly eye-popping spectrum of locations, solving the rudimentary, repeating puzzles that are built into each region and deliver water to the ravaged land, reawakening a verdant landscape and aquatic cast. However, the mind-bending mechanics and attendant cosmic backdrops are anything but straightforward.
Best bit
(Image credit: Giant Squid)
The interactive settings produce countless breathtaking, poetic moments. But perhaps the game’s most uncanny scenes take place during the Frozen Drifts level, where you can parkour towards the heavens and – to misquote Sir Isaac Newton – stand on the shoulder of giant and mostly buried warrior statues in the middle of a blizzard.
Across Saharan sand dunes, turquoise Maldivian seas and Massif Central whiteouts – frequently embedded with half pipes – you navigate the Wraith on his supersonic ‘Hoversword’, using an expanding but never complex set of controls.
Seemingly informed by both reality and fantasy, he can traverse sun scorched ruins in what could be the last days of the Roman Empire, leave a holographic vapor trail in his wake pulling stunts through the dusty canyons of a reimagined Tatooine and skid to a dashing stop in an eerie, cavernous gothic monastery, illuminated by the primary colors of a stained-glass window. It’s a beautiful experience.
Flow motion
(Image credit: Giant Squid)
In many ways Sword Of The Sea establishes a new high score in video gaming’s ongoing quest to incarnate the hallowed concept of flow. Popularized in the 1975 book Beyond Boredom And Anxiety by Hungarian-American psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, this locked on state of mind has long been associated with the most captivating and immersive titles.
“Our games celebrate fluid movement, avoid hyper violence, and are approachable for kids and adults alike without compromising on depth, stakes, or meaning,” explain Giant Squid of their modus operandi.
In the lead up to release, Nava has spoken of the “meditative” qualities of this game, which is an addictive headspace to many of those who participate in the aforementioned activities, particularly when carving new pathways through water or snow, as you frequently can in Sword Of The Sea. With spectacular graphical fluidity and fidelity, the impossible is made possible in the mountainous (uphill) downhill racing and 300mph ski jumping of the Shadow Tundra level game highlight. Certainly, Ski Sunday never went this far off-piste.
While there are few other participants, the hypnotic aura is underscored by the inclusion of an elegant catalogue of marine life that – at their most heavyweight – provide an additional vehicle to uncover the eight levels spanning the single digit runtime. The awe-inspiring appearance of Megalodon-sized orcas, sting rays and now extinct Elasmosaur reptiles – and the opportunity to climb onboard – has a singular appeal, which amplifies the epic sense of scale framing both them and the graphically abundant environments within which the game is housed.
Behold “the time before time”
(Image credit: Giant Squid)
In its mythical lore – fittingly, the game takes place in “the time before time” – and reconfigurable terrain, there’s something of Zelda here. As the ice cool lead bounces across tangerine terracotta rooftops, you are reminded of the physical urban challenges presented by Strayor the Assassin’s Creed series. Elsewhere, the endless runner, sword attack DNA of Neva is also redolent of this game world. But, really, Sword Of The Sea is unlike anything else you might have played.
Equally, that’s not to say it feels entirely original. Anyone who has picked up a title helmed by Nava will be familiar with many of the atmospheric, recurrent creative design archetypes – Arabic-style scriptures and ancient cave drawings – and the insistently wise and wistful soundtrack, which is once again crafted by Austin Wintory, who remains the only video game composer to be nominated for a Grammy for Journey.
In truth, as the game progresses, the dazzling ambience and rote gameplay become somewhat cloying and repetitive. For example, driving a great white shark through a mountainside, nihilistically smashing icebergs, feels much less like the cited “spiritual awakening” and rather more a curious and deadening task. Moreover, as Sword Of The Sea nears its conclusion, Giant Squid reach for a conventional and overblown final boss dogfight, when so much that comes before indicates a determination not to be hamstrung by such limitations.
Does it matter? A little. But I’d still like to take a bite of the cheese Matt Nava is chomping on before he falls asleep.
Should I play Sword Of The Sea?:
Play it if...
You’re a fan of the games made by this design team Matt Nava and Giant Squid have created another truly distinctive and thoughtful tale contemplating what makes us human.
You want to get lost in a wild and colorful virtual space existing at the ends of your imagination Not so much the land that time forgot, Sword Of The Sea is the worlds that few imagine and are – arguably – only discoverable via video games.
Don't play it if...
You were bored by Journey Although the mechanics and movement of Sword Of The Sea are entirely fresh and innovative, the references to this series of games remain enduringly familiar.
You favor plot over experience The narrative of Sword Of The Sea is propelled by your interactions with its inhabitants rather than other ‘human’ characters. Given the total absence of spoken language, this is perhaps inevitable.
Accessibility features
Accessibility features here are limited.
There are a range of language options for the menus and in-game storytelling content and adjustments can be made to the camera and gameplay presets.
While the game can be completed in three or four, it’s also possible – for completists who want to cover every inch of the experience – to take twice as long.
A few hours into Cronos: The New Dawn, I saw it. A corpse slumped against the wall, a message scrawled in blood above him: “Don’t let them merge”. If it wasn’t already clear that the latest survival horror game from Bloober Team was drawing from some of the genre's greats, that warning, a nod to “cut off their limbs” seen in equally foreboding lines of jagged crimson in Dead Space, hammered the point home as subtly as a boot stomp to the skull.
Review info
Platform reviewed: PS5 Available on: PS5,Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, PC, Nintendo Switch 2, Mac Release date: September 5, 2025
A feeling of déjà vu was a running theme in my time playing through Cronos. Here’s the main character, gun hoisted high in Leon S. Kennedy’s iconic pose from Resident Evil 4. Here are my limited crafting resources straight out of The Last of Us, ones I must choose to make either ammo or health items. Here are my gravity boots, pinched from Isaac Clarke’s locker on the USG Ishimura.
It’s perfectly fine to be influenced by other works, especially when they are as iconic and genre-defining as the ones I’ve listed above. But when it just feels like you’re retreading the same path with less confidence and not bringing enough new ideas, what’s really the point of it all?
Following in their footsteps
(Image credit: Bloober Team)
Now, that opening may read like I came away massively disappointed by Cronos: The New Dawn. In some aspects, I certainly did. It is painfully derivative in many areas, to the point where it made me question if anything has changed in sci-fi survival horror games in the last 20 years.
But, unsurprisingly, given its influences, it’s also a game that plays well. Combat is tense, shooting is solid, resource management is challenging, exploration is unsettling, and the environments drip with atmosphere. And there are kernels of ideas that, if only they were more fully realised or executed better, could have elevated the game beyond a decent – if standard – survival horror.
Let’s start with the premise: you play as the Traveler, an undefined being encased in a cross between a spacesuit and a diving suit. The game starts as you're activated by a mysterious organisation known as The Collective and told to travel through time to extract important survivors after an apocalyptic infection dubbed the ‘Change’ turns most people on Earth into grotesque and amalgamated monstrosities.
The nexus point of the disaster is Poland in the 1980s, which at least makes for a unique setting that’s far from the spaceships and abandoned mining planets we usually find ourselves stomping around. There’s an inventiveness to the world design, too, which not only sees the infestation overrun dilapidated buildings, roads, and subways with a gloopy and pulsating biomass, but also fractures entire structures to create floating, twisted, and mind-bending new forms.
Add to that violent sandstorms and heavy snowfall, and safe to say, it’s not a pleasant stroll. I had to seriously pluck up some courage to carefully inch forward in many locations, especially towards the latter half of the game, when everything is so consumed by the effects of the infection and dotted with poisonous pustules that you feel suffocated by it – even if this trap is overplayed a dozen too many times.
Skin-crawling
(Image credit: Bloober Team)
Visually, it is disgusting (in all the right ways), but huge credit has to go to the audio. It masterfully ramps up that oppressive and stomach-churning atmosphere with all sorts of sloshing and wheezing and bubbling that gives a terrifying sense of life to the coagulated mass that surrounds you. One of the best gaming headsets is recommended.
If Cronos was all just trudging through fleshy corridors, then Bloober Team would have smashed it. Unfortunately, other parts of the game don’t excel in the same way and are merely fine or disappointing in comparison.
Combat is one. The gimmick here is that dead enemies remain on the ground and can be assimilated by other creatures to become larger and stronger foes – hence the bloody message of “don’t let them merge”. Fortunately, you come equipped with a torch. Nope, it’s not a bright light, but a burst of flames that can incinerate corpses and stop this merging from taking place.
Best bit
(Image credit: Future)
Cronos: The New Dawn finds its identity more as the game progresses and the section in the Unity Hospital is when the game hits its stride. It’s one of the scariest and creepiest places to explore, as you descend further into the bowels of the building, where the infection has taken even greater hold and you uncover some horrifying secrets about the impact of the Change.
That leads to the main flow of combat. Take down targets with your weapons, then prevent any survivors from merging by setting the bodies ablaze. It’s a setup that can create some tense encounters – ones where you’re busy dealing with one target, only to hear the awful sounds of two bodies smushing together in the distance (shoutout to the audio design again), and knowing there’ll be an even greater threat if you don’t introduce them to the cleansing flames immediately.
The problem is that I could count on one hand the number of times I felt seriously threatened by the risk of enemies merging. Too many encounters had too few enemies, were in too small spaces, or were littered with too many (respawning) explosive barrels, that I could comfortably handle the situation. It was only towards the end of the game when I felt overwhelmed in some encounters, needing to more strategically pick my targets, hurriedly craft ammo on the fly, and regularly reposition to burn dead enemies so they couldn’t merge.
Burn, baby, burn
(Image credit: Bloober Team)
It isn’t a disaster, just a shame that Cronos doesn’t really make the most of its main idea. Instead, the overwhelming feeling I had was that I was just playing Dead Space again, swapping between the limited ammo in my pistol, shotgun, and rifle to blast away everything. Outside of rare encounters, the mechanics of merging and burning feel like massively underused and unimpactful parts of the game.
It’s a common feeling. Take your main objective of ‘rescuing’ the specific survivors. I use quotation marks there because the actual process of saving them is kept ominously vague, and is instead best described as extracting and absorbing their soul to gain the knowledge needed to save humanity.
It’s here when I thought Cronos might step up from its clear inspirations with some fresh ideas. Not only is there a morbid mirroring at play (wait, are we the baddies?), but those other lives bouncing around inside your head lead to all sorts of different visions and hallucinations, depending on the characters you choose to save.
In its cleverest moments, who’s knocking about in your noggin can influence the environment or completely change how you perceive things in the world to create some genuinely spooky moments. Once again, though, outside of less than a handful of instances, this idea isn’t explored any further when it’s rife for some really interesting, exciting, and unique possibilities.
It frustrates and disappoints me more than anything. I really want to be clear that Cronos: The New Dawn isn’t a bad game: it plays fine, looks good enough, and runs well. Although I’d stick to performance mode on consoles if you can to get a smooth 60fps, as the quality mode feels far too jittery.
I just can’t help but feel that with the way it relies so heavily on what worked in classic survival horror games from yesteryear, I may have travelled back two decades myself to play it.
Should I play Cronos: The New Dawn?
(Image credit: Bloober Team)
Play it if…
You’re looking for your next survival horror fix Survival horror fans who are craving a new game will find enough to enjoy here, even if it’s mostly just playing the hits.
You want a different setting and an intriguing story Signalis this ain’t, but the setting, story, and commentary in Cronos does tickle the brain in new ways, even if some aspects are too enigmatic
Don’t play it if…
You want an action game This isn’t the bombastic and set-piece rollercoaster of a modern Resident Evil. Cronos is tense, slow, full of dread, and light on ammunition.
You have any aversion to body horror Cronos relies heavily on body horror for its story, enemy design, and environments, so if you find this overly unsettling, then it’s best to avoid.
Accessibility
Cronos offers a range of standard accessibility options, including three color blind modes for green, red, and blue color blindness, as well as the option to add clear interaction indicators and subtitles in multiple languages that can be fully customised in terms of size and color.
The game has one Normal difficulty setting, with a Hard mode unlocked after you finish the game once. To customise the difficulty, though, you can adjust settings to get a more generous aim assist and alter whether you hold or tap for quick time events.
A center dot can be added to help alleviate motion sickness, while the game also provides options to reduce or turn off camera shake and sway.
How I reviewed Cronos: The New Dawn
I played Cronos: The New Dawn for around 16 hours on a PlayStation 5 Pro on a Samsung S90C OLED TV using a DualSense Wireless Controller. I mainly played in Performance mode, but I also tried Quality mode for a brief time and found the graphical improvements minimal compared to the benefits of a smoother frame rate.
I swapped between playing audio through a Samsung HW-Q930C soundbar and a SteelSeries Arctic Nova 7, and I definitely suggest headphones for the best experience.
I completed the main game and spent a lot of time exploring the environment to uncover as much of the story and as many hidden extras as I could find.
Everybody's Golf Hot Shots is the latest entry in the beloved casual sports franchise. Developer Hyde (Digimon Survive) is taking over from stalwart Clap Hanz here, but it nonetheless retains the series' captivating charm.
Review information
Platform reviewed: PS5 Available on: PS5, Nintendo Switch, PC Release date: September 5, 2025
If you've felt let down by the recent run of Mario Golf entries and aren't keen on more sim-like titles such as PGA Tour 2K25, then Everybody's Golf Hot Shots occupies a satisfying middle ground. It's a more fulfilling and content-rich outing than, say, Mario Golf: Super Rush, but also has plenty of shotcraft depth. Wrapped in a pleasingly colorful art style, it's almost a best of both worlds situation.
Right out of the box, Everybody's Golf Hot Shots packs tens - if not hundreds - of hours of content. There's a boatload of characters to unlock, courses to play on, and a variety of balls, clubs, costumes, and caddies to gradually add to your roster. Throw in some party-esque modes like Wacky Golf, and you have a game that's suitable for both solo and social play. And yes, both offline and online multiplayer are supported here.
That's not to say there aren't a few bogeys to contend with, however, particularly when it comes to progression. There are around 30 characters to play as in Hot Shots, with just two playable at the start. You'll have to unlock the rest, and while that's no bad thing in isolation, you'll also need to level up each character individually to gain access to their skills, costumes, and ancillary items. When you're only getting one or two levels per 9 or 18-hole run, you'll realize that progression feels like it's stuck in the rough.
Characters, despite having plenty of charming and high-quality animations associated with them, can also be very annoying. Voice lines are at a premium here, so you'll be hearing the same four to five quips on every single hole. At least you can turn voices off in the options menu.
Tee time
(Image credit: Bandai Namco)
There are two big single-player modes in Everybody's Golf Hot Shots. Challenge Mode is broken down into ascending ranks, with each offering 9-18 hole events under a variety of conditions. These can include differing times of day and specific rule sets.
These special rules can be quite fun, and range from casual-friendly modifiers like 'tornado' cups, which magnetize the ball towards it, to rather devilish ones like increasing stroke penalties for hitting hazards like the rough or bunkers. But my favorite has to be the 'impossible pin' rule, which ups the challenge by placing the pin in deliberately awkward spots on the green.
Completing these events increases your rank gauge, and when it's full, you can progress to the next tier and face off against an unlockable golfer.
Challenge Mode should be your first port of call, as it will aid in unlocking scenarios for the other main single-player mode: World Tour. This is a more story-focused mode, presenting simple cutscenes and challenges for the game's cast of golfers. This is also where you'll be able to unlock them as permanent additions to the roster - and thankfully, you typically only have to clear a golfer's first challenge to get them.
You've also got traditional and highly customizable match and stroke play modes, where you get full freedom in choosing course, time of day, weather conditions, and those aforementioned special rules. Then, there's solo play if you just fancy practicing your drive alone.
Wacky Golf is another great, party-centric addition that throws traditional golf rules out of the window. During Wacky Golf, you'll witness things like clubs swapping between opponents, randomized rule sets, and full-on explosives that'll send your ball unpredictably flying. It's great fun, and a suitably Mario Party-esque take on the standard golf formula.
Call me Albert Ross
(Image credit: Bandai Namco)
Of course, heaps of content would mean nothing if the act of golfing wasn't fun to engage with. And thankfully, Everybody's Golf Hot Shots offers some of the series' most satisfying play. The three-button-press system returns here, and is very casual-friendly. Simply hit the button once to begin charging shot power, again to lock that power in, and then one more time to hit the ball.
Best bit
(Image credit: Bandai Namco)
Everybody's Golf Hot Shots really nails the feeling of a perfect drive. Animation and sound design come together to create the perfect feedback here, meaning your best shots always feel incredibly satisfying. The same goes for chip-ins and hole-in-ones, which the game celebrates appropriately with awesome replays.
There are nuances within, though. You'll need to time the hit carefully in order to ensure the ball doesn't veer off course in the air. On top of that, you'll have wind to contend with, and you can add top, back, and side spin to further influence the ball's travel and carry. The ball's lie (or how sloped the surface it's resting on is) will also impact its trajectory, so accounting for this is crucial, especially on the trickier courses.
Putting can also be tricky, albeit in a satisfyingly challenging way. You do get some friendly assistance here via a grid on the green that highlights whether your shot will be uphill, downhill, or flat, as well as if it'll veer off to the left or right. Once again, accounting for this can be all the difference between birdie, par, or the dreaded bogey.
You will find that most of the game's initial characters feel quite weak in terms of their drive distance and stats like impact and spin effectiveness. This is by design, and you may even struggle to get birdies on a par 4 hole. But in theory, I like the style of progression here. These 'weaker' characters are a bit easier to handle, more predictable, thus allowing the player to get a better grasp on golfing as a whole.
You can also permanently improve a golfer's stats by purchasing food items from the main menu's shop. Food, as well as club and ball selection, will influence your stats and means that you can eventually make a beast out of your favorite golfer and caddy pairing.
Stuck in the sand
(Image credit: Bandai Namco)
I say 'in theory' earlier in regards to progression because while I like the general structure, improving any given character's capabilities is a frustratingly glacial process. Characters and caddies will have their loyalty levels improve as you complete courses and challenges with them. However, you'll mostly be getting just one or two levels at a time. And with full courses taking anywhere from 15-30 minutes to complete, the pace of improvement slows to a crawl.
It sucks because said progression is the most efficient way of unlocking new items in the shop, including costumes, clubs, balls, perk-like stickers for your caddy, and so on. You'll need to be in it for the long haul and have some patience with Everybody's Golf Hot Shots, then. Thankfully, the core game always feels excellent to play, but it's an experience best played in short bursts, in my experience.
Although the experience is somewhat tarnished by grating voice lines, and game performance isn't always up to par. For example, hitting a perfect shot can awkwardly freeze the game for a moment before connecting with the ball. Furthermore, the frame rate can dip to as low as 30fps while you watch the ball travel to its destination.
These small blemishes aside, as well as a rather big bugbear in the slow progression, Everybody's Golf Hot Shots is an easy game to love. While the usual series developer isn't behind this one, Hyde seems to fully understand its loveable fundamentals and has created a fulfilling and long-lasting golfing experience, so long as you're the patient type.
Should you play Everybody's Golf Hot Shots?
Play it if...
You want the best casual golf game in years Handily putting Mario Golf in its place and giving sim-heavy titles something to think about, Everybody's Golf Hot Shots marries a charming visual style with in-depth golfing gameplay.
You want a metric ton of content There are plenty of courses, characters, costumes, and more to unlock in Everybody's Golf Hot Shots. It's a game that could potentially last you years if you're after an all-in-one golf game.
Don't buy it if...
You prefer much faster progression If you can't get used to the slow rate at which you unlock things in Hot Shots, then this may be one to miss. Especially as you'll spend your first 10-20 hours with incredibly basic characters and gear.
Accessibility
Everybody's Golf Hot Shots is light in the accessibility department, but there are some handy options to make note of. The 'gimme putt' setting will automatically putt the ball past bogey if it's close enough to the hole. Plus, there are various styles of shot gauge if you're having trouble with the default three-point button system.
How I reviewed Everybody's Golf Hot Shots
I played Everybody's Golf Hot Shots for 12 hours for this review. I played on PlayStation 5, primarily using the DualSense Wireless Controller. During play, I mainly tackled Challenge Mode and World Tour to rank up and unlock various things such as characters, courses, and costumes.
I also spent some time in standard stroke and match play, as well as Wacky Golf, to get a general feel of all modes and the game's performance across its many courses.
Metal Eden is Doom meets Ghostrunner with a little bit of Metroid thrown in. It’s a fast-paced sci-fi shooter all about clearing dense combat arenas, wall-running and jumping through parkour challenges, and occasionally turning into a large metal ball and rolling around.
Review information
Platform reviewed: PS5 Available on: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X and Series S Release date: September 2, 2025
It’s easy to see the inspiration behind each of its constituent elements, but that doesn’t mean that the resulting formula isn't a lot of fun. It's elevated by a strong art direction, some surprisingly slick shooting that wouldn't feel out of place in some of the best FPS games, and a couple of unique mechanics that help the game form an identity of its own.
Still, there is room for improvement, namely in the narrative department. The dialogue feels strangely written and occasionally hard to follow, almost like it's been poorly translated. It's unfortunate and undermines an enjoyable experience that I would otherwise wholeheartedly recommend.
Back to the future
(Image credit: Deep Silver)
Hailing from the developers of the criminally underrated twin-stick shooter Ruiner, Metal Eden takes us to another far-flung future where things have gone seriously wrong. Humanity has developed Cores, little robotic disks that store an uploaded consciousness and can be slotted into artificial bodies, and the technology paved the way for space travel.
You play as Aska, a high-tech android warrior with a special regenerating core that effectively allows her to be repeatedly reprinted after death. Stranded on an abandoned lunar city, it’s your job to mow down legions of rogue security robots on a mission to rescue millions of colonists trapped as cores in storage.
The narrative focus on Aska’s regeneration seems like it would lend itself naturally to a roguelike format, but Metal Eden is actually a wholly linear experience with eight total levels that vary between about twenty to forty minutes in length. I love shorter games, but this brevity was a little disappointing.
I hit the credits in a single sitting and, while there is scope for some repeat playthroughs to chase high scores and find the small number of hidden resources scattered around each map, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect more given the $39.99 / £32.99 asking price.
That brief length does at least lead to a campaign that’s very tightly paced and engaging. The bulk of each mission is a combination of shooting and parkour, both of which are well-implemented.
The shooting is tight with high-quality animations and meaty sound effects across an impressively varied arsenal. This includes a range of projectile weapons such as your basic machine pistol, a shotgun, and an SMG, plus some more futuristic energy launchers.
Getting to the core of it
(Image credit: Deep Silver)
Stronger enemies are equipped with powerful armor that absorbs the bulk of projectile damage, forcing you to switch to an energy weapon to break through it, which lends encounters an enjoyable sense of rhythm. Combat arenas are compact, with walls that you can leap off and sometimes vertical layers to keep things interesting, and staying perpetually on the move is essential for survival.
With a foe’s armor out of the way, you can rip out its Core and consume it for a quick health top-up and to charge a powerful armor-destroying punch or throw it to trigger an explosion. You’re soon equipped with a jet-pack and elemental grenades, too, and quickly chaining all of your moves together to survive wave after wave of adversaries is a source of constant satisfaction.
(Image credit: Deep Silver)
It’s all so good that I really wish there was some kind of separate survival mode that challenges you to last as long as possible available after the credits roll. Fingers crossed, we’ll see something like that added in a future update.
Combat success is rewarded with vials of Dust, a currency used to upgrade your gear. Each weapon has two distinct upgrade paths that dramatically alter its abilities.
Your SMG, for example, can be outfitted with a powerful grenade launcher for taking out groups or a set of iron sights that enable a long-range semi-automatic sniper mode. These upgrades can dramatically affect the appearance of each weapon, too, so every choice feels satisfyingly substantial.
Aska has a robust skill tree, too, with plenty of impactful options that do everything from automatically reloading your last weapon when it’s not in use to causing you to regenerate armor on top of health with every core consumed.
Absolutely balling
(Image credit: Deep Silver)
New enemies and environmental hazards are introduced at a steady pace, forcing you to frequently tweak your strategies to maintain an advantage. The larger levels also unlock the imaginatively named Ball Mode, which, as the name would suggest, lets you transform into a fast-moving metal orb whenever you wish.
Rolling into enemies at high speed deals huge amounts of damage, and if that wasn’t enough, you’re armed with an electric blast and homing missiles too. It’s a tad overpowered, but it provides a refreshing break from the more intense encounters of other areas.
Best bit
(Image credit: Deep Silver)
Multiple levels feature rail riding mechanics. Whizzing down neon blue ziplines is a blast, especially when you add obstacles that you need to dodge and shooting flying enemies into the mix.
Unfortunately, every mission is filled with jarring, awkward dialogue that lets the overall package down. In early segments, Aska frequently chats with Nexus, an almost comically edgy companion that spouts melodramatic, cringeworthy cliches. His constant wittering is like nails on a chalkboard, and I almost cheered when he was replaced by a substantially less annoying figure later on.
The voice acting is serviceable on the whole, but line deliveries have very strange intonation that I found distracting at times. Conversations are also written in a manner that feels inescapably off. They’re sometimes hard to follow and have this stilted quality to them that’s reminiscent of dodgy machine translation. I can’t quite decide whether this is an intentional stylistic choice; most of the characters are robots after all, but it's disappointing nevertheless.
It's especially noticeable in the cutscenes, which are otherwise extremely high quality and absolutely gorgeous to look at. On that note, the whole game is visually impressive with a minimalist, industrial look, though there are occasional stutters even in console performance mode.
All of this would be a lot easier to forgive at a lower price point, but as it stands, it stops me from making a more wholehearted recommendation.
Should you play Metal Eden?
Play it if…
You want fast-paced shooting The shooting action in Metal Eden is superb. There’s loads of depth thanks to the large variety of weapons and a substantial upgrade system, and learning how to best use all your abilities is a blast.
You loved Ghostrunner The parkour is also a highlight. If you enjoyed the likes of Ghostrunner, then you’re going to feel right at home here.
Don’t play it if…
You’re interested in the story The world of Metal Eden certainly looks the part, but it’s undermined by awkward, cringeworthy dialogue.
You crave something more long lasting There’s no getting around the fact that this is a particularly short game. If you’re after an experience that will last more than a few hours, you’ll need to look elsewhere.
Accessibility features
There are a few accessibility options in Metal Eden. This includes a few color blindness filters, the ability to enable subtitles, and adjust their size and background color. The game also features four difficulty levels to choose from.
In that time I reached the end credits on the standard difficulty and experienced the vast majority of what the game has to offer. I fully upgraded each of the weapons in my arsenal and unlocked the bulk of Aska’s upgrade tree, too.
It still seems surreal that Helldivers 2 is 18 months old. A year and a half on from the PlayStation 5 and PC release of a co-op shooter that captured millions of players, it’s finally come to Xbox consoles as well.
Review info
Platform reviewed: Xbox Series X Available on: Xbox Series X and Series S, PS5, PC Release date: August 26, 2025 (Xbox)
Back in February 2024, we awarded the game four out of five stars and have since called it one of the best PS5 games, but if there’s one title that’s shown the potential of live service gaming, it’s Helldivers 2. Arrowhead’s third-person shooter has grown exponentially, meaning that Xbox players have entirely new systems and mission types to play with, as well as a whole new faction.
That means it’s easily one of the best Xbox Series X games and a smorgasbord of pseudo-fascistic flag-raising, but it does come with some growing pains.
A winning formula remains
(Image credit: PlayStation Publishing LLC)
If you’re new to Helldivers 2 and have only an Xbox console, what’s all the fuss about?
Basically, Helldivers 2 is a co-op shooter that has you landing on different locations on planets, completing objectives, then working to ‘get to the chopper’ and extract via dropship.
No two excursions play out quite the same way. Different biomes offer unique challenges, like thick fog or biting cold, while you’ll also come up against one of three enemy factions. All of this plays out against the backdrop of ‘The Galactic War’, which sees you and every other player across PS5, PC, and now Xbox, working to liberate planets.
Back in 2024, that meant a series of mission types that were fairly predictable, carried out against bug-like Terminids and Terminator-esque Automatons. Both carried their own challenges, but anyone jumping in now will also be tasked with fighting the Illuminate.
The most technologically advanced of all foes encountered thus far, they range from carpet-bombing ships and flying enemies to the genuinely pretty scary zombie-like creatures that can easily overrun a squad.
New toys, new problems
(Image credit: PlayStation Publishing LLC)
Thankfully, there’s plenty of firepower granted by Super Earth, with rifles, explosives, and much more that were there from launch.
Tailoring your loadout to the objective at hand remains just as important as ever, like popping a turret down while you’re uploading important data, or having a suite of rapidly reloading air support when on a hunting mission.
Much of this is tackled in the game’s tutorial (which remains just as chortle-worthy as it ever was), but the game beyond has outgrown that initial gauntlet. For example, there are new vehicles and even mechs to pilot, which have been added since launch, but there’s no room for them in the tutorial, so you’re left to your own devices once you unlock them.
That wouldn’t be so bad if you didn’t have to start from scratch on Xbox. When Helldivers 2 launched on PS5 and PC, I bemoaned the lack of cross-progression, but a year and a half on, it seems it’s still not coming.
(Image credit: PlayStation Publishing LLC)
That means if you have the game on PC and want to pick up where you left off on Xbox, you can expect to complete the tutorial and start off as a level one trooper again, shorn of all your shiny toys.
Given how many fun things I’ve been playing with on PS5, many of which are tied to premium Warbonds, it’s a shame there’s no option to pick up where I left off on Xbox. Then there’s the Warbonds themselves.
For the uninitiated, Warbonds act like battle passes, although they thankfully don’t expire. Each is themed on a certain type of weapon or damage type, and there are now well over a dozen. If you’re jumping in fresh, that’s a lot to catch up on, and while it’s hardly mandatory because so many of the free weapons are fun to use, it’s worth mentioning that it could be overwhelming.
The new Halo-themed Warbond is included, too, and offers weapons like the assault rifle and SMG, but it’s a ‘Legendary Warbond’, so it’ll set you back around $15.
Hellacious
(Image credit: PlayStation Publishing LLC)
Still, one upshot of being stripped back to basics is that it highlights just how right Arrowhead got it when developing Helldivers 2’s shooting and movement mechanics.
Best bit
(Image credit: PlayStation Publishing LLC)
It’s still a treat to drop an airstrike on just about anything, but there’s a special kind of magic when it accidentally lands on your teammates' heads and your entire party groans in voice chat.
Weapons are fun to use but have heft, and walking while shooting, or letting off lengthy bursts, can cause a huge penalty to accuracy. With some weapons requiring two players to load, or you to be totally stationary to change mags, there’s a ton of subtle intricacies to learn while you do your best to defend Super Earth.
Then there are the stratagems, which still produce screen-filling explosions and are an absolute rush to drop on a whole fleet of enemies (or, as is often the case, your own comrades through fluke or foolishness).
Outrunning a bunch of bugs or an Illuminate bombing run, triggering a cinematic artillery drop behind you, and just making it to the dropship on time for departure remains an experience unmatched in co-op gaming, and it’s somehow even funnier when you realize one buddy didn’t make it after all.
Should I play Helldivers 2 on Xbox?
Play it if…
You missed out thus far Helldivers 2 was a cultural phenomenon last year for a reason, and the Xbox version has lost none of its magic in the jump between platforms.
You’ve got a group of friends to play with It’s not a prerequisite, but having friends to play Helldivers 2 with makes the entire experience more rewarding. It’s the perfect game for regaling friends with war stories of heroism and stupidity, and it’s hard not to play with a smile plastered on your face.
You’re a fan of Halo ODST Helldivers 2 has a neat Warbond for Halo’s ODST, and it pays reverence to an underrated entry in a franchise that’s sadly lost its way in recent years. The big draws are the weapons, like the firecracker-like SMG and the classic Halo assault rifle, both of which feel great to use.
Don’t play it if…
You’re already playing on another platform If you wanted to pick up Helldivers 2 on a second platform because you want to play away from the PC and don’t have a PS5, it’s worth remembering there’s no cross-progression. That’s a real shame, but levelling up to earn weapons (and purchasing warbonds) is a fly in the ointment.
Accessibility features
As with the PS5 version, there are a few accessibility features on offer in Helldivers 2 on Xbox.
Reticules can be changed in shape and color, while subtitles are available and in multiple sizes. There’s also text-to-speech and speech-to-text functionality.
How I reviewed Helldivers 2 on Xbox
Having spent countless hours spreading Managed Democracy on PS5 (and a chunk on PC, too), I jumped into the Xbox Series X version of the game and played for a few days across conflicts with all three enemy factions and playing with friends and strangers alike.
Whether it was the sound of airstrikes in my Logitech Astro A50X headset or making use of the adjustable triggers in my Xbox Elite Controller Series 2, I had a blast but also tried to come at the game from the perspective of someone that’s new to the series.
Another month, another attempt to capture the magic of FromSoft’s genre-defining epic (even if French-Canadian developer Rogue Factor claims it isn’t). Yes, action-adventure game Hell Is Us sits with one foot in the soulslike category, but that's not a criticism; it takes what it needs from Dark Souls and its ilk, discards what it doesn't, then absconds in the night with a suitcase full of dodge-rolls and ominous-sounding characters.
Review info
Platform reviewed: PC Available on: PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC Release date: August 12, 2025
See, as a big fan of FromSoft’s games, I've come to the conclusion that it's almost impossible to properly capture the magic of a game like Bloodborne or Elden Ring. Many have tried, and there have been some successes; Lies of P and Remnant II were two recent standout examples for me. I think the trick is not trying to mirror exactly what FromSoft does; it's taking the formula and doing your own thing with it.
Does Hell Is Us succeed in this regard? For the most part, yes. If you're a fan of either action-adventure or the best soulslike games - or are curious about getting into the oft-impenetrable latter genre - it's worth a look. The setting is unique and interesting, the gameplay is enjoyable, and it's more forgiving overall than most games within the soulslike genre, even if the underlying DNA is impossible not to notice.
Needless to say, the 'Week of Peace' did not go so well. (Image credit: Rogue Factor / Nacon)
Hard times
Straight off the bat, this game is bleak - the world you inhabit feels dark and dangerous, poised to collapse into unmitigated chaos at any moment, with only small glimmers of hope left. Wracked by a long and bloody civil war, the setting of Hadea is an insular, vaguely eastern European nation with a rich history of animosity between two religious factions, the traditionalist Palomists and the more progressive (but still pretty damn zealous) Sabinians.
By 1992, the war has reached a fever point, with brutal pogroms, fighting in the streets, and virtually every crime against humanity you could care to list. Seriously, this game is not for the faint-hearted; you're going to see some pretty visceral evidence of those crimes against humanity.
Yep, that's a mass grave. Don't expect a cheery time in Hadea. (Image credit: Rogue Factor / Nacon)
It's all rather horrible, but it does have a purpose. Although Rogue Factor didn’t seek to evoke any singular real-world conflict, the setting certainly echoes events like the Bosnian War, the Georgian Civil War, and the Croatian War of Independence. There's even a thinly-veiled UN imitator called the Organized Nations, characterised by their blue helmets just like in real life. Considering that Hadea is entirely fictional, there's an unsettling weight of reality to it all that stands as a testament to the quality of the world-building.
Our protagonist, Remi, doesn't really give a shit about any of this, though. He's come back to Hadea to find his parents, from whom he was separated as a young child. Naturally, said parents turn out to be entwined in the core narrative. See, that civil war is merely the backdrop; the real meat of the story here concerns an outbreak of bizarre, violent creatures, an ancient religious order, and a mysterious black-ops group doing nefarious things under the cover of Hadea’s present conflict.
The framing narrative is well-implemented, even if they do use the 'well, that's not how it happened' joke sometimes when you die. (Image credit: Rogue Factor / Nacon)
Uncovering the mystery
The story is told via a framing narrative, which sees Remi - immediately recognisable as Elias Toufexis, best known as the iconic baritone of Adam ‘I Never Asked For This’ Jensen in the newer Deus Ex games - being drugged and interrogated by a deeply unpleasant man with a chainsmoking habit and about sixteen chins. See, Hell Is Us loves its classic environmental storytelling, but it's also not above using actual cutscenes. There are also proper dialogue scenes with some (non-player characters) NPCs, which serve to both progress the story and deliver optional exposition about the world.
For the most part, I found the characters believable and (usually) likable. From sardonic war journalist Tania to the kind-hearted Abbot Jaffer, these NPCs inject the world with humanity and authenticity. Unfortunately, Remi himself doesn't have quite the same screen presence. He's the cold, brooding type, which mercifully does mean that he doesn't chatter to himself constantly while you're exploring or solving puzzles, but also results in him feeling a bit flat. Early in the story, it's revealed that he's a diagnosed sociopath with a military past, but this seems to serve mainly as a convenient reason to make him largely unbothered by the insanity unfolding around him.
Best Bit
(Image credit: Rogue Factor / Nacon)
A handful of sections later in the game pit you against literal hordes of weaker enemies, which are so much fun to carve through with reckless abandon.
Many of the people you encounter while journeying across Hadea have side-quests to offer you, though this is usually done in a roundabout way; in typical soulslike fashion, there's no world map or objective markers. Instead, you might hear a soldier complaining about running low on his medication - and wouldn't you know it, later on, you'll find a bottle of the very pills he needs. Sometimes, the clock is ticking; I found a woman with a starving infant hiding from Sabinian soldiers, and by the time I returned with some bottles of baby formula, I was met with a shoebox with a pacifier on top. That hurt a little, honestly.
You can talk to many characters, but don't expect them all to be friendly or helpful - there's a war on, after all. (Image credit: Rogue Factor / Nacon)
There's little handholding here, which admittedly had me wishing for a wiki on a few occasions while I was reviewing the game, but it's not quite as oblique as the average Souls series entry, instead feeling strangely more like a retro point-and-click adventure game. Remi has a chunky tablet device that doubles as an inventory screen and ‘investigation log’, noting down key information you come across and helpfully sorting the stuff you find into quest-critical items and the many, many lore snippets you can uncover.
Often, the pace is slowed by the inclusion of a puzzle, and these range from laughably easy to moderately head-scratching. Thankfully, these puzzles rarely outstay their welcome; even when you're hunting for the right combination of arcane sigils to unlock a door in some ancient ruin, you can expect to be set upon by ravenous monsters at any given moment.
Remi's stolen APC takes you from A to B across Hadea, and also serves as a sort of mobile base of investigations. (Image credit: Rogue Factor / Nacon)
Fight for your life
Speaking of monsters: let's talk combat. This is where Hell Is Us cribs from FromSoft’s homework the most, with the classic block-dodge-parry mechanics that should feel immediately familiar to any soulslike enjoyer. Of course, virtually every action consumes stamina, which is tied directly to your health bar, meaning that taking even a single hit immediately makes the fight harder.
Simply put, the combat gameplay is solid. Attacks that can be countered are telegraphed by the enemy pulsing red, with a reasonably generous parry window, but Rogue Factor still manages to distinguish itself from the usual business thanks to the ‘healing pulse’ mechanic. There’s no refillable healing flask here, and actual healing items are relatively sparse; instead, dealing damage to enemies releases particles, which periodically coalesce into a ring around you. At this point, you can tap a button to regain a bit of health based on the damage you’ve dealt, but you have to be fast, as the ring dissipates after barely a second.
As is typical of soulslike combat, you can lock onto enemies to more easily dodge and parry their attacks. (Image credit: Rogue Factor / Nacon)
You also get a gradually expanding suite of extra abilities. These take three forms: glyphs that can be slotted into your weapons and consume ‘Lymbic Energy' (read: mana), powerful relics with long cooldown timers, and programs for the owl-like tricopter drone that perches on Remi’s shoulder and doubles as your flashlight in dark areas. You get three glyphs each across two equipped weapons, one relic, and four drone slots, making for a total of eleven abilities equipped at once - meaning there's plenty of build diversity available here, even if Remi doesn't have a traditional stat sheet. Most of these abilities are pretty fun - I was particularly partial to the drone skill that let me grab onto it and zoom forward, dealing heavy damage to anything in my path.
The creatures besieging Hadea are invulnerable to conventional weaponry, with the only way to kill them being ‘Lymbic weapons’. Unfortunately, there's not a huge amount of variety here: you get a regular sword, twin axes, a polearm, and a hulking great sword, filling the usual melee weapon archetypes. These can be upgraded and imbued with elements (Grief, Rage, Terror, and Elation), but all this does is make them hit harder and determine which type of glyphs you can equip on them. I quickly settled into using a Polearm of Terror and Twin Axes of Rage, but if you're the sort of gamer who enjoys experimenting with every new weapon you find, you might be disappointed here.
Some of the boss battle arenas are visually striking. (Image credit: Rogue Factor / Nacon)
There's another issue with the combat that doesn't emerge until later in the game, though: some of those special abilities are pretty dang overtuned. For example, once I got my hands on the max-level Rage Spike glyph (an explosive ranged attack), most fights became comically easy, with Remi repeatedly blasting enemies to smithereens from far outside melee range. It's not a massive issue for me, since you have to conquer a good chunk of the game to become that powerful, but it did trivialize the majority of encounters towards the tail end of the story.
Rise to the challenge - or don't
Speaking of difficulty, Hell Is Us isn't overly punishing. I experimented with all three difficulty levels (described as Lenient, Balanced, and Merciless), which purely affect the combat and can be further fine-tuned in the settings to adjust enemy health, damage, and aggression, and found that the highest difficulty gave the ‘truest’ soulslike experience. Yeah, I know that customizable difficulty options are a personal affront to the most die-hard fans of the genre, but I honestly think it's a good inclusion: on ‘Lenient’ difficulty, even someone who has never played a soulslike before could have a good time here.
There's no shortage of ominous tombs to plunder in Hadea. (Image credit: Rogue Factor / Nacon)
There's also no real penalty for dying; you just respawn at your most recent save point, and the enemies you killed remain dead (although there is an optional setting to make death fully reset any progress from your previous save). Hostiles *do* respawn, however, if you leave one of the game’s many areas by travelling between them in the armored vehicle Remi commandeers in the opening act. You can stop this - and render an area permanently safe - by collapsing Timeloops, which are large ferrofluid-looking orbs that sustain the creatures you face.
To do this, you have to track down specific enemies marked as ‘Timeloop Guardians’, kill them, then take a special item to the Timeloop and chuck it inside. These are mostly optional, but you do get loot for each Timeloop you shut down, and doing so is its own reward anyway; there's a lot of backtracking to be done if you're shooting for 100% completion, so it's nice to return to a region and find it free of enemies.
Then again, the hostiles you face are actually pretty fun to fight. The ‘Hollow Walkers’ are a brilliantly creepy piece of enemy design, feeling like something straight out of the SCP Foundation universe, with unsettling, jerky movements and eerie vocalizations. Some Hollow Walkers are paired with a ‘Haze’, a floating ball of the aforementioned elemental emotions which must be slain before its linked Walker can be harmed - and if you're not quick enough, the Haze will reform and you'll have to kill it again.
These are another good example of strong audiovisual design, with the Rage Haze unleashing a barrage of attacks and screaming with fury, while the Elation Haze cackles maniacally as it zooms around. The creatures were unleashed by the negative human emotions that spiked because of the Hadean civil war, and that plays nicely into their design.
That's a Timeloop: kill the guardians nearby to shut it down and stop them from coming back for good. (Image credit: Rogue Factor / Nacon)
Sadly, a lack of diversity again hampers enjoyment a little here, as you basically fight the same measly selection of enemies over and over throughout the game. There are three tiers of enemy threat levels, but only the Hazes actually change in appearance and moveset from tier to tier; the Hollow Walkers merely get bigger health bars and more damaging attacks, and there are only five types of Walker to encounter. There's also a surprising dearth of boss fights - a common staple of both the action-adventure and soulslike genres - with only four real bosses to be found throughout the entire course of the game. The final boss, disappointingly, is just four much bigger versions of a basic enemy type. Clearly, no lessons were learned here from the final boss of the original Destiny campaign.
Hadean tourism
If I’m being honest, though, my criticisms are small. I really enjoyed my time with Hell Is Us, which clocked in at just shy of 30 hours for my review - and I was doing my best to do and see everything, which is possibly why I ended up being so overpowered. I played with both a gamepad and my usual mouse and keyboard, and although the game advises using a controller, I didn’t have any problems playing with the latter.
The biggest issue I have with the game is that I want more, which is quite the double-edged sword. The game is divided into three acts, but the third act is essentially just the underwhelming final battle, followed by a ten-minute cutscene that didn’t quite wrap things up to my satisfaction. Sure, it leaves things open for downloadable content (DLC) or an expansion and perhaps even a sequel (which I genuinely hope we get), but the finale feels a bit rushed, and it’s a shame not to end on a high note.
Arriving on the shores of the peaceful Lake Cynon reminds the player that underneath the violence of the civil war, this world can be quite beautiful. (Image credit: Rogue Factor / Nacon)
Still, it’s a super experience overall that I’d recommend to anyone who enjoys either soulslikes specifically or just dark action-adventure games in general. It runs on Unreal Engine 5 (which may set off alarm bells for some gamers), but I found it to be reasonably well-optimized, with no noticeable performance issues at 1440p on my RTX 5060 desktop or at 1080p on the RTX 4060 gaming laptop I also used for testing. Hadea is genuinely beautiful at times, too. For every dank cave and bombed-out village, there’s a vibrant field of flowers or the crumbling majesty of an antediluvian ruin.
If you like good melee combat and won’t be turned off by graphic depictions of war crimes, Hell Is Us is definitely worth a shot. Just be prepared to consult Google from time to time - or, like I did, keep a pen and notepad handy, so you don’t forget exactly where you were supposed to take those baby formula bottles.
Should you play Hell Is Us?
Play it if...
You love brutal melee combat The combat in Hell Is Us is a definite strength of the game, with a satisfying weight to your strikes and (on higher difficulties) a constant feeling of peril, meaning every enemy needs to be taken seriously.
You’re keen to get into soulslikes As a sort of almost-soulslike action-adventure with fully customizable difficulty, Hell Is Us could provide a more accessible avenue into the frequently gatekept genre spawned by FromSoft's legendary series.
You want to get lost in a dark world The setting of Hadea is grim and unsettling in the best of ways, making for a seriously engrossing gameworld - provided you can stomach some of the bleaker stuff on show here.
Don't play it if...
You want in-depth RPG mechanics One of my main criticisms of Hell Is Us is the lack of diversity in its weapon selection, and with no customizable stats for Remi himself, this isn't a game that encourages deep buildcrafting - though there is a decent range of equippable special abilities.
You’re looking for a chill game This game is anything but relaxing. The combat is challenging, and the gameworld is bleak and filled with horrors both man-made and beyond human comprehension.
Accessibility
We've got the usual selection of accessibility options here, with three color blind modes - Deuteranope, Protanope, and Tritanope - which can be adjusted to varying degrees of color correction, as well as being able to reduce or disable motion blur and camera shake.
There are also gameplay accessibility options, which let you independently adjust the health, damage, and aggression of enemies, plus some customization options for the HUD and the ability to automate enemy lock-ons.
Of note is a directional audio indicator: this displays an on-screen marker denoting the direction and distance of gameplay-related sounds, including enemy attack sounds in combat and the identifying noise emitted by Timeloop Guardians. Considering how important directional sound can be in Hell Is Us, this is a good inclusion for hearing-impaired players.
How I reviewed Hell Is Us
I played Hell Is Us from start to finish, which took me a little under 30 hours - though I was being very thorough in my exploration, and a speedy player less concerned with 100% completion could likely beat the game far quicker.
I used my gaming desktop, which uses an AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D and Nvidia RTX 5060 with 32GB of RAM, as well as an Acer Predator gaming laptop with an Intel Core i7, RTX 4060, and 16GB of RAM. On desktop, I used an Asus ROG keyboard and mouse and a Razer Raptor 27 gaming monitor. With the laptop, I used a Scuf Instinct Pro gamepad.
I frequently took the time to adjust both the difficulty level and graphical settings in several in-game locations to get a good idea of both how much challenge the game presents and how well it runs. I naturally also tested out each new weapon and ability the game gave me - though I quickly found my favorites and stuck with those for the majority of the game.
It’s fair to say that Nintendo’s slate of Nintendo Switch 2 Editions has been a mixed bag, both in terms of what the company offers in each, how much it’s charging, and how the reception has been.
Review information
Platform reviewed: Nintendo Switch 2 Available on: Nintendo Switch 2 Release date: August 18, 2025
In many ways, that makes the hilariously titled Kirby and the Forgotten Land - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Star-Crossed World an outlier, and not just because it’s got possibly the longest name on the platform.
It meshes a modest visual improvement with additional content that’s easy to recommend, and takes a fantastic platformer to new heights, not unlike its protagonist floating on the breeze. It’s not perfect, but it’s still a great stand-in as the wait for a new open-world Mario game goes on.
Rescue mission
(Image credit: Nintendo)
It sounds odd, but I’ve always likened Kirby and the Forgotten Land to the early Astro Bot games, before Sony’s cute mascot went and became a platforming megastar. Its levels feel diorama-like - they’re 3D, but with minimal camera panning, and you’re tasked with searching in every nook and cranny to find a Waddle Dee.
Best bit
(Image credit: Nintendo)
The best part of Star-Crossed World is how it expands on areas from the base game in surprising new ways, with one highlight being a new ‘train track’ style area that begins at ground level before climbing ever higher, with the original level stretched out below it.
If you’re coming to this new version, wondering if anything has changed in that regard, the answer is yes, but only insofar as you’ll be hunting down Starries this time around. While I must admit I had been expecting a separate menu icon a la Jamboree TV Switch 2 upgrade, or even Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury, I was surprised to jump into my old save and see that everything happens in the same world map.
Star-Crossed World's story is as simple as a mystery meteor landing and turning various older areas into more colorful, crystal-tinted versions, while even giving some of Kirby’s (admittedly adorable) foes a crystalline makeover, too.
Your pink blob’s mission is simple: rescue Starries in each level, while also ticking off some side objectives that might require a little more exploration.
What’s old is new
(Image credit: Nintendo)
While there’s an argument that for around $20 / £16.99, fans should be able to expect wholly new levels, that’s not what’s happened here. In fact, it’s much cleverer than that. Kirby is tasked with reclaiming Starries (not as cute as Waddle Dees, for my money) by finding them in existing levels, but each becomes a much more expansive quest.
As an example, one area sees Kirby travel through an existing level, only to essentially part the sea midway through and explore a whole new region under what would have been the water. In another (and a personal favorite), our puffy pink protagonist hits the gem to open a new path, only for it to begin a railway track or rollercoaster of sorts that they need to fight and platform their way along.
Given a big differentiator of the base game from the rest of Kirby canon was having our hero wander through a sort of post-apocalyptic, recognizable world, some took umbrage with the more restrictive creativity brought upon by a new setting. That’s almost entirely jettisoned here, like Nintendo is letting its hair down somewhat.
In fact, if you’re jumping in for the first time, the meteor hits right after the first set of levels is completed, so you don’t have to reach the end credits to experience everything new.
All you can eat
(Image credit: Nintendo)
The Mouthful mode returns in Star-Crossed World, and the same criticisms from the original TechRadar Gaming review apply - namely that, as funny as it is to see Kirby become a vending machine or a traffic cone, its implementation is all very linear.
This time around, there’s a Spring for jumping high and crashing down on foes, as well as a Sign that turns Kirby into a sort of flat shape for downhill sliding sections. The highlight, however, is the Gear Mouth, which allows Kirby to roll around on floors, walls, and ceilings, adding a literal new dimension to platforming.
That brings us to the platforming, and while it’s mechanically great to play, it’s just lacking the challenge of, say, a Super Mario Odyssey or even some of Donkey Kong Bananza’s trickier sections. I should stress that this doesn’t make all of the game’s imaginative ideas moot, but it does mean it’s easier to blow through in a weekend than some of its genre peers.
Another holdover from the base game is that boss fights are a little formulaic. While I appreciate that there are usually a handful of approaches to take with a few different upgrades available before the start of each skirmish, it does tend to devolve into dodging as much as you can and then spamming whichever attack you have to hand.
There’s a new Ultimate Cup Z EX boss rush that’s been added to the Coliseum for those looking for more of a challenge, though, which is a nice touch and helps scratch that trickier itch similarly to the Forgo areas of the 2022 original.
Not quite 4K(irby)
(Image credit: Nintendo)
Although the original game was hardly a slouch in terms of visuals, the bump in resolution on Nintendo Switch 2 is welcome.
Both The Forgotten Land and its Star-Crossed World additions run at what appears to be 1440p while docked, meaning it’s not quite as sharp as the Switch 2 upgrades of Tears of the Kingdom or Breath of the Wild, but it does run at a crisp 1080p in handheld.
The real relief is that it’s now running at 60fps across the board, which makes replaying even old levels feel just a little fresher thanks to the smoothness on offer. Load times have been improved, too.
Still, I do feel like Nintendo could have divorced the new content and the visual upgrade when it comes to what’s on offer.
(Image credit: Nintendo)
Is the company really going to be any worse off for giving away the visual upgrade for free and charging just for the extra content? It’s hard to say, but if you’ve been waiting to play Kirby and the Forgotten Land on Switch 2, you won’t get any visual improvements without paying.
All in all, then, Kirby and the Forgotten Land - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Star-Crossed World is one of the easiest ‘upgrade packs’ to recommend at the time of writing for Nintendo’s nascent console.
While I wish the visual upgrade had been free to anyone with a Switch 2 and a copy of the base game, the added areas in Star Crossed World are some of the best yet, and I’d wager playing the game without them would now make the game feel incomplete in some ways.
Should you play Kirby and the Forgotten Land Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Star-Crossed World
Play it if...
You want a meaty adventure There’s so much here to keep you busy, from finding Waddle-Dees and Starries to completing additional objectives across new and older areas alike, that you could be playing for a while to earn 100%.
You’re looking for a platformer post-Donkey Kong Bananza’s destruction-based platforming wasn’t for everyone, and if you’re looking for something more traditional, Kirby and the Forgotten Land + Star Crossed World will fill that gap.
You want a Switch 2 upgrade that’s actually worth the money While Super Mario Party Jamboree’s Switch 2 upgrade pack was less comprehensive, it’s hard to argue that what’s on offer in this Switch 2 upgrade is worth the money, between the visual improvements and additional content.View Deal
Don't play it if...
You’re looking for a challenge While the new content is a tad more challenging than the base game, it’s a low bar to clear. It’s simply not the game for anyone looking for a real challenge, but that does make it pretty approachable for almost everyone.
Accessibility
Sadly, there aren’t a huge number of accessibility features here. There are two difficulty modes, Wild Mode and Spring-Breeze Mode, which offer additional difficulty for more coins, or additional health, respectively.
There’s no button remapping outside of swapping between a pair of preset options, either.
How I reviewed Kirby and the Forgotten Land Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Star-Crossed World
I spent the last couple of weeks playing the new content, immediately after replaying the entirety of the base game to give me a better perspective on how things differ and what’s new.
I played both in docked and handheld, with the former being on a Sky Glass TV while the latter made use of AirPods Max for listening to those oh-so-satisfying sound effects that had me itching to play Super Smash Bros. Ultimate again.
Nearly two decades after Gears of War helped popularize cover-based shooting on the Xbox 360, the game is now on its second remaster, this time developed by The Coalition and sporting the fancy new title: Gears of War: Reloaded.
This outing's many improvements retroactively make the previous remaster, Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, seem like anything but an ultimate version of the first chapter in this decades-spanning series.
Review info
Platform reviewed: PS5 Available on: PS5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, PC Release date: August 26, 2025
Gears of War: Reloaded dramatically upgrades the beloved shooter's visuals and performance for a present-day audience. It comes packing 4K assets and remastered textures, HDR support, new lighting and shadows, 60 fps in campaign and up to 120 fps in multiplayer, and more. While it's impossible to fully obscure the game's age, these improvements do a great job at bringing it reasonably close to current-gen expectations.
Additionally, for the very first time, PlayStation fans can download and play a Gears of War game on PS5. We live in wild times, and I'm happy to be along for the ride.
But underneath the fresh coat of paint and the hype of the series joining a new ecosystem, this is still the Gears of War that players fell in love with years ago and whether that makes it worth your time and money is likely to depend entirely on your previous experiences (or lack thereof) with the game.
Gorgeous familiarity
(Image credit: Xbox Game Studios)
The original Gears of War landed before I was even old enough to drink or rent a car, and I've beaten its campaign at least five times between getting married, buying a house, raising a kid, and becoming old enough to grunt when I get off the couch. It should be old news to me by now, but there's a timelessness to its campaign that made it easy for me to dive back in with Gears of War: Reloaded without feeling like it’s a chore.
It's exactly the same game as it's always been, too. As a grizzled COG soldier named Marcus Fenix, you spend six to eight hours shooting and chainsawing through mutated humanoids called Locusts as you work to find and plant a bomb capable of destroying their subterranean lair. It's loud, gory, and incredibly satisfying third-person chaos that has aged shockingly well.
It may look and sound like little more than a hyper-violent ‘bro’ game at a glance, but the series as a whole is known for its surprising character work, exploring Marcus and his team's struggles with family, sacrifice, and the never-ending toll of war. And while subsequent games admittedly capitalized a bit more on the overarching lore and individual characters' backstories, this introductory entry remains a meaningful foundation for them to build upon.
Best bit
(Image credit: Xbox Game Studios)
An early showdown against a nearly invulnerable enemy forces you to carefully bait its charging attack to break doors down as you lure it through a building. Once you get it outside, you can finally blast it with an all-powerful laser from the sky. It's a tense game of cat and mouse that switches things up to great effect.
Despite being the same old Gears of War, though, one particularly noticeable update is the all-new lack of loading screens. Sure, it's not exactly surprising that a nearly 20-year-old game can pull that off in the same era as God of War Ragnarok's seamless no-cut camera work, but it's a quality-of-life feature that makes the campaign all the more efficient and enjoyable for both newcomers and veterans alike.
But speaking of the game being almost two decades old, it's important to remember that even with significant visual and performance updates, there's no hiding the Xbox 360's footprint in Gears of War: Reloaded.
The gray and brown aesthetic that defined many seventh-generation action titles can't be erased with snazzy 4K assets and lighting improvements, and some stiff animations give away the game's age pretty clearly.
There's only so much that can be done without completely remaking a game from the ground up, so I'd argue The Coalition has done a commendable job of getting things close to modern standards while maintaining the integrity of the original experience.
Here come the shotguns
(Image credit: Xbox Game Studios)
While the servers weren't turned on during the review period, I spent enough time with the beta back in June to know that Gears of War: Reloaded's multiplayer, though much prettier and smoother, largely plays the same as it did in 2006. As always, it's a polarizing mode best summed up with the question, "Do you like shotguns?"
Most matches in any Gears of War game, including this one, come down to players repeatedly cancelling slide-to-cover animations to rapidly bounce from wall to wall (which is unsurprisingly called "wall-bouncing") while wielding the Gnasher shotgun. They move in on one another and engage in frenetic hip-fire shootouts to see who explodes into a million pieces first.
While not technically an exploit, wall-bouncing can seem like an abuse of game mechanics to newbies who expect the multiplayer to flow the same way as the campaign. You can find an occasional long-range showdown if you hang back and play defensively, but veteran players who bounce around like the ball in a pinball machine will usually still close the gap and pop you with a single Gnasher shot. This focus on point-blank gunplay isn't inherently bad, of course, but it can make matches feel one-dimensional.
Still, existing Gears of War enthusiasts and new players willing to adapt to the unique playstyle the community espouses will be happy to know that Gears of War: Reloaded is certainly the most complete version of the first game's multiplayer.
It includes all of the post-launch DLC, 60Hz dedicated servers, up to 120 fps (if your TV or monitor supports it), and cross-play support for every platform. And that last point is especially important, as this game reaches an audience it never has before: PlayStation owners.
A new platform for carnage
(Image credit: Xbox Game Studios)
In a way, all of the visual and performance updates Gears of War: Reloaded brings to the table feel second to the real story here, which is that its release marks the first time the franchise has been available on a PlayStation console.
Seeing the title screen of one of Microsoft's biggest exclusive IPs boot up on my PS5 felt bizarre at first, but as with Forza Horizon 5 earlier this year, it didn't take long for the dust to settle.
Before I knew it, all the running, gunning, and sliding into cover with a DualSense controller felt just as natural as it always has with an Xbox controller. It was a great reminder that, while exclusives can be an important part of a console's identity, the most important thing is that a fun game is a fun game anywhere.
(Image credit: Xbox Game Studios)
As you might expect, the DualSense adds some extra flair for those who enjoy its unique features. All of the immersion is in full force here, like how the vibrations differ between firing a weapon or using your chainsaw to grind through a Locust, or the way the adaptive triggers have a specific feel for each gun. Still, if you normally prefer a different platform, I wouldn't consider these DualSense features worth prioritizing the PS5 version.
The important part is that, wherever you decide to play Gears of War: Reloaded, it's the best version of the game available. Whether you're fresh meat or a franchise devotee, this remaster's facelift makes for a great opportunity to join Marcus Fenix and his loyal band of brothers on their first perilous adventure, or see if you've got what it takes to duke it out in some anarchistic multiplayer matches.
Should I play Gears of War: Reloaded?
Play it if…
You're new to the Gears of War franchise Gears of War: Reloaded is the first game in the series and a great place to onboard, especially if you've been in the PlayStation ecosystem for the past few generations. However, there's no confirmation of the sequels making their way over to PlayStation yet, if ever. So, if you want to see the rest of the games through, you'll need to check them out on Xbox.
You value strategy over guns-blazing Gears of War: Reloaded's campaign is about cover as much as it is about shooting. You'll spend a lot of time behind walls waiting for the right time to strike and explode your foes into bloody little bits. Strategic positioning and wielding the right gun at the right time can make all the difference to your chances of survival.
You like chainsaws in your video games Look, chainsaws have shown up as a melee weapon in a lot of video games over the years for a reason — they're cool as hell. And Gears of War: Reloaded's chainsaws are attached to a frickin' assault rifle so you can saw nearby enemies in half and then get back to shooting. It'll never not be awesome. View Deal
Don’t play it if…
You've beaten the campaign recently and aren't into multiplayer Gears of War: Reloaded is the second remaster of the 2006 Xbox 360 title, so if you're a franchise fan, there's a good chance you've played this before — maybe even multiple times by now. The flashier visuals and higher framerates are nice, but if you've already seen the campaign through in the past few years, or don't dig the game's shotgun-focused multiplayer meta, it may not be worth the investment.View Deal
Accessibility features
(Image credit: Xbox Game Studios)
Gears of War: Reloaded won't be winning any awards for its accessibility options, but it has the basic suite of features like subtitles and text-to-speech.
You can make it so that button tap challenges allow you to simply hold down the button rather than rapidly press it, while photosensitive players will appreciate the flash reduction setting that limits sudden brightness changes.
How I reviewed Gears of War: Reloaded
I played Gears of War: Reloaded on a PS5 Pro using a Sony X90K LED TV. I swapped between my Sony Pulse Elite Wireless Headset and Alienware Pro Wireless Headset for audio.
I played Gears of War: Reloaded for around 6 hours, during which time I worked my way through the full campaign on Normal difficulty while finding all 33 of the COG tag collectibles.
I wasn't able to play any multiplayer since the servers weren't on during the review period, but I got a good feel for it when I spent a few afternoons playing online during the beta back in June.
Nearly two decades after Gears of War helped popularize cover-based shooting on the Xbox 360, the game is now on its second remaster, this time developed by The Coalition and sporting the fancy new title: Gears of War: Reloaded.
This outing's many improvements retroactively make the previous remaster, Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, seem like anything but an ultimate version of the first chapter in this decades-spanning series.
Review info
Platform reviewed: PS5 Available on: PS5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, PC Release date: August 26, 2025
Gears of War: Reloaded dramatically upgrades the beloved shooter's visuals and performance for a present-day audience. It comes packing 4K assets and remastered textures, HDR support, new lighting and shadows, 60 fps in campaign and up to 120 fps in multiplayer, and more. While it's impossible to fully obscure the game's age, these improvements do a great job at bringing it reasonably close to current-gen expectations.
Additionally, for the very first time, PlayStation fans can download and play a Gears of War game on PS5. We live in wild times, and I'm happy to be along for the ride.
But underneath the fresh coat of paint and the hype of the series joining a new ecosystem, this is still the Gears of War that players fell in love with years ago and whether that makes it worth your time and money is likely to depend entirely on your previous experiences (or lack thereof) with the game.
Gorgeous familiarity
(Image credit: Xbox Game Studios)
The original Gears of War landed before I was even old enough to drink or rent a car, and I've beaten its campaign at least five times between getting married, buying a house, raising a kid, and becoming old enough to grunt when I get off the couch. It should be old news to me by now, but there's a timelessness to its campaign that made it easy for me to dive back in with Gears of War: Reloaded without feeling like it’s a chore.
It's exactly the same game as it's always been, too. As a grizzled COG soldier named Marcus Fenix, you spend six to eight hours shooting and chainsawing through mutated humanoids called Locusts as you work to find and plant a bomb capable of destroying their subterranean lair. It's loud, gory, and incredibly satisfying third-person chaos that has aged shockingly well.
It may look and sound like little more than a hyper-violent ‘bro’ game at a glance, but the series as a whole is known for its surprising character work, exploring Marcus and his team's struggles with family, sacrifice, and the never-ending toll of war. And while subsequent games admittedly capitalized a bit more on the overarching lore and individual characters' backstories, this introductory entry remains a meaningful foundation for them to build upon.
Best bit
(Image credit: Xbox Game Studios)
An early showdown against a nearly invulnerable enemy forces you to carefully bait its charging attack to break doors down as you lure it through a building. Once you get it outside, you can finally blast it with an all-powerful laser from the sky. It's a tense game of cat and mouse that switches things up to great effect.
Despite being the same old Gears of War, though, one particularly noticeable update is the all-new lack of loading screens. Sure, it's not exactly surprising that a nearly 20-year-old game can pull that off in the same era as God of War Ragnarok's seamless no-cut camera work, but it's a quality-of-life feature that makes the campaign all the more efficient and enjoyable for both newcomers and veterans alike.
But speaking of the game being almost two decades old, it's important to remember that even with significant visual and performance updates, there's no hiding the Xbox 360's footprint in Gears of War: Reloaded.
The gray and brown aesthetic that defined many seventh-generation action titles can't be erased with snazzy 4K assets and lighting improvements, and some stiff animations give away the game's age pretty clearly.
There's only so much that can be done without completely remaking a game from the ground up, so I'd argue The Coalition has done a commendable job of getting things close to modern standards while maintaining the integrity of the original experience.
Here come the shotguns
(Image credit: Xbox Game Studios)
While the servers weren't turned on during the review period, I spent enough time with the beta back in June to know that Gears of War: Reloaded's multiplayer, though much prettier and smoother, largely plays the same as it did in 2006. As always, it's a polarizing mode best summed up with the question, "Do you like shotguns?"
Most matches in any Gears of War game, including this one, come down to players repeatedly cancelling slide-to-cover animations to rapidly bounce from wall to wall (which is unsurprisingly called "wall-bouncing") while wielding the Gnasher shotgun. They move in on one another and engage in frenetic hip-fire shootouts to see who explodes into a million pieces first.
While not technically an exploit, wall-bouncing can seem like an abuse of game mechanics to newbies who expect the multiplayer to flow the same way as the campaign. You can find an occasional long-range showdown if you hang back and play defensively, but veteran players who bounce around like the ball in a pinball machine will usually still close the gap and pop you with a single Gnasher shot. This focus on point-blank gunplay isn't inherently bad, of course, but it can make matches feel one-dimensional.
Still, existing Gears of War enthusiasts and new players willing to adapt to the unique playstyle the community espouses will be happy to know that Gears of War: Reloaded is certainly the most complete version of the first game's multiplayer.
It includes all of the post-launch DLC, 60Hz dedicated servers, up to 120 fps (if your TV or monitor supports it), and cross-play support for every platform. And that last point is especially important, as this game reaches an audience it never has before: PlayStation owners.
A new platform for carnage
(Image credit: Xbox Game Studios)
In a way, all of the visual and performance updates Gears of War: Reloaded brings to the table feel second to the real story here, which is that its release marks the first time the franchise has been available on a PlayStation console.
Seeing the title screen of one of Microsoft's biggest exclusive IPs boot up on my PS5 felt bizarre at first, but as with Forza Horizon 5 earlier this year, it didn't take long for the dust to settle.
Before I knew it, all the running, gunning, and sliding into cover with a DualSense controller felt just as natural as it always has with an Xbox controller. It was a great reminder that, while exclusives can be an important part of a console's identity, the most important thing is that a fun game is a fun game anywhere.
(Image credit: Xbox Game Studios)
As you might expect, the DualSense adds some extra flair for those who enjoy its unique features. All of the immersion is in full force here, like how the vibrations differ between firing a weapon or using your chainsaw to grind through a Locust, or the way the adaptive triggers have a specific feel for each gun. Still, if you normally prefer a different platform, I wouldn't consider these DualSense features worth prioritizing the PS5 version.
The important part is that, wherever you decide to play Gears of War: Reloaded, it's the best version of the game available. Whether you're fresh meat or a franchise devotee, this remaster's facelift makes for a great opportunity to join Marcus Fenix and his loyal band of brothers on their first perilous adventure, or see if you've got what it takes to duke it out in some anarchistic multiplayer matches.
Should I play Gears of War: Reloaded?
Play it if…
You're new to the Gears of War franchise Gears of War: Reloaded is the first game in the series and a great place to onboard, especially if you've been in the PlayStation ecosystem for the past few generations. However, there's no confirmation of the sequels making their way over to PlayStation yet, if ever. So, if you want to see the rest of the games through, you'll need to check them out on Xbox.
You value strategy over guns-blazing Gears of War: Reloaded's campaign is about cover as much as it is about shooting. You'll spend a lot of time behind walls waiting for the right time to strike and explode your foes into bloody little bits. Strategic positioning and wielding the right gun at the right time can make all the difference to your chances of survival.
You like chainsaws in your video games Look, chainsaws have shown up as a melee weapon in a lot of video games over the years for a reason — they're cool as hell. And Gears of War: Reloaded's chainsaws are attached to a frickin' assault rifle so you can saw nearby enemies in half and then get back to shooting. It'll never not be awesome. View Deal
Don’t play it if…
You've beaten the campaign recently and aren't into multiplayer Gears of War: Reloaded is the second remaster of the 2006 Xbox 360 title, so if you're a franchise fan, there's a good chance you've played this before — maybe even multiple times by now. The flashier visuals and higher framerates are nice, but if you've already seen the campaign through in the past few years, or don't dig the game's shotgun-focused multiplayer meta, it may not be worth the investment.View Deal
Accessibility features
(Image credit: Xbox Game Studios)
Gears of War: Reloaded won't be winning any awards for its accessibility options, but it has the basic suite of features like subtitles and text-to-speech.
You can make it so that button tap challenges allow you to simply hold down the button rather than rapidly press it, while photosensitive players will appreciate the flash reduction setting that limits sudden brightness changes.
How I reviewed Gears of War: Reloaded
I played Gears of War: Reloaded on a PS5 Pro using a Sony X90K LED TV. I swapped between my Sony Pulse Elite Wireless Headset and Alienware Pro Wireless Headset for audio.
I played Gears of War: Reloaded for around 6 hours, during which time I worked my way through the full campaign on Normal difficulty while finding all 33 of the COG tag collectibles.
I wasn't able to play any multiplayer since the servers weren't on during the review period, but I got a good feel for it when I spent a few afternoons playing online during the beta back in June.
Alright, I'm going to be totally honest: I wasn't expecting the AutoFull M6 Ultra gaming chair to be very good. I've seen gaming chairs with fancy massage and cooling functions before, and I was never very impressed with them (in fact, I had a good laugh about one of them during Amazon Prime Day 2022).
On paper, it sounds a bit ridiculous: a premium gaming chair absolutely loaded with features, from '6D' armrests to built-in fans and even a heating element that helps keep your posterior the perfect temperature. In practice, though, it delivers on all the advertised promises - almost all of them, anyway.
(Image credit: Future)
For starters, it's genuinely very comfortable and feels like a premium product. The cushioning is nice and plush on the seat, back, and headrest, and the PU leather finish is pleasantly cool to the touch. Both the base of the seat and the lumbar support section are perforated to make them more breathable, too.
I'd potentially go so far as to call this one of the best gaming chairs out there right now - but more due to the overall high quality and comfort, rather than the extra fancy features. That being said, the cooling and heating functions genuinely do work - more on that later in this review.
In fact, I'd have to admit that some of my issues with the AutoFull M6 Ultra are more to do with me than the chair itself. I'm 6'3", and I can't help but feel like this chair simply wasn't designed for someone of my stature. But if you're six feet tall or less, this could be the perfect chair for you - especially if you live somewhere with a warm climate.
AutoFull M6 Ultra: Price and availability
(Image credit: Future)
With a $799.99 / £799.99 (around AU$1,225) price tag, the M6 Ultra is far from affordable. Even relatively premium offerings from respected gaming chair brands like SecretLab and NobleChairs are cheaper.
That being said, it's worth noting that this is the highest-end model sold by AutoFull. If you're willing to sacrifice the massage and cooling/heating functions, there's also the M6 Elite, which retails for $599.99 / £599.99 (around AU$920) and retains the same high build quality without the extra bells and whistles.
Plus, at the time of writing, the M6 Ultra is on sale at AutoFull's website (seemingly in every territory), bringing the price down to a far more reasonable $569.99 / £569.99 (around AU$875). In that range, it's going up against chairs like Razer's Iskur V2 and the SecretLab Titan Evo, and for my money, it performs reasonably well against those rivals.
AutoFull M6 Ultra: Specs
Max weight of user
396lb / 180kg
Max height of user
Not specified
Recline angle
90-160° Backrest recline
Warranty
3-year
Lumbar support?
Yes (Adjustable)
Material
PU leather, fabric headrest
AutoFull M6 Ultra: Design and features
(Image credit: Future)
To describe this gaming chair as feature-rich is almost an understatement; I'm frankly surprised it doesn't also cook my dinner and do my taxes. In terms of its core construction, it's nothing groundbreaking; we've got a five-armed ergonomic base with smooth rolling casters, a fully reclining backrest, and a racing seat design with sturdy but not uncomfortable bolsters on either side.
The armrests feature '6D' movement, which sadly doesn't mean that they're capable of accessing a forbidden sixth dimension of spacetime, but rather that they can move in six specific directions.
This makes the armrest position highly customizable, which is great, though I would've liked to see a little more resistance on the 360-degree rotation; it's a bit too easy to push them out of position when getting up or sitting down, but this is an admittedly very minor quibble on my part.
(Image credit: Future)
The recline function works well, with a sturdy feel to the backrest and the option to go back almost to a fully horizontal position. Combined with the extendable flip-up legrest, it's certainly one of the most comfortable gaming chairs - you could reasonably take a comfortable nap in the M6 Ultra if you were so inclined, or reclined (sorry).
The headrest is very plush, but - somewhat unusually for a premium gaming chair - isn't removable. Instead, it's mounted on an adjustable bracket, and the sides can be 'folded' inwards too for a cradling effect. It's good enough, but I can't help but feel like a magnetic headrest would've been a better choice here. The lumbar support is also fully adjustable (and very comfy), but can't be removed without damaging the chair.
(Image credit: Future)
Now, onto the good stuff: does this chair really keep your bum cool? Surprisingly, yes, it does. Two fans in the breathable seat center can be set to three different power levels, and they definitely do keep the temperature down. I reviewed the M6 Ultra at the peak of a nasty heatwave here in the UK, and while I wasn't exactly blown away (no pun intended) by the cooling, it did make a noticeable difference after an extended period in the chair.
The heating function works quite well, too. Given the current temperatures at the time of writing, I was reluctant to use it for very long, but it certainly does get nice and toasty. It's easy to imagine how pleasant that could be in the middle of winter.
The same can't really be said for the 'massage' functionality, unfortunately. This is basically just a vibration motor concealed in the lumbar cushion, which can be set to pulse at three different speeds. I was hoping for a more active massage experience (like those bulky chairs you see at malls and airports) and ultimately found it more annoying than relaxing.
All of these features are controlled by three buttons on the seat.
AutoFull M6 Ultra: Performance
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(Image credit: Future)
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(Image credit: Future)
So, how does the AutoFull M6 Ultra actually perform in practice? Well, for me, not great. At 6'3", I'm simply a bit too tall for this gaming chair; the headrest was the main offender, as setting it to the maximum height was still a little too low for me to sit comfortably. The NobleChairs Hero TX that I use as my regular desk chair stands about two inches taller by comparison.
Luckily, I have a 5'9" fiancé who I was able to persuade (read: bribe with snacks) into using the chair for a few days, and he reported that it was actually fantastically comfortable if you're not excessively tall. Even after a five-hour Stardew Valley binge, it was comfy and sweat-free thanks to the cooling function. Consider this a warning, then: if you're my height or taller, this might not be the chair for you.
In terms of other body types, the M6 Ultra is wide enough to accommodate most plus-sized users, and it works well for cross-legged sitting as well. The lumbar support is genuinely great (something I'm always on the lookout for in desk chairs), and it's very easy to find a natural elbow position thanks to the multi-directional armrests. It's also Lucy-approved, an extremely important certification for any chair, as you can see in the picture below.
Don't worry, she was perfectly happy to sit in the chair; she just looks perpetually concerned. (Image credit: Future)
When it comes to the question of longevity, it's always difficult to gauge exactly how well a chair will last based on a few weeks reviewing it, but I have to say that I feel confident about the staying power of the M6 Ultra. The stitching looks and feels high-quality, and the chair as a whole is very robust, with mostly metal and leather in its construction; the only plastic I could see here was the external covers for the seat hinges and the lumbar adjustment dial.
One last thing I have to bring up: don't expect to be rolling around in this thing unless you've also got a USB power bank to connect to it. The USB cable that powers the extra features is simply too short to practically connect it to a PC or wall outlet unless you remain perfectly still, so the best solution is to plug it into a portable charger and store that in the handy pocket on the back of the chair.
AutoFull M6 Ultra: Should you buy it?
Buy it if...
You want a feature-rich gaming chair The AutoFull M6 Ultra is positively overloaded with features, from the fully adjustable lumbar support to the cooling fans. If you want a chair that can do it all, this is the one to pick.
You want to be super comfortable With breathable PU leather, plush cushioning, a built-in legrest, and near-horizontal recline, the M6 Ultra might be one of the most comfortable gaming chairs on the market - just so long as you're not too tall for it.
Don't buy it if...
You're taller than six feet If you're on the tall side, this probably won't be the right chair for you - due primarily to the headrest, which can be adjusted up and down but not fully removed (or at least, not without permanently breaking it).
You’re on a budget If you want a new gaming chair but don't want to spend a lot, you'll be better served elsewhere - this is an undeniably pricey throne.
Secretlab Titan Evo 2022 XL The Titan Evo range from Secretlab is one of the best in the business and its 2022 range is excellent. It offers a similar package to the Kaiser 3 XL but will give you a better finish and build quality that many folks value and don't mind paying extra for.
Razer Iskur XL The XL variant of the Razer Iskur will cater for the bigger player just as much as the Kaiser 3 XL but it will offer perhaps a more 'fulsome' lumbar system - an entire panel of the chair's back can be moved into the perfect position.
I spent more than a week testing out the AutoFull M6 Ultra gaming chair, swapping out my usual desk chair, the NobleChairs Hero TX, to use it daily at home, both for work (since I work from home) and a fair bit of gaming.
I'm 6'3" and weigh about 95kg (209lbs), so I'm on the large side - which is why I had both my 5'9" partner and 5'11" friend spend some time in the chair too, to get a properly rounded idea of how comfortable it is for different people.
We all tested out various positions for the headrest, armrests, and lumbar cushion, as well as seeing how comfortable the footrest and additional features were. I carefully documented their feedback and also took the time to read some product reviews on AutoFull's own website, to make sure there were no glaring issues with the M6 Ultra that I'd somehow missed in my own testing (and there weren't, so my pride remains intact).
