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In most games, you’d probably want to sell any rubies, emeralds, or other precious gems you find lying around. In Diablo IV, however, currency is easy to come by and Gems serve a great purpose: making your character even stronger. If you thought that all you would need to kick demon butt was some high level gear, you would be half right. To really maximize your survivability and damage output, you’ll want to find, craft, and upgrade Gems that work with your character build. Finding Gems is the easy part, luckily. As you go about your adventure through Sanctuary, Gems will fall at random from defeated enemies and interactable chunks of ore found throughout the world. The Gems you can find are Amethysts, Diamonds, Emeralds, Rubies, Sapphires, Topazes, and Skulls. No, a Skull isn’t a Gem, but they work the exact same way. Using a Gem is simple. If you have a weapon or piece of armor with a socket on it, indicated by a large, empty circle in the center of the image representing your gear, you can pop any Gem you’ve found into that socket. All you do is select the desired Gem in your inventory, and then the desired, empty socket. All done! The effect you’ll receive is dependent on the type of Gem used, and you’ll likely notice that the bonus isn’t too amazing. That’s because until you hit at least level 20, you’ll most likely only have a collection of Crude Gems. When you do hit level 20, you’ll receive a Priority Quest informing you that you now have access to Jewelers that are marked on your map by a large Gem. If you head to a Jeweler with three Crude Gems (or Crude Skulls) of the same type, you’ll be able to exchange them for a more powerful Chipped Gem. Similarly, when you hit level 40 you’ll be able to exchange three Chipped Gems of the same type for an even more powerful completed Gem. Neat! Perhaps you’ve already socketed some Gems into your gear before reading this guide, and perhaps you’ve noticed that you cannot unsocket it. Don’t worry, because a Jeweler has the proper training and can unsocket any Gems from your gear, thankfully. This means that you can throw Gems wherever you want without fear of losing them. Unless, of course, you sell a piece of gear with a Gem filling one of its sockets — that would definitely be a costly mistake. It’s also important to note that Jewelers can do more than help you craft and unsocket Gems. They can also add sockets to your socketless gear and upgrade amulets and rings in exchange for gold and crafting materials. This may prove more useful as you get into the endgame for Diablo IV and find that your gear isn’t changing as quickly as it was during the beginning of the game, but it’s just another way that you can further customize your demon-slaying arsenal.

Shortly after you begin your adventure in Diablo IV, you’ll enter the opening city of Kyovashad with Lothar. The two of you will be chatting near a Stable Master where you can view the horses on offer, but, tragically, you won’t be able to buy one for quite some time. In fact, you won’t be able to acquire a Mount until you’ve completed all of the main quests for the first three acts of the game. That is a long time. So if you really want that horse, you’ll have to burn through those main quests first. Once you have completed Act III, however, you’ll be so close to receiving your trusty steed. There’s just one quest left for you to complete, but don’t worry! It’s super easy. Following Act III’s ending, Lorath will send you back to Kyovashad to find a character that you met during Act II named Donan. Simply fast travel to the city, and head north toward the Cathedral of Light. You really can’t miss good, old Donan, as he’ll be cursing under his breath and standing in the middle of the Cathedral’s main aisle right after you enter. Speak with Donan and he’ll not only advance your next main quest, but he’ll give you a new priority quest that will get you a horse. This quest involves nothing more than talking to the Stable Master of Kyovashad in exchange for a free horse thanks to Donan’s connections. Yes, free! Donan’s a great guy! After talking with the Stable Master, you’ll finally have a horse that you can summon at will with the press of a button, and this will also unlock Mounts for all of your characters. Mounts can be ridden through towns and all over the open world which means you won’t have to do any lengthy trekking on foot anymore! Should you dismount from your steed, there is a ten second cooldown before you can hop back on, so keep that in mind in case you need to make a hasty escape from some powerful enemies. If you’re wondering what options there are for customizing your new Mount, they’re hard to come by, unfortunately. The horse you receive for free is the pleasant Old Nell Steed, and you can purchase two different breeds from the Stable Master, but even further horse breeds are found as random item drops throughout the world. Confusingly, these cosmetic drops for your Mount aren’t colored as eye-catchingly as legendary loot so you’ll want to keep an eye out for any items that drop from chests or enemies that have the word “Mount” in them. Armor and trophy cosmetics for your Mount are dropped within the world in a similar way, but if all of that is taking too long for you there is, of course, the option to spend real money in the game’s shop for a Mount and cosmetics of your liking. It’s important to note that no Mount, Mount Armor, or Mount Trophy serves any purpose beyond cosmetics.

There are five different character classes to choose from in Diablo IV. Obviously, the best of the bunch is the Druid because it allows you to turn into a bear, but the Necromancer, Sorcerer, Rogue, and Barbarian are pretty great too. Each one of these classes comes with their own magical and brutal abilities, but what if you unlock one that you just don’t like using? Thankfully, you don’t need to create an all-new character to undo any choice you make when unlocking abilities. Instead, you can respec your character at any time you like. Like many RPGs, Diablo IV will give you Skill Points each time your character levels up. With these Skill Points, you can open your Skill Tree and select the ability or passive that you desire. When you open your Skill Tree, you might already notice the prompt near the bottom that says, “Refund All.” Choosing to do this is how you would, as it says, refund each and every Skill Point you’ve ever spent. Then, you can reallocate those points however you see fit. If you’d rather refund just a single Skill Point, that can be done too. Simply hover over the ability you want to retrieve a Skill Point from, and hold the indicated button next to “Refund Rank.” You might notice here that a “Cost” will appear alongside this prompt. The best things in life aren’t free, of course. Unless you’re level eight or lower. If that’s the case, respecing your character is entirely free. However, you won’t be level eight for long, and you won’t have many Skill Points to refund at that point either. As your level increases throughout the game, the price of respecing a single Skill Point and the price of refunding them all will steadily increase. That sounds intimidating, but it’s dirt cheap compared to how much gold you’ll find by simply exploring and completing quests. Really, the world of Sanctuary is simply lousy with spare change. At level 21, for example, refunding all 21 of my Skill Points would cost me 1,155 pieces of gold. At this point, I already had 99,795 in gold from simply playing the game’s main quests and selling a few items here and there.

While most players' time in Diablo IV will probably be spent slaying demons and taking on dungeon bosses in PvE, there is a fun PvP element once you get to around level 50. However, player-versus-player combat in Diablo IV isn't the same as it's been in previous titles, so it's understandable if it's a bit confusing. Luckily, I've spent the last few days getting stomped by high-tier players to explain the ins and outs of the PvP system in Diablo IV. To access Diablo IV PvP, players must complete the story campaign and unlock the Tree of Whispers. From here, they can enter one of two designated PvP zones called the Fields of Hatred, located in southern Kehjistan and the Dry Steppes. Both these zones will be highlighted in pink on the map and have Waypoints. To engage in Diablo IV PvP, select the Mark for Blood emote to "flag" your character with the Bloodmark while in the Fields of Hatred. Once flagged, a red aura will surround you, and you can attack and take damage from other player-controlled characters within the Fields of Hatred. If the emote is not on the wheel, select the Customize option to add it. Players that use the emote Mark for Blood can attack both unmarked and marked players while in the Fields of Hatred zone. Unmarked players can't attack other unmarked characters but can attack marked players. To remove the Mark for Blood, travel back to town and interact with the Altar of Cleansing. If you kill other players, the Hatred's Chosen PvP Event will be initiated. Continue killing other player-controlled characters to fill the gauge to 100/100, and you will earn the Hatred's Chosen buff for five minutes, which will give you a chance to earn Seeds of Hatred for every hit you land. Once the event is over, all your Seeds of Hatred will automatically be cleansed. How Seeds of Hatred Work in Diablo IV Seeds of Hatred are the PvP currency that drops from mobs and players in the Fields of Hatred. Players can transform Seeds of Hatred into Red Dust, which can be used to buy items in the towns of Denshar and Alzuuda. When players die, they drop their Seeds of Hatred which other players can pick up. Boss mobs will also drop additional Seeds of Hatred. To turn Seeds of Hatred to Red Dust, interact with an Altar of Extraction, which will be designated with an icon on your map. Once you start the cleansing ritual, an orange bar will start to fill up, and everyone in the zone will be notified, increasing the chances of getting into an engagement with another marked player. The cleansing ritual will transform all the Seeds of Hatred in your inventory into Red Dust, which you can spend at special vendors in town. To figure out which vendors take Red Dust, look for the Red Dust icon next to the vendor icon on the map. To be successful in Diablo IV PvP, you'll want to balance risk vs reward. Gaining as many Seeds of Hatred as you can before cleansing them at an altar is the most efficient but also the riskiest, as players are waiting for people to start the ritual in hopes of a huge Seeds of Hatred payday. Remain alert when cleansing the seeds, as you’re more likely to get attacked. As the zone has a high mob density, plenty of events, and Whisper quests, it can also be a popular farming area for unmarked players. There are occurrences where there aren't many players Marked for Blood, in which case you can work with other people on your server to complete quests, gain XP, and earn Grim Favors.

Fire up any Diablo game, and it won’t be long before you’re drowning in loot. Weapons, rings, pieces of armor, amulets, and so much more can be found all over the place. Inside chests, under rocks, as a reward for completing quests, or inside the guts of demonic foes. Blizzard’s latest hell-fueled adventure is no different as Diablo IV will have you swimming in gear almost immediately. Obviously, you won’t need all of the equipment you come across, but you should think twice before hawking it at your nearest vendor. One of the best things you can do with unwanted loot is salvage it. To do this you’ll need to find a blacksmith. Marked on your map as a small hammer and anvil, they can be found in towns and there’s one you access early on in Kyovashad. In fact, the second you enter the city of Kyovashad you can run straight to the blacksmith. Lorath and the main questline can wait just a little bit longer. Interact with a blacksmith, and you’ll be taken to a screen where you have multiple options for going about your salvage work. You can salvage everything in your inventory based on item rarity, salvage everything you’ve labeled as junk, or simply salvage everything you’ve got. Caution! Anything you salvage is irreversibly destroyed, so double check your selection. So why are we salvaging things instead of selling them? For a few reasons. First, salvaging gear is how you unlock different looks for customizing your character. You might get a powerful helmet later on and decide that it’s much uglier than the weaker helmet you used to have. If that weaker helmet happened to be one that unlocked a new look when salvaged then voila! Your stronger helmet could be transmogrified to look like the old one while retaining its power. Thankfully, equipment descriptions will say whether or not the item in question unlocks a new look, and when salvaging at a blacksmith these items are even easier to spot thanks to a hammer symbol that appears above them. Even if you aren’t worried about making a bold, Diablo fashion statement, salvaging is still a good idea because it’s a great way to acquire crafting materials. Breaking down equipment can give you things like Iron Chunks and Silver Ore that can then be used at the blacksmith to upgrade your gear. While these materials can be found when you’re cutting down demonic hordes and exploring, you’ll get a lot more of them by recycling your unwanted loot. You can’t actually begin using the blacksmith for upgrades until your character hits level ten, but you can begin to salvage things the second you meet your first blacksmith. Additionally, none of the crafting materials you gather from salvaging will take up any of your precious inventory space and you can hold onto a lot of it so salvage, salvage, salvage!

There’s a whole lot of stuff to wrap your head around as you begin your hellraising journey in Diablo IV. Thankfully, the game is very good about introducing new mechanics to you over time. One that you won’t start using right away are collectibles known as Aspects. Once you do have access to them, however, you’re going to want more and more because Aspects are a powerful way to boost your character. Before you go collecting them, it’s important to know what Aspects are. Essentially, they function as Legendary passives for your character’s abilities that are slotted into your weapons, armor, rings, or amulets. To equip or “Imprint” these Aspects, you’ll need to visit an Occultist. These folks are easy to locate thanks to the three-pointed fidget-spinner-looking rune that marks them on your map, and there’s one located in the beginning city of Kyovoshad as well. To view your personal collection of Aspects, you need only open your map and tabbing over to your “Collections.” Here you can view every possible Aspect in the game, what character class it’s meant for (some can be used by all classes), and even the conditions for unlocking said Aspect. How do you start adding to this collection? The vast majority of Aspects are unlocked by completing dungeons, and from your collections menu you can even pin the location of the dungeon you need to clear for a specific Aspect. Of course, it may not be wise to beeline toward far-off dungeons as those ones will likely be a higher level than your beginning character. If you complete a dungeon and find that the Aspect at its end is for a class you’re not playing as, don’t worry. Once an Aspect is unlocked, you can use that Aspect with any of your other characters. Starting a new game as a different class sounds even more enticing if you can begin with a bunch of class aspects already unlocked! All of that is what Aspects are and where they’re found, but to actually use them you’ve got to visit that aforementioned Occultist. It’s here that you can choose any compatible item and combine it with your preferred Aspect. Some Aspects can only attach to certain types of equipment, but you can have more than one piece of Aspect-imbued equipment on your character. You’ll be able to preview your upgraded gear before finalizing your decision, but after you’ve paid the required amount of gold and handed over the necessary materials, your Aspect gear is locked in. Aspects are entirely reusable, but your equipment is not. If you imprint an Aspect onto the wrong thing, there’s unfortunately nothing you can do to fix it. The option to “Extract Aspect” at an Occultist will remove an Aspect from a piece of loot, but that loot will be destroyed in the process. However! If that Aspect you extract is one that you hadn’t previously unlocked, it will be added to your character’s inventory for a one-time use in boosting a different piece of equipment. Nifty!

Whether you’re playing through Diablo IV on the Adventurer or Veteran difficulty, at some point you’re going to need to heal yourself. You begin the game with the capacity to carry four potions, and these potent potables act as your primary source of healing. When you’re starting out, you’ll likely notice that using a potion will actually heal a large chunk of your health. However, as your character continues to level up those potions won’t be as effective for long. Thankfully, there’s a way to make your potions even more effective. It’ll be a short while before you can upgrade your potions, but once your character hits level ten you’ll be able to upgrade by visiting an alchemist. They’re found within towns, and are marked on your map by a mortar and pestle symbol. When you get to level ten, the game will actually give you a priority quest to visit the alchemist in Kyovashad where you get your first potion upgrade for free! Woohoo! This freebie upgrade will transform your Weak Healing Potion into a Tiny Healing Potion. The name doesn’t sound like much of an improvement, but it’ll definitely help! Upgrading your potion’s potency even further will require you to hit new level requirements and bring certain materials to an alchemist. The next level up, for example, will allow you to upgrade to a Minor Healing Potion when you’ve hit level 20 and presented an alchemist with 15 Gallowvines and 5 Biteberries. Having to wait until you’ve leveled up even more may sound like a pain, but that time you spend exploring will improve your odds of finding the stuff you need for that next upgrade. You can also see the material requirements for each level in advance which should help in creating exploration shopping lists. Of course, this is everything you have to do if you’re solely focused on upgrading the efficiency of your potions. There is a way to increase the number of potions you can carry, but it’s not related to your character level or any gatherable items. Instead, you’ll have to earn what’s known as Renown. Renown is earned by finding Alters of Lilith, completing both main and side quests, clearing out dungeons, and basically playing Diablo IV. You can view your Renown progress by opening and looking at the top of your map, but a more detailed rundown of your Renown and the rewards it will nab you can be seen when clicking the “View Rewards” button at the top of your map. In this “Region Progress” window, you’ll be able to see everything for the game’s five regions and what you’ve done within them. You’ll also be able to see how close you are to increasing your potion capacity. Each of the aforementioned five regions will give you a single increase to your potion usage meaning you can have a grand total of nine. Successfully acquire all of those additional potions and upgrade them to be Superior Healing Potions, and I’d say you’re ready to take on some of the biggest challenges Diablo IV has to offer!

Any ARPG player will tell you having a proper build is the only way you'll be able to take out stronger enemies and bosses in the game. Diablo IV is no different, with theory crafters and Diablo veterans tinkering and tweaking different skills and Aspects to create the strongest character. Druids are one of the most powerful classes in Diablo IV, mixing high defense with reliable damage via elemental spells. They are among the most challenging classes to play because of all the different mechanics and spell options. If you've been struggling to get past World Tier 3 or complete your Capstone Dungeon, these endgame Druid builds will give you the power boost you need to make it through the more challenging portions of the game. These builds assume that your character is at least level 50 and you've reached the Paragon board; however -- you can also use them to level if you still need to make it there. Diablo IV Werebear Pulverize Build Perhaps the most well-known endgame build in the beta, the Werebear Pulverize build utilizes Earth Spike to build up Spirit and Pulverize as the main damage-dealing attack. The basic skill setup that you can use includes the following: Skills Earth Spike Pulverize Earthen Bulwark Debilitating Roar Trample Grizzly Rage See the full Skill Tree breakdown. The core of this build is to get your Skills and gear to the point where you can spam Pulverize, then obtain gear and Aspects that enhance your Pulverize damage. To recoup and regenerate Spirit faster so that you can spam, players should invest in Core skills like Heart of the Wild and Abundance and the Earthen Might ult, which provides a 5% chance to recoup 100% of your Spirit. Players can also use the unique Mother's Embrace ring that drops from defeating Lilith to refund 20-40% of the resource cost when simultaneously hitting five or more enemies. Key Aspects The two most important aspects of the Werebear Pulverize Build are the Shockwave Aspect and the Aspect of Ursine Horror. The Shockwave Aspect creates a shockwave that blasts in front of your Druid and transforms it into a ranged move. Unfortunately, this is also one of the most challenging Aspects to obtain and can only be found on Legendary 1H weapons, 2H weapons, and gloves. Players may get The Shockwave Aspect by gambling obols at the Curiosity Vendor in town. Luckily, the second critical aspect, The Aspect of Ursine Horror, is much easier and can be obtained by defeating the Belfry Zakara dungeon in Hawezar. This will create tectonic spikes that deal a certain amount of damage after casting Pulverize, transforming it into an AOE attack. It also makes Pulverize an Earth Skill, meaning buffs for Earth Skills also apply to Pulverize. Other aspects you can get, most of which can be obtained by completing dungeons, include: Ballistic: When you have Fortify, your Earth Skills gain +2 ranks. Disobedience: You gain increased armor for four seconds after you deal damage. Retaliation: Your core skills deal increased damage based on your amount of Fortify. Spirit Boons Spirit Boons are a unique mechanic to the Druid and go a long way in enhancing your character's power. The Boons you should activate for this build include the following: Deer: Wariness Eagle: Avian Wrath Wolf: Calamity Snake: Masochistic, Calm Before the Storm Related: https://www.gamecrate.com/guides/diablo-iv-unlock-druid-spirit-boons Key Items Certain Unique items will also synergize with this build and enhance its power significantly. They include: Vasily's Prayer (helm): Earth skills are now Werebear skills and Fortify you. Insatiable Fury (chest): Werebear is now your true form, and you gain +2 ranks on all Werebear skills. Temerity (legs): Effects that Heal you beyond 100% Life grant you a Barrier up to 80% of your Maximum Life that lasts 8 seconds. Ballistic Necklace (amulet): When you have Fortify, your Earth Skills gain +3 ranks. Players should concentrate on gear that provides them additional ranks on their Earth Skills and any equipment that provides Willpower, as it increases the damage that your Pulverize does. Vasily's Prayer is critical to round out this build, as it makes all of your main skills, Werebear and Earth skills, meaning you benefit from any buffs for either type of attack. If you follow these steps exactly, then the Druid Pulverize Earth build is one of the most powerful AOE builds in the entire game while still providing your Druid with enough defense via Fortify and armor to tank high-level dungeon bosses and make it out alive. Try to wrangle as many mobs in clusters as possible, as this will reward you with a greater chance to recoup lost Spirit and increase your overall damage. Diablo IV Werewolf Tornado Build The Werewolf Tornado Build uses Storm Strike to build up Spirit, Tornado as your main attack weapon, and the Werewolf form to increase your attack speed. This synergy enables you to spam your Tornado and procure critical hits more frequently. Skills Storm Strike Tornado Blood Howl Cyclone Armor Hurricane Grizzly Rage See the full Skill Tree breakdown. The Werewolf Tornado build relies on recouping lost Spirit quickly via Earthen Might and increasing attack speed as much as possible by spamming Blood Howl and Grizzly Rage, which puts you in an immune state so you don't get stun locked. With the increased attack speed via your Werewolf skills, you should be able to stack multiple tornados, which will all continue to hit enemies in the area for severe damage over time. Key Aspects The two critical aspects of this build include the Mighty Storm's Aspect and the Dire Wolf's Aspect. The Mighty Storm's Aspect makes it so the Earthen Might skill also applies to Storm Skills, providing a 5% chance to recoup all your Spirit while increasing critical strike damage. Unfortunately, this Aspect can only be found on Legendary gear, which you'll have to farm for or trade obols for at the Curiosity Vendor. Roll on 1H weapons, as they only cost 40 obols, and restrict your rolls to Offensive Aspects. The Dire Wolf's Aspect makes Grizzly Rage transform you into a Werewolf instead of a Werebear while also applying damage reduction, a speed boost, and Spirit cost reduction. It will also heal you when killing mobs, which can be helpful because you won't be in Werebear form and may require additional survivability. Other important Aspects include the following: Vigorous Aspect: Damage reduction while in Werewolf form. Stormchaser's Aspect: Tornados will seek up to 1-3 targets. Aspect of the Rampaging Werebeast: The duration of Grizzly Rage is increased by 1-5 seconds and provides increased Critical Strike damage. Spirit Boons The Spirit Boon passives you should get for the Werewolf Tornado build include the following: Deer: Wariness Eagle: Avian Wrath Wolf: Calamity Snake: Masochistic, Calm Before the Storm Key Items Luckily, only a few items are required for the Druid Werewolf Tornado build beside the unique helm, Tempest Roar. Tempest Roar (helm): Storm skills have a chance to grant 4 Spirit. Your base Storm Skills are now also Werewolf Skills. Temerity (legs): Effects that Heal you beyond 100% Life grant you a Barrier up to 80% of your Maximum Life that lasts 8 seconds. Unfortunately, Tempest Roar is required to work at its maximum capacity for this build. It can typically be found in World Tier III and beyond in Helltide Chests, World Bosses, and other random in-game drops. Players can also pick up the unique Temerity (legs), which grants a barrier that lasts up to 8 seconds. If you can obtain Tempest Roar, the Werewolf Tornado build is one of the strongest in the game. Because you're in Werewolf form, you should focus on items to improve your Fortify and survivability since that will be your only weakness. Just as powerful as the Pulverize build but better for single-target bosses, the Werewolf Tornado might be slightly more challenging to use than the Pulverize build, but the DPS payoff is well worth it. Paragon & Gems for Druids in Diablo IV For both builds, initially spec your Paragon points into the Willpower Paragon path – or the right side- as it will increase your character's elemental damage. Branch out and obtain the Tempest Node to boost your Willpower significantly. As you gain more Paragon boards, the path to increase your Willpower and damage output will become more apparent. Paragon is one of the more fun and creative things you can do in the game, so as long as you invest in Willpower and nodes that increase your damage, you’re on the right path. Regarding gems, players should socket Sapphires in armor for damage reduction, Skulls in jewelry for additional armor, and Rubies or Sapphires in weapons for increased Overpower damage or Critical Strike Damage. Whatever build you select for your Druid in Diablo IV all comes down to you. Luckily, there are plenty of options for any playstyle, and this class is one of the most fun and unique in the game. You don’t need to adhere to these rules strictly, but if you do, it should maximize your damage output. If you have difficulty in the game, try reducing your World Tier level or following one of these builds closely to help you through it.

Despite the one letter difference in the titles, the Aliens franchise has always been far more of an 80s-style action series than the more serious horror of the regular Alien franchise. Aliens: Dark Descent leans far more into the action side of the series, offering meathead marines to fight against hordes of Xenomorphs after being stranded on an infested planet. While the tone and story will certainly satisfy fans of the film, anyone looking for a fun squad-based tactics game is going to be disappointed. Aliens: Dark Descent is a real-time strategy game where you control a squad of marines, traversing through different levels where you have to fight off hordes of Xenomorphs, cultists, and any other surprises you might run into. It prides itself on being a hard game, with plenty of warnings at both the title screen and during missions. Unfortunately, this insistence on random difficulty spikes is just one of its many shortcomings. While the tone and story will certainly satisfy fans of the film, anyone looking for a fun squad-based tactics game is going to be disappointed. The real-time strategy aspect is perhaps Aliens: Dark Descents biggest flaw. The top down perspective allows you to issue commands to your marines, who operate as a single unit. All the enemies move in real-time and most of them are fast and not easy to take down. Despite the fact that the enemies move quickly and come from multiple directions at once really shows how clunky the controls are. In combat, you must either let the marines auto attack enemies at random or you can give the order to focus on one specific enemy, making it difficult to deal with them once you get overwhelmed. You have special attacks and opening that menu slows the game down, but navigating between the different options takes long enough that in many cases you will be far too late. There are environmental attacks you can interact with, like shooting explosive barrels, but it takes so long to give the command to shoot the barrel, you almost always miss your window. There will be times when the game warns of an upcoming attack and you can spend time preparing for it, but there is enough random chance when it comes to your marines getting injured, abducted, or flat out killed, that it feels like reloading the checkpoint after dying and trying again isn't about a new strategy, but just getting lucky the next time. I beat one onslaught on the third try with the exact same turret setup and strategy, but a few lucky criticals let me win this time, making the whole experience satisfying. Despite the hard difficulty and the forced reloads after death, you cannot manually save in Aliens: Dark Descent, adding to the frustration. On top of the inability to manually save, Aliens: Dark Descent is a fairly buggy experience. Marines get stuck on geometry occasionally, getting stranded from their teammates. The game also crashed on me about one out of every three times I left a mission, resulting in me having to return to whatever my most recent autosave was, which usually meant replaying a section of the game. A real-time strategy game starring helpless, fragile marines sounds fun, but the slow and clunky controls makes it much harder to engage with the systems present in combat. Visually, Dark Descent feels a bit more inspired by the horror aspect of the franchise. Many of the rooms are dark and dirty, with random blood scattered about. Xenomorphs pop out of vents and random places, but the top down perspective really dulls and scares there might have been. All of the marines are voiced and despite their limited lines, there is enough machismo and dumb one-liners to give you a good chuckle on occasion. During missions you will have a variety of different objectives set around a large level. These objectives can be completed in any order and you can even extract from the mission and come back the next day. Each day that passes the planet infestation increases, but it lets you regroup, get upgrades, and even promote your marines, at least the ones that survive. The objectives vary depending on level and story, but most boil down to going to a specific location and interacting with a computer or a survivor. The survivor objectives feel the most repetitive, especially when you watch multiple different survivors in a single mission have a chestburster kill them, feeling fairly one note. The survivor objectives feel the most repetitive, especially when you watch multiple different survivors in a single mission have a chestburster kill them, feeling fairly one note. The story itself revolves around the marine crew of a ship that was shot down by the defense mechanisms of the Weyland-Yutani Corporation after its space station became infested with Xenomorphs. The Xenomorphs are introduced by a mysterious group of humans and it provides enough of a narrative hook to drive you to figure out what happened. That said, the amount of story provided in each mission can feel pretty light, drip feeding new information. Some of the more interesting game mechanics come in between missions, where you can choose upgrades for your marines, make important decisions in the health bay, and decide what to spend your limited resources on. As each day passes, some random events will occur, where you must choose to sacrifice resources in exchange for something, maybe sacrifice a crew member, or even be forced to roll the dice on a potential resource cache. These decisions feel far more interesting than any of the tactical choices made while out on mission. Aliens: Dark Descent feels a lot like some of the recent Alien films, where there are plenty of good ideas but the execution is lacking. A real-time strategy game starring helpless, fragile marines sounds fun, but the slow and clunky controls makes it much harder to engage with the systems present in combat. The atmosphere and story are strong enough that if the game was even a bit more fun to play, it would be worth checking out for fans of Aliens, but as it stands Aliens: Dark Descent is a frustrating experience. Pros: Solid narrative setup Fun B-Movie dialogue Interesting base and resource management decisions Cons: Clunky controls mixed with fast-paced real-time action Wild difficulty spikes that feel more luck-based than skill based Repetitive objectives and "shock" moments, like Chestbursters. Score: 5/10 Review copy provided by publisher Focus Entertainment. Aliens Dark Decent review is based on playing on PC. Aliens: Dark Descent is available now on Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, PS5, and PC.

In childhood, summer seems to stretch out forever. Whether it’s an idyllic season spent in nature or just a break from the drudgery of school, those brief months of freedom hold endless possibilities. Even if, as in Dordogne, you’re forced to spend them at your grandma’s house, caught in the middle of family drama you can’t understand. Dordogne is the second game from French developer Un Je Ne Sais Quoi, a studio founded by award-winning animator Cedric Babouche. Maybe not surprisingly, then, Dordogne’s animation is immediately jaw-dropping, and its story feels akin to an animated short as much as a video game. It would be hard to overstate how gorgeous Dordogne is. Watercolor paintings inspire many games, but Dordogne genuinely feels like being inside one. Objects stack on each other like layers of canvas overlapping, and vibrant colors make the city of Dordogne feel as magical as any fantasy game setting. Dordogne follows Mimi, a young French woman recently fired from her job as a copywriter. When it rains, it pours, as the saying goes, and soon after, Mimi’s grandma passes away. Dordogne opens with Mimi sleeping in her car in a rainstorm while on the way to visit the city of Dordogne, where her grandmother lived, to clean out her house. Watercolor paintings inspire many games, but Dordogne genuinely feels like being inside one. The first bit of interaction in Dordogne is simple: using an onscreen cursor, you need to grab Mimi’s bag, open it up, and take out her buzzing phone. This mundane action may not leave much of an impression, but small tasks like this will come to define the game. On Mimi’s phone is a message from her father, angrily demanding that she give up on her trip. It’s the first hint of the story about a long-fractured family and Mimi’s quest to figure out where things went wrong so many years ago. Conveniently, she’s lost all memory of her childhood years, including one pivotal summer she spent at grandma’s house. Upon reaching the house in Dordogne, your first challenge is to get inside. Mimi quickly finds a key in the mailbox, and another small interaction unfolds. First, you must take all the mail out of the mailbox. Still unable to reach the key, you shake the box loose, turn it over, undo the screws holding it together, and finally retrieve the key. Each step is done manually — removing letters one by one with your cursor, wagging a thumbstick to pry the box loose, and unscrewing the back plate with a circular motion. It might drag in a game with more going on, but this almost obsessive focus on minutiae makes Dordogne work. Mimi’s hand trembles as she unlocks the front door, the key jittering out of control when you need to guide it into the keyhole. These small, intimate sequences feel something like close-ups in a film. You’re not just close to Mimi; you’re in her head, experiencing the small moments that make up so much of life. Mimi sees the remnants of her grandmother’s life inside the house, and memories of the summer they spent together so long ago come rushing back to her. For the rest of its four-hour runtime, you’ll mostly be playing as a 12-year-old Mimi during that summer. The story is told in a series of vignettes, only occasionally returning to the modern day. You’re not just close to Mimi; you’re in her head, experiencing the small moments that make up so much of life. Mimi starts off petulant, resenting that she’s losing her summer to this long trip to Dordogne. She sulks as she puts her clothes away, and words flash on the screen for you to select (hope, mum, moving away). Do you wallow in self-pity, think about missing your parents, or try to make the best of the situation? This idea repeats throughout the game — whatever word you select will trigger a different bit of dialogue and be filed away for you to work into a poem later on. As the game goes on, you also get access to a camera and audio recorder and find stickers strewn around the landscape. Everything you capture or find can be put into a binder given to Mimi by her grandmother at the end of the day. It’s a bit too limiting, only allowing one photo, recording, sticker, and poem. Still, the daily ritual makes you slow down to remember and appreciate the smallest parts of your stay. The best part of this system is the poetry. While the photos you can take are undoubtedly beautiful, writing your daily poem lets you reframe the day in your mind. You choose three words you collected that day and select one of three lines generated for you using the word. It lets you decide whether Mimi is secretly resenting everything going on around her or starting to enjoy the slow pace of Dordogne. For the first few days, this dynamic works wonderfully. But in its final third or so, Dordogne shifts its focus from an appreciation of small moments to an unraveling mystery. This mystery isn’t the stuff of thrillers; it’s a misunderstanding that shaped your family’s dynamic for years, building on tensions already simmering under the surface. It’s incredibly low stakes for a typical adventure game. Still, it shows how even seemingly inconsequential moments can have long-lasting consequences. While it’s a significant event in the lives of its participants, investigating this crucial memory derails Dordogne. The camera pulls away from Mimi, focusing instead on what is not a particularly compelling narrative for the last hour or so of the game. Despite how much attention Dordogne pays to this singular memory, it doesn’t wrap up in a satisfying way, with characters acting erratically and then simply moving on. For a game about the power of everyday moments, Dordogne doesn’t seem to believe the mundane is compelling enough on its own. Dordogne makes for an engaging trip, but I wish it had the confidence to stay just that. In one of Dordogne’s best scenes, you painstakingly make dinner by chopping potatoes, filling a pan with fat, and shaking it all together until it’s browned. While you’re carrying out this mundane task, your grandma talks in the background, pulling at the threads of the game’s central mystery. This feels like the right way to handle the incident — as an important moment that weaves itself through the seemingly unimportant fabric of everyday chores. Dordogne makes for an engaging trip, but I wish it had the confidence to stay just that. Wrapping its story around one dramatic memory — and not even addressing it in a particularly compelling way — robs Dordogne of the potency of its message to appreciate the simple things in life. Dordogne Review Verdict: Pros: Gorgeous watercolor art Charming story about living in the moment Focus on mundane interactions is satisfyingly simple Cons: Loses focus midway through the story The story's finale is not compelling Score: 7/10 The Dordogne review was written from the perspective of Nintendo Switch. No key was provided by the publisher. The game is also available PC, PS4/5 Xbox One, Xbox X|S.

On paper, Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun sounds like the perfect idea—marry Warhammer 40,000’s grimdark aesthetics with the speed and violence of a boomer shooter. Throw in some awesome 2D-3D Pixel art, over-the-top gore, and call it a day. In practice and execution, these are great things, and Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun has a lot to love about it, but dig a little deeper, and the repetition sets in. Confusing level layouts, repetitive fights, and spongy enemies make this a slog to fight through in anything other than short bursts. Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun nails so much of what makes Warhammer 40,000 great. Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun is a self-proclaimed “boomer shooter,” a genre that has recently exploded in popularity. In 2016 the DOOM reboot seemed to spark a fire for stripped-down, visceral, fast-paced shooters with much less focus on ammo counts, reloading, and realism. Some of my favorites, like Dusk and Amid Evil, show precisely why the genre is so full of potential. Still, those titles play constantly with perspective and level design while having considerable weapon and enemy variety. Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun is a single-player retro shooter that bridges Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine and Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, where you can fight everything from nurglings to Chaos Sorcerers. And yet, throughout its three acts, it always feels like everything stays the same from the first act to the last. The aesthetics of Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun are top-notch, and it nails what makes Warhammer 40,000 such an iconic universe. The environments are huge, with vast caverns, massive ships, and towering gothic spires. The enemy designs and animations are also excellent, with every little sprite having a variety of reactions to damage, and that doesn’t even mention the gore. The violence in Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun is comical. Giblets rain, blood splatters everywhere, and spinal cords and intestines bounce around as little physics objects after you explode the umpteenth cultist with your bolter. The moment-to-moment gameplay in Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun is very satisfying. You can feel the weight of your Space Marine in every movement. Sprinting makes you feel like an 18-wheeler with no brakes, pressing F lets you ram through hordes like a linebacker, and your melee lets you auto-zip to close enemies and chainsword them in the face. It’s cathartic, chaotic, and absurdly violent in a comically over-the-top way. So far, so good. While the visuals are lovely on a technical level, and many of the assets are fantastic, the layouts could be much better. Levels can run on for a long time and look very similar. Entire acts seem to occur in the same-looking areas, and getting your bearings in levels can become difficult. Combine that with the sprawling layouts, multiple color-coded keys, and the mountains of enemies you must fight through, and levels can start to feel like battles of attrition, especially when you consider one of the parts that kill Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun’s flow the most, the enemy health. Your basic cultists are wonderfully squishy. Dropping from high above them will instantly crush them into paste under your ceramite boots, and a single round from your bolter will immediately cause them to explode in a shower of gore. Once enemies become more robust, which happens quickly, you will face hordes of lore-accurate chaos space marines, plague toads, lords of change, and more. Unfortunately, many of these enemies are comically strong, forcing you to pump 150-200 heavy bolter rounds into them, and fights can go on for so long that enemies seem unlimited. Levels are confusing gauntlets where you fight tooth and nail against hundreds of enemies who can rip you to shreds relatively quickly but take an absolute beating to go down. Enemies are comically strong, forcing you to pump 150-200 heavy bolter rounds into them. Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun is incredibly fun in short bursts. All the individual components are solid, and the gameplay is excellent. The real killer here is the levels and the enemy tuning. You don’t feel like an unstoppable space marine when every few seconds you have to stop mowing down cultists to do a little dodge-dance with an enemy that takes a ridiculous amount of damage to take down and can finish you in a few hits. It breaks the fantasy of being one of the best warriors in the Warhammer 40,000 universe. Maybe playing the game on easy is the best way to go? I played on hard and found the scaling to be a massive detriment to the flow of combat, but even then, changing the difficulty won’t make the levels any less tedious or repetitive. There is a lot to love about Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun, but it is brought much lower than it should be by a few significant issues that plague the rest of the title. Pros: Weighty, fast combat Satisfying weapons Unique and technically impressive hybrid pixel art Punchy sound Cons: Level design Enemies have way too much health Levels have little visual variety The story is nonexistent Score: 7/10 Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun is available now on PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Xbox One. Review is based on the PC version. No key was provided by the publisher.

This worthy remake makes remembering Citadel an easy thing to do. There are a lot of classic games that I feel don't need a remake, but when I heard that Nightdive Studios was making one for System Shock, I definitely didn't object. Even if you have never heard of System Shock before, I think if you have been gaming for at least a few years, you probably know of some games that have its DNA within them, like Bioshock and Prey (2017). I played a lot of the second game in the series (System Shock 2) in my teenage years and it made quite an impression on me, but I was ashamed that I didn't play the game that started it all (System Shock) until much, much later. The only issue is that I honestly never thought this remake would be released. Development for it started all of the way back in 2015 and the project went through plenty of turmoil (to say the least) along the way. However, thankfully it is here now, so let's dive into it and talk about how it turned out. System Shock 2 had ultimately spoiled me with its much-improved control scheme and overall smoother gameplay. The intro starts with the game's protagonist (an unnamed character simply known throughout the game as Hacker) sitting in their apartment and doing what any hacker worth their salt would be doing during a nice dark night: hacking. The hack they are attempting to pull off is into the files of a company called TriOptimum Corporation, who happen to have details on a neural implant that the hacker seems interested in. The hack doesn't go too well because almost immediately TriOptimum Corp guards bust in and knock the hacker out. After they wake up they are given a deal by a TriOptimum executive named Edward Diego that if they will hack into the network of a place called Citadel Station and disable the ethical restraints on the AI controlling the station (called SHODAN), then he will give them the neural implant that they were searching for. Since the hacker doesn't really have a choice, they comply. After the deed is done and they receive the implant that was promised, they are in a medical coma for six months. When they finally awaken they are on the Medical floor level within Citadel Station; this is where the game truly begins. I have to say that immediately after the hacker gets off of the medical table and stands up, I cracked a huge grin. Seeing this room updated to a more modern style while also retaining a lot of the details exactly how I remembered them really made me happy. I then opened up a supply closet, grabbed a steel pipe plus a few other supplies, and walked out into the station. To say things have gone wrong here on the Citadel would be an understatement. Since SHODAN's ethical restraints were disabled, pure hell has been unleashed here. Where there were once lively crew members, there are now only corpses and viscera. Friendly robots that used to offer food and drinks now only offer spinning blades and dismemberment. Security robots that might have been made to protect are now made to destroy anything they see. The atmosphere here is very dark and grim. Audio and text logs left by the crew on desks, shelves, or even next to their rotting remains tell the story of what happened here and what the crew was trying to do to stop the madness. Nightdive Studios definitely tried to keep the experience of this game with a lot of those gameplay conditions intact. Since the original System Shock is almost 30 years old, there are a lot of things that have changed in games within that time frame. Nightdive Studios definitely tried to keep the experience of this game with a lot of those gameplay conditions intact. Every level within the station is its own labyrinth of often confusing as well as tight corridors. Thankfully the player is given help in the form of a map that will not only show areas that have been explored, but also show off locations of some very useful things. Energy stations can be used to recharge the hacker's energy meter so that they can use energy weapons and also certain pieces of equipment like shields or boots that heavily increase movement speed. Regeneration stations that can be found on most levels of the station will work like a respawn point for the player if they are killed, but only after a switch nearby them is flipped. Junction boxes are puzzles that need to be solved in order to open certain areas or turn the power back on to a room. These puzzles come in a few different types and can be pretty tough at times. There are rare items that can be found that allow the player to skip these if they find one to be too tough to deal with. The Cyberspace sections have also returned from the original, and these are kind of like playing the old Descent games. They are simple minigames where the player flies around a virtual space shooting at insect-looking enemies; listening to pulsing music while they blast apart beams that are keeping doors within the Citadel locked. I found these to be much better than they were in the original and also a nice little distraction from the rest of the game. One new thing that was implemented in this remake is a recycler that allows the player to pick up items, vaporize them into blocks of scrap, and then run them through it in order to get credits. These can be used to buy all sorts of useful items like ammo, weapon upgrades, and boosters. Waypoints that have become common in most newer adventure games are nowhere to be found here. This game expects you to take notes based on what you see or hear. If you see a number, write it down, if you hear someone talking in an audio log about something they were trying to do, pay very close attention and write that down too because that might be what your next objective is. System Shock really doesn't hold your hand whatsoever. It was definitely designed to be a difficult game to complete, but not an unfair one. However, I do know that a lot of people aren't going to like this aspect, and it won't be an enjoyable experience for everyone. Practically every enemy type from the original is back and given a fresh coat of paint. Weapons are definitely much more fun to use in this game than in the original. There are a wide variety available including: melee weapons like a pipe and a wrench, pistols (including an energy one that is super useful), a shotgun, mag-pulse rifle, assault rifle, railgun, and the list goes on and on. There are different types of ammo and grenades that can be used and each type is effective against a certain type of enemy. The guns have a good amount of weight to them and feel satisfying to shoot creatures and robots with. Sadly the melee weapons don't have the same weight. It just never feels quite right when you hit something. Most of the time you just don't even know if you are making contact with your swings. Hopefully this gets fixed in the future. Other than that, combat felt good. Being able to lean left and right can really help keep the player from taking insane amounts of damage when trying to take down enemies. Utilizing cover like corners and ducking behind boxes is very important, so every little thing like that helps. Practically every enemy type from the original is back and given a fresh coat of paint, and for the most part, I really like the updates. Seeing the updated mutants lumbering towards me made me crack a smile just like when I saw the first room of the remake. The enemies range from mutants, to security robots, to cyborgs, to things that I don't want to spoil, including the boss fights. Let me just say that System Shock has a really nice variety of enemies and besides some of them being kind of annoying to fight at times, I don’t really have any complaints. It doesn't hurt whatsoever that the taunts of SHODAN are just as great and unnerving as in the original, with her original voice actor returning and just absolutely crushing it. I honestly think this remake is a worthy revisit of Citadel Station and even though there are a few things that new players might find frustrating, it is definitely a game that I would have to recommend and is easily one of my favorite games this year. Pros: Atmosphere is thick with horror and takes the source material seriously The enemy and level redesigns are faithful to the original and look great Exploring Citadel Station is rewarding and intense SHODAN is a standout presence as usual Cons: Some players might not like how difficult it can be Some of the level layouts are incredibly easy to get lost in due to being from a 29 year old game Melee combat lacks weight Score: 8.5/10 Reviewer played System Shock on PC. No key was provided by the publisher.