FIRST PLAY NO REST FOR THE WICKED PS5, XSX, PC
Think Diablo but with Dark Souls’ brutal precision-based combat, and that’s the simplest way to describe No Rest for the Wicked. This is the new game from Moon Studios, the indie firm behind the Ori series… which is moving on from enchanted forests and cute creatures for amore mature breed of dark fantasy.
But agloomier, grittier tale of dead kings, warring political factions and pestilence doesn’t mean achange to more realistic graphics: there’s still aunique painterly look to both the characters and the hand-made environments here. Mind you, while everything has the feel of an artist’s hand, there’s also Diablo’s randomisation of loot; and without aclass system, what you decide to pick up and equip is what determines your play style.
Whereas most top-down dungeon crawlers are acase of clicking the mouse to spam attacks, this one is designed around precise movements and stamina management –so using either acontroller or keyboard, you’ll have to carefully consider the timing of your attacks. Successfully parrying also fills up afocus meter that lets you unleash special skills.
And it’s not all about fighting: as well as surviving ambushes and taking on grotesque bosses, you’ll also have tools for fishing, mining, digging and chopping down trees.
Brimming with ideas and ambition, it’s agame that Moon really wants to build with its community –there’s an early access release via Steam from 18 April, with regular updates including multiplayer to come.
FIRST LOOK GO SMELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN
Capcom may be riding high thanks to big-time sequels and remakes like Street Fighter 6 and Resident Evil 4, but you can’t accuse the Japanese publisher of not taking risks with original games either: just look at Exoprimal.
And with a colourful setting that recalls Okami crossed with the action strategy of Pikmin, Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess might be its weirdest offering yet.
Set on a mountain that’s suddenly covered by an evil ‘defilement’, it has you playing as a masked swordsman called Soh who must protect Yoshiro, a maiden whose powers can purge and cleanse the mountain’s villages.
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