In this overview of Best Games Right Now, we discuss the best games you can play this winter on your Xbox One (X), PlayStation 4 (Pro) and Nintendo Switch. In this overview you will find Ori and the Will of the Wisps, Doom Eternal and Nioh 2.
Nioh 2
To satisfy the hunger for samurai and sword fighting, we got on well last year with Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice . Ghost of Tsushima will be released this summer, which also takes place during this time period. However, there is certainly room for Nioh 2, the long-awaited sequel to the 2017 Eastern action game. In that game you played as William, an Irish warrior who tried to make his mark on Japanese history. A Western samurai – that looked somewhat strange. Fortunately, in Nioh 2 you can easily adjust your own warrior so that it looks authentic and credible.
In addition to the well-known weapons such as axes, spears, swords and the kusarigama, a spectacular sickle on a chain , Nioh 2 expands its arsenal with the switchglaive. This brutal monster can be unfolded in different positions, making it reminiscent of the bloodborne weapons. From a folded knife to a large scythe, this weapon plows through all enemies. That’s not to say it makes it easy. Like the first part, the beginning is old-fashioned spicy, with regular defeat against apparently simple opponents. As soon as you lose sharpness or underestimate the enemy, things go wrong. Frustrating, sometimes, but almost always your own mistake.
Fortunately, some enemies drop a certain item, allowing you to take over one of their attacks. In addition to a large number of niceties, many well-known and new magical reinforcements can also be invoked. This gives you more assets to attack the Yokai in order to deal with the new, dark, dangerous areas. It is noticeable that many enemies return from part 1, so that it sometimes seems a bit uninspired. Nioh 2 builds very much on its predecessor. But given the depth and possibilities to choose your own fighting style, it deserves more than a place of its own between the action games of 2020.
Best Games Right Now: Persona 5 Royal
Normally we don’t do it quickly: discussing a game that is not officially released when this article goes online. But for Persona 5: Royal, we make the only exception so far. This is a fantastic Japanese role playing game that should be played by every self-respecting RPG player. Yes, even if you have reached and finished the first version years ago. Because Persona 5 Royal has unique parts that we did not encounter in the previous game.
The base is still solid. You are a new high school student and need to find your way around an environment you don’t know. You were sent there after you were wrongfully arrested for a crime. You can then sit down or make something out of it. While you’re on the way making friends, taking lessons, and doing cool and exciting activities (all of which are gameplay options), you’ll also explore dungeons and deal with adults who misbehave.
The game has no problem broaching adult themes. We are not going to discuss all these themes here, because then the surprise will be a bit off. The story is important for the experience of Persona 5 Royal, as it effortlessly connects the completely different dungeons and different ones. Have you played Persona 5 before? Then you can now look forward to a new main character (a woman this time), other relationships, new parts within existing dungeons and much more.
Best Games Right Now: Doom Eternal
If you played the Doom on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in 2016, then you are actually obliged to continue with Doom Eternal now. Doom from 2016 was a preview of what Doom Eternal eventually became, but we still feel incredibly unprepared. This is one of the wildest rollercoaster rides you’ll play on your PlayStation or Xbox this spring (a Switch version will follow later). Between shooting and tearing you also solve puzzles, while moving through the levels at lightning speed.
Doom Eternal uses the 2016 Doom game as a base and throws a lot of new and cool gameplay elements on top. You will again be tasked with defeating demons in the most diverse locations. You shoot them of course, but the game doesn’t end when you run out of bullets. You can also edit those hell spawns with a sword, or with their own arms. Right. If you want to play fast and have a good flow, tear off your limb by limb while the demons are throwing at you.
Furthermore, the emphasis is on puzzle completion and platforming (as in: walk, run and jump through the levels), looking for valuable items and items to replenish your bullets or health. New in this game is the meathook (a meat hook attached to a shotgun) that lets you fly through levels at lightning speed and draws demons at you. The new objects actually feel like an addition and that is completely fine, because that nice gameplay flow has remained perfectly intact.
Best Games Right Now: Ori and the Will of the Wisps
A few years ago Moon Studios made the world a joy with Ori and the Blind Forest. The game was a big hit. Now the developer comes with the sequel to the Blind forest, Ori and the Will of the Wisps. Is the game as good as its predecessor? The story immediately begins where the first game left off. But this time you help more than just restore a forest. The land of Niwen has fallen into darkness and decay and that gives our beloved Ori enough reason to explore a new world and save it again.
After such a big hit you would of course have the same game with a new story. but the studio has made some changes. Where the first game was mainly a platformer annex metroidvania there is now an increased focus on combat. In Will of the Wisps, however, you stop more often to kill enemies. Not just because there are more (there are more enemies, but not overwhelming), but because you need the Spirit Light they drop to buy cards, weapons and upgrades. You will also encounter more boss fights than in the first game.
They felt a bit awkward at first, but the more platform mechanics you used to beat the boss it got better and better. The combinations between platform and combat work very well. The images are again simply stunning. Just like in Blind Forest, Will of the Wisps’ environments have all been painstakingly created to bring us a world we can traverse and feel as if it’s a living, breathing thing. In addition, the backgrounds are much more lively than in the first game. Ori and the Will of the Wisps is a very good game and perhaps even better than its predecessor. The game has everything to become a hit again.
Best Games Right Now: Dreams
On the Nintendo Switch you have Super Mario Maker 2 and on the PlayStation 4 you have mid-February the game Dreams. Basically you can do the same with both experiences: you create your own levels. For other players or just for yourself. However, Dreams is much more elaborate and complicated than the Mario Maker games we’ve seen so far. In addition to your own levels, you can also create your own games, mechanics, assets, sculptures, music, art and more within the engine of this creation tool.
Dream contains various game modes, namely Dream Surfing, Dream Shaping, Home Space Editor and Community Jam. There is also a story mode where you can get a lot of inspiration for your own creations, called Art’s Dream. Not only can you create your own digital stuff here, you can also download, use and customize things from other players (if you wish). This means you don’t have to build a lot of things yourself, for example: is the object you want to make available online? Then you can use that.
Keep in mind that the entry threshold may be a bit high for some players, while you can get started in Super Mario Maker 2 for example and much faster levels. Once you cross that threshold and know a little bit about what you are doing – and more importantly, what you can do – a dream world of possibilities opens up for the most creative players among us. But that does mean that you will have to invest hours. If you are really interested in it, then you shouldn’t be a problem at all.
Dragon Ball Z Kakarot
If you are a fan from Dragon Ball Z, you will have played many games within the universe. The majority of the games stick to the story of the Z-saga, the story of Goku, his son Gohan and all their strong friends and relatives. If you have Dragon Ball Z Kakarot in mind, keep in mind that you will encounter few new story elements in the video game. In Kakarot you start with the fight with brother Raditz, after which you take on Vegeta, Frieza, the Androids, Cell and of course Buu.
In between you can do small side missions in this action RPG. This is how you come across characters from different parts of the Dragon Ball story, characters that you may well know from the series for the Z-saga. This is a nice nod to the rich history of the franchise and a nice way to fill up the gameplay. We call the game an RPG, but the system is not really very thorough. There are few things you can influence and you don’t have to grind; you always have plenty of experience at your disposal.
While Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot is one of a kind for a Dragon Ball game, we can’t help feeling that what could have been better. The worlds (all based on cool locations) are quite empty, the side missions are repetitive and the story has no surprises. Nevertheless, we have a lot of fun with Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot. Precisely because the game is so superficial and it is never really made difficult for you, you can play this game in between and nice and on the back burner if you are tired of other games.
Darksiders Genesis
After the third part in the Darksiders saga we are now presented with a prequel in the form of Darksiders Genesis. And the fact that the game is a prequel isn’t the only thing new about this Darksiders game. Genesis is a top-down hack and slash action RPG just like Diablo, but with enough elements to make it a nice change. Darksiders Genesis tells the story of two of the Horseman of the Apocalypse: War and Strife.
People who have played the earlier games will remember War as the playable character in the first Darksiders. Fighting the enemy with cool guns, Strife is playable for the first time and is a fun addition to the Horsemen. So the story takes place before the events of Darksiders 1 and is told through fun dialogues while playing and beautifully drawn cut scenes. The demon king, Lucifer, has “made a plan to upset the balance by giving power to the demons in
hell” and the two horsemen have the task of stopping them.
One of the most notable changes in Genesis is the above top-down perspective, although the structure of the gameplay itself remains largely known. You still have intense battles, exploration, fun puzzles to solve to progress and epic boss battles. Just watch out for these battles, because you can be knocked off the map.
You can now fight the demons in pairs in Genesis. The second player then takes control of the other brother. If you are more of a melee player, choose War and if you prefer to attack from afar, choose Strife. If you prefer to play the game alone, you can also switch brothers very quickly, combining different attacks and beating the enemies in the best ways. This works very well. Daksiders Genesis’ foray to the top-down ARPG pleases and tastes like more.
Zombie Army 4
The Nazi zombies are back with Zombie Army 4: Dead War, but should we be happy with that? Where the previously released trilogy was still a collection of additions to the popular Sniper Elite V2, Zombie Army 4 is its own game, with a full story. The missions feel good and coherent and have a good balance when it comes to the length of the assignments. In the previous three parts we defeated the zombie Hitler, but unfortunately the mustachioed man is back to conquer the world in part 4.
The cult of zombie Hitler tries to bring him back to life, so that he can go to hell can bring earth. And you’re going to put a stop to that. Also in this fourth part you have an arsenal of weapons at your disposal that will scare zombies. Because the series comes from Sniper Elite, you will of course usually shoot with snipers, but you can also use different shotguns, smg’s and pistols. In the levels you will also find upgrade kits, with which you can upgrade the weapons in a fun way.
Think of a Vampir scope, so that every critical shot gives you some life back, or explosive bullets that blow away enemies close together. Beating the zombie army is fun on your own, but even more fun with friends. This way you can also face the hordes of zombies with four players in story mode and also in hurdle mode. The multiplayer system works well and it is easy to set up a lobby. Each character has different good and bad qualities and complement each other well. Everyone will be happy playing Zombie Army 4: Dead War, if only by literally pounding zombie Hitler back into the ground.
Snack World: The Dungeon Crawl – Gold
Snack World is a video game that probably doesn’t tell you very much. It is a popular franchise in Japan, including its own anime, manga and various video games. At first glance, the game Snack World: The Dungeon Crawl doesn’t have to pull you at all, but trust us and be warned: once you get started, you might lose yourself a bit in the gameplay run of the game. You have to be able to handle a bit of repetitive gameplay, but that is part of dungeon crawlers.
Snack World is described as a “casual fantasy” franchise. In this case, the traditional fantasy world is combined with all kinds of modern elements such as smartphones and supermarkets, so that your adventure does not get too boring. In Snack World: The Dungeon Crawl for the Nintendo Switch (originally a Nintendo 3DS game), this is no different. The game has its charm and quite a few unique features. Furthermore, it is a cooperative game: you can play with three other friends – online and offline.
Are you a fan of the typical dungeon crawler (where you go out again and again ) and are you not so fond of exciting stories that tie together gameplay elements? Then you quickly feel at home in Snack World. The game offers players a lot of fun, including a lot of variation, a lot of humor and of course enough to discover. Certainly people who love collecting digital things can spend hours on this. If you don’t like such parts, Snack World: The Dungeon Crawl is not a game for you.
More information
In the series of Best Games Right Now this is part 14 of spring 2020. The other article about Best Games Right Now series you can find here.
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