“Call of Duty: Black Ops 6” was one of the more underrated games of 2025, a blockbuster experience with a genuinely engaging campaign and some of the best multiplayer map design and physics in the genre’s history. Listen, some people gave up on “Call of Duty” years ago, tired of paying $60-70 every year for what often feels like little more than new maps. The franchise has been operating under an ethos that my grandfather used to preach for a long time: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. And given how much money these games made, they definitely ain’t broke. People love to complain about “Call of Duty,” but they still buy it in ridiculous numbers.

As defensive as I was about the criticisms often aimed at “Black Ops 6” from people who hadn’t even played it, “Black Ops 7” deserves every one of them. The multiplayer portion of the game, which most players use, felt like a step back at launch, with uninspired new maps. It’s telling that the maps most commonly chosen in multiplayer matches and the ones that seem to be enjoyed the most are literal rehashes of ones from other games: Hijacked, Raid, and Express. The new maps are clunky and just poorly designed. And the game’s physics don’t seem as consistent either. At the start, grenades simply didn’t work, doing almost no damage at all.

To be fair, the actual game mechanics seem to have improved over the last few weeks. But I have to admit I’m a bit exhausted by games that punish their most loyal fans by releasing inferior products that are then fixed through patches.

Of course, fans of this series, even the reluctant ones, will tell you that patience is the key with a game like “Call of Duty.” Don’t like the launch maps—six new ones are coming in season one, which started this week. And, to be fair, they do seem like a step-up from the initial batch, although, again, the highlight is a remastered “classic” in Standoff. Having said that, I do think the developers will continue to fine-tune “Black Ops 7” to make it better with each update. I already like it significantly more than I did a couple of weeks ago.

What they can’t change is maybe the worst campaign in the history of the franchise. Story-based, cinematically-inspired campaigns have become an increasingly lesser part of games like “Call of Duty” and “Battlefield,” but “Black Ops 6” had a great one, and this one promised to pick up right where that left off, with a co-op campaign that can be played with some of your best buddies. It’s an absolute mess. Starring Milo Ventimiglia and Michael Rooker, it is mainly built on the mission in “BO6,” which incorporated gameplay from the Zombies mode into the campaign through a psychedelic agent that had your soldier battling a supernatural enemy. That aspect has been amplified tenfold, leading to an early boss fight in which you are literally dodging giant machetes falling from the sky.

Here’s where a critic would usually convey the story of a campaign mode, but I can’t even really tell you what the one in “Black Ops 7” is about. All I know is that I had to fight a giant Rooker-Meets-Terminator creature more than once. Even worse than the awful boss fights are the waves of generic enemies who have all the AI of an installment in this series from over a decade ago. Campaigns in a game like “Black Ops 7” should feature intelligent enemies, villains who can respond to your gameplay, communicate, flank, and be unpredictable. The enemies in “BO7” have all the personality of zombies in a “House of the Dead” arcade game.

It’s remarkable how few people are even playing the campaign. My trophy for completing it revealed that less than 1% of players had achieved that goal. While it’s tempting to dismiss the campaign as not even worth talking about, given how few are playing it, I feel like it’s one of the places that this series could push back against the criticisms that each installment is the same by offering something worth playing. The developers just refuse to take that opportunity.

“Black Ops 7” offers many other ways to play beyond the campaign and multiplayer, including fan favorites Zombies and Warzone, as well as the return of Dead Ops Arcade. And there are a few welcome new tweaks. I like the addition of Overclocks, little customizable options to add to scorestreaks, field upgrades, and equipment, and the new mode Overload (basically Capture the Flag) is fun.

But it’s hard to shake the feeling that all of this is getting exhaustingly repetitive. Nothing lasts forever. Will the sense that every “Call of Duty” is the same as the last “Call of Duty” eventually catch up with these video game soldiers? Probably not this year, but I don’t believe “Call of Duty” can rest on its success forever without experiencing a decline. The franchise may not need rescuing yet, but the clock is ticking.

The publisher provided a review copy of this title. It is now available.

First, a bit of background with a disclaimer. I have been writing about video games in some capacity for over a decade and playing much, much longer than that. My handheld gaming experience extends back to the Game Boy, through the Nintendo DS, diverted by the PlayStation Vita, and as a regular player of the Nintendo Switch (and now its sequel). However, I have not been a Steam Deck or even much of a gaming laptop guy, and while I love gaming, I don’t get deep under the hood regarding specs, which can often be the breaking point for someone considering a machine like the ROG Xbox Ally X, Microsoft’s new handheld gaming deck that comes with a notorious $1k price tag. There are numerous sources that have tested this system and its AMD Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme chip in ways that don’t mean as much to someone who writes for an entertainment site and not a gaming one. This is a good one that breaks down the FPS across certain games on the system, and the results generally seem impressive across the board, but those details may be a factor for you in ways I can’t unpack.

With that out of the way, I can get into my personal experience with the most impressive handheld gaming system I’ve ever used. Coming out of the box with Windows 11 installed and a familiar Xbox UI, there’s a remarkable ease of use to the Ally X that’s wonderful. You should know that, like a lot of systems and games nowadays, the Ally X had a few early glitches. I had a game that wouldn’t register as owned by me despite being on Game Pass (“Silksong”) and an issue wherein vibrations led to a metal sound in the fan, but both have been resolved, and it’s now a consistently impressive and entertaining machine, one that’s addictively easy to pick up and play for an hour before getting back to real life.

So how did I “test” my Xbox X? Most of the gameplay has been “Hollow Knight: Silksong” through the Xbox UI and “Hades II” through Steam. While I also played bits and pieces of “Gears of War 5,” “South of Midnight,” “Keeper,” “The Outer Worlds 2,” “Evil West,” and even “Fortnite” to see how different kinds of games feel on the Ally X, it’s the two platformers that have been dominating my attention.

Two of the best games of the year, “Silksong” and “Hades II” fit this system like a glove. While I often find shooters a bit tricky on handheld systems—call me old, but I need the TV in front of me not between my hands to be accurate with a reticle and feel like I can move quickly enough to respond to an enemy—platformers and similarly structured Metroidvania games have always been better on a handheld. Maybe it’s just the memories of playing actual “Metroid” and “Castlevania” games on Nintendo handhelds (yes, I’m old), but the joy I’ve gotten from “Silksong” (well, joy mixed with outright rage at a game that’s sometimes ridiculously hard) and “Hades II” have been highlights of the last month. Taking these two games—one through the Xbox interface and one through Steam—anywhere is to casual gamers like me the real draw of a system like the Ally.

It helps to be able to play them on a system that feels as sturdy as an Xbox controller. The grips on the handles really replicate the feel of an actual controller in your hand instead of the flatness of the Switch model. And the interfaces, while they might take getting used to for people accustomed to the simplicity of the Switch, are actually relatively user-friendly. There’s a button the left side of the device that allows you to jump into any of the interfaces with one click, including the Xbox UI, the Steam one, Epic games, and Armoury Crate, wherein you can adjust settings to maximize performance for your gameplay.

The system also includes a full Windows 11 experience, which means you can surf the web and use other Windows apps. Given our focus at the site, I also watched Netflix and YouTube TV on my Ally and they both had crisp presentation, another great thing to do with this device. Of course, it’s primarily a gaming machine, but the fact that it can basically be a handheld entertainment system too shouldn’t be ignored, especially if you’re looking for a way to take streaming libraries and live TV on the road.

You should know there are some hiccups to the gaming library. Apparently, not all games purchased on an Xbox are allowing for play on the Ally, including the recent “Battlefield 6.” Other than the weird glitch with “Silksong,” I had no problems accessing the games mentioned above, but they were primarily through Game Pass, which appears to have no access issues. Even the games received in advance that I technically “own” like “Outer Worlds 2” and “Keeper” (both really fun, by the way—more on them later this month) were also technically Game Pass games.

Of course, there’s also the price. In today’s collapsing economy, four figures for a handheld gaming system does seem like a steep ask for people who might just want to play “Silksong” and “Hades II.” With that in mind, the Ally X does feel like a system for people who are already hardcore gaming laptop or desktop gamers, people looking for a way to take their already robust Steam and Xbox libraries on the road. The truth is that this is an incredible machine, but also one that costs about as much, if not more than some strong gaming laptops. Although it does feel like most people buying an Ally X will already have one of those and are trying to expand their gaming empire instead of just starting one.

If you’re one of those, and the price tag doesn’t push you away, it’s hard to believe you’ll be disappointed in system that truly did give me flashbacks to playing handheld games for the last four decades of my life. When I was a kid, there was something so magical about the idea of taking what was in arcades or even on my TV and holding it in my hands. That magic remains in the ROG Xbox Ally X, a system that may not be the future of handheld gaming as much as a reminder of what you loved about its past.

The company provided a review copy of this hardware. It’s now available.

The Pokemon series has been in need of serious evolution recently. 2022’s “Pokemon Legends: Arceus” switched up the traditional Pokemon RPG formula by introducing real-time combat elements, a semi-open world, and a new way of story progression. It was a breath of fresh air for the franchise that had a stagnating turn-based battle system.

Whereas “Arceus” was a prequel to the Pokemon Diamond and Pearl games, the newest entry “Pokemon Legends: Z-A” is a sequel to the “Pokemon X and Y” ones. This time around, Z-A makes a few bold changes from “Legends: Arceus” for the better, but also some for the worse. Z-A’s battle system has been much improved, but the game is hampered by bland exploration. It also runs incredibly well on Nintendo Switch 2, but its presentation in other areas is lacking, especially in the graphics department.

“Pokemon Legends: Z-A” takes place five years after the events of the “Pokemon X and Y” versions. Lumiose City is currently going under a redevelopment plan, and that has caused the rise of Rogue Mega Evolutions, where certain Pokemon are forced to undergo further changes to make them even stronger. Players must uncover the mysteries behind the Rogue Mega Evolutions while also climbing the ranks of the Z-A Royale, a Pokemon battling tournament. As players make their way to the top, the winner will be allowed to have one wish granted.

Pokemon has never had the most complex stories, and “Legends: Z-A” is no different. However, what’s baffling is that, after all these years, Pokemon games still don’t have voice acting. It’s really jarring to see NPCs in cutscenes “talk” but emit no sound whatsoever. What makes the experience even more confusing is that NPCs will make exertion noises. For example, if a character whips their arm to throw a Pokeball, you can actually hear the sound effect of an arm going through the air. There are some emotional scenes involving key characters from Pokemon X and Y’s storyline, but those scenes fall flat due to the lack of voice acting.

It is so difficult to feel invested in “Legends: Z-A”’s story that, halfway through, I just started ignoring it. However, what kept me engaged until the end of the story was Z-A’s fun battle system. Whereas “Legends: Arceus” had modified turn-based combat, Z-A completely commits to real-time action. This makes for more exhilarating battles, and the attacks have been cleverly fitted to take advantage of it.

In the mainline Pokemon games, it was easy to get by having your Pokemon know four attacking moves and leave the other non-damaging ones alone. For example, moves like Tail Whip would lower your opponent’s Defense stat, but you’d want to maximize your damage output, thus getting rid of that for an attack that does actual damage. However, with the new real-time combat system, these non-damaging attacks are suddenly more important than ever.

Each attack has a cooldown period, and so in between the waiting time, you’ll want to use other moves. That’s where moves like Tail Whip can come in really handy. While you’re waiting for your Tackle attack to recharge, you can use Tail Whip and lower the opponent’s Defense stat, ensuring that the next Tackle will knock it out. While this strategy works just as well in the purely turn-based mainline Pokemon games, the nature of these real-time battles recontextualizes them, making “Legends: Z-A” stand out compared to its predecessors.

The day and night cycle is utilized in this game where you’re able to challenge other NPCs to battles during the night time in designated Battle Zones. By defeating trainers and completing side objectives such as hitting a specific weakness a certain number of times, you can earn points to win a Challenge Ticket. This usually progresses the story by letting you fight the next boss, a welcome change to the typical Gym Leader structure that mainline Pokemon games had.

During the story, you’ll also be asked to take care of Rogue Mega Evolved Pokemon in order to keep Lumiose City safe. If you take down these giant Pokemon, you’ll earn their Mega Stone, which allows you to summon their respective Mega Evolutions, given that you have the proper Pokemon. I really enjoyed these as they switched up the game’s pace.

The biggest disappointment with “Legends: Z-A” is how boring Lumiose city is. In “Legends: Arceus,” players have the entire Hisui region to explore. But all of “Legends: Z-A” is confined to just one city with designated Wild Zones to catch Pokemon in. These Wild Zones are entirely too small and with the new battle system, fights can feel claustrophobic. These Wild Zones lack any discernable features and look as muddy and uninspired as the rest of Lumiose City.

Outside of the Pokemon and character models, Lumiose City is so boring to explore. Buildings are dull, and the columns and windows aren’t even in 3D. The textures are quite literally flat pictures copied and pasted onto the buildings themselves. Lumiose City is so unimaginative, especially coming from the open regions in “Legends: Arceus”.

I really don’t understand how Pokemon can be the one of the most profitable media franchises in the world yet still can’t produce a decent looking 3D mainline game. Other Nintendo properties like “The Legend of Zelda” and “Donkey Kong” have received complete artistic overhauls and creative design directions, but Pokemon games don’t receive the same level of meticulous care. Along with the lack of voice acting, these games continue to look and feel cheap.

At the very least, Legends: Z-A runs incredibly well on the Nintendo Switch 2, a far cry from the technical woes plaguing the last mainline Pokemon games. Although there are still some distracting pop-in issues with characters and Pokemon sometimes appearing out of nowhere, the game is smooth and playable.

“Pokemon Legends: Z-A” continues the experimental direction of “Pokemon Legends: Arceus,” opting for real-time combat which makes battles more strategic and engaging compared to the traditional turn-based format. However, the game suffers from uninteresting exploration, dated graphics, and the continued absence of voice acting. Despite this, if you’re a Pokemon fan, this game still might be up your alley. Even as it stays stuck in the past, it’s a difficult franchise to leave there.

A copy of Pokemon Legends: Z-A was purchased by the reviewer. It is now available.

Despite Roger’s famous proclamation that video games aren’t art, the founder of this site was also open to alternative opinions and a changing industry, and we believed when we started looking at how the worlds of gaming and film were increasingly intertwined that he would be interested in how the two influence each other. “Resident Evil,” “Uncharted,” “The Last of Us,” “Death Stranding”—these are just a few of the franchises with deep cinematic roots. Add to this list of movie-loving franchises Sucker Punch’s “Ghost” series as their new “Ghost of Yōtei,” a follow-up to 2020’s excellent “Ghost of Tsushima,” has been built by people who love everyone from Akira Kurosawa to Takashi Miike. The writers of “Yōtei” let their love for the samurai epic bleed through every swing of the katana in a story of family and vengeance that’s contains some of the best video game writing of its era. Add that strong storytelling to gorgeous visuals and world-building, and you have one of the best games of 2025.

I’ll admit to being concerned in the first hour that “Yōtei” was just a rehash of “Tsushima.” Those feelings drift away as it becomes clear that the familiarity of the opening missions of “Yōtei” are intentional in the same way a great second season of television often aims to please with what made the first outing a hit before building on that foundation. “Yōtei” has many of the same gameplay mechanics, but they’ve been employed in a world and story that are more engrossing and varied. Perhaps the most impressive thing about “Yōtei” is its immersive environment, one that sees your protagonist travel through fields of flowers, scale oceanside cliffs, and take on snow-covered mountains. It’s a rich, varied, lovingly-rendered world that I was happy to spend over 40 hours exploring.

Set in 1603 in Ezo (a region of Japan that would include Honshu and Hokkaido today), “Ghost of Yōtei” features a traumatized onna-musha named Atsu, who grew up in the shadows of Mount Yōtei. Sixteen years ago, Atsu’s family was murdered by the vicious Lord Saito and five of his loyal soldiers: The Snake, Oni, Kitsune, the Spider, and the Dragon. Atsu was left for dead, but she will rise to defeat all of the “Yōtei Six” in an effort to vanquish the demons of her past, although the writers of “Ghost of Yōtei” don’t allow the vengeance narrative to play out in a predictable, traditional manner. Not only can you generally defeat the villains who ruined Atsu’s life in any order (after taking out the Snake to really start the game), they each have their own personalities, back stories, and rich character arcs.

While Atsu’s ascendance to become the “Onyro” that takes down Saito and his team is the main plot of “Yōtei,” there are dozens of subplots that also push the narrative forward. Atsu meets people along the way that she forms into something called the “Wolf Pack,” allies that could be as simple as kindly vendors or as complex as people who will join her in combat. The writing in “Yōtei” is like the tree image that drives so much of the storytelling with the vengeance plotline serving as the trunk but the branches becoming just as essential.

There are also dozens of things to do around Ezo that aren’t even combat-related, including painting, playing your shamisen, finding hot springs to increase health, building fires to cook mushrooms & fish, chopping bamboo, and even befriending wolves who will become a part of your combat strategy. Again, it’s so dense with activity, a game that took 40 hours of my life that went by in the blink of an eye.

The combat is a bit different in the sequel, and, arguably, the place where the games gets the most repetitive. As the story progresses, Atsu gains access to five main weapons: her katana, duel katanas, odachi (two-handed greatsword), yari (spear), and kusarigama (chain-sickle). Enemies will have their own loadouts that are more easily defeated by one of those five weapons. For example, when an enemy approaches with a shield, use the kusarigama to swing around it. I wish I could find the creator on TikTok who said it to give credit, but it does have a bit of a “rock-paper-scissors” dynamic in that you need to switch to the right paper to cover your enemy’s rock. I did grow a bit tired of this aspect of the gameplay, but the developers are smart to constantly inject the combat with new toys to keep it fresh. Not only does Atsu have those five sharp tools, she obtains arrows, kunai (throwing knives), a variety of bombs, and eventually a tanegashima (a rifle). The final battles require using all of the above in the right order to really succeed.

As for direct film connections, “Ghost of Yōtei” returns the Kurosawa Mode from the last game, in which you can play the entire experience in widescreen black & white with subtitles for that real “Seven Samurai” flavor. They add two amazing variations on the aesthetic variety this time with “Watanabe Mode” and “Miike Mode.” The former is based on the anime work of “Cowboy Bebop” director Shinichirō Watanabe and shifts the graphics to anime-inspired visuals with a new soundtrack; the latter is inspired by the prolific director of “13 Assassins” and turns up the dial on the blood and the mud. It’s the way I played almost the entire game, a breathtaking counter to the lyrical nature of most of the game that covers the pretty flowers in icky red stuff.

Ultimately, “Ghost of Yōtei” just does so much well, from the big storytelling beats to the awe-inspiring landscapes. It might be a bit too long and the combat a bit too repetitive, but those minor flaws are overwhelmed by the captivating story and truly stunning environment. Like a great samurai film, I was actually sad to see it end and wondered when it did how on earth Sucker Punch could top it next time.

The publisher provided a review copy of this title.

In an age of video game remakes and remasters, some developers have taken varying steps to modernize older titles. Last year, Konami and developer Bloober Team took a stab at their first remake of “Silent Hill 2,” which was built from the ground up and gave it both graphical and mechanical overhauls to modernize the horror classic. Remakes like “The Last of Us Part 1” were almost identical to their original versions, which puzzled some fans as the PS4 remaster was perfectly playable according to modern standards.

As a beat-by-beat remake of 2004’s “Metal Gear Solid 3,” 2025’s “Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater” feels like a mix of both, though tilting towards the latter, but it has just enough tweaks and new additions to justify its existence. With drastically improved visuals and a modern control scheme, “Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater” is the definitive way to experience one of the greatest stealth games of all time.

The game takes place in 1964 during the middle of the Cold War between the US and Soviet Union. Our protagonist, Snake (David Hayter), has to infiltrate the Soviet Union in order to rescue a Russian rocket scientist named Sokolov. It does a fantastic job utilizing real-world events to create a riveting historical fiction setting.

There’s a natural sense of escalation when Snake must also stop the Soviet Union from deploying a deadly superweapon that could destroy the US. As a result, the story manages to pull you in and keep you invested. Early on, his mentor, The Boss (Lori Alan), also defects to the Soviet Union, which adds a personal touch to Snake’s journey and makes us empathize with him more. These character dynamics and motivations elevate an already intriguing historical drama into a masterful act of storytelling.

This game is also unafraid of taking the “fiction” part of historical fiction to its limits. Along with confronting The Boss, Snake also has to deal with superhuman freaks like the bio-electrically enhanced madman Volgin (Neil Ross) and The Pain (Gregg Berger), who has the ability to control hornets. They make for eccentric antagonists and exhilarating boss fights that you wouldn’t expect in a seemingly more grounded stealth game. 

It’s a wild and imaginative juxtaposition that makes “Metal Gear” stand out amongst its other stealth game contemporaries. For anyone who’s played “Death Stranding” and its sequel, you can see where director Hideo Kojima’s knack for wacky names and abilities manifested when he created the “Metal Gear” series.

Speaking of characters, “Delta” reuses the original voice lines from the 2004 game, and it’s impressive how well the voice acting has held up even after two decades. Hayter’s gruff portrayal of Snake complements Alan’s motherly tenderness as The Boss. The quality of voice acting wouldn’t sound out of place today, and that’s a testament of the original’s legacy.

For a game that was created in 2004, the original had stealth gameplay mechanics that were ahead of its time and created the foundation that many modern games take inspiration from. While you have the standard stealth game elements like choking enemies out, there are also some light survival mechanics. Snake’s stamina impacts his walking pace, aiming stability, and damage resistance. He’ll need to catch and eat the animals in the jungle to restore it. These mechanics may not be revolutionary by today’s standards, but there’s a sense of nostalgia and familiarity that kept me going.

The game’s unique stealth mechanic, however, is the camo index. You’re able to swap out Snake’s camouflage patterns at any given time. The jungle terrain is filled with various foliage, rocks, and bodies of water, so it’s important to blend in. The camo index displays how well Snake fits into whatever environment he’s currently in and that drastically impacts whether enemies can see him. It adds a strategic element to the stealth gameplay that constantly keeps you engaged with every enemy encounter.

The two aspects of “Delta” that received the biggest makeovers from the original game are the graphics and the controls. All of the characters, including Snake, The Boss, and all other villains and allies look like they underwent plenty of work to make them on par with modern visuals. The new lighting also makes the game’s lush jungle environments more vibrant than before.

However, “Delta” doesn’t take full advantage of current consoles and PC’s power. This game is a literal 1:1 recreation of the original, and that means the gameplay area segments are too. For example, a fortress you visit called Grozynj Grad is split into four different areas. When you travel between them using the doors, you’ll have to go through a loading screen, just like in the original game. Given how much more powerful modern hardware is now compared to the PS2, these segments could have been seamlessly strung together into one large area. Instead, we’re stuck with what was a byproduct of hardware limitations on up-to-date technology and platforms.

Fortunately, “Delta” feels great to play due to a new control scheme aptly called “New Style” which mirrors the one in “Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain.” This lets you run around in a third-person over-the-shoulder view like in modern games such as “Mafia: The Old Country” and “God of War Ragnarok,” as well as rotate the camera freely. The original’s top-down and fixed camera is also preserved in the “Legacy Style” control scheme option for those who want to relive the authentic PS2 experience.

For fans who’ve played the original, this new version will feel right at home. Chronologically, this entry is a prequel, so those who’ve never played a “Metal Gear” game won’t feel intimidated by the franchise’s extensive history and can start with this one. It’s unknown whether we’ll ever get a “Metal Gear Solid 6” given that Kojima has long since departed Konami and his quirky idiosyncrasies would be difficult to replicate, but in the meantime, “Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater” is subsistence enough.

The publisher provided a review copy of this title. It launches on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S on August 29.

Video games and film/TV have long had a symbiotic relationship, influencing one another even more in an era when titles like “The Last of Us” and “Fallout” have become critical darlings in multiple forms. What’s even more entertaining for lovers of film and games is when the influences aren’t quite as direct as the art of adaptation; think of the way Indiana Jones shapes “Uncharted” or the various familiar faces in something like “Death Stranding 2.” Sometimes it’s just the art direction of a well-considered game or, if we’re lucky, the storytelling that echoes the work of a screenwriter instead of a committee. Playing “Mafia: The Old Country” is not unlike watching a 14-episode streaming series, one that pays homage to genre classics like “The Godfather, Part II” and “Once Upon a Time in America” in its telling of a story of a man who rises quite literally from the sulfur mines to the top of organized crime.

In an era dominated by open-world games with RPG elements, the latest from 2K is largely a throwback, offering a contained narrative that avoids the repetition often found in games like this one, which mistakes doing the same thing repeatedly for entertainment. Some will bemoan the short length of “The Old Country” (it’s only about 12 hours, and those who skip conversations or transportation scenes could cut that significantly), but the lean nature of the storytelling here is refreshing in a time when most games are undeniably flabby. If anything, the flirtation with open-world elements like a map that you don’t need and collectibles that can be found around the game world is almost a distraction. I gave up on hunting in the manner I usually do for most open-world RPGs, grabbing collectibles if I found them, but instead focused on the storytelling.

“Mafia: The Old Country” opens in 1904 in Sicily, where Enzo Favara (Riccardo Frascari) works in a deadly mine in the fictional town of San Celeste, previously featured in “Mafia II”. (The game has several connections to previous “Mafia” releases, including little things like a postcard for Empire Bay, the setting of the one that started it all, and big things that we’ve been asked not to spoil.) When greed leads to death in the form of mine explosions, Enzo fights back, assaulting his foreman, who happens to be an underboss in a rising crime family. When Enzo takes shelter in a stable owned by a more powerful don named Torrisi (Johnny Santiago), he finds himself taken in by the charismatic leader, moving to his vineyard estate and running errands for the family. Along the way, he falls for the don’s daughter, Isabella, and the two plan a life together away from all this bloodshed.

While it eventually gets to some traditional third-person shooter combat designed around taking cover and flanking your enemy, “The Old Country” doesn’t exactly come out guns blazing. You learn how to fight with a knife first, a repeated bit of gameplay throughout the game that’s somewhat shallow in terms of mechanics—thrust, swipe, parry, dodge, etc.—but gives the early chapters a different tone than a lot of action games. That old-fashioned sensibility also extends to transportation, as you compete in horse and automobile races that basically serve as tutorials to use them later in the game. It’s also a game that relies more on stealth than combat, a choice that works thematically as well in that Enzo can’t exactly come out of the mines like John Wick. He’s regularly outnumbered and outgunned, forced to sneak his way into position to accomplish his goals.

Now, some of the stealth mechanics give “The Old Country” the feel of a game that’s, well, old. Tossing coins to distract dumb enemies or choking out the ones who always seem to be looking the wrong way is a gameplay mechanic that was dated at least a decade ago. And the sense that the gameplay is working from an outdated template pervades some of the game’s chapters. Maybe it’s because I’m old enough to remember when the first game came out, but I found the old-fashioned gameplay more of a throwback than a bug. Yes, it’s sometimes too simple of a game—most experienced players will only die a couple of times, if that—and there’s a version of “this game that takes more risks with gameplay, but it plays into the sense that this is more like an extended TV series or franchise of films than a challenging video game experience. One person’s homage to old games is another person’s outdated gameplay—I fall more on the former side of the ledger here.

And there’s no denying that “The Old Country” is gorgeous. I enjoyed just driving around the hills of Sicily or walking the small towns along the shore. Markets seem vibrant with people, and the natural elements, such as the expansive Italian sky, are gorgeously rendered. Cut scenes aren’t overwritten or overlong, ending just in time to put you back in the driver’s seat. And the voice work and character design are both phenomenal, with characters feeling fully-considered in ways they rarely are in games like this one, especially the leads.

Again, the world feels like it was initially conceived to house a more open-world concept, with a map and dozens of locations that go entirely unused. However, the decision to scrap that and opt for a straightforward narrative actually makes the game’s setting more entrancing. Even the best open-world games can get exhausting for completionists who want to clear every stronghold and investigate every location. That there’s a church in this game that I drove by a dozen or so times that exists to be a detail in the background feels almost refreshing.

Given its lower price point ($50) and shorter length, “Mafia: The Old Country” will likely be considered a footnote in the legacy of this franchise, especially if they return with a proper “Mafia IV.” But this old-fashioned game critic appreciated this old-fashioned game. Sometimes, going back to basics can highlight the things that too many developers overlook in their effort to pack games with quantity instead of quality. This return to linear storytelling in a robust, well-designed game world reminded me of a different kind of gaming joy. One that’s not exactly like a movie, but not from an entirely different family either.

The publisher provided a review copy of this title. It is now available on PC, Xbox, and PS5.

Frank Herbert’s sci-fi epic Dune and its sequels are notoriously challenging to adapt. Critics met David Lynch’s 1984 “Dune” film with scorn, calling it an inscrutable mess with no clear vision–Roger Ebert said everything from the costumes to the script seemed unfinished–and conflicts with Universal during production reportedly made it one of Lynch’s least favorite projects. Meanwhile, Sci-Fi Channel’s multi-part adaptation, “Frank Herbert’s Dune,” overcorrected and drew criticism for explaining too much and leaving too little to the viewer’s imagination, before Denis Villeneuve turned the novels into two Oscar-winning films. 

Developer Funcom sidestepped all these issues in its new online survival game “Dune: Awakening” by not adapting “Dune” at all, or not the tricky parts, at least. In “Dune: Awakening,” one of the most important events that didn’t happen in Frank Herbert’s novel or the film and TV adaptations does happen: Lady Jessica, concubine of Duke Leto Atreides and member of the Bene Gesserit sisterhood, bears a daughter as instructed by her Reverend Mother. 

This single alteration sets off a chain of events that spins into an alternate timeline that may or may not make sense to you depending on how familiar you are with Suk doctors, Mentats, Kwisatz Haderach, gom jabbars, and all the other staples of Herbert’s world. Like most modern fantasy and sci-fi projects, “Dune: Awakening” is frontloaded with a dizzying number of proper nouns meant to show you it understands the source material and no attempt to make sense of them for anyone who doesn’t have a wiki page close at hand.

Instead of Paul Atreides and Lady Jessica trying to find the Fremen for the Bene Gesserit, an anonymous character created by the player has that task, only the Fremen have vanished. The empire hunts them down, and any trace of their former relationship with House Atreides is, seemingly, gone. Meanwhile, you’re free to help or hinder the Atreides or Harkonnen factions as you see fit, raid wrecked ships for valuable materials, corner the market on spice by cooperating with other players, build a lavish mansion—whatever you see fit. 

What influence the main story and your faction alignments might have on Funcom’s version of Arrakis, if any, is uncertain at this early point in the game’s life, when most people are still building rudimentary bases and trying to outrun sandworms. However, the setup is grounds for exploring Arrakis and Fremen culture in more detail without having to worry about how it fits, or doesn’t, with the world Herbert created. It’s also mostly in the background after the tutorial ends. “Dune: Awakening” encourages you to put the story on hold from time to time and focus on exploration and side quests, so you’re free to do what you like without the heavy hand of “Dune” lore hanging over you.

It’s worth leaving the main path behind as well. What matters more than the specifics of which house was involved in which assassination plot is what life on Arrakis is like, and Funcom adapts that brilliantly. “Dune: Awakening” borrows its basic structure from most survival games. You spend your time exploring, finding resources, crafting tools and machines to make survival on Arrakis easier, and survival is almost all about water management. Proper hydration affects everything from your maximum stamina to your health, to which pieces of equipment are best to wear at a given time. Funcom wisely kept other survival game staples, like fatigue and hunger, out of “Dune: Awakening,” and built the struggle for water and shelter into every part of the game. 

Adventuring during the day exposes you to intense heat, which dehydrates you more quickly, so you run through your water supplies or die in the desert. Any successful endeavor has to be planned around whether you’ll have enough water, if you can find safety from the sun, and whether you have a chance of outrunning an impending sandstorm. Death is a hurdle, but not a major setback, thanks to a forgiving system that lets you keep everything in your pack—unless a sandworm devours you. Almost every expedition sends you into open desert at some point, and there’s always a chance your footsteps might attract a worm’s attention.

The prospect of losing all your items is enough to make the sandworms of “Dune: Awakening” a fright best avoided, but Funcom leaned heavily into the psychology of that fear, giving the worms an almost “Jaws”-like quality. The process starts with a noise meter showing how likely you are to attract unwanted attention. Then the music changes if a sandworm approaches. You can see its heaving mass writhing under the ground as it shifts mountains of sand and changes the landscape. The tumultuous noise when it finally breaches echoes across the region even if you can’t see the beast, a stark warning of what might happen to you if you’re not careful. 

The genre staple of gradually gaining mastery over the environment does not apply to “Dune: Awakening,” even when you can start building heavy weaponry mounted on vehicles, and that’s for the best. Funcom looked for more creative ways to make you feel like you’re progressing in the game beyond just giving you more powerful tools. By the time you need to start mining high-quality ore, for instance, you’re on a part of Arrakis that’s more dangerous and demanding. You need better tools for a better chance of surviving, to dig further into the Fremen’s mysteries, and to establish a foothold on Arrakis—not just to get more items. 

It helps that so much of the grind that’s usually inherent in these experiences is just not here. Resources respawn after half a minute, so even though you need an inordinate amount of things like copper ore and plant fibers for basic crafting projects, acquiring it is rarely a chore. Harvesting items is fast and easy as well, thanks to futuristic tech such as a scanner-and-cutter item that exploits weak points in constructions, destroys them, and drops dozens of items in your bag in less than 10 seconds. The focus in “Dune: Awakening” is firmly on large-scale events such as discovering a new region, building your own dragonfly-like flying machine, or making an economic alliance with other players than it is on the tedium of finding 100 rocks to build another harvesting tool. The magic of science fiction tools might not save you from worms and heat death, but it can save you time.

Funcom might not have broken new ground for interpreting “Dune” by keeping the high politics and religious warfare out of “Dune: Awakening.” However, it’s done more than any adaptation at creating a sense of what it’s like to exist in Herbert’s world, of the desperate grab for resources, the feeling of being at the mercy of an unforgiving ecosystem, and the struggle of making your way in a system that’s just as happy to watch you die as it is to lend a helping hand. The perfect adaptation of Herbert’s novel doesn’t exist, but as combinations of setting and game design go, few do it better than this.

The publisher provided the review copy of this title. Dune: Awakening is available now on PC via Steam.