One of the most exciting things about video games is their diversity.
They come in many different shapes, sizes and styles. Some are so detailed they blur the lines between what's virtual and what's real life. Other times, the true magic is found in how they play with graphics, sound, and lighting. While one might take a few short hours, others can go on indefinitely.
This week's game releases prove that a good story can take any form. From an unsettling pixel-retelling of World War I, to an expansion of James Cameron's jaw-dropping Avatar, to an anime-styled action gacha and more, there's something for everyone to enjoy in the gaming world.
Conscript
Set in the twisting trenches of Verdun during World War 1, Conscript is a survival horror game that brings the brutality and atmosphere of conflict to the forefront. Its unique visuals and punishing gameplay will grip you from the offset.
You play as Andre, a lone soldier looking for his brother Pierre on the frontline. Though the future is bleak for both men, Andre must find the strength and resilience to endure the unimaginable terror of war.
At its core, Conscript is a game that plays on your senses. The screen and controller shake at just the right moments. You hear the distant screams of a soldier in agony. You can never quite see what's ahead of you. And when you do – you need to react. Fast. Bombs, fire and gas erupt in an instant. Resources are scarce and cause your eyes to scan the environment endlessly for help. All the while, Andre's heartbeat thuds in the background.
In this way, the game becomes an atmospheric rollercoaster, subjecting you to regular doses of paranoia. As you pivot between hiding spots, enemies appear from the dark or from corners to stalk you. Areas you thought safe will constantly surprise you at the worst possible moments. Just like any wartime experience, combat is high-stakes on virtually every occasion.
Although there are various difficulty settings, fighting on Normal still proved quite a challenge for me. Fighting requires a multitude of skills and strategies, including precise dodging, quickly swapping between various weapons on the fly, and ultimately knowing when to run for it. As you spray through your limited ammo supply, you'll need to close the gap quickly and resort to melee weapons to fend off your fellow man.
There are also elements of strategy and resource management sprinkled throughout Conscript. André can erect barbed wire barricades to stop future ambushes in specific chokeholds. He can also drop grenades in trench rat nests to prevent them from surfacing later to attack. Believe me when I say you need to take out these feral creatures at your earliest opportunity.
Tents and trenches you step into are often barely visible. You'll thread carefully by instinct, trying to catch a glimpse of what's ahead, all the while carefully watching your dwindling health bar. Despite the promised fear around every corner, something about Conscript begs you to explore it. You will search endlessly around rooms just for the chance of a clue, a key, or a helpful item. Every bloodied room, every nook and cranny, and every lifeless soldier you pass by will be interrogated.
Combat aside, Conscript is also a surprisingly complex puzzle game. This can be both a blessing or a curse, depending on how patient and determined you're feeling. Solutions continue to grow in difficulty, requiring multiple items throughout levels to progress.
Need a specific key or lock pick? Wire cutters to dismantle a booby-trapped door? Found a lighter but need fluid? Well, it's up to you to find these barely visible items across Conscript's dark labyrinth. You'll have to commit problems to memory, combine items, and return to locations to make some progress elsewhere.
Another way Conscript brings you into the headspace of a desperate soldier is through its items. Cigarettes are now a form of currency used to buy essential equipment. Documents and soldier possessions you come across paint an even more harrowing picture of the conditions you're walking through. Managing your backpack's tiny space is a war in and of itself, as you painstakingly balance space for ammo, weapons, healthcare and quest items.
Ultimately, Conscript is a twisted, tortured recap of World War 1. With creative pixel graphics, expert use of lighting and sound, and a multitude of challenges, the horrors of Verdun are brought to visceral life. It highlights the tense and barbaric nature of war in a way only a video game can.
Conscript is available to play on PlayStation 4/5, Xbox One, Xbox X/S, Nintendo Switch and PC
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora – The Sky Breaker
Releasing during the competitive Christmas period of 2023, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora delivered an immersive, open-world experience whose visuals rivalled that of its multi-billion-dollar source material. Whether taking to the skies or traversing the forest floors, you were given a front-row seat to mesmerising graphics that wouldn't look out of place in the cinema.
Gamers will be delighted to know plenty more stories are left in the Na'vi wheelhouse, as Frontiers of Pandora has just released its first DLC, The Sky Breaker. Continuing from the base game, the Na'vi clans are celebrating a great festival of games, not unlike their version of the Olympics. All seems well until a mysterious shadow looms in the sky.
Smiling faces are replaced with grimaces. Laughter with ferocious roars. It seems the battle to protect their homeland begins anew. Players must wage war against the cruel RDA again, who are as determined as ever to reap the planet's precious resources by whatever means necessary.
The story will be familiar to fans even before the game loads. But I feel Sky Breaker isn't aiming to wow you with plot twists and dramatics galore. Rather, it's through breathtaking environments and first-person gameplay that this Avatar story is told.
Somehow, the DLC manages to elevate the base game's extraordinary landscapes even further. Familiar biomes are now literally in bloom. New biomes, like the Prism Fields and Stone Rapids, invite you to uncover and explore every crevice of the planet. It goes without saying that the game's photo mode will be your best friend throughout.
Sky Breaker also introduces new timed challenges players can take on to earn new gear and claim ultimate clan bragging rights. Combat is just as demanding as you remember, and new enemies with powerful shields and weapons offer some new challenges along the way.
Overall, this first DLC offering from Avatar will appease many of its core fans, giving them more of what they already enjoy about Pandora. Upgrading to the Season Pass will also unlock another future DLC scheduled for release in autumn. Called Secrets of the Spire, it promises epic aerial combat, new regions to explore, and even more reasons to give the gaming edition of Avatar your time and attention.
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is available to play on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC
Zenless Zone Zero
Gacha games have become a mainstream staple these past few years. Free-to-play but with a host of luck-based microtransactions, their financial success eclipses many big names in the industry. Developer Hoyoverse, responsible for giants like Genshin Impact and Honkai Star Rail, is back with yet another entry into the genre: Zenless Zone Zero.
This action RPG takes place in New Eridu, a sci-fi-inspired post-apocalyptic metropolis with new mechanics, characters, and action-packed gameplay. You play as either Belle or Wise, a 'Proxy' whose job is to guide characters through dimensional rifts known as the Hollows. These rifts are primed with high-quality resources to collect but also ferocious monsters to overcome.
Controlling a party of three, you switch between characters in quick succession, all the while button-bashing, chaining combos, and using their unique abilities to exploit enemy weaknesses. Combat is simple, quick, fluid, and incredibly satisfying. At virtually every point, your screen will be an explosion of animations and damaged figures.
A wide array of puzzles interjected between combat cycles and being set in a unique world filled with zany characters means that Zenless is just as fun to explore as it is to fight through. But it's worth remembering that this is a gacha game. While you can download, play and enjoy the game for free, many new and upcoming characters will be locked behind luck-based wishing systems.
In theory, you could get these characters spending meagre resources earned in the game. But the odds are almost always stacked against you, and you'll be incentivised to reach for the wallet as a shortcut.
Optional payments aside, as a live-service game, Zenless Zone Zero's real test will be the quality of its future updates. Will it keep the momentum going? If Hoyoverse's previous games are any indicator, expect this to become another behemoth in the gacha scene for years to come.
Zenless Zone Zero is available to play on PlayStation 5, PC, and Android and iOS devices
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