Games Review

Games Review



 open to the public, so anyone with about  can come inside and see what’s on the horizon. The sense of excitement and enthusiasm around the event is contagious, and it’s one of the reasons I look forward to going to Germany every year to attend. This year my days were packed, and I saw a lot of games.

By Max



Borderlands 3


Gearbox outlined some of what players can expect from the shooter’s endgame content. In addition to the return of Circle of Slaughter, a hordelike, wave-based mode, Borderlands 3 introduces Proving Grounds. These side missions are unlocked by discovering hidden Eridian language fragments throughout the world. Unlike Circle of Slaughter, which has enemies assaulting players in a small area, Proving Grounds has more of a linear A to B structure. I played one of these missions as the pet handler Fl4k, where I had to fight a variety of skags and spiderants – including a queen and king variant – while working my way through the mission path. Proving Grounds is designed to be replayable, and there are optional goals to achieve. I didn’t make it through without dying (I blame my pet, even though it wasn’t probably the pupper’s fault), but I did beat the final boss in the allotted time and mopped up all the enemies. Because of that, the chest at the end of the stage held better loot for me, including a sniper-shotgun frankengun. Seeing a few of the objective checkmarks left blank only made me want to dive back in and do better next time. Next time isn’t long away, either.




Iron Danger

I’d never heard of Iron Danger before the show, and I’m glad I took the time to check out Action Squad Studios’ game. It’s a tactical RPG, which isn’t usually my thing, but the introduction of a timeline that players can scrub through like a video player makes defeat sting a lot less than in other games in the genre. The tagline says, “You will die, but you will not fail,” which is an appropriate sentiment. You play as a mage, and you and your party members fight against a variety of foes including 30-foot-tall steampunk automatons. Fortunately, you can swap between the real-time adventure mode to trance mode, where you advance and rewind time at your leisure. If you’re discovered or kil-led, you’re able to rewind time up to five seconds. You can also use that ability to have one character toss an explosive barrel, rewind, and do it again with the other – so they throw them in a coordinated at-tack. I watched a lengthy sequence where the party set up a trap, lured enemies over with a sound, and felled a tree to detonate it all. It didn’t work well at first, but thanks to rewinding and experimentation, it eventually resulted in a blast that wiped the enemies out in one massive explosion. It’s a more elegant alternative to save-scumming, which the devs say allows them to make enemies and encounters more challenging.