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Metro
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Metro
Top 5 video game developers that have wasted their talents - Reader's Feature
A reader lists the five developers he believes have squandered their abilities, from The Last Of Us maker Naughty Dog to Metal Gear's Hideo Kojima. There is a problem with video games that has become very apparent in recent years, which is that they now take a lot longer to make than they used to (and need a lot more money). Even casual gamers are becoming aware of the problem but one of the knock-on effects of a game taking six or more years to make is that some developers are producing only one game a generation, and sometimes not even managing that. Not only that but they have to choose what it is they're making even more carefully. You can't risk anything too experimental if it's going to cost a fortune and be your only way of generating money for another six years. I feel this is a big reason behind the problems in gaming at the moment and I also think it's making some of the already self-destructive tendencies of some developers even worse. Sadly, I had quite a few ideas for this list and at one point was going to include FromSoftware, because they seem stuck making nothing but Soulslikes. But since they're all really good, and they did make that weird VR game that nobody played, they didn't make the cut. I also considered Bethesda, but their problem is not that they're wasting their talents but that they refuse to learn from their mistakes or get other people to help them. We should be on Fallout: New Vegas 3 by now but either Bethesda are too arrogant or too controlling to stop with the micro-management. Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter for a unique take on the week in gaming, alongside the latest reviews and more. Delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning. In the 2000s, Bungie would've easily made the top five of anyone's list of the best developers. They were on fire with the Halo series, and they seemed to do the right thing by leaving it while they were on top and making a big hit of Destiny. But then they fell out with Activision and Destiny 2 went on a sharp decline that it's clearly never getting out of. For the last few years there's been talk of Bungie doing lots of other games that aren't first person shooters but in the end all they've announced is Marathon, which is clearly dead on arrival. They've completely wasted the last 10 years (bad management is the reason always given) and if they're even still around by the end of the year I'll be shocked. The problem with Naughty Dog is that, in terms of basic gameplay, they've been making the same game for nearly two decades now. Uncharted and The Last Of Us might have different tones but they still play the same and I'm really getting tired of it. There never needed to be a The Last Of Us Part 2 – there certainly never needed to be a remake of Part 1 – but they're kind of trapped by their own success, like a typecast movie star. I'm hopeful that Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet will be something different but I have a feeling we'll still be throwing rocks to distract bad guys at some point. I'd just like to see them do something different and inventive, not the same old games where the only thing that's different is the story. In their early days Naughty Dog used to make Crash Bandicoot and Jak And Daxter but Rockstar used to be even more varied, with everything from Smuggler's Run to Midnight Club, Oni, Manhunt, and Max Payne. Heck, technically they used to make Lemmings. Now though they make GTA or GTA in the Wild West and that's it. When Rockstar were coming into their own they used their success to do whatever they wanted, whether it was a table tennis game or a game of The Warriors. They didn't seem to care as long as it was something that interested them. But now that GTA is the biggest thing ever, that success has got too much and they're stuck making only sequels and never inventing anything new. Hideo Kojima isn't quite like these other picks because not only is he just one guy but none of his games, not even Metal Gear Solid, have been that big. But that's not the point. The problem is that one of the world's most celebrated developers has been stuck working on the same franchise (that was past its sell by date by the fourth entry) for 80% of his career. And then, when he broke away and started up his own company, he made a weird, bonkers game and then followed that up with… a sequel that hardly did anything different and completely didn't need to exist. I say this as a fan too, because I do admire the man, but there's an alternative timeline out there where he's made a completely different game every time and I wish that was the one we lived in. No matter what these other companies have done, whether it's being victims of their own success or management problems, Valve will always be the most disappointing. When they made Portal 2 in 2011 they were on top of the world, unstoppable and unquestionably one of the best video game developers in the world. Now? They just run Steam and don't really make games anymore. More Trending They definitely haven't made a normal single-player game since Portal and at this point I don't think there's any reason to expect they ever will. But why? Why throw away all that expertise? Didn't the people at Valve enjoy making video games? Wasn't it satisfying, and lucrative, to have so many hit games, one after another? I just don't get it; it's such a waste. By reader Goldie The reader's features do not necessarily represent the views of GameCentral or Metro. You can submit your own 500 to 600-word reader feature at any time, which if used will be published in the next appropriate weekend slot. Just contact us at gamecentral@ or use our Submit Stuff page and you won't need to send an email. MORE: Road Rash Is the best Sega Mega Drive racing game – Reader's Feature MORE: Why is Nintendo trying to make the Switch 2 seem so unexciting? - Reader's Feature MORE: The video game that made me fall in love with gaming - Reader's Feature
Metro
08-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Metro
Empyreal review – more than just Dark Souls with guns
Empyreal – not all Soulslikes are alike (Secret Mode) A new indie Soulslike is no mere imitation, as Empyreal offers a clever mixture of guns, melee combat, and a very unusual role-playing system. Genres can be a slippery thing. Given how many years it takes to make modern video games, summing them up in a couple of words ought to be harder, but in most cases you can tell a driving game from a first person shooter within seconds. Deciding whether something's an action role-player or an action adventure can take a little longer but, at least in previous generations, most games were fairly clear cut. Empyreal is at heart an action role-player but with a number of very specific influences. It has fast-paced battles yielding loot, which you use to increase your power, as well as a strong Soulslike influence in its complex architectural level design and the occasional boss that can be a nasty surprise. It's also got a few roguelite hallmarks, getting you to repeat levels over and over again with differing configurations of loot and enemies. The game's plot involves you as part of a skeleton crew visiting a desolate alien world, where a vast black monolith has been discovered. Soldiers sent inside never return and the odd person that manages to escape is so traumatised by the experience they refuse to talk about it. When you arrive on the scene nobody knows what's going on. What's the monolith for? And why is there absolutely no sign of the civilisation that built it? Entering via a massive circular portal, your first trip into the towering structure reveals dilapidated brick ruins populated by groups of armed robots who immediately attack you. When you fight your way through them all and get to the exit, you find out from fellow expedition members that what you've seen is just a small taster. The monolith is actually immensely bigger on the inside than even its colossal exterior would imply. Divided into four quadrants, your job is to explore each, attempting to get an idea of its layout and above all its purpose. Rumours around the camp suggest it could be an elaborately designed prison for a murderous entity, and that exploring it is a very bad idea. Naturally you're unmoved by that sort of gossip, continuing the process of uncovering the monolith's labyrinthine interior. Your starter weapon is decided by the background you choose for your character during customisation. On subsequent forays through the portal, you can choose to be equipped with the nimble, bladed glaive; the heavy mace and shield; or a portable cannon. The latter, in particular, proves highly unusual in its mechanics. Rather than choosing a gun type and picking up ammunition for it, you equip the cannon with shotgun shells, gatling rounds or sniper bullets simply by timing your reload differently, effectively changing the kind of gun you're using as situations dictate. Added to that, if you time it perfectly and hit the sweet spot while reloading the whole magazine comes with higher powered rounds, a process you can repeat two more times for supercharged ammo. It makes combat varied and flexible, and means you're no longer subject to the game designer's whim when it comes to which weapon you can use. Instead, you make your own choices and change your mind as you see fit. Since you'll be taking on diverse groups of enemy robots at a variety of ranges, that's a useful feature. With the cannon you can dodge incoming attacks, while using the glaive you can also parry. The mace is too heavy for dodging but does let you parry, giving each of the three armament set-ups their own unique feel. Unlike ammo, you can't change your weapons loadout on the fly and instead you need to visit one of the armament tables in the game's hub between runs. In the hub you can unlock artefacts you loot – like decoding engrams in Destiny – before equipping or selling them. You can also shop for consumables and, like Hades, chat to characters you meet. It's sparsely populated, so you get to know everybody reasonably early on: there's John the friendly Yorkshire blacksmith who likes his Newcastle Brown, Edmund your irascible commander, Raulin the war story-telling Scottish quartermaster, and a scattering of other misfits. The closest thing yet to a Soulslike shooter (Secret Mode) Intriguingly, each has their own quest line with potential fail states and multiple endings, so what you decide to say to them and which goals of theirs you fulfil, have a lasting effect on what happens at HQ. It also allows the game to drip feed plot and lore to you, because much like Souls games, not much is explicitly stated. Instead, you're left to infer almost everything from trial, error, and experience. Making progress involves two things. For your character, equipping higher level gear increases your power. There are no experience points, just an average level across every piece of kit you have equipped. The second is to install mods, which increase or add new bonuses to gear you own. It's another odd system, often bartering part of one stat to add to another, but like everything in Empyreal, you do eventually get the hang of it. Each of the four quadrants has a distinct biome and personality, although the enemies you meet, what elemental attacks they use, and the level and types of loot available, are governed by cartograms. You'll find those along with loot as you win fights, and each one gives discreet access to part of one of the quadrants, with its own unique mix of enemies and loot. The trick is that each cartogram comes a finite number of reset charges, which let you continue when you die. Use them up and you you're stuck with just one life, and cartograms themselves are destroyed when you complete them, defeating the final boss and extracting your gathered loot. Fortunately, they're in plentiful supply so you never run out, but if there's a particular area you're keen to see more of, it can take a while to find that specific cartogram again. It took us about 10 hours to get to the final boss, and a couple more to get back to it and see it off, but Empyreal is designed with New Game+ in mind, which lets you continue levelling and explore parts of each gargantuan quadrant that you had previously not seen, or were killed too quickly to fully appreciate. It's an excellent way to experience in-game systems created to change subtly as your powers increase. Inevitably a sense of repetition does set in. Despite their scale, levels are finite and handcrafted – no procedural generation here – and even though you'll be fighting different enemies and bosses, there does come a point where you feel as though you've seen all you need to. Fights are brutal and fast, with many attacks coming from offscreen, meaning you need to block or dodge as a matter of routine. For those used to FromSoftware's weightier, more measured combat, this may seem too scattershot, even if most of its encounters still manage to feel satisfying. The other minor concern is camera control. With no lock-on and multiple enemies having at you at any given time, it can be tough to know where to look, and the fast-moving manually controlled camera frequently adds to the sense of barely controlled chaos. The splashy special moves you constantly trigger only add to that. Still, the fights are intense and the exploration full of secrets and surprises. You'll often find a lengthy new path unexpectedly loops back to places you thought you knew well, a previously locked door in an empty room turning out to be the way back from your freshly discovered meander. It may be a bit rough around the edges, but Empyreal is loaded with good ideas and innovative thinking. It borrows from a range of popular sources but has plenty of entirely original ideas of its own. Given its open-ended structure, and levels created to hide secrets even after multiple visits, Empyreal is a refreshingly different experience that's reminiscent of multiple other games without ever copying any of them exactly. Empyreal review summary In Short: A complex interconnection of influences results in a game that's both familiar and interestingly unique, with a few rough edges compensated for by excellent combat and role-playing systems. Pros: A fascinating game world to explore, its four quadrants proving far larger and less predictable than anticipated. Great bosses and enemy variety, with an engaging role-playing meta game. Cons: Manual camera is not helpful, especially in a fight. Many attacks arrive unflagged from offscreen and the game does eventually get repetitive. Score: 7/10 Formats: PlayStation 5 (reviewed), Xbox Series X/S, and PC Price: TBA Publisher: Secret Mode Developer: Silent Games Release Date: 8th May 2025 Age Rating: 16 Unlike most Soulslikes, it's not that hard (Secret Mode) Email gamecentral@ leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter, and sign-up to our newsletter. To submit Inbox letters and Reader's Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here. For more stories like this, check our Gaming page. Arrow MORE: Games Inbox: Is GTA 6 the most anticipated video game ever? 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