Bethesda has confirmed The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered does not feature official mod support, but that hasn’t stopping dedicated fans from already pushing out a few unofficial mods of their own.

A handful of community mods made their way to popular website Nexus Mods just hours after Bethesda and Virtuos’ Oblivion reimagining shadow-dropped for players across PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and S. Although these mostly amount to small customization options, it’s proof that few modding communities are as dedicated as those found in The Elder Scrolls fanbase.

At the time of this story’s publication, a surprising 22 mods are available on the site. The first to cross the finish line simply allows PC players to personalize their desktop by replacing the default Oblivion Remastered shortcut with one of two images of its infamous Adoring Fan. More than a few allow players to skip the introduction Bethesda and Vitruos logo screens, while others, including one that tweaks the Wizard’s Fury spell and another that removes the compass, are already tackling options to customize gameplay.

The wave of early mods arrives as Bethesda, which usually encourages mod support in its games, announced that Oblivion Remastered does not feature official mod support this time around. Confirmation that players would need to turn elsewhere for mods was detailed in an FAQ section on its website.

Meanwhile, Nexus Mods user GodschildGaming uploaded their Iron Longsword damage mod in part to show Oblivion Remastered is still ripe for modding.

“This is just to prove modding is possible,” they said in the mod’s description. “Bethesda says no mod support, I say false. It really is Unreal slapped on top of Oblivion, the data folder is nested in a lot more folders but same concept.”

The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered launched today, 19 years after the original, for PC and consoles. As more players get their hands on it in the weeks and months ahead, its pool of mods will only increase and offer more bizarre ways to tailor the experience to your liking. While we wait for more mods to drop, you can read up on why some players think today’s release is more remake than remaster and why Bethesda opted to give it that “Remastered” name in the first place.

We’ve got a comprehensive guide to everything you’ll find in Oblivion Remastered, including an expansive Interactive Map, complete Walkthroughs for the Main Questline and every Guild Quest, How to Build the Perfect Character, Things to Do First, and much more.

Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor with IGN. He’s best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).

If you asked ChatGPT to combine all the most popular action-RPG mechanics in the hopes of creating a single game with broad appeal, you might end up with something as regrettably unfocused as Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree. This 2D sidescroller borrows from soulslikes, metroidvanias, platformers, and more, but it only ever achieves a moderate level of success with any of them and is spread woefully thin in the process. You can see a glimmer of potential in its combat, but that’s immediately undermined by one-dimensional, repetitious enemies with easily evaded attacks; The setting and characters start out intriguing, but quickly devolve into a chain of predictable tropes; And initial lure of running back through previous areas with new abilities becomes monotonous once you get about halfway through and realize how shallow this map really is. None of these missteps are so grievously bad that I outright regretted my time dodge-rolling around the world of Faelduum (apart from the combat), and the deep RPG options the six interesting character classes, dense skill trees, and in-depth equipment and crafting systems provide went quite a long way toward keeping me invested, but this still an otherwise underwhelming adventure in most aspects.

Mandragora’s mix of familiar ideas manages to stand out as its own kind of thing, but no matter what general label you decide to put on it, the important part is that you’re going to be swinging melee weapons, dodge rolling away from attacks, slinging spells, and swinging across gaps with a grapple hook. As you do, you’ll get to know this pessimistic and creepy world, which has been overrun by evil creatures who have left humanity cowering behind city walls. You play as an inquisitor who is sent out into the world in search of evils to kill, all while the creepy voice of a creature you sympathy-murdered whispers things in your head (long story). Unfortunately, that interesting starting point evaporates into a series of extremely lame anti-twists and cliches. For example, there’s not one, but two sections where you meet a character who is obviously the person you’ve been hunting down, but your dumb character believes them when they deny it…only for them to completely shockingly reveal they misled you less than an hour later.

It’s really too bad, because in my early hours I was quite intrigued by the bizarre dark fantasy world filled with 10-foot tall witches, dangerous monsters, and a mysterious cosmic energy called Entropy that seemed like it was going to be a really big problem. There are some great characters to meet too, like the completely unhinged jewel collector, Yrsa, who I always enjoyed bantering with. But that writing, not to mention voice acting, is nowhere near consistent, and you spend a lot of your time hearing from various bad guys about how you can’t possibly defeat them as a mere human. Sounds like someone received a word-a-day calendar filled with bad guy cliches for their birthday!

If there’s one thing Mandragora is consistent about, it is its extremely shallow combat, which pits you against sluggish soldiers and skeletons with hilariously obvious windup animations, pushover rats, and flying bats that are there to annoy you more than anything else. All of them have you simply dodging back and forth each time they take a swing, then getting a few hits in before doing so again. Boss fights are even worse, as most only have three or four unique attacks they hopelessly spam, many of which appear five or more times across the 25-hour campaign, making them feel like rank annoyances that completely betray the difficulty they’re clearly going for. Dying in Mandragora therefore usually has more to do with impatience in trying to get through a certain section of samey enemies or repeated bosses than actual challenge. There are moments where the combat’s promise comes through and you get an energizing 2D duel, like when you come across a new minion with a fresh bag of tricks or during a few of the bigger, more unique boss fights. But I mostly found myself starved for those encounters and immediately upset when they passed and I went straight back to fighting bland suits of armor for a couple more hours.

The main things that make combat more bearable are the skill trees and RPG mechanics you build up and customize along the way, which have some pretty neat options that at least offer new ways to defeat that fourth giant poisonous rat boss. I spent most of my time as a fast-moving assassin with poisonous daggers, teleporting in to close the distance with my enemies, but there’s also spell slinging options and tanky sword-and-board builds, plus the option to cross-pollinate into other skill trees to make yourself a little more well-rounded. For example, I ended up leveling my assassin into my two neighboring magical skill trees to diversify the types of damage I could deal, since poison wasn’t always effective when fighting the sixth giant poisonous rat boss (they seriously like reusing that boss). You’re also able to find and craft loot, tweaking its stats with runic enchantments and all that usual RPG goodness, and that level of buildcrafting depth is one of the ways in which Mandragora stands out.

As a sidescroller, there’s also a fair bit of platforming and secret hunting to be done, but these sections have mostly acted as the most minor of breaks in between combat sequences. There aren’t any puzzles to solve, and the handful of sections that have you dodging traps are mostly extremely obvious obstacles where giant blocks slam up and down with basically no chance of actually crushing you unless you straight up aren’t paying attention. In true metroidvania fashion, you’ll find plenty of spots that are just out of reach until you unlock a certain upgrade, but this too is quite shallow – there’s only a grapple hook, a double jump, and a glide, all of which are spread super far apart.

You’ll see about a hundred opportunities to use a double jump before you get it way too late in the adventure, and not in a tempting, “I can’t wait to get up there” sort of way. The glide is particularly hilarious as you don’t get it until the very last hour, by which point you’ve got little incentive to go back through every area looking for extras before heading into the final stretch. I generally enjoy backtracking for secrets in games like this, but after seeing eight-hours worth of new levels before getting the next upgrade, it’s a bit exhausting to consider retracing all of that just to get a few upgrade materials, especially when you’d be subjecting yourself to the same tedious combat encounters you’ve already completed a bunch of times.

Mandragora also suffers from some mild technical issues. Whenever I played for long stretches at a time, the framerate would gradually begin to tank until it was nearly unplayable. It never outright crashed, but I got to the point where resetting my PlayStation was the only real option, and that would reliably fix the problem for the next six-to-eight hours. I don’t imagine going for that long in one sitting will be the way most people play, though, and I only ever encountered the most minor of problems outside of these marathons, so this might not be an issue if you aren’t an absolute goblin like me.

As a prequel series to a prequel movie, I think plenty of us were surprised by the quality of Andor. The Disney+ series followed perhaps the saddest Star Wars movie, focusing on Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) as he grows from a small-time thief to the revolutionary figure we see in Rogue One. Even knowing where Andor’s story leads, the compelling intrigue and more human stories featured in the Disney+ series culminated in what we believe is the best live-action Star Wars show yet.

Two and a half years later, the show returns for a second and final season, and it’s looking like the wait may have been well worth it. In his 9/10 review, Clint Gage says Andor Season 2 “builds on nearly everything that worked so well about Season 1, and continues fleshing out the prequel era of Star Wars. Ultimately the tale of the unsung heroes of the rebellion, Andor creates very personal stories at the heart of a much larger struggle.”

Andor Season 2 kicks off tonight on the Disney-owned streaming service with a slightly abnormal episode release schedule. Here’s everything you need to know to tune in.

Where to Watch Andor

In what’s gotta be the worst-kept secret in recent gaming memory, Bethesda has shadow-dropped The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered for Xbox, PS5, and PC. If you’re a PC gamer (or a Steam Deck owner, as it’s verified on Deck) you can save some cash, because it’s already on sale for PC. Right now, both Fanatical and Green Man Gaming are offering deals on the Steam version of Oblivion Remastered that drop the price up to 17%. Not bad on a brand-new version of a classic game.

Oblivion Remastered PC Deal

Oblivion Remastered Digital Deluxe Edition

For about $10 more, you can get the digital deluxe edition (which is also on sale at the above retailers). If you do, here’s what you get, in addition to the base game:

• New quests for unique digital Akatosh and Mehrunes Dagon Armors, Weapons, and Horse Armor Sets
• Digital Artbook and Soundtrack App

What’s New in Oblivion Remastered?

This remaster, made by Virtuos Games while Bethesda keeps plugging away at Elder Scrolls VI, has a number of improvements over the original:

• Overhauled visuals including dynamic lighting, updated character models, and remastered environments
• Improved combat and quality-of-life UI enhancements
• Native widescreen and ultra-widescreen support
• Full controller support and Steam Deck compatibility
• Enhanced modding tools for the community

The remaster preserves the massive open world that helped make Oblivion IGN’s Game of the Year 2006 winner, while bringing it in line with contemporary performance standards on Unreal Engine 5.

Chris Reed is a deals expert and commerce editor for IGN. You can follow him on Bluesky @chrislreed.com.

Bethesda Game Studios and Virtuos’ The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered is out now and features a wide range of improvements and tweaks that give the 19-year-old RPG classic a fresh coat of paint.

The team behind the overhaul revealed all during a special broadcast today, hitting the highlights of the biggest changes. It’s a livestream that acted as a showcase for drastically altered visuals as well as a handful of gameplay changes that will have Cyrodiil looking and feeling more foreign than ever, and fans have already taken notice. Although some players are hesitant about some of the many, many changes, most players seem to be happy to have another excuse to dive back into one of Bethesda’s defining games.

Oblivion in Unreal Engine 5

Oblivion is approaching its 20th birthday and is known for some somewhat potato-y character models and stiff animations. It’s part of the charm that has kept the RPG classic in players’ minds for decades, but it’s also something that Bethesda and Virtuos wanted to touch up in the Oblivion remaster.

Models and environments have been rebuilt from the ground up, a new lighting system will make shadows feel more realistic, and lip-syncing technology will spruce up some of those previously awkward conversations. In many ways, Oblivion Remastered looks more like a remake, something many are latching onto as they either return to Cyrodiil or embark for the first time.

“Oblivion Remastered is quite literally a REMAKE,” declared X / Twitter user SynthPotato. “The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion feels more like Remake than Remaster, said HazzadorGamin. “Good job by team Virtuos.” “The Elder Scrolls Oblivion Remastered? Don’t you mean Remake?!” added GamesLover.

The Argonians and the Khajiit in the Oblivion Remaster OMG I LOVE THEM ♥#Oblivion #OblivionRemastered #TES4 #ElderScrolls pic.twitter.com/LeL7oe043Y

— Xylluk The Dragon (@Xylluk) April 22, 2025

YEPP THEY COOKED

OBLIVION REMASTERED LOOKS AMAZING pic.twitter.com/w24YDHKniF

— Michael (@LegacyKillaHD) April 22, 2025

Sprinting Through Cyrodiil

One thing that’s kept Oblivion locked away on PS3 and Xbox 360-era platforms is its visuals, but there has been plenty of room for improvement when it comes to its gameplay, too. Virtuos jumped on the opportunity to modernize the classic formula with a variety of tweaks, with some as small as a cleaner lock-picking system, while others, such as the added ability to sprint, offer massive changes to the formula.

The level-up system now falls somewhere in between the one fans know from Oblivion and the system present in The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim. Third and first-person perspectives have been altered as well, as Virtuos aimed to take advantage of the leaps gaming has made in the last two decades. Whether it’s a surface-level adjustment or a fundamental change, most fans are at least interested to see how 2025 Oblivion stacks up against the original.

“It looks so good. That reveal was amazing,” one Reddit user commented. “So many good decisions with how to handle an Oblivion remake. The UI, keeping the old lock picking instead of pasting in Skyrim/Fallout style, making the leveling a hybrid. My only (very minor) complaint about the reveal was that they kind of spoiled the thieves guild quest line a bit for new players lol.”

For many people, myself included, who didn’t play as much Oblivion or were very young, this is essentially getting a BRAND NEW Elder Scrolls today.#OblivionRemastered pic.twitter.com/wpIoTHSJa6

— Robin (@SpectreRobin) April 22, 2025

Look at character creation. They also showed that Oblivion zoom-in seems to still be there in some capacity for conversation. pic.twitter.com/fWcAD2wKs8

— UESP (@UESP_net) April 22, 2025

Some Things Never Change

While Oblivion Remastered changes so much that many have already started calling it a remake, Bethesda says its goal was to deliver an experience that upgrades the original game without losing what made it special in the first place.

“I think when it comes to a remaster, we want people to feel the way they did then, but it’s still a game of its time,” Bethesda’s Todd Howard said during today’s stream. “You want to keep those bones in place. You want some of that old charm.”

Virtuos carried these ideas into its remaster. Animations still fit with the same clunky awkwardness players have come to love, and so much of that same stiff dialog has been kept intact, too. The team even brought back much of the original cast’s lines, so don’t worry, you’ll still be quoting much of the same lines that have been stuck in your head since 2006. These are choices that fans are already glomming onto.

“I agree with every decision they made,” another Reddit user said. “Keeping old voice actors, adding in new ones to break up the monotony. Updating gameplay, but keeping the old Oblivion bones. Updating the UI but keeping the parchment aesthetic. God damn work can’t end fast enough.”

I love how despite being 20 years ahead and a million times more realistic, Oblivion’s faces still look goofy as hell and the lines still sound utterly hilarious.

Also the quality of these clothing and armor sets is INSANE pic.twitter.com/WCh1OMtE0e

— Synth Potato🥔 (@SynthPotato) April 22, 2025

16yr old me played Oblivion so 34yr old me could play Oblivion almost 20yrs later. #OblivionRemastered https://t.co/7Oaq19fxyD pic.twitter.com/8ZCvQfwqkK

— Kevin G. (@Darktagger) April 22, 2025

Oblivion originally launched for the PC and Xbox 360 in 2006, with its PlayStation 3 release following in 2007. It’s remained a favorite among RPG fans for nearly 20 years, so when rumors of a remake or remaster emerged in the past few months, excitement began to grow. Today’s reveal is anything but a surprise, but it does at least come with a full breakdown of some of the biggest changes to be found when seeing how the classic has been reimagined.

The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered is out now for everyone on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X and S priced $49.99, as well as on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. We’ve got a comprehensive guide to everything you’ll find in Oblivion Remastered, including an expansive Interactive Map, complete Walkthroughs for the Main Questline and every Guild Quest, How to Build the Perfect Character, Things to Do First, and much more.

Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor with IGN. He’s best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).

In Japan, renting a PS5 console has suddenly surged in popularity in recent months. Why are people opting to rent rather than buy Sony’s current gen hardware? The answer is complex, involving console price hikes, a super popular game series, and a particular Japanese retailer’s successful and well-timed new service.

In February, Japan’s GEO Corporation — a chain of around 1,000 stores that rent and sell movies, music and games, began giving customers the chance to rent PS5 consoles. Prices start from an affordable 980 yen (approx. $7) for a week, and 1780 yen (approx. $12.50) for two weeks. This has been a huge success for GEO, with between 80% to 100% of its PS5 consoles rented out at the 400 stores offering the service.

Speaking to ITMedia, GEO’s Yusuke Sakai, the manager in charge of the chain’s rental products, explained that the idea of renting out PS5 consoles came back in summer 2024, when GEO’s DVD and CD rentals were continuing to decline due to the rising popularity of streaming services.

At the time, although PS5s were no longer suffering from supply shortages, there were rumors that PS5 prices would be increased in Japan due to weak exchange rates. On September 2, 2024, Sony did just that, raising the price of the Digital Edition from 59,980 yen (approx. $427) to 72,980 yen (approx. $520), and the disc drive version from 66,980 yen ($477) to 79,980 yen ($569). This domestic price hike was met with much dissatisfaction, with many Japanese users responding to Sony’s official X announcement with complaints that almost 80,000 yen was too expensive for the then four-year-old console.

“At this point, we began to consider whether we could rent out PS5 consoles using our existing rental system,” said GEO’s Sakai. As a chain of stores that has been selling, repairing and renting consoles, DVDs, CDs and other electronics to consumers in Japan since the late 1980s, GEO already had both in-store and online rental systems in place. Due to buying and selling second-hand consoles, it also had staff who were able to repair and factory reset PS5s. This existing expertise reduced costs, enabling the company to offer its PS5 rental service at far lower prices than its competitors (prior to this, other Japanese companies offered PS5 console rental services, but in the region of 4500 to 8900 yen a month). It seems likely that GEO’s low prices have made it easier for anyone who is even slightly curious about trying out a PS5 to pick one up for a week or two, something that has likely contributed to the sudden spike in PS5 rentals.

GEO’s PS5 rental service began on February 28, perfectly coinciding with the launch of Monster Hunter Wilds. Capcom’s Monster Hunter series has enjoyed strong sales and popularity in Japan, however Monster Hunter Wilds’ limited platform availability left many Japanese players concerned as to how they would play the latest installment. Xbox’s comparative lack of popularity in Japan, plus Monster Hunter Wilds’ high PC specs, meant that PS5 seemed like the better option for many players — if not for the console’s hefty price tag.

“We knew that Monster Hunter Wilds was going to be one of the biggest titles of the year, so we made it our top priority to get the service set up in time for that,” explained Sakai.

Sakai added that GEO’s PS5 service ties into the company’s long-held philosophy of enabling customers to try out expensive products for a far lower price, reflecting on how back in the 1980s, a single movie videotape or laserdisc cost around 15,000~20,000 yen to purchase, with GEO making it affordable to rent a movie for around 1,000 yen a night. Nowadays at almost 80,000 yen, a PS5 console is a hefty purchase for most parents to buy for their kids, or for a student to save up for, which could make renting the console a more attractive option for many.

However, renting a PS5 might not be as cheap as it first appears, when you factor in the additional costs, such as renting or buying a game and the need to subscribe to PSN for online play. Also, GEO currently only offers one week and two week plans, charging 500 yen per day if you want to extend your rental period.

Photo by Richard A. Brooks / AFP.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

If you’ve been eyeing the Scarlet & Violet: 151 set — one of the most nostalgia-fueled Pokémon TCG releases in years — chances are you’ve come across the 151 Booster Bundle on Amazon. At $66.65 for just six packs, it might seem like a harmless splurge. But that price? It’s more than double the MSRP.

A standard six-pack bundle should cost around $29.99 to $34.99, making Amazon’s markup not just steep, but straight-up bad value. Despite the flashy marketing and glowing reviews, there’s no guarantee you’ll pull anything even close to worth that price. You’re basically paying premium for the privilege of disappointment.

Pokémon TCG 151 Booster Bundle

Cloudheim, an upcoming action-adventure RPG from developer Noodle Cat Games that we exclusively announced earlier this year, is now showing off its crafting system and shop system in a new gameplay trailer. You can watch it above and take a look at crafting and shop system screenshots in the new gallery below.

Noodle Cat explains that while they hope players will enjoy crafting in Cloudheim, it won’t be forced upon them: “Crafting in Cloudheim doesn’t force players to deeply engage if they don’t want to – you can spend time finding specific materials, or just throw all your loot into stations and see what happens.” Furthermore, there’s also smelting and forging, alchemy, and cooking.

Shopkeeping is also an opt-in gameplay element – but if you’re going to do it, you’d better do it right. “Correctly displaying items (e.g., swords on weapon racks) increases profits,” Noodle Cat explained. “Decorative items and banners improve shop appeal, influencing shopper behavior. Cleanliness and layout also impact success.”

You can wishlist Cloudheim on Steam if you’re interested.

Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s executive editor of previews and host of both IGN’s weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our monthly(-ish) interview show, IGN Unfiltered. He’s a North Jersey guy, so it’s “Taylor ham,” not “pork roll.” Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.

The IGN World Guide for FX’s Alien: Earth launched today, Earth Day 2025, and it provides fans of the acclaimed sci-fi horror franchise an exclusive look at the FX-Hulu series coming this summer.

As part of this launch, we’ve partnered with FX on a tongue-in-cheek Earth Day public service announcement, which can be viewed via the player below.

We’re also rolling out a series of short videos across our social media channels this week chronicling the gestation of a xenomorph in what appeared to be a controlled lab setting … although if the Alien franchise has taught us anything, it’s that xenomorphs can’t be controlled.

From creator Noah Hawley, FX’s Alien: Earth follows a young woman (played by Sydney Chandler) and a band of tactical soldiers who make a fateful discovery after a spaceship crash-lands on Earth.

The series is set in 2120 when, according to its official plot synopsis, “five corporations – Prodigy, Weyland-Yutani, Lynch, Dynamic and Threshold – wield the power of nations, and proprietary advancements in technology provide the promise of a new tomorrow.”

In addition to Sydney Chandler, the cast includes Alex Lawther, Timothy Olyphant, Essie Davis, Samuel Blenkin, Babou Ceesay, David Rysdahl, Adrian Edmondson, Adarsh Gourav, Jonathan Ajayi, Erana James, Lily Newmark, Diem Camille and Moe Bar-El.

For more on the Alien franchise, check out the IGN community’s ranking of the Alien movies and find out how to watch the Alien movies in chronological order.

With poorly lit metal halls, flickering neon lights, a larger than life mechanical sprawl, and a cyborg ninja protagonist, Steel Seed has a lot on the surface that piqued my interest, as I can be easily lured into B-tier sci-fi stories if things look weird enough. Unfortunately, this one is weird in all the wrong ways. Its stealth action and energetic platforming are its best traits, but they are uneven across the roughly 12-hour campaign. Some really cool moments and creatures end up lost amongst miles of dreary and uninspired spaces, overshadowed by frustrating combat and a flimsy story that sap whatever shuddering signs of life this machine had in it.

The problems with Steel Seed start with its hero’s generic presentation. Zoe, awkwardly plucky and earnest daughter of the creator of the dystopia she woke up into, feels completely out of sync with the post-apocalyptic sci-fi world she is in. She’s well-voiced, but not well-written, relying heavily on some vapid self-reflection about a past she can’t fully remember and superhero movie-style banter with her robot pa. Ma’am, you’re the last living human on a planet overrun by killer robots and the only chance to bring humanity back from extinction. I need you to stop quipping and lock in.

Steel Seed is dense with lore about how some major corporation was humanity’s last hope until the CEO (who is also Zoe’s father) got double crossed by whoever and whatever, but its plot is light on interesting happenings or compelling reasons to continue to the next objective outside of “because it’s telling me to.” There’s a part that technically satisfies the literary definition of a plot twist, but you see it coming so far in advance that it might as well be a naked man covered in gold.

You’ll spend a great deal of your time navigating this post-human settlement by hopping on platforms and scurrying up walls. It’s all very reminiscent of the Uncharted games, where shimmying across a ledge could be filled with enough mishaps and jump scares to make the process a tense one. Steel Seed even goes a step further, making its high stakes sequences of sliding through collapsing structures or outrunning gunfire feel way more precarious as it’s pretty easy to fail some of the more intense sections.

Light puzzle mechanics can add some small speed bumps to your progress, often in the form of commanding your R2D2-coded companion, KOBY, to shoot unreachable buttons while your hands and feet are busy keeping you firmly attached to a wall. These were just dynamic enough to stay engaging, which is all I can ask for for a game that has platforming but isn’t entirely focused on that kind of gameplay, a la Astrobot. Things do get more clever in certain chase encounters, where your perspective changes from 3D to 2D in order to outrun enemy fire from the background – but these moments are scarce, and Steel Seed does nothing that clever anywhere else.

The vast environments you’ll be doing all this poking around in are very hit and miss, visually speaking. There are quite a few stretches of pretty generic techno-hallways or oft-troped rust-chic junk yards that don’t really inspire awe if you’ve seen any science fiction ever. But occasionally those halls will be filled with weird little robot bugs, or a X-story tall mech that rivals the scale of some of God of War’s largest creatures will rise to greet you, and you can’t help but think, “they cooked with this one, at least.” Generally, though, there’s very little about the world Zoe is tasked with saving even worth remembering, something me and the amnesiac protagonist have in common.

There are a lot of enemies in all of these spaces looking to stop you from saving the day, and you can take care of them with stealthy wit or brute force. The stages where you find most enemies are rife with nooks and crannies to hide in and precariously placed obstacles to use as distractions, or to cause killing blows themselves. At first stealth is pretty simple thanks to the very slim variety of different bad guys that patrol around, as well your limited starting skills. I was happy to see that blossom into something more robust as time went on, though. Even though you don’t really see more than five different enemy types in any given encounter throughout Steel Seed, each one is so different and they are mixed together well enough to create checkpoints that can be a real challenge to navigate safely.

Sections get larger and more dense with lookouts that have overlapping patrols and vision vectors, and while some of the mid-game scenarios hit the “just right” mix of enemies and area size, the late-game stealth sections drag on way too long. The fairly strict checkpoints also mean you need to start from the beginning of the section if you fail during it, sometimes throwing 15-20 minutes of patient stabbing and enemy hacking directly into the recycling bin when you slip up. You also run out of new ways to take down foes pretty early on, and I found myself setting a lot of the same traps throughout. So while the hunt started tense, it became stale sooner than I’d hoped.

Zoe and KOBY gain more tricks as they progress, but you sort of have to earn the ability to buy them with the points you find by breaking containers or enemy robots, completing what can often feel like busy work first. Kill five enemies without being seen and you’ll earn the privilege of buying the extremely useful glitch mine skill, which goes a long way towards killing bots without being seen. A lot of the skills have requirements that can come naturally through play, like scanning a number of enemies individually in order to unlock a version of the scan that hits everything of interest in a small zone – ,but others were more tedious tasks, such as searching the mostly bland locations for hidden pick-ups or completing more challenging skill tests like killing a certain amount of enemies a specific way in a small window of time, which were things I happily avoided.

I less than happily avoided outright combat like a computer virus, though. From the buggy lock-on that lets you focus on an enemy but will still pull you towards other nearby foes, to the mashy attack strings with mushy responsiveness, to the dry attack animations from both Zoe and all of her victims, confronting your foes directly is generally a mess. None of the skills you unlock make combat feel any better, despite giving you some admittedly strong options for late-game encounters that can spin out of control with the number of potential participants in any given melee, attacking from off screen with reckless abandon. By the end of the campaign, if I got caught during a stealth section, I’d more often just reload at the last checkpoint than clean up the foes that caught me because it was simply less boring that way. Zones where you have no choice but to fight in open combat were consistently my least favorite parts of the Steel Seed, but mercifully, they are few and far between.