Every month, Xbox brings new titles to its Xbox Game Pass subscription service.
Normally, these come in two waves and now, the company has revealed what’s hitting Game Pass in the second half of August, with notable titles like Immortals Fenyx Rising and Midnight Fight Express included in the batch.
See below for the full list of new titles coming to Xbox Game Pass in the second half of August:
Coffee Talk (Cloud, Console, and PC) – Available today
Midnight Fight Express (Cloud, Console, and PC) – August 23rd
Exapunks (PC) – August 25th
Opus: Echo of Starsong – Full Bloom Edition (Console and PC) – August 25th
Commandos 3 – HD Remaster (Cloud, Console, and PC) – August 30th
Immortality (Cloud, PC, Xbox Series X|S) – August 30th
Immortals Fenyx Rising (Cloud, Console, and PC) – August 30th
Tinykin (Console and PC) – August 30th
Meanwhile, the following 16 games have received Xbox Touch Controls on mobile:
Chorus
Coffee Talk
Dragon Age 2
Dragon Age Origins
Floppy Knights
Matchpoint
MLB The Show 22
My Friend Peppa Pig
Paw Patrol The Movie: Adventure City Calls
Skate
Star Wars: Squadrons
Super Mega Baseball 3
TMNT Shredder’s Revenge
Turbo Golf Racing
Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion
Here are the titles leaving Game Pass on August 31st:
Elite Dangerous (Cloud and Console)
Hades (Cloud, Console, and PC)
Myst (Cloud, Console, and PC)
NBA 2K22 (Cloud and Console)
Signs of the Sojourner (Cloud, Console, and PC)
Spiritfarer (Cloud, Console, and PC)
Twelve Minutes (Cloud, Console, and PC)
Two Point Hospital (Cloud, Console, and PC)
What Remains of Edith Finch (Cloud, Console, and PC)
World War Z (Cloud, Console, and PC)
As always, Game Pass subscribers can take advantage of an exclusive 20 percent discount to purchase any game in the catalogue and keep playing even after it leaves Game Pass.
Microsoft has confirmed that its last-gen Xbox One console sold less than half of what Sony’s rival PS4 did.
The Redmond, Washington-based tech giant noted the sales data in a broader filing to Brazil’s national competition regulator about its pending acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
“Sony has surpassed Microsoft in terms of console sales and installed base, having sold more than twice as many Xbox in the last generation,” Microsoft wrote in the documents, as translated from Portuguese by Game Luster.
This is particularly notable because Microsoft stopped sharing Xbox One sales data in 2016. Therefore, while it’s been clear that the PS4 had been performing better than the Xbox One, analysts have only had to estimate a more precise margin.
For context, the PS4 topped 117 million units sold as of March 2022, which would work out to Xbox One sales of fewer than 58.5 million. This is in line with Ampere Analysis’ report that the Xbox One reached 51 million units sold as of Q2 2020.
That said, Microsoft still doesn’t reveal Xbox hardware sales data, even in this new console generation. However, Ampere Analysis reported earlier this year that “Sony ended 2021 with PS5 cumulative sell-through reaching 17 million units, around 1.6 times the performance of Xbox Series sales,” suggesting that Xbox is closing the gap. In Microsoft’s most recent quarterly earnings call, company CEO Satya Nadella also claimed that Xbox has “been the market leader in North America for three quarters in a row among [current-gen] consoles.”
It should be noted, though, that Microsoft and Sony’s hardware strategies are somewhat different, as there are two different current-gen Xbox consoles, the Xbox Series X and Series S. The former is a beefier, 4K-capable model, while the latter is a lower-cost, smaller hardware upgrade over the Xbox One. Naturally, the Series S’ price point of $379 positions it as an affordable entry point into the current generation, especially when the Xbox Series X and standard PS5 cost $599 and $629, respectively.
Of course, it’s still early in the consoles’ lifecycles, as both families of devices launched in late 2020. There’s also a global semiconductor shortage that has constrained the supply of all of the consoles, an issue that the PS4 and Xbox One generation didn’t have to deal with. Therefore, it remains to be seen how this generation will play out in the years to come, especially as Microsoft further dives into a more platform-agnostic approach which includes Xbox consoles, PC and streaming.
Microsoft’s long-awaited admission of the Xbox One’s sales comes as the company is working to get its Activision Blizzard buyout deal approved in Brazil and other markets. As part of that process, the company is arguing with Sony over various aspects of the gaming industry, particularly whether Microsoft owning Activision’sCall of Duty series would be anti-competitive and unfair to PlayStation.
Microsoft has accused Sony of paying for “blocking rights” to keep games off services like its own Xbox Game Pass.
The Redmond, Washington-based tech giant made the claims in documents filed with Brazil’s national competition regulator as part of a review of its pending acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
“Microsoft’s ability to continue expanding Game Pass has been hampered by Sony’s desire to inhibit such growth,” Microsoft claimed in an August 9th filing to the Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE), as translated from Portuguese. “Sony pays for ‘blocking rights’ to prevent developers from adding content to Game Pass and other competing subscription services.
Sony is arguing that Microsoft’s planned acquisition of Activision Blizzard would be anti-competitive, specifically arguing that it could pull Call of Duty players — a large and lucrative audience — from PlayStation to Xbox. In particular, Sony says Microsoft would do this by making Call of Duty available on its popular Xbox Game Pass service. In response, Microsoft has brought up the purported Sony “blocking rights” while also reiterating plans to continue to release Call of Duty on PlayStation should the acquisition be approved.
It should be noted, though, that specifics regarding Sony’s alleged “blocking rights” deals were not provided, so it’s unclear whether they’re supposedly short-term (i.e. one year) or more long-lasting. We do know, however, that exclusivity deals for games have grown increasingly complicated amid the advent of streaming services. For example, during the major Epic Games v. Apple trial over the past two years, it was revealed that Microsoft was looking into lowering its PC games revenue split in exchange for securing streaming rights.
In any case, this is just another variation on the time-old business strategy of exclusivity, which PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo all take part in. To that point, VentureBeat‘s Jeff Grubb, a credible industry insider, responded to this “blocking rights” news by stating that “this is what exclusivity is” when it comes to games.
“Companies almost never pay to make a game truly exclusive, they instead pay to keep a game off of one console,” he said. “Or Epic pays to keep a game off of Steam, but you can get it everywhere else.”
This is what exclusivity is. Companies almost never pay to make a game truly exclusive, they instead pay to keep a game off of one console. Or Epic pays to keep a game off of Steam, but you can get it everywhere else. https://t.co/hm4v9NIZtF
Responding to a tweet from The Verge‘s Tom Warren that this “doesn’t feel like the ‘traditional’ concept of exclusivity,” Grubb added that “none of this is the traditional idea of ‘exclusivity.’” Instead, he says, “companies [are] just trading specific favors for cash in an attempt to position themselves as best as possible.”
Looking at what game companies have been doing in recent years, it’s easy to see what Grubb means. By and large, the platform holders have been paying to have titles debut first on their platforms before they can eventually release elsewhere. With Xbox, this has been the case with games like Cuphead, 12 Minutes, Below, Nobody Saves the World! and The Medium, which all came to PlayStation and/or Nintendo consoles at later dates. Similar situations have happened with PlayStation with the likes of Persona 5, Final Fantasy VII Remake, Death Stranding, Nier Automata and Bugsnax.
Otherwise, “traditional” exclusives — games that permanently remain on a single console or family of consoles — tend to come from studios that these publishers own, like God of War (PlayStation’s Sony Santa Monica), Halo Infinite (Xbox’s 343 Industries) or The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Nintendo EPD). There are also special instances in which an once-multiplatform series becomes exclusive because a publisher stepped in to foot the bill, like Nintendo helping to fund Bayonetta 2 and 3 and Marvel’s Ultimate Alliance 3, which were then only released on Nintendo platforms.
On one hand, it remains the most comfortable and highest quality feeling gamepad I’ve ever used, but on the other, it offers an unacceptable mess of quality control issues that make its steep $229 price tag not worth it.
I outline my ongoing saga of problems with the Series 2 in this story, but in short, its face buttons — ‘X,’ ‘Y,’ ‘B,’ ‘A’ — are sometimes unresponsive. Most recently, I also encountered problems with the Series 2’s left joystick, where it doesn’t click in anymore.
Back in 2020, Microsoft extended the gamepad’s warranty from 90 days to one year following reports of issues, but even repaired controllers still suffer from problems. It’s also worth noting that Microsoft’s first-gen Elite gamepad also suffered from problems.
With all of this in mind, a brief unboxing video, uploaded to YouTube by an account tied to the name Nicholas Lugo, shows off a white Xbox Elite Series 2 gamepad. It’s unclear where the video’s creator purchased the gamepad beyond that it was bought in the U.S., but it seems to be legitimate.
The controller features black arm grips and a white centre. It also includes the standard paddles, joysticks and face buttons featured on the black Series 2 controller.
Hopefully, if this white Elite Series 2 does get released, Microsoft has solved its several quality issues. That said, a special edition Halo Infinite Elite Series 2 dropped a few months ago, and it still suffers from reliability issues.
Every month, Xbox brings new titles to its Xbox Game Pass subscription service.
Normally, these come in two waves and now, the company has revealed what’s hitting Game Pass in the first half of August 2022.
Ghost Recon Wildlands (Cloud, Console and PC) — August 2nd
Shenzhen I/O (PC) — August 4th
Turbo Golf Racing (Cloud, PC and Xbox Series X|S) — August 4th
Two Point Campus (Cloud, Console and PC) — August 9th
Cooking Simulator (Cloud, Console and PC) — August 11th
Expeditions: Rome (PC) — August 11th
Offworld Trading Company (PC) — August 11th
Additionally, here’s what’s leaving Game Pass on August 15th:
Boyfriend Dungeon (Cloud, Console and PC)
Curse of the Dead Gods (Cloud, Console and PC)
Library of Ruina (Cloud, Console and PC)
Starmancer (PC Game Preview)
Train Sim World 2 (Cloud, Console and PC)
As always, Game Pass subscribers can take advantage of an exclusive 20 percent discount to purchase any game in the catalogue and keep playing even after it leaves Game Pass.
Where do you go when the last mainline entry in your series had your main character becoming the U.S. president, getting superpowers and thwarting an alien invasion?
That’s the question developer Volition had to ask when rebooting its popular Saints Row series after 2013’s Saints Row IV. After all, how much more outlandish could you get? Even as someone who enjoyed that delightfully ridiculous premise, the series clearly needed a reinvention.
It’s for that reason that I’ve been more open-minded about the reboot, simply titled Saints Row, as others have been skeptical. And after playing about four hours of Saints Row (2022) at a Las Vegas preview event, I’ve come away quite pleased with the new direction.
I don’t have friends — I got family
From left to right: Kevin, one possible version of The Boss, Eli and Neenah.
What’s impressed me the most so far, remarkably, is the storytelling. I’ve always enjoyed the irreverent humour and charming characters of the Saints Row series, but I don’t know if you would call any of that particularly grounded or relatable. Much to my surprise, then, was the fact that Saints Row (2022)’s first mission follows your character — a fully customizable avatar once again called “The Boss” — on their first day at the Marshall Defense Industries mercenary company, begrudgingly taking orders from a superior. Why? To pay rent and student loans. Indeed, this Boss isn’t a gangbanger; they’re practically broke and living with three equally cash-strapped roommates in the fictional American Southwest city of Santo Ileso. “I’m not sure [about] the back story of Johnny Gat but I think these characters might be a little more relatable. I don’t know if [Saints Row fan-favourite character] Johnny Gat had student loans!” quips Cailyn Talamonti, Saints Row UI artist, during a group interview with MobileSyrup.
Early on, there are several scenes between this group, which includes mechanic Neenah, DJ Kevin and entrepreneur Eli, that lend Saints Row more heart than I was expecting. Between Kevin cooking shirtless for the group to give them “dinner and a show,” The Boss busting Eli’s balls for caring about the “carbon footprint” of the car they steal or the ways they try to help a defeated, bed-ridden Boss after they’re fired, each character has a lot of personality that really shines during their rapport.
They also all come from different backgrounds and even belong to the three rival factions of Santo Ileso: The Boss at the aforementioned Marshall, Neenah with the vehicle and fitness-oriented Los Panteros and Kevin from the partygoing Idols. Taking a few hours to develop their camaraderie is important, because it explains the team’s decision to quit their jobs after The Boss is fired to start their own criminal venture. Centring Saints Row (2022) around the formation of a new Saints was quite brilliant; instead of joining a pre-existing gang like in the series’ first game, you get to be there from day one with these scrappy upstarts. They’re not super deep or anything (at least so far), but the characterization has nonetheless been quite pleasurable.
Like a Boss
Making the new Saints Row feel even more personal is its character creator, “Boss Factory,” which is one of the most in-depth I’ve ever seen. For one, it’s refreshingly inclusive — you can tailor your character using different body sizes; races; gender-neutral sliders to let you mix and match “masculine” and “feminine” traits; customizable prosthetics and even skin conditions like vitiligo. “We didn’t want it gender-locked; it’s much more fluid just to have the triangle with the different body types, and then being able to adjust the rest of it,” says Talamonti.
“I think [Volition] wanted to take anything that existed before and just multiply it and make it greater and make it more inclusive. Because we really want ‘Be Your Own Boss’ and to be ‘self-made’ to apply to everybody and to be able to see everybody and have people see themselves in-game. I think that was one of the touchstones of customization in this game: to be for everybody. Of course, there are things in there — candy corn teeth, for example. I’m hoping no one in real life has those! [But] it means a lot to the whole studio to be inclusive, but also take it a step further, and be fucking weird.”
To that point, I’ve also seen hilarious — and exceptionally accurate — recreations of all kinds of recognizable pop-culture figures, like Shrek, Billy Butcher from The Boys, several Time Lords from Doctor Who, Thor from both Avengers: Endgame and Love and Thunder. You also have a lot of freedom to deck out your guns with all kinds of decals or even turn them into other weird objects, like foam fingers. To save time during my demo, I went with a gleefully potty-mouthed English lady who used basic firearms, but I definitely plan to go wild in the final game. And as a nice touch, Volition has even released a free Boss Factory suite to let you sample the robust tools and import your character in the retail version, with the option to freely and fully re-customize your character later on.
Going big in Santo Ileso
The Boss with some Marshalls.
The idea of being “self-made” that Talamonti mentioned is something that’s been brought up a lot by Volition during the promotion of Saints Row (2022). It’s a core theme that runs throughout the game, and it’s what’s ultimately won me over to this take on the series. Not only does this mantra apply to our four leads and the character customizer, but pretty much all other facets of Saints Row‘s gameplay. Sure, at a base level it’s quite similar to previous games in the series. An open-world sandbox? Check. Third-person shooting mechanics that are a little loose and janky? Yup. Arcade-y but solid handling of vehicles? You bet. That’s why it’s odd to me that people are so up in arms about the new game. Even if you don’t appreciate the different approach to story like I do, the core gameplay is still quintessentially Saints Row.
It’s all of that, with just a bit more depth. As you play, you’ll unlock points that can be used towards new skills for The Boss. These include active abilities like a Street Fighter Shorukyen-esque flaming uppercut, and passive ones like increased resistance to flames. The Boss can also perform finishers that mix John Wick-style “gun fu” with good old-fashioned haymakers, dropkicks and more.
You can really see the Saints Row DNA of wacky combat here; there’s nothing quite as ridiculous as a giant dildo bat or dubstep gun, but you still get some over-the-top moves — and more options to customize them, at that. I appreciated having this more varied arsenal since the initial lineup of guns — a pistol, assault rifle and shotgun — are pretty boringly standard. Grenades also still have that goofy, awkward throwing animation from older games. These gripes aside, though, I’m looking forward to seeing what other abilities there are later in the campaign, especially since the early ones are so promising.
Having just been there, I can say this sure does look and feel like Vegas.
The real highlight of the reboot’s gameplay for me, though, is Santo Ileso itself. With so many open-world games set in bustling, New York-esque cities, I admire Volition’s desire to take Saints Row to a Las Vegas-inspired desert locale. On a narrative level, it gives our “heroes” a smaller, rural apartment to start off in that juxtaposes well with the more urban areas they’ll head break out into. But beyond that, this variety just makes Saints Row more enjoyable to explore. Since our event was held in Vegas, I was able to see firsthand how well Volition drew from Sin City. Saints Row (2022) might not be very graphically impressive, but the developer more than makes up for that through a rich, dense setting that features pretty sun-soaked mesas, dusty, tumbleweed-filled streets, dingy motels and wedding chapels and neon-soaked, casino-filled downtown strips. The commendable mission variety — which includes a sandstorm-covered desert convoy raid, small-town police chase and linear saloon shootout — only further highlight the heterogeneity of this world.
If all of that wasn’t enough, Volition has given us some wonderfully entertaining ways to explore said locations. Chief among these: a wingsuit, which you have right from the start. In typical Saints Row fashion, the physicsare hardly realistic, but that just makes it even more of a blast to use. Not since the Batman: Arkham games have I had this much fun gliding around a city, freely diving and pulling up and twisting and turning to maintain altitude. It’s also just a smart way to strike a balance between the crazy superpowers of Saints Row IV and the (slightly) more grounded vibe of the reboot. Meanwhile, you’ve got a diverse vehicle lineup that consists of standard four-wheelers and trucks to golf carts, monster trucks and sports cars. These are all highly customizable in both look and function, and I was particularly happy to see that you can deck your car out with a tow cable, tire spikes and even an ejector seat to quickly get you airborne for some wingsuit action. Specific launching pads and shortcuts to high rooftops are also available for that purpose.
Saints Row’s wingsuit is insanely fun.
But perhaps the coolest feature of Santo Ileso is how you yourself can affect it. And I don’t just mean in a “blow shit up” sort of way, which you can absolutely do, or taking over territory from the other factions, as in previous Saints Row games. No, what Volition has done in the reboot is allow you to dictate what optional content populates the world and where they’re located. These ‘Criminal Ventures’ can be planned out once the Saints find a base of operations (which is itself customizable to a degree with various interior decorations) shortly after they all decide to quit their jobs. These side activities are unlocked through properties you construct on open lots.
It’s a fascinating and clever way to let you tailor the experience; if there are certain gigs you prefer over others, you can prioritize filling Santo Ileso with those. Naturally, I opened a medical clinic to unlock Insurance Fraud, a returning — and absolutely bonkers — mode from previous Saints Row games. In this minigame, you have to cause as much damage to The Boss as possible by letting yourself get run over, blown up and all kinds of other masochistic exploits. Amusingly, the doctor at this clinic even pointed out that there are easier and less painful ways to commit insurance fraud, to which The Boss said “you do it your way, and I’ll do it mine.”
The best of both worlds — so far
Now that I’ve had a few days to reflect on my time with Saints Row (2022), I find myself remembering just how much it kept me entertained. Is it the most technically impressive or mechanically sound game? Definitely not. But it’s an admirable effort by Volition to combine the zaniness of past Saints Row games with a more endearing story and deeper customization of character and setting alike. It remains to be seen how well all of this will hold up over an entire open-world experience, but for now, I’m here for the ride.
Saints Row will release on August 23rd on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PC and Google Stadia.
Microsoft is inviting Xbox Insiders to preview a small selection of classic Bethesda titles on PC. As part of its $7.5 billion acquisition of ZeniMax Media, Microsoft is diving into the well of Bethesda’s catalogue and sparking new life to largely unplayable titles.
As part of this initiative, Xbox Insiders on PC can now preview Heretic: Shadow of the Serpent Riders, HeXen: Beyond Heretic, HeXen: Deathkings of the Dark Citadel, The Elder Scrolls: Arena and Quake Champions.
Many of the aforementioned titles were originally released in the early to mid-90s. However, severalstill have quite a cult following. This is especially true for The Elder Scrolls: Arena and Quake Champions. Access to the small array of classic Bethesda games appears to be a soft launch to gather feedback from the Xbox Insiders community.
Each game is available to download for free. It appears as though the majority of available titles operate via DOSBox emulation. This system is able to re-create and run software for MS-DOS compatible games. Many don’t consider it to be the most pragmatic solution. However, given that games like HeXen: Beyond Heretic and Quake Champions are available for free, players have little to no excuse to try them out.
Heretic: Shadow of the Serpent Riders, HeXen: Beyond Heretic, and HeXen: Deathkings of the Dark Citadel are all a part of Bethesda’s dark fantasy shooter series. Interestingly enough, Raven Software, which Activision later bought, is behind these titles. However, the studio now works on Call of Duty: Warzone.
The Elder Scrolls: Arena is the first game in the very successfulElder Scrolls series. It originally featured a smaller scope, seeing players travel between towns to compete in a fighting tournament. However, the games evolved into an open-world RPG with side quests galore.
There’s no word on whether these games will be made available to those outside of the Xbox Insiders program.
Xbox and Discord are entering a significant partnership, which sees the latter’s Voice chat feature land on Microsoft’s console. Across Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One, players will be able to chat with anyone on Discord via voice channels or group calls.
This update is rolling out to Xbox consoles today. However, only Xbox Insiders are able to access the new voice chat feature for the time being. Xbox confirms that Insiders are able to connect with friends across console, PC, and mobile. However, a wider rollout will take place “soon.”
Your @Discord and Xbox are about to become a lot closer.
Many Xbox owners have been requesting Discord Voice chat integration. This new partnership strengths further cross-platform initiatives in the industry.
Adding Discord Voice chat on console enables players to now chat with friends playing Halo Infinite on both console and PC, for instance. As many games already offer cross-play, Discord integration streamlines the way players can interact with one another.
Discord Voice shares a very similar menu to Xbox game chat. Players are able to see who is in a voice call. Additionally, players can adjust the individual volume of each member, mute and report to Discord in the event of harassment. There are also overlay options available. Players can also switch between Discord Voice and Xbox game chat.
For Xbox Insiders looking to use this new feature, they will have to link their Discord account to their Xbox. To do so, Insiders must navigate to the party menu on their console. From there, they must select ‘Try Discord Voice.’ This will bring up a prompt with a QR code. Scanning this will take the player to the Discord and Xbox apps to connect and setup a two-way link between the two.
Once the accounts are linked, players can jump into a Discord call as usual. Via the Discord app, players can select a newly added ‘Join on Xbox’ option. This will alert the Xbox app to transfer the voice chat from Discord to the Xbox console.
Xbox states that a wider expansion of this feature is expected “in the coming weeks.” Though, it remains to be see how much a of wide release the company intends.
Xbox is back with a new list of games set to arrive on Xbox Game Pass throughout the remainder of the month.
Rounding out July 2022, Xbox is adding the anticipated narrative-based As Dusk Falls and Canadian-made Watch Dogs 2.
See below for the full list:
As Dusk Falls (Cloud, Console, and PC) — July 19th
Watch Dogs 2 (Cloud, Console, and PC) — July 19th
Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion (PC) — July 21st
MotoGP 22 (Cloud, Console, and PC) — July 21st
Torment: Tides of Numenera (Cloud and Console) — July 21st
Inside (Cloud, Console, and PC) — July 29th
On top of the new additions, Xbox is adding Touch Controls to 12 titles on mobile:
Citizen Sleeper
Disc Room
Escape Academy
Garden Story
Little Witch in the Woods (Game Preview)
Lost In Random
Spacelines from the Far Out
Umurangi Generation
Yakuza 0
Yakuza Kiwami
Yakuza Kiwami 2
As Dusk Falls
Finally, here are the games leaving Xbox Game Pass on July 31st. Be sure to wrap up your time with them before they leave. Alternatively, you can purchase the game with a 20 percent discount and keep them in your library.
Dodgeball Academia (Cloud, Console, and PC)
Katamari Damacy Reroll (Cloud, Console, and PC)
Lumines Remastered (Cloud, Console, and PC)
Omno (Cloud, Console, and PC)
Raji: An Ancient Epic (Cloud, Console, and PC)
Xbox Game Pass is available on Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. The subscription service is also available on Android and iOS. Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass each cost $11.99/month. Plus, a subscription to Xbox Game Pass enables access to cloud gaming on a number of devices including mobile, console, PC, and select Samsung TVs.
Led by Heavy Rain and Beyond: Two Souls veteran Caroline Marchal, the London-based studio’s debut title is a choice-based, narrative-driven experience in the vein of such Quantic Dream works. However, it’s even less gameplay-intensive than those titles, so if the lack of deep mechanics — or even much interactivity at all — is an issue, then As Dusk Falls absolutely won’t be your thing. This is definitely more an interactive movie. Those who are fine with that, though, will find As Dusk Falls to a be thoroughly entertaining and unique experience.
An engrossing story full of twists and turns
As Dusk Falls tells the story of two families whose lives become inextricably linked after a harrowing incident in small-town Arizona. Desperate for cash, the Holt brothers attempt to rob the sheriff, only to wind up pinned down at the Desert Dreams Motel. It’s here that Vince Walker and his family has stopped while on a cross-country trip, which results in them becoming hostages as the Holts scramble to hatch an escape plan. But the narrative doesn’t stop there; over the course of 30 years, you get to see more of these characters both before and after the events at the motel.
It’s a strong setup, as it really gives you time to get to know and care about the cast, and it’s through this cast that As Dusk Falls’ greatest narrative strength can be found: empathy. Each character has their own flaws, some much more than others, but the game never condemns any of them for it. Take the Holts; I initially found them to be insufferable but soon discovered that they had a surprisingly sympathetic backstory. Jay, in particular, is easy to root for, as he’s torn between duty to his family and a desire to not hurt anyone. I quickly took a liking to the soft-spoken and kind teen, which made his journey to escape his abusive family and start a new life extremely compelling. Similarly, my early contempt for Vince’s estranged father Jim — no doubt mirroring how I feel towards my own — later softened as I saw how he was consoling his traumatized granddaughter Zoe many years after the motel hostage situation.
Seeing the impact of the traumatic motel events on Zoe as a young adult is one of As Dusk Falls’ most clever story decisions.
Having a group of likable, well-rounded and three-dimensional characters that you’re invested in makes the decisions in As Dusk Falls often genuinely challenging. At times, I would pause to consider my next course of action — something I don’t often do for games like this. For example, after a desperate Jay turns to a friend to help him out of a bind, he finds out that someone did something awful to her. Do you confront him and risk drawing dangerous attention to her and you, or begrudgingly let it slide? Similarly, how should Vince behave during the hostage situation? Are there risks you think he’d take to protect his family? Should he trust those offering him help during all of this? There are no “wrong” responses here; merely those that you feel are reflective of how your Jay and Vince would react. On the flip side, not intervening when people are about to get what they (arguably) deserve could actually lead to undesirable consequences. Thankfully, As Dusk Falls telegraphs “Crossroads” moments to let you know when you’ve arrived at a key decision that will greatly impact the trajectory of the story.
And boy, does the story branch out. At the end of each chapter, you’re shown a ‘Story Free’ that will show a flow chart of all the possible outcomes of each decision. Each and every time, I was stunned to see how many deviations there were if I had done something different — not just characters living or dying, mind you, but also where they start or end off or who may be accompanying them. On the whole, I was impressed at just how much replay value this adds. The game’s structure comprising of six hour-long chapters with recaps in between makes it ripe for smaller nightly play sessions, as well.
Jay’s sympathetic story is the beating heart of As Dusk Falls.
The only real shortcoming with the narrative, however, is that it doesn’t quite manage to balance its rather large cast. In one instance, a decision I made as Vince inadvertently resulted in something horrible happening to one person, but the game oddly never revisited this beat to show how that affected either character. Likewise, there are some story threads that don’t get meaningful resolution, even when both of the involved characters survived in my playthrough. These issues certainly weren’t significant enough to drag down the entire experience, although the game likely would have benefited from being a bit longer to afford them more time to breathe.
Fun for the whole family
It can’t be understated that the actual gameplay of As Dusk Falls is quite minimal. Where titles like Heavy Rain allow you to at least walk around, As Dusk Falls is ostensibly a “choose-your-own-adventure” movie à la Black Mirror: Bandersnatch. In addition to action sequences being relegated to quick time events (QTEs), the bulk of the game is presented via dialogue choices and the occasional instance in which you can hover the cursor across a static environment, point-and-click adventure style. The game’s presentation is also quite minimalist; in place of actual cutscenes, As Dusk Falls adopts a distinct aesthetic that blends still images together to effectively create a motion comic.
Admittedly, this took some getting used to, even as someone who regularly enjoys these types of “interactive dramas,” but I eventually came to appreciate the uniqueness of this visual style. Impressively, Interior Night has rendered the performances of actors into these stills, giving them a sort of timeless, painterly vibe that’s refreshingly different from the photorealism or retro-inspired graphical styles that we so often get nowadays. As Dusk Falls’ excellent voiceovers and solid writing only enhance the cinematic feel. All in all, this approach is a smart and effective way to keep the gameeasy to pick up and play. Interior Night has been clear about wanting to appeal to non-gamers, like those who regularly consume streaming content, and that really shows. The gameplay — consisting of the occasional button tap or mash — is not at all complex, making it remarkably approachable to newcomers.
A simple example of As Dusk Falls’ Override system — in this case, during a conversation between Vince and his daughter Zoe.
In fact, you don’t even have to use a controller or keyboard/mouse. Taking a cue from the popular Jackbox party games, As Dusk Falls lets you connect via your phone using the As Dusk Falls Companion App on Android or iOS. In this way, up to eight people can play together in person or online in one of the most clever approaches to multiplayer I’ve ever seen. How it works is that players must vote for which decision they’d like to make, and the game will go with whatever got the most votes. (A choice will be randomly made should there be a vote.) Adding a fascinating — and hilarious — wrinkle to the mix is the ability to override decisions. Each player gets a limited number of overrides as determined by the host, which they can use at any point, including to counter someone else’s. It’s a brilliant way to engage the whole group, as you can choose whether to work with or against people at will.
(Note: Admittedly, I didn’t get a chance to try this during my playthrough, but I have had a similar experience in games like this. Last year, some friends and I played The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes, which has a “pass-the-controller-around” approach to multiplayer. My buddies and I had a blast making decisions with our characters to try to let the others get killed, and so As Dusk Falls‘ override system should only greatly enhance that thrilling back-and-forth dynamic.)
A new kind of movie night
As Dusk Falls is a fascinating game. On the one hand, it likely won’t have an audience among subsects of hardcore gamers, and it certainly won’t win over those who don’t like Quantic Dream-esque titles. But on the other, it’s commendably been designed to be easily playable for pretty much anyone, especially through innovative multiplayer features. Even those who play alone like I did will find themselves drawn into a well-written and often gripping story about two struggling families. As Dusk Falls is a splendid take on the narrative adventure genre, and one that’s easy to recommend to many.
As Dusk Falls will launch on Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and PC on July 19th. The game will also be available on Xbox Game Pass on day one.
