By GameSpot Staff on Feb 10, 2018 11:30 pm
This Year's Hidden Gems
While this year is packed with numerous highly anticipated big-budget games, it's also filled with a wealth of exciting new indie games that you shouldn't miss out on. With so many hidden gems to keep track of, we've compiled the 15 indie games we're most excited about. Click ahead to see what's in store for this year. There's way more exciting indie games coming this year that we didn't mention here. Which ones are you most looking forward to this year? Let us know in the comments below. For more on the bigger games this year, check out our individual features highlighting the most anticipated PS4 games, Xbox One games, PC games, and Switch games for a broader look at the year ahead. If you're curious about exclusives, be sure to check out our features highlighting the most anticipated PS4 games, Xbox One games, PC games, and Switch games for a broader look at the year ahead.
Celeste | PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PC
Celeste is a magical game that will challenge you in a multitude of ways. Its platforming is really, really hard, and you'll likely get frustrated at your fumbling fingers for failing a jump or at your slow brain for not figuring out how to get to the next safe zone. But when you get to that checkpoint, it's satisfying to know your fingers and brain aren't, in fact, useless. More than its platforming, though, Celeste's story is challenging. The main protagonist, Madeline, is faced with a horrible journey--both climbing a mountain and battling her own mind--and at times it's not easy to watch her suffer. The game's writing is such that it's easy to project that suffering onto yourself, and that can make it tough to face playing the next level. But you should absolutely do so, because it's a story with an ending worth the struggle and a cast of characters so endearing you'll be rooting for them to succeed. Just expect to fail a few leaps of faith along the way.
Donut County | PC, PS4, iOS
If you've played Katamari Damacy, you might be familiar with the concept of Donut County--just in reverse. In Donut County, you control a hole in the ground that grows the more you can get to fall inside of it. Start small with lawn chairs and pebbles and work your way up to buildings and even mountains, all while solving physics-based puzzles to fit everything in the hole. Donut County is a solo project by indie developer Ben Esposito, who worked on What Remains of Edith Finch and The Unfinished Swan. Playing as a hole sounds really silly, and Donut County's colorful art and sassy animal characters are cheekily charming, but in practice it's meditative and relaxing to play. We're excited to see more of what Donut County and its trash (or treasures) have to offer--and hopefully what's at the bottom of that hole.
Griftlands | PC
Griftlands is the "pirate" game we've always wanted (and one of our most anticipated PC games for this year). You might take a good long look at it and say, "This is a sci-fi/fantasy mashup RPG, not some swashbuckling romp on the high seas." And you'd be right. But who says green aliens and humans can't come together and form a pirate crew? It's space piracy we're talking about. Unlike most RPGs, you're not an adventurer setting out to save the day; you're a space pirate/mercenary-type looking for your next big payday. In your journey for riches, you'll come across a bunch of different characters, potential party members, and bandits, and you'll be able to choose exactly how you deal with each character and situation. There are written questlines for certain characters, but the larger story is one you'll craft on your own as you play and make decisions. We played it at PAX West last year and chose to be a jerk who treated their friends with reverence and anyone else with extreme disrespect. After about 30 minutes of acting like a tough guy, we saw ourselves losing weekends to it. Griftlands is scheduled to release sometime in early 2018, so we're on high alert for a release date announcement. We can't wait to get back to our quest for fortune, casually intimidating NPCs, and giving bandits who stand in our way what-for.
Iconoclasts | PS4, Vita, PC
Calling Iconoclasts a "Metroidvania" is accurate, but simply seeing it as that undercuts what makes it truly special. Its world is full of deep, resonating conflicts: science vs. religion and technology vs. nature, just to name a few. The faces of these conflicts are quirky, fleshed-out characters with personality bursting from every pixel of their 16-bit sprites. But for as quick as the game is to make a joke, it can also tug at your heartstrings, whether it's by killing off a character's family or showing an unhealthy mother-daughter relationship. As for the Metroidvania elements, protagonist Robin's wrench has more uses than a Swiss army knife. You can ride rails, crank open doors, and even deflect enemy attacks. The game also constantly shakes things up with puzzles and boss encounters that truly put the basic moves you've learned to the test. Top if all off with a great soundtrack and colorful level design, and you've got yourself a delightful indie package. The fact that it was all developed by one man over nearly a decade is just icing on the cake.
Jenny Leclue | PS4, PC, iOS
Jenny Leclue's charming and vibrant hand-drawn art style is captivating, but its atmospheric world and endearing premise is what makes it worth getting excited about. Told in the form of a metanarrative, you experience a mystery through the eyes of Jenny Leclue, a fictional character from a detective novel written by fictional author Arthur K. Finklestein. As you control Jenny, you're faced with choices that can affect both Finklestein's story and his narration of the events that occur in the game. You'll also solve an array of brain teaser-like puzzles in your quest to discover the truth. While not much has been shown of the game since its playable teaser early last year, what we've played so far has shown great promise.
Knights and Bikes | PC, PS4
Grand adventure! Bicycles! Kids with asthma! Knights and Bikes is an adventure where two kids use their imaginations (and their bikes) to overcome surreal mysteries in their hometown. And when you pedal your bike too hard, you've got to take a hit from your inhaler. The art style gives the game a timeless look, but theold-school action adventure gameplay captures the variety of real-time combat games like Secret of Mana. And while this is indie studio Foam Sword's debut game, the developers have a track record of success, having previously worked at Media Molecule on LittleBigPlanet and Tearaway.
Knuckle Sandwich | PC, Mac
If Undertale's brand of Earthbound-style weirdness wasn't quite weird enough for you, then Knuckle Sandwich might be more up your alley. What we've played so far, Knuckle Sandwich wears the skin of a polished 16-bit-era RPG set in the modern day, and very quickly goes to some unexpected places. It's surreal, off-the-rails, and laugh-out-loud funny. You can expect satisfying turn-based combat with real-time action components, a variety of mini-games, a sharp sense of style, and impeccable comedic timing. And it's also apparently got a section where you catch a 3D, off-brand Garfield with a Poké Ball? Knuckle Sandwich will hopefully launch in 2018, and we're excited to play it. In the meantime, you can watch us play a demo of the game right over here.
Manifold Garden | PC, PS4
Mind-bending and visually striking, Manifold Garden is like playing through an M.C. Escher painting (in the best way possible). The puzzle game puts you in a stunning world that stretches out into infinity, and it's your job to learn its rules and master its physics to traverse it. If you can't get to a platform, try jumping off the one you're on; as you'll fall, you'll pass what's either a recursion of it or a repetition, but either way, you can use the world's loop to find your way around seemingly impassable obstacles. Navigating Manifold Garden is almost like looking into a pastel-toned hall of mirrors. There's no up or down, and it can be hard to get your bearings. But when you do solve a puzzle, you're struck by the beauty of its physics and its art, making it one of the games we're most looking forward to in 2018.
Mothergunship | PS4, PC
Mothergunship is the rare sequel that makes every improvement you could ask for. It takes the entertaining concept of Tower of Guns--a first-person shooter with elements of bullet-hell games and roguelikes--and addresses every major complaint about it. You don't even need to pick up a controller to see that Mothergunship presents much smoother mechanics than its predecessor, with fluid movement and gunplay that is enjoyable in its own right. The latter point is particularly welcome in light of the newly added weapon crafting system, which lets you build outlandish weapons with a dozen barrels that each launches homing rockets. Silly as the prospect of mounting a fish tank on top of your gun might be, there are legitimate considerations to take into account in terms of how much energy an especially ridiculous weapon will require to fire. Mothergunship also introduces new persistent elements to provide a greater sense of progression as you play. Combined with the ability to play cooperatively with a friend online, and it seems like there will be far from more reason to keep coming back for more.
Necrobarista | PC, Switch
Where do you go when you die? Probably not a coffee shop occupied by transient souls, but then again, it might be just crazy enough to work. In visual novel Necrobarista, the dead get a chance to extend their lives in a mysterious Melbourne cafe. The catch: You might not know who's alive and who's dead. Inspired by anime, including the excellent Death Parade, Necrobarista tells a story over the length of a typical TV season and with a distinct anime flair. 3D cutscenes bookend exploration sequences where you can explore the room you're in, reading snippets of information about the history of where you're standing or the characters around you. Expect Cowboy Bebop references, dramatic knife sequences (really), and a lot of love for coffee.
Ooblets | PC, Xbox One
Ooblets is what happens when you cross the simulation aspects of Stardew Valley, the battle structure of Pokemon, the stylish cuteness of Animal Crossing. The game looks like a chill experience with a focus on enjoying the journey of collecting and exploring its pastel-colored world with all the hallmarks of the games it encapsulates gathered together in one place. The creatures you collect in the game are called Ooblets, and you can use them to battle against other Ooblets you meet in the world. You can customize your character's appearance and clothing with a wide range of styles. And you can even decorate and rearrange your room. And you can dance, too! Dancing automatically makes games more exciting. There's no set exact date for Ooblets yet, but it's set to launch sometime this year for PC and Xbox One.
Overland | PC, Mac, Linux
If you're a fan of turn-based tactics, difficult decisions that come back to haunt you, or American wilderness, Overland should be on your radar. It's a post-apocalyptic rogue-lite road-trip across the USA, where monsters run rampant and gasoline is sparse. You'll start off with just one survivor and attempt to travel west, making pit stops along the way to recruit strangers, fortify your car, and find supplies. Its minimalist visual design is super-slick, and like every good survival game, there are constantly tough situations to deal with. Are you confident enough in your combat abilities to venture far away from your vehicle? Do you spend extra fuel to drive to a more dangerous, but possibly more lucrative location? When overrun, do you try and get that straggler back in the car, or take off without them? Do you boot one of your squad members to give their car seat to a very good dog you just came across? At the time of writing, Overland is in a "first access" phase on itch.io, meaning you can play a development build of the game now and get a taste of its campaign and mechanics. And it's a very, very good taste. We're very much looking forward to this one when it launches in full.
Return of the Obra Dinn | PC
Return of the Obra Dinn is one of the most visually striking upcoming indie games. Taking inspiration from classic text adventures on PC, it sports a two-tone color palette that at times is a bit tough on the eyes, but hidden behind the retro aesthetic is a fascinating detective game. Before arriving on board a ship called the Obra Dinn, you're given a book and a mysterious pocket watch. When you find a person's dead body, your watch allows you flash to the moment of their death, while revealing other details, such as who was in the vicinity. With this knowledge, you fill out the details of the crew in your book, flipping through the ship's manifest to intuit who died and who was killed by whom. As you steadily make more discoveries, more mysteries are revealed. The sense of intrigue that pervades the experience sets up a narrative that's not only fascinating but gratifying. It's rare when you get a detective-centric game that allows you to flex your deduction skills. Return of the Obra Dinn challenges you to make sense of the events unfolding and gives you the freedom to infer. With seven pages worth of names to discover in the manifest, we can't wait to step aboard the Obra Dinn again to uncover more.
The Gardens Between | PC, PS4
The Gardens Between uses some clever tricks to present a story about nostalgia and friendship between two protagonists. As a narrative-focused puzzle game, each stage presents a sort of hodgepodge of their collective memories, referencing moments and locations from their childhood. As you maneuver both characters past giant retro consoles and CRT television sets, you'll come to understand that their collection of memories hold a deeper meaning--one that examines their bond and how it will shape their future. This peculiar puzzle games plays with time and perspective. Simply walking propels time forward, while walking backwards will rewind it. Manipulating your surroundings creates new pathways for the two friends to progress. You'll often have to separate the two characters and have them tackle their own unique challenges to help the other move forward. But by the end of every stage, they'll unite and move on to the next stage, together. From the small chunk of gameplay we played, there was an endearing and heartfelt quality to it. With more levels that aim to push your perceptive skills--forcing you to think ahead with every interaction--they'll also reveal more of the reasoning behind this nostalgic romp for its two characters. It'll be exciting to see unfold, and The Gardens Between is definitely one you'll want to keep an eye out for when it releases later this year.
Wattam | PS4, PC
Even if you aren't familiar with the name Keita Takahashi, there's a good chance you've played his most famous creation: Katamari Damacy. That game solidified his reputation as a developer with an eye for cute characters and absurd scenarios, and Wattam, Takahashi's upcoming PS4 and PC game, fits the bill perfectly. It's a game about experimentation and discovery, where the act of play is valued over completing explicit challenges. Some could argue that it's not a game at all. So be it. Maybe Wattam deserves to fall into a category all its own, because it's definitely unlike anything else around. Playing as a Mayor with a bomb under his hat, it's your job to create colorful explosions to attract new citizens, and you accomplish this by holding hands with different objects and characters in your environment. These pre-explosion interactions produce many kinds of unexpected surprises, lending Wattam a consistent charm that only grows with each explosion, as new potential friends--and sources of entertainment--enter the scene. We've only played a fraction of Wattam so far, but it instantly put a smile on our face and we can wait to see what else Takahashi has up his sleeve.
Way of the Passive Fist | PS4, PC
Way of the Passive Fist offers a unique twist to the side-scrolling beat 'em up genre. Instead of relying on standard button mashing to beat up pixelated goons, the game focuses on timing-based mechanics where you parry and dodge enemy attacks to defeat them. The result plays like a bizarre love child between Streets of Rage and Street Fighter III. It's awesome. The action is fairly straightforward: enemies take turns trying to fight you, gradually teaching you the varying pace of their attacks before eventually tiring out. Then you simply push them over. While this fighting style sounds counterintuitive for a beat 'em up, it works surprisingly well. The act of parrying and evading is easy to execute, yet it offers a steady degree of challenge, especially against multiple foes with different attack patterns. Add that on top of a Fist of the North Star-like narrative, and you have an action game that's as charming as it is mechanically distinct.
By GameSpot Staff on Feb 10, 2018 10:30 pm
Tips To Build Your Chances Of Survival
Though you might be familiar with other games in the battle royale genre--games that tend to stick one player (or a small team) on a map where they fight against others to be the last one standing--Fortnite: Battle Royale is a little different. The game takes the basic premise of the genre and adds its own twist that changes everything: You can instantly construct stuff like walls and stairs, allowing you to build fortifications to protect yourself and create your own tactical advantages. Fortnite drops you onto an island with 99 other players, and the last player (or team) left alive wins. Though it's similar to games like PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, plenty of small differences make Fortnite into a very distinct experience. Knowing what to carry, when to shoot, and what to build are essential if you're going to be the last person alive on the island. You won't find a tutorial in Fortnite Battle Royale, so when you drop onto its island, all you have are your wits and whatever you can find along the way. Here's everything you need to know to get a strong start--and maybe survive long enough to find yourself a minigun. And if you're already a Fornite: Battle Royale veteran, check out our advanced tips guide, as well as our guide covering all the things that we wish we knew before playing the game. You can also watch our video guide on how to build more effectively. Fortnite: Battle Royale is available as a free download for PlayStation 4, Xbox One. The mode supports up to 100 players competing to be the last person (or team) standing as they hunt other players and avoid being killed themselves. For the differences between Fortnite: Battle Royale and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, check out our in-depth feature discussing the two games and what sets them apart from one another. You can also check out more details on Fortnite's recently released Crossbow update.
Pick Your Landing Zone And Avoid Other Players
Fortnite: Battle Royale starts with 100 players dropping out of a vehicle (in this case, a flying bus) onto an island below that's littered with weapons. Check your map at the outset and watch the flight path carefully--where you land is your first big decision in Fortnite, and it can help you get off to a fighting start. Your first order of business is weapons, and if you're new to the game, you'll also want to try to avoid other players. Weapons are mostly found inside buildings, so pick a drop location with a few structures, but try to avoid major settlements or towns along the flight path early on. Those places have great gear, but also attract a ton of players; you'll want to avoid a fight straight off until you've gotten a little more comfortable with the game. Usually, it's best to hold off jumping for a few seconds to pick your spot and stay away from the largest pack, which usually jumps as soon as the doors open. You can also set waypoints on your map screen, making it easier to locate any structures or settlements you've got in mind for looting. You'll start your jump by skydiving, but at any time, you can follow the onscreen prompt to deploy your glider. Flipping to your glider early will make you fall slower, allowing you to cover much more distance. Use this to get away from other likely drop points that other players might be headed to, but don't take too long--the faster you hit the ground and gear up, the better. Be sure to keep an eye out for other players dropping nearby as you head down, to avoid getting ambushed or falling into a fight. Your goal is to survive, so as you're learning the ropes, it's best to let other players take each other out, rather than go looking for a battle.
The Storm Is Your Greatest Enemy
Like PUBG, Fortnite matches are dictated by "the circle"--or, in this case, "the storm." Near the start of each match, a large circle will appear on the map in a random position, dictating the eye of the storm. Outside of this circle, the approaching clouds will damage and kill you. A timer in the corner of your screen notes when the storm will contract, creating a new, tighter circle. Over the course of the match, the storm will close in more and more, shrinking the play area on the island and forcing everyone closer together until only one (or one team) remains. This means that paying attention to the circle's location and the timer are your top priorities. You can't just run to the center of the first circle that appears in a match and stay there, because smaller circles won't always have the same center point. Often, the movement of the circle means you'll have to make a run for it to escape the storm, leaving you vulnerable to attack. Always keep the circle in mind, and know where you need to be. The best practice is to get there quickly and carefully.
Gather Resources First
When you first land on the island in Fortnite: Battle Royale, you'll be armed only with your melee pickaxe. You can fight people with it... but that's not especially effective, and will get you killed against pretty much any other weapon. The pickaxe's main use is for bashing through structures and gathering resources, the latter of which is one of the first things you want to do--provided you're far enough from other people that it won't immediately draw attention. Breaking up anything causes a commotion; for instance, you might destroy some vehicles to get a decent bounty of metal, but you risk triggering its alarm and broadcasting your location to other players. To start: Smash walls, structures, and (especially) trees, and gather yourself at least 300 units of wood. This will supply you with key materials that can keep you alive. If you switch to the building menu, you'll see that you can cycle through a few structures, like floors, roofs, walls, and stairs. You'll need resources to build those things, so gather materials quickly before taking off toward the circle. It's much safer taking time to gather materials in the early game than it will be later on, and you can smash just about anything to get the wood, brick, and metal necessary to make stuff.
Practice Building (Especially Under Fire)
With your resources in-hand, you'll want to spend your first few matches learning the ways that buildings can help you. Building structures is Fortnite's claim to fame--and using structures creatively will get you out of trouble, help you traverse the map, and provide cover in a firefight. You don't want to be building constantly, but you need to get comfortable with the system, so that you can make whatever you want as fast as possible when things get hairy. The build menu lets you choose a structure, its material, and its location very quickly. Once you click the button to start building something, it constructs itself automatically. This means that even under fire, building is a viable option: If you start to take fire, you can lay down a wall ahead of you to absorb some of the incoming bullets while you use it as cover and shoot back. Ramps get you over otherwise impassable terrain and can help you create instant high ground that give you an advantage over other players. It's a system that you definitely shouldn't sleep on, because it can give you serious advantages. Just note that structures make noise as you're constructing them, and messing around in the build menu can leave you vulnerable. Player structures are also visually very conspicuous. The various materials have their pros and cons, too; brick and metal sound like the stronger materials at first blush, but using them in construction takes longer than wood, and they can be tougher to find. In touch-and-go battle situations when you need immediate cover, wood is usually the right call, while brick and metal are better saved for endgame fortifications when you expect to be in tougher fights.
Gear Up
As soon as you hit the ground, it's time to hunt for weapons, so head into a building and grab whatever's there. All your usable items go into one of five inventory slots, located on the bottom of your screen (that goes for guns, as well as health and support items). You'll want to get armed with whatever you can find straight away--but don't be afraid to drop things in favor of better weapons. Weapons come in several varieties. You'll find close-range shotguns and long-range assault and sniper rifles, as well as pistols, SMGs, and occasionally rocket launchers and more. Weapons also have rarity classifications: Weapons with white auras around them and white icons in your inventory are the most common and also the weakest; green are uncommon and a little better; blue are rare and better still; purple are epic; orange are legendary; and gold are mythic. As a general rule, the higher the tier of the gun--and the better it is. Rarer weapons are often more accurate and more powerful, and come with add-ons like silencers or scopes. Swap out more common guns for rarer ones during the course of the match to increase your firepower. You'll find a lot of these rarer guns in treasure chests, which are hidden in buildings. These are indicated by a glowing gold light and a humming sound, but they're usually hidden behind walls that you might have to destroy (or attics that you'll need to build stairs to reach). Always try to seek out chests, as they have valuable gear--such as bandages and shield potions--as well as guns. You'll definitely need all the supplies you can get if you want to be a contender in a match's late game.
Keep Quiet
The large scope of Fortnite: Battle Royale's island means that players can spread out quite a bit. Finding other people and avoiding detection are two of your main concerns in a given match, because it's easy to get ambushed or taken out from afar. Especially as matches go on and the play area contracts, you'll be closer to players--and they'll be able to hear you moving around, building, and shooting. Sound and silence are essential tools to victory, and good speakers or headphones is highly recommended to help you get a bead on what's happening around you and locating the source of sounds. Running is a noisy way to move around, and sprinting is even louder, and even kicks up some dust behind you. You can reduce your movement sounds by crouching and moving more slowly, but note that even rotating your character creates the sound of footsteps. Doors also make a ton of racket, but in Fortnite, you'll often find it's possible to jump through a window and avoid doors entirely. You'll also want to avoid shooting unless absolutely necessary, as the sound is like raising a flag on your location--although silenced weapons help with that issue a great deal. Finally, gathering resources with your pickaxe and building stuff makes a lot of noise, often for an extended period of time. These are essential to survival at Fortnite, but always be aware that when you smash or build things, you might be giving away your location.
Don't Fight Unless You're (Pretty) Sure You Can Win
Firefights in Fortnite, as in other Battle Royale games, can start out looking like clear victories and quickly become disasters. Your greatest advantage at all times is surprise, but you only have one life to live. This crucial fact means that often, it's better to ignore another player and stay hidden (if you can't get the jump on them), rather than attack them and risk losing it all, even when you have great weapons. Aiming in Fortnite is a little harrowing as well, which can make actually hitting other players tough at any kind of range. First off, you'll want to pick the right gun for the job: Up close, even a fairly common-level shotgun can be devastating with a headshot, while further away, assault rifles and sniper rifles can take people out before they know what hit them. Take your time, line up your shots, and make sure your opponent is within range so that you take them down before they can react. Survival is your most important goal, so use discretion: If you're not confident you'll be able to take down whoever's in your sights quickly and cleanly, you're probably better off letting them go.
Be Careful In The Open
Players used to PUBG know that the game often consists of sprinting across open ground, trying to get to a closing circle. In Fortnite, moving into the open is just as harrowing, because the cartoonish art style makes you more visible at a distance--and you can't get any lower to the ground than a crouch. This means picking your path when you move in the open is an essential skill to learn, and the players who live the longest typically minimize their time in the open or move smartly to different positions to avoid getting caught. First, use structures and cover like cliffs and boulders to your advantage, to protect your back or sides and limit the areas you have to keep an eye on. Next, move quickly while in the open, and carefully and slowly when you're in cover. The human eye is built to detect movement, so you're safest when you're not in motion. You can occasionally hide among pine trees or in bushes to make yourself even tougher to spot. You'll also want to make use of Fortnite's third-person perspective to position your character to peek around corners and through doorways before you enter them, and avoid walking into an ambush (or right into someone hiding in a corner, out of your line of sight). Another quick tip: Close doors behind you. It's an easy way to make it less obvious that you're in a building, and this makes it tougher for other players to track you.
Drink Shield Potions As Soon As You Find Them
Health in Fortnite: Battle Royale is divided into two types: your player health, which is a green bar on the bottom of your screen, and your shield, which is a blue bar--each topping out at 100 points. Shield depletes before health, and when your health is gone, you're dead. You won't start the match with a shield, however, so you'll have to find one. Treasure chests are the places where you'll often find health items--and in particular, blue shield potions. These take up a space in your limited inventory, and since you won't start the match with a shield, it's usually best to drink these as soon as you find them, as your shield lasts until it takes damage. Shield potions come in two types. Larger shield potions give you 50 shield points, and can be stacked twice to double your health; smaller shield potions give you 25 shield. Only the larger potions can push you up to 100, though: If you use two small shield potions, you'll top out at 50 shield points. Note that shields won't protect you from falling damage, so take care of yourself. If you can find health items like bandages and medkits, you'll likely want to hang onto them for later use (bandages give you 15 health to a max of 75, while medkits will heal you fully). A rarer healing item called Slurp Juice--which comes in a purple bottle--replenishes your shield and gives you back health over time at a rate of one point per second for 25 seconds, making it more versatile in a sticky situation. Even rarer Chug Jugs are also extremely useful, fully restoring your health and shield, but requiring 15 seconds of your time to use.
Watch For Player Buildings
As matches wear on, you're likely to start seeing player fortifications. The good news is that player buildings are usually square, blank, obvious towers... so you'll usually see them from a distance. They're great indicators of where players are staked out, so if you ever spot a tower or other fortification, you should absolutely approach it with caution--it usually means someone's waiting with a scoped rifle, hoping to take down passersby. Often, when you're on the ground and spot a tower, it's best to keep clear of it. Usually, fortifications suggest that players are well-stocked and ready for a fight from a distance--and if they're up high, they typically have a line-of-sight advantage. If you're looking to fight someone in a tower or other structure, you're going to want strong weapons. The newly added minigun can chew up materials like wood and brick pretty well, and tough-to-find rocket launchers can absolutely devastate fortifications. You should always try to bring the right tools for the job. Fall damage can play a big part in some of these fights. If you can destroy the bottom of stairs or the supports of a tower, you might be able to collapse it altogether, so pay attention to how you can use the environment and the construction to your advantage.
Never Trust Cover
No cover in Fortnite is foolproof. Just about everything in the game is destructible--not just player-constructed fortifications. Even buildings on the map can all be wrecked with the right weapons; locations that feel safe generally aren't, and every wall can be destroyed in the middle of battle. This means that even when you're hiding out or grabbing cover in a firefight, you should always be prepared to move, strafe, run, and otherwise do your best to avoid fire. Walls won't save you--and especially late in the game, the likelihood of someone bringing along a rocket launcher or minigun to a battle increases tremendously. Those things annihilate cover pretty easily, so learn not to rely on it. Mobility is often your greatest ally, so jump and build to give yourself additional advantages in battle.
Be Careful When Looting Defeated Players
Fights in Battle Royale games are almost always close calls that fill you with adrenaline, and taking down another player always comes with a rush of relief. Don't let your guard down, though; every time you fire your gun, you announce yourself, and the loot that players drop when they die makes those locations targets for other players. Immediately after winning a fight is when you need to be extra-careful. Instead of rushing up to a dead player and going through all their gear (which can leave you very vulnerable), it's often better to take a beat, grab cover, and survey the situation. Other players might be attracted to the gunfire or spot the loot as you're on your way to grab it, allowing them to get the drop on you. Similarly, you might be able to use the dead player's loot to get the drop on them. Being careful is key to survival in Fortnite: Battle Royale--so play smart, and always expect another player lurking nearby. The same goes for the supply drops, which occasionally get ejected into the sky by the party bus as it flies overhead. The drops have great loot, but almost always attract a lot of attention, so approach them carefully.
Use This Time To Learn
Most of these tips are geared toward teaching you how to keep yourself alive in Fortnite, and it can be tempting at the start to hole up inside a building deep in the circle with the first gun you find, trying to outlast everyone else. You might even find yourself getting into the top 10 players in a match without firing a shot. It's worth it to experiment in Fortnite: Battle Royale, especially early on. Learn your capabilities and get a handle on how other people play the game. In other words: Go get yourself killed. Finding good weapon locations, discovering how to use buildings effectively, and getting used to how guns handle in firefights is all part of what it takes to win in Battle Royale games. Fortnite matches pit you against 99 other players, so the likelihood that you're going to lose is extremely high. Embrace it, and use your first matches to build skills rather than hide out in an attempt to win. You'll do better in the long run when you start to learn the ins and outs of the game, as well as what you're comfortable with and how you can best succeed. You can also spectate other players once you're dead, which can clue you in on how more experienced players approach the game--it's a highly useful learning tool.
By GameSpot Staff on Feb 10, 2018 09:30 pm
Hunter's Wishes
Monster Hunter World may be one of the most entertaining and accessible Monster Hunter games to date, but it's far from perfect. More than a few things would have improved its overall quality. Whether these additions are in the form of an update, patch, or a future sequel, here are 11 things that would make Monster Hunter World a better game than it already is. What do you think would make Monster Hunter World a better game? Let us know in the comments below. Monster Hunter World is out now for Xbox One and PlayStation 4, with a PC release to come later in the year. That's notable, as recent entries were limited to 3DS. The additional horsepower has allowed for a game with much larger, more beautiful environments to play in. It also does a better job of introducing newcomers to the flow of playing a Monster Hunter game. You can read more about what to expect in our Monster Hunter World review. Those playing on PS4 will be able to get their hands on some exclusive gear based on Horizon: Zero Dawn. We also know that new Mega Man-themed items are on the way, as well as character skins themed around Street Fighter V--and if past games are any indications, this won't be the last crossover content that Capcom releases.
Include Better Tutorials
Monster Hunter World's tutorials usually consist of multiple subsequent walls of text with some accompanying images or videos. They're not great--partially because they often don't actually explain things very well, and partially because they're so boring that many players will feel tempted to skip them entirely and try to figure things out for themselves. The worst example has to be the 14 different weapon types. Yes, you can try them all out in the training area, and go over some rudimentary tutorials and combo examples for each. But the reality of using many of these weapons is so much more complicated than the game ever bothers to tell you, especially the deeply complex ones like the hunting horn and charge blade. Effectively using these weapons--much less mastering them--practically requires you to head online to peruse user-created guides. That active, helpful fan community is part of what makes Monster Hunter World so great, but it would be even better if it could actually teach you what you need to know to play it. -- Mike Rougeau
Improve Organization Of Investigation System
Monster Hunter World's menus have a lot going on. Some of those text-heavy menus make sense, and they allow for complex systems like armor and weapon crafting to grow and evolve over the course of the game. The Investigation menu, however, is in dire need of some help. Investigations are extra quests that allow you to hunt down monsters for increased rewards while under some kind of restraint, like a shorter time limit. But the way you earn and manage those quests is a confusing morass that makes the structure feel like more trouble than it's worth. At the very least, you should be able to sort or search through your list of available investigations by monster type. After that, the game should offer a way to bulk-delete the quests that you don't want anymore. But the biggest improvement that Monster Hunter World needs is a way to manage investigations directly from the quest board. Speaking to the Resource Center, both to access and remove quests, adds an additional unnecessary step to get to the most important part of the game: hunting monsters! -- Justin Haywald
Make The Hub Online, Not Just The Hunter's Gathering
Taking full advantage of the ability to play online can be a ton of fun when your session is filled with players to hang out with. It's therefore a shame that you can only see other players in the Hunter's Gathering, rather then all of Astrea. It somewhat unnecessarily separates multiplayer and single-player--and even though your session may be full, you won't really know unless you and those other players are hanging out in the Gathering. While the Gathering offers its own version of amenities (like the Bounty Board and Canteen), you still need to visit the rest of Astrea regularly for things like the Smithy and Resource Center, which creates frequent inconveniences in your attempts to prepare for hunts. It's time to break down the barriers and open the entire hub to multiplayer activities. -- Jean-Luc Seipke
Add More Flexible Online Features
Monster Hunter World's online systems make sense on paper. To play with your friends, you need to join the same online session; you can matchmake into random sessions, or join your friends via invitations. But the system's many wrinkles make it difficult and counterintuitive to use, especially for newcomers to the series who might expect that they can simply hop into friends' hunts with little forethought. Limitations like not being able to join others' "assigned" (story) missions until they've seen all the cutscenes, or being denied loot if you join too late, add further confusion. Problems arise, for example, if you want to help a friend with a story mission, but they take too long to find the monster... so, by the time you join them, the quest's rewards are no longer available. Joining and posting quests via the job board-style menu could be made easier as well. One possible solution could be to allow you to simply join and invite your friends from a separate menu, independent of sessions, postings, or SOS flares, with a little more flexibility. They could even do away with some of the penalties that might otherwise be present (such as letting you collect rewards no matter how late you join a friend's mission). It would also be nice if the game were more clear about why you can't invite or join someone when it decides you can't--if you're not actually in an online session, for example, or if you're simply too early in a story mission. A little feedback could go a long way. -- Mike Rougeau
Better Load Times
For a game that is out on the current generation of consoles, the load times for Monster Hunter World feel way too long. Sure, breaks between hunts are nice--but the fact of the matter is, we're routinely looking at screens with loading bars and a few tips (you even have to load into your personal living quarters, even though its part of the HQ!). Many games in the last year or so have been revolutionizing how they either hide loading screens, or finding ways to greatly shorten the time between each new area. Monster Hunter World's players would get more done overall if the loading times followed suit. -- Erick Tay
Improve The Item Upgrade Menu
With no traditional experience bar to speak of, gear is the name of the game in Monster Hunter World. The process of building, upgrading, and comparing items should be as pain-free as possible... and yet, it's a challenge. The inherent complexity in the upgrade tree shouldn't necessarily be eliminated, but it's often frustrating that seemingly simple tasks aren't as easy as they could be. At the simplest level, previewing an item from the upgrade tree is a less-than-smooth process if you're exploring the entire tree. Seeing what an item looks like requires tabbing over to stop the menu from blocking your view of your character, while moving back to the tree causes you to lose the spot you were looking at. A button to provide a clearer look at your character (or one that hides the menu) would make checking out a new piece of gear much easier. Crafting upgrades is also not the simple process that it could be. Comparing two possible upgrades--which is not terribly uncommon, given how the upgrade tree branches at certain points--requires jumping back and forth between the two items. And keeping track of costs becomes a manual process, as you can't easily see the combined money and material cost if you want to craft several consecutive upgrades. The complexity of item upgrades can be great; each time the tree expands, it comes with a (pleasantly) overwhelming world of possibilities. It would just be nice if the actual upgrade process were less of a hassle. -- Chris Pereira
Provide Easy Access to Safari Management
The option to stay out in the field following a quest is a welcome feature, but a trip back to Astera is necessary from time to time, to complete the required lap--visit the Ecological Research area, complete and acquire new Bounties, see what the Argosy has for sale, and check on your Safari. It's that last bit that I've come to find tiresome, as it takes you out of the main hub area. The only way to manage a Safari is to head to the Research Base or your room. The latter is accessible straight from Astera... but since it's a separate zone, this makes managing a Safari more cumbersome. While you might not need to do this more than once every five quests (unless you want to end a Safari early), it's still an unnecessary step that feels like it only exists to get you to visit your room more frequently. This also potentially forces you to temporarily abandon a quest you've signed up for, because doing so prevents you from leaving the main area in Astera to visit your room. Your housekeeper works for you, right? Then have them wait outside the door to spare you the unnecessary trip inside! -- Chris Pereira
Show Monster Health Bars
This one seems simple: Large monsters should get health bars. You might disagree, and that's fair--but there's an argument to be made here. Yes, monsters often give some indication when they're injured, whether it's some ruffled feathers or the telltale limp and skull icon that let you know they're almost dead. And the pulse monitor located next to your minimap can be helpful, too. But for less-experienced players, those signs can be hard to pick up on, making the game frustrating early on--which is exactly when it should be at its most welcoming. Monster Hunter World's user interface is already unbelievably cluttered with bars, icons, numbers, buttons, maps, menus, and more... so why not add one more to make the experience just a little bit friendlier? -- Mike Rougeau
Fix Monster Health Pool Scaling
This is a big one, and it should be a relatively easy fix. Currently, Monster Hunter World has two difficulty settings: single-player and multiplayer. Monsters have a certain amount of health if you're hunting solo, and a much larger health pool if you're in a pack. The problem is, said health pool doesn't scale depending on the number of players on your team. This means that Monster Hunter World's ferocious, giant monsters have the same amount of health when you're rolling with two players as they do when you have a full squad of four. Anyone who's played with just a single partner knows how insanely hard it can be to take down monsters, since each player needs to do the work of two. This unfortunately serves to actually discourage you from playing with friends, unless you can get more than two people together. We're assuming that this likely isn't the intended experience. Should playing with two people be harder than playing alone? This game needs to scale the difficulty for the number of players in the game. Full stop. -- Mike Rougeau
Add A Notifications Center
You have countless things to keep track of while playing, particularly as you advance further into the game. Notifications pop up when you first head back to Astera, to inform you of any developments... but the ways these are presented is far from ideal. What Monster Hunter World needs is a more robust notification system. The brief messages that pop up to let you know a Safari has returned are permanently gone within seconds, and given the rarity of crafting materials from Zorah Magdaros, you can easily miss the opportunity to replay the optional Zorah mission. Likewise, the messages about new downloadable content and quests are limited to the Daily Login Bonus screen. All of this would be better suited to a proper notification screen that is readily accessible and also allows you to see the status of other time-sensitive content, such as Limited Bounties. -- Chris Pereira
More Monsters To Fight
While I understand that this is a new game with entirely new assets, and we are eventually getting additional monsters to fight by way of DLC (I am ready for you, Deviljho!), I still can't help but feel a little let down by the fairly meager amount of monsters in Monster Hunter World. I would love to square off against the everyone's favorite ice-cold land shark Zamtrios, the brutal Tigrex, or even my most recent favorite: the Gore Magala. Capcom also did a great job on the designs of the new monsters, and I would love to see more original designs as well! Thankfully, this will probably happen. We already know DLC is on the way, and fans can always hold out hope for the possibility of a Monster Hunter World Ultimate. Get some more monsters in there along with G-rank, and it will make an already fantastic game that much better! -- Ben Janca
By Chris Pereira on Feb 10, 2018 08:05 am
A new update has arrived for Overwatch. Blizzard has kicked off this year's edition of the Lunar New Year event, which this time around is dubbed Year of the Dog. It revamps the game's Capture the Flag mode and introduces other new features. But as is to be expected from any new update, there are a variety of new Overwatch skins and cosmetics now available in a limited-time loot box. In terms of skins, there are six Legendary ones in total: those for Hanzo, Genji, Mercy, Pharah, McCree, and Widowmaker. Additionally, there are more than 50 new items in all to get your hands on; there are new sprays, victory poses, and other cosmetics now available. The event also sees the return of the skins from last year's Lunar New Year. You can check out all of the new skins, as well as many of the new cosmetics, in the gallery above. We've also got galleries of all the recently added Blizzard World update skins, as well as the huge number of Overwatch League skins introduced earlier this year. With new skins now available, this update marks the addition of a welcome feature for those with a growing collection to show off. From the Assemble Your Team screen before a match, you can now easily change your skin. This is only accessible during the pre-match phase, no doubt to avoid having players spending time contemplating their choice when they could be helping the team, but it should still make it easier to rotate through your collection. Also new in this patch is the aforementioned CTF revamp. This sees the introduction of a new Sudden Death mode--meaning no more ties--where flags are located closer to one another. Also, throughout the match, flags are now picked up instantly, though it will be dropped when using certain abilities, like Winston's leap. Blizzard says this should all result in a more "action-packed" experience overall.
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