In the early days of the iPhone, seeing one in the wild, usually in a brave early adopter's hands, was like spotting a unicorn. The excitement was palpable. Over the years, though, as every smartphone has become a glass and metal slab, making it difficult to tell one iPhone release from another, the excitement has diminished. Where I used to keep my 'regular' iPhone review units out of sight, I now casually carry them around in a case, and no one is any the wiser.

That, though, is not the case with the iPhone Duo. In my effort to spend as much time using the new folding iPhone as possible, I carried it everywhere, including to a wedding party for my friend's son. My iPhone Duo test unit was somewhat disguised by being clad in a Taupe Folio with a Kickstand case, but as I held it aloft to photograph the newlyweds, the bride's eyes grew wide.

"Is that...?!"

My eyes darted from her to the phone in my hand, and I considered stuffing it back in my pocket, but I was intrigued by her reaction. I hadn't seen this level of interest and excitement in years.

I nodded wordlessly; the newlyweds started peppering me with questions, and as I folded and unfolded it, and they glimpsed the inner display, the bride's jaw dropped. She asked if I liked it. I mumbled, "Yes, I think so," without offering much more information.

I was determined to use the iPhone Duo's two external 48MP cameras to photograph the event, which meant this scenario repeated itself more than once.

It was obvious that, unlike every other iPhone of the last decade or so, the iPhone Duo could not travel incognito; people were, it seemed, intensely interested in Apple's first truly new iPhone form factor in basically forever.

The interest is warranted.

The iPhone Duo is not simply an iPhone folded in half. I'd argue it's only marginally an iPhone and more of a hybrid, splitting the difference between a sub-sized smartphone and a slightly larger, 8-inch iPad mini.

From the highly polished titanium frame to the curves and pitch-perfect tolerances, the iPhone Duo's design is Apple at its best, and while it doesn't reinvent the genre, the nano-texture finish on the main display cannily solved the chief folding phone complaint: that darn crease. It's not that the crease is completely gone, but in daily use it's virtually invisible. As an added bonus, that matte finish kills reflectivity in bright sunlight, and makes almost everything look better.

Apple includes four cameras, three of which are powerful enough to produce high-quality photos across a range of styles. I saw excellent color accuracy and low-light performance, and the ultra-wide camera feels expansive. The inner-display camera is, it appears, just 4MP, but it does a good job with casual selfies and FaceTime calls.

Apple has almost stuck the landing here, but there is a slight step backwards. I'm fairly certain its decision to move the status bar and dock to the right side of the 5.4-inch outer screen, and therefore shrink the width of most apps, will divide opinion. I like how this makes it easy to tap an app with your right thumb, but the remaining screen real estate makes some app experiences look and feel cramped.

Then there's the lack of Face ID on the cover screen, which means this is the first iPhone in ages that I have to use my finger to unlock.

I'm also less than thrilled that a nearly $2,000 / £2,000 / AU$3,500 phone starts with just 256GB of storage; although, to be fair to Apple, the $1,899.99 / £1,699 / AU$2,699 Galaxy Z Fold 8 also starts with the same amount.

Those small nits are like pointing out the missing eyelashes on the Mona Lisa, though. Overall, this is a fantastic entry into the folding phone space, offering the dual capabilities of a glanceable and attractive iPhone that fits in any pocket or hand, and a versatile 7.6-inch tablet.

Not everyone needs two screens in one device, or wants to pay as much as they would for a home appliance for their next smartphone; but for those who feel confined by the boundaries of a typical iPhone and want to do more in less space, the iPhone Duo, which starts out smaller than your average smartphone but unfolds to reveal an almost twice-as-large tablet display, is well worth your consideration.

Apple iPhone Duo review: Price and availability

• From $1,999 in the US
• From £1,999 in the UK
• From AU$3,499 in Australia

Apple unveiled the iPhone Duo, its first folding phone, as its "one more thing" during the Surprise and Shine event on September 9, 2026.

The list price is $1,999 / £1,999 / AU$3,499 for the 256GB model, which is in line with most of its folding competitors from Samsung, Huawei, Motorola, and Oppo. It's available in storage configurations up to 2TB for $3,199 / £3,199 / AU$5,899.

The iPhone Duo is the most expensive iPhone Apple has ever made, but we should put this in context. Like most foldables, this is a two-in-one device: a pint-sized smartphone with a 5.4-inch 4:3 screen, and a 7.6-inch tablet. Unlike the Galaxy Z Fold 8, which has a similar passport-style shape, and even the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, which is a more conventionally sized and shaped foldable, the iPhone Duo's larger main screen supports digital pen input (this wasn't available for my testing period, but it's expected by November).

You may also be able to soften the price blow a bit with a trade-in; or you might want to look at Apple's leasing program, which will run about $57-to-$83 / £47 to £66.63 / AU$97.19 to over $161 a month for the base model.

In total, the iPhone Duo is probably better value than you think.

• Value score: 4 / 5

Apple iPhone Duo review: Specs

These are the key specs of the Apple iPhone Duo:

Apple iPhone Duo review: Design

• Polished titanium
• Exquisitely engineered hinge and folding operation
• Unfolds flat
• IP68
• Thicker and heavier than nearest competition
• No Face ID

'Satisfying' is the best way to describe the feeling of repeatedly opening and closing the iPhone Duo. It's as if Apple inadvertently created a digital fidget spinner — the more I carried around the iPhone Duo, the more I found myself absentmindedly folding and unfolding the phone.

Apple's exceptional engineering makes it possible to unfold the phone initially, with almost no effort (it almost springs open at the slightest intentional touch), before the internal torque kicks in to allow for the Duo to be opened to almost any angle between zero and 180 degrees (flat).

While you can't see the work that went into making this hinge, the effort is evident in every single touch and move. Inside are hundreds of magnets and other components that keep the phone securely closed, but never get in the way of an easy opening. More so than with any folding phone I've tested, the hinge essentially disappears when the iPhone Duo is unfolded flat.

At 5.2mm thick, the fingerprint-attracting polished titanium iPhone Duo is the thinnest iPhone ever. At least that's how Apple markets it, but that's in tablet mode; I do like the sound of a 5.2mm-thick tablet. The 7.6-inch device is thinner than the 8-inch iPad mini (6.3mm). Folded, the iPhone Duo is 11.3mm thick, almost 2mm thicker than the folded Galaxy Z Fold 8. And at 254g, the iPhone Duo outweighs the Galaxy Z Fold 8 by a noticeable 53 grams. It's even slightly heavier than the iPhone 18 Pro Max, which weighs 249g.

The upshot of all this is that while the 4.64-inch by 3.31-inch folded iPhone Duo fits in even the smallest pocket, you will feel its heft, especially if you pop, say, a Folio with Kickstand case on it.

The iPhone Duo stands out in a way few iPhones have in recent years. Folded, it's closer to square than rectangular in shape, resembling a squat iPhone Pro Max. Plus, the asymmetry — flat and square on one side and curved on the other when folded — means the Duo cuts a unique profile among smartphones.

It does feel good in the hand, though the wider body might take some getting used to. I like the Ceramic Shield 2 front and back, especially the matte-finished back, which makes the Duo almost slip-from-your-hand-proof. The large dual-camera array bump is reminiscent of the iPhone Air, though the similarities end there.

The volume buttons live on the top edge, another departure from the traditional iPhone, and indeed from smartphone design in general — I'm not sure I love that decision. On the right is the long Touch ID-enabled power/sleep/Siri AI button, and below that is the Action button. I often forget that last button exists on my iPhone 18 Pro Max, and I wonder if it was truly necessary here.

I appreciate the inclusion of Touch ID (I registered my index finger and thumb), but the lack of Face ID is frustrating — I had no idea how much I relied on it for quickly unlocking my phone until it wasn't there. Multiple times I've stared at the iPhone Duo's cover screen waiting for something to happen, forgetting that I have to intentionally touch the Touch ID button. A nearly $2,000 device lacking Apple's most powerful biometric security feature is close to unforgivable — I'll probably set up a workaround so that I can unlock the Duo via my Apple Watch.

Along the bottom edge are the USB-C port (the phone ships with a charging cable but no power adapter), the speakers, and the mics.

Unfolded, the iPhone duo feels like a thin, compact tablet — I hesitate to say 'iPad' since the operating system is essentially iOS with some small adjustments for the new form factor.

Remarkably, Apple comes out of the folding gate flourishing an IP68 rating, which means the iPhone Duo is protected against dust and even water. Naturally, I submerged the Duo under a running faucet, and it was none the worse for the experience.

Overall, I like the design and form factor, but it's different from a traditional iPhone, so it does take some getting used to. I struggled, for instance, to figure out the best way to hold the phone for photography. Do I need to turn it into landscape mode, or should I just hold it the way I hold a 'regular' iPhone? I do wonder how many will choose to unfold the phone, and shoot pictures in the same way they might with their iPad.

• Design score: 4.5 / 5

Apple iPhone Duo review: Displays

• Adorable and unusually shaped 5.4-inch cover display
• Industry-leading 7.6-inch foldable internal display
• Crease is canily hidden via a combination of expert engineering and a nano-etched display
• Bright, sharp, fluid screens

Credit to Apple for not skimping on either of its iPhone Duo displays. Both the 5.4-inch outer and the 7.6-inch flexible inner screens are Super Retina XDR-class OLED panels, both with variable refresh rates up to 120Hz, always-on functionality, and up to 3,000 nits of brightness.

Both displays look impressively sharp, and actually offer slightly higher resolutions than the comparable displays on the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8.

The iPhone Duo's 5.4-inch cover display has a 2034 x 1398 resolution (compared to the Galaxy Z Fold 8 cover display's 1972 x 1248), and the 7.6-inch Inner display is 2670 x 1878 (compared to the Z Fold 8's 2448 x 1848 main display).

At first glance, the iPhone duo Cover screen is instantly recognizable as an iPhone, but close scrutiny reveals some interesting adjustments for the relatively short and wide display. First, the pill-shaped Dynamic Island sits in a vertical space along the right side, and when you look at the home screen, the dock is stacked vertically below the time and a status button (a single tap on it expands it to show connectivity and battery, and also drops down the full Control Center).

The Duo takes that right-hand space and rarely gives it up, which means that websites can look cramped in Safari, and some apps like TikTok, and even Apple's native ones, like Sports, can feel a bit squeezed. There are exceptions, like when you use the screen as a viewfinder in the Camera app, or look back at images in the Photo Gallery. In those cases, the imagery fills the entire screen.

I'm less conflicted about the glorious main screen. It's big, it's responsive, and the matte, nano-texture covering almost completely hides the crease by dispersing any light bouncing off it, instead of directing it right back to your eyes. The display looks and feels perfectly flat, plus that matte covering kills all reflections, and makes every image look almost magazine-quality. It could be argued that a tiny bit of visual punch is lost in the texture, but I really enjoyed everything I viewed and did on the screen. It feels wonderful to the touch, and I had fun playing games like PUBG, browsing the web on a big screen, watching Netflix, reviewing and editing my photos, and multi-taking (more on that later).

Unlike the Galaxy Z Fold 8 and 8 Ultra, the iPhone Duo's inner display supports a stylus, specifically the USB-C Apple Pencil. That support is not yet live, but I can't wait to start drawing on the Duo. I did attempt some Procreate Pocket sketches with my finger, and it didn't go well, which is mostly a me problem. However, I had slightly better luck with an analog stylus (see below).

Apple hides the 4MP inner FaceTime camera behind a handful of pixels, but they don't appear to have the exact same mix of matte and pixel density as the rest of the display, and as such are easy to spot. I wonder if Apple should have just gone with a standard, albeit smaller, cutout.

As on the cover display, Apple has positioned the status and dock vertically on the right side of the main display. I wonder why, in Tablet mode, Apple didn't simply copy the iPad and put this bar at the base of the screen. Still, I noticed that the dock disappears when you're in apps like Safari.

There's more to say about app compatibility with this platform, which I'll get into later in the Software section of this review.

I especially like the redesigned Standby feature, which takes advantage of the Duo's multiple displays and foldable nature. You can prop up the phone like a tent and have the Standby display appear in landscape mode. If you flip the phone up so it's standing on your desk like an open book, the Duo knows to switch Standby to the inner display. At one point I popped the Duo onto my old Belkin MagSafe charger, and used it as a nightstand clock. It's so smart and useful.

What we have here are two excellent displays with a wide array of capabilities in one device. It's both a tiny iPhone and a mini tablet, with two screens that should please both the iPhone and iPad crowds. I have my reservations about the cover screen, but as an overall multi-display package, I'm impressed with the Duo.

• Display score: 4.5 / 5

Apple iPhone Duo review: Cameras

• Two strong 48MP cameras
• Excellent 12MP Center Stage camera
• Inner camera is lower-resolution but effective for FaceTime
• No telephoto camera

It's been a long time since I've reviewed an iPhone on which camera considerations come second to design and mechanical engineering, but the excitement revolving around the iPhone Duo is about its folding capability, creaseless inner screen, and unique-among-iPhones form factor.

Even so, there's no indication that Apple has skimped on three of the four cameras. Yes, the inner camera is just a 4MP shooter that's primarily devoted to FaceTime calls, but the rest of the lenses — 48MP f/1.6 Main, 48MP f/2.2 ultra-wide, and 12MP f/2.2 Center Stage — are all excellent.

While I haven't had a lot of time with the iPhone Duo, I have managed to shoot in a variety of conditions and situations, pushing the cameras on speed, image quality, color, and low-light performance.

The two external cameras default to shooting at 24MP, which means each photo has effectively twice as much information per pixel (the process is called binning).

I was particularly impressed by the level of detail in the main-camera shots — just look at the specks of pollen on the marigold flower in the gallery below. That same image shows an exceptional balance of shadows and light; the sunlight bleed on the right does not overwhelm the exposure of the rest of the image.

In a challenging social-club environment, the main wide and ultra-wide cameras acquitted themselves nicely, making exposure adjustments to capture the moment without too much grain. Obviously, there was some motion blur, but I think it added to the emotional weight of the event.

With the iPhone duo, Apple has introduced Smart Take, which I liken to your own personal fashion photographer. The setting lives under the grid menu (drawer) in the Camera app, and once it's on, you can set the phone folded at 90 degrees on a desktop, start posing in front of the camera, and Smart Take will capture the 'best shots.'

When I used it, I noted that while I was trusting the phone to take some decent photos of me, I couldn't see a display to keep track of what it was capturing (Smart Take is not supported on the 4MP inner camera). Still, I started striking poses, assuming that the camera would deem those best. It kind of worked, though I think Smart Take would work best if you're able to put the iPhone Duo up on a tripod or shelf to make sure the camera is closer to eye level.

Similar to what we've seen on other foldable phones, Apple has included a camera mode, Duo Preview, that lets you use the best main or ultra-wide camera while still using the cover display as a viewfinder. It's a useful table-stakes feature that I'm glad Apple included, especially since the inner camera is so underpowered.

Apple says you get 2x effective optical zoom on the main camera, but that's a sensor crop. Yes, the pixels and image information will be real, but I prefer a proper zoom lens. To be fair, the iPhone Duo camera array is quite similar to the 50MP pair on the Galaxy Z Fold 8, which also lacks a telephoto lens.

I also used the cover screen Center Stage camera to shoot some portrait-mode selfies. They were, as you might expect, impressive (not the subject, just the brilliant bokeh).

The iPhone Duo's trio of high-quality cameras meets, in my estimation, the high watermark set by lenses on previous iPhones, including the iPhone 17 Pro (the 18 Pro models come with a variable aperture).

• Camera score: 4.5 / 5

Apple iPhone Duo review: Software

• An iOS tablet hybrid that somehow works
• Dock position will split some
• Split screen for multitasking
• Third-party app support is a work in progress

With the iPhone Duo, iOS officially means multiple things. Where it was once a smartphone platform, it's now a multi-hardware-configuration operating system that can, depending on where it's installed, fork appropriately.

Instead of the iPhone Duo unfolding and converting into an iPad, it remains steadfastly an iPhone with tablet-like capabilities. This has resulted in some odd decisions on Apple's part, like hiding some of the ever-present status-bar information, including battery life, and rotating and moving the dock. Even the iPad doesn't put the dock on the right-hand side.

On the cover screen, the status bar and dock placement cut into screen real-estate for some apps and browser experiences; this is less of an issue on the larger inner screen.

Since this is not pure-play classic iOS, there is some discontinuity in third-party app support. During my testing, Gmail and LinkedIn didn't look great. The former is stretched wide but doesn't fill the full depth of the display; LinkedIn floats in the middle.

For unoptimized apps, I did have the option of using the very iPad-like 2x zoom icon, which stretched the app to fit more of the screen. In some instances, apps appeared to work, but some features were broken. When I played Asphalt Legends on the inner display, tilt-to-steer was broken, though it worked perfectly on the cover display.

Some third-party apps, including Netflix (clips looked pretty good on the Cover display), and first-party apps like Safari and Messages, look great, and effectively use all the 7.6-inch display's real estate. There are even some apps that are already custom-designed to take advantage of the dual-display setup.

One of my favorites is a game called Toastie. On the inner screen, you butter your bread, add cheese and other ingredients, then hit grill, at which point you fold the phone closed, and it gently pulses for each second of cooking. You have to decide when to stop. To see your grilled cheese sandwich, you open the phone — I did this a half dozen times before I had a virtually edible sandwich.

Deck-Man is also a cute concept; this turns your iPhone duo into a classic cassette tape player, complete with the static you hear when the player is on but not playing a tape. When the iPhone is open, you choose a cassette and virtually put it in the player, then you close the phone to access the player controls. I especially liked how "rewinding" the tape reproduced the classic sounds of a physical tape rewinding in an old-school player.

I also played Battle Fleet, which is a Battleship knockoff, and works well when you set up the phone in 90-degree opened desktop mode.

These are all clever apps, though I wouldn't argue that any are the Duo's 'killer app.'

The 7.6-inch inner display is also a good canvas for multitasking. You split the screen by swiping up from the bottom of the display and slowly dragging an app left or right. Inside each pane, you can swipe up to choose a different app. I used this to have Messages and Safari side-by-side, and also for the drawing app Procreate on one side and a reference image from Safari on the left.

Unlike on the Galaxy Z Fold 8, you can't run three apps, though the iPhone Duo will let you add picture-in-picture video on top of two apps you have open.

The iPhone Duo is a good showcase for Apple's growing AI ambitions. Siri AI now knows more about me and my smartphone, so when I ask if there are any emails I should know about, it automatically accesses 'Priority Mail' in the Mail app, and quickly starts reading off the first crucial message. Siri AI is better at maintaining context, so I don't have to restate myself, but it's still not foolproof. I asked Siri where I had been yesterday, and it showed me a picture of myself and listed my age. Siri AI should, though, get better as it continues to index my system.

In general, iOS 27, which is more customizable that ever, has useful widgets and more powerful AI features, and is the perfect platform for Apple's biggest iPhone design leap. It may not have all the design elements right, and the app support is lagging a bit behind, but these are all minor, and I think easily adjustable or fixable, issues.

• Software score: 4.5 / 5

Apple iPhone Duo review: Performance

• Powerful A20 Pro CPU
• 12GB RAM
• Smooth performance across the board

Apple smartly put the same CPU, the 2-nanometer A20 Pro, in the iPhone Duo as it did in the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max. As a result, the performance on its first foldable device is equally impressive. In Future Labs benchmark tests, the A20 Pro on an iPhone Duo beat the Galaxy Z Fold 8's Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy in Geekbench 7 single- and multi-core tests, and it also edged out the Qualcomm chip in most of our graphics tests. None of this was by a wide margin, and I'd challenge anyone to notice the difference in real-world scenarios. Still, it's nice to know that the Duo is cooking with gas, just like its Pro counterparts.

In my experience, the iPhone Duo is fast and fluid. Speaking of which, it's fun to start with some third-party apps on the cover screen, and then flip open the iPhone Duo to see the virtually seamless graphics handoff from the smaller display to the larger one. It's both a software and performance feat that nothing stutters or stalls in the handoff process.

The larger inner screen will probably encourage many to try even tougher tasks, like editing 40K 60fps video. I used CyberLink PowerDirector to do so, and while the system and app handled the task fine, the non-optimized app couldn't properly fill the 7.6-inch display.

The back of the phone, near the camera bump, can get a little warm during gaming and other CPU-intensive operations, like recording the aforementioned 4K video, but not uncomfortably so.

Apple's A20 and the 12GB of RAM on board seem well suited to local tasks like photo editing in Cleanup, and both realistic and fanciful image creation in Image Playground.

The iPhone Duo starts with 256GB of storage, which matches the Galaxy Z Fold 8. At this price, though, I think it should start with double that. You can expect strong connectivity across the board from the iPhone Duo. Inside is Apple's C2 modem for better 5G connectivity. Plus, there's support for WiFi 7, Bluetooth 6, and Messages via Satellite.

Apple iPhone Duo benchmark scores

• Performance score: 5 / 5

Apple iPhone Duo review: Battery

• Solid all-day battery life
• Fast wired charging

Apple reportedly squeezed a fairly large, almost 5,000mAh, battery into the iPhone duo, and is promising some pretty impressive battery-life numbers based on fairly specific types of usage. Video playback, which doesn't rely all that much on energy-draining resources, can, Apple claims, go for an eye-watering 44 hours, or 31 hours on the larger inner display.

In more varied use, Apple is claiming a full day of battery life on a charge. In my real-world tests I got around 14 hours, and in our more stringent Future Labs tests, we got 13 hours. That's commendable performance, but not as good as what the same Future Labs tests show for the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8, which managed 14.33 hours.

I still think the iPhone Duo's numbers are good, especially because my experience was easily cruising through a full day of phone activities, without any concern that I needed to plug in.

The phone supports fast charging and, with a 45W charger, I charged to 60% in 30 minutes. The MagSafe back also supports fast wireless charging.

• Battery score: 4.5 / 5

Should you buy the Apple iPhone Duo?

Apple iPhone Duo scorecard

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Apple iPhone Duo review: Also consider

How I tested the Apple iPhone Duo

I used the iPhone Duo for almost a week for everything from social media to Slack and email. I perused websites, watched videos, played games, followed maps and turn-by-turn directions, and took photos. In short, I tried ot use it as my primary device

Read more about how we test

First reviewed October 2026

I’ve played the entirety of Leon and Claire’s stories, dabbled in some extra modes, and tried the title out in both docked and handheld mode.

So, if you’re wondering how the game runs and plays on Nintendo’s latest hybrid system, you’re in the right place. Here’s how I’d rate the Resident Evil 2 remake on Nintendo Switch 2 after more than 20 hours of gameplay.

Experience a legendary remake on the go

While I’m mainly here to talk about Nintendo Switch 2 performance, I’ll get this out of the way first: the Resident Evil 2 remake is survival horror at its finest. This game conjures up a truly daunting atmosphere, with haunting and iconic areas like the Raccoon City Police Station and sewers translating beautifully into a modern, HD format. The gunplay is incredibly smooth and satisfying; you truly have to manage your resources carefully if you want to survive, and everything from random skirmishes through to major boss fights feels phenomenally tense. Pair that with a set of likeable characters, an ambient soundtrack, and rewarding exploration, and you’re looking at a true classic of the genre.

But how well does this top-tier Resident Evil title translate onto Nintendo Switch 2? Very well, thankfully.

First of all, let’s talk performance. While a platform like PS5 Pro may still offer a technically superior experience, I never felt like I was sacrificing much with this Switch 2 version. This version targets 60 frames per second (fps), and my frame rates were delightfully consistent, and gameplay felt smooth, even during higher-octane action segments — when docked or in handheld. Sometimes, the movement of distant enemies seemed a bit choppy, but this never affected my ability to blast them down, and I never realized any similar issues during crucial close combat situations.

It’s a similar story when it comes to visuals too. The game looks solid on Nintendo Switch 2 with HDR support. Dark and gloomy city streets and ambiently lit indoor areas appear detailed and faithful, while character models such as the Tyrant look polished and sharp. As you’d expect, some textures don’t look quite as refined in handheld mode, with elements like Claire’s hair slightly lacking in definition, but the game still looks clear with decent contrast and lighting.

Resident Evil 2 also controls nicely on Nintendo Switch 2, with multiple schemes available through the Options menu. Whether I was using my Turtle Beach Rematch Wireless Controller or playing handheld, it was easy to switch weapons during combat, sprint past zombies, or sort through my inventory. This title also supports HD Rumble, which at times can feel a little overassertive, but overall adds to the immersion nicely. You also get virtual spatial sound, which works brilliantly, especially with headphones.

Something that this title does lack, though, is control schemes that make use of the Switch 2’s unique hardware. For instance, there’s no motion-controlled aiming, which would’ve been a nice touch for those who enjoyed it on Resident Evil Requiem, for instance. There isn’t any mouse mode functionality either, so you’ll be using traditional controls throughout the game. For me, this isn’t a huge problem — I prefer standard right stick aiming, but it would’ve undoubtedly been good to see this game make the most of the Switch 2’s hardware.

When all’s said and done, this is a very competent port of a fantastic survival horror game, and it only helps the Switch 2 establish itself as a major destination for third-party titles as well as big-hit Nintendo releases. Whether you’re new to this series or you’re a long-time fan, this is a great way to experience Resident Evil 2 at home or on the go.

Should you play Resident Evil 2 for Nintendo Switch 2?

Play it if…

Don’t play it if…

Accessibility features

There are a number of ways to customize your experience in Resident Evil 2, with customizable camera options, three distinct control schemes, toggle or hold run modes, and a wide array of voice and text languages to pick from. In the display section, you can change the color of the reticle, laser dot sight, and dot display, alter HUD opacity, and even turn damage display levels down if you’d prefer.

How I reviewed Resident Evil 2 for Nintendo Switch 2

I spent more than 20 hours with Resident Evil 2 on Nintendo Switch 2, during which time I completed both Leon and Claire’s stories, played some of the extra modes like The Ghost Survivors, and played in both docked and handheld mode.

For the most part, I played the game docked, with my console hooked up to the Sky Glass Gen 2 TV and Marshall Heston 120 soundbar. However, I did indulge in some handheld action here and there, and used my JBL Live Beam 4 earbuds to enjoy virtual spatial sound on the go.

More generally, I’m a seasoned gaming hardware and software reviewer, and have been testing all kinds of games and accessories for years here at TechRadar, where I serve as a Senior Reviews Writer. I’ve reviewed all sorts of games on Nintendo Switch 2, from major first-party releases like Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave to ports of awesome action games, such as Yakuza Kiwami 2.

First reviewed October 2026

Despite a fantastic animated adaptation (and great spinoff series with Nocturne), Castlevania has been six feet under as Konami barely revisited the series. Seldom for tie-ins with Dead Cells and re-releases, so fans were ready to sink their fangs into a new title.

Fortunately, it would come from the Dead Cells team, Evil Empire. Its mastery of the craft with the Metroidvania genre made it a safe but effective pick to hand the Vampire Killer whip to. And, lo and behold, they ran with it and made something fans will love.

You must whip it, whip it good

Surprisingly, the game is a sequel of sorts to both Netflix’s Castlevania and Castlevania 3: Dracula’s Curse. As Rose Belmont, the daughter of Trevor Belmont and Sypha Belnades, she is tasked with stopping the newfound dangers flooding Paris.

With her father’s guidance and all the Belmont tactics, she’ll discover the root of it all, as well as how she and her mysteriously cursed arm fit into things.

Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse does go a good distance with its narrative, but it doesn’t reach too high. It’s got some twists, turns, and great moments, though it can feel sparse. Of course, most of the fun will come from your experience dashing and slashing, but it can feel uneven with its cinematic counterparts. Still, it’s serviceable enough for you to want to keep playing and see more.

Rose Belmont, as the daughter of Trevor and Sypha, is a pretty likeable protagonist. She’s not one-note by any means and struggles with her emotions, especially with the spotlight now on her. However, it’s the supporting cast that provide her with what she needs to be a worthy Belmont.

Without spoilers, her Confidantes will be her moral compass, and it’s up to her to choose which direction she wants to go in. Props go to many of the fantastic performers in the game, as everyone works perfectly with their respective characters.

A missable little pile of secrets

Once you set foot off the docks of the Seine, you’re instantly thrust into classic Castlevania gameplay: slay monsters and maneuver through obstacles. There are small tutorials, but for the most part, Paris is an open book, and you’re free to flip through the pages almost immediately.

Action-wise, it also harkens to classic Castlevania, with Rose using a variety of weapons to kill the many creatures of the night. There are many types of weapons, from the iconic whip to flashy gauntlets. Finding new versions of them throughout the world is always a treat, as it never disappoints when you equip them and test them out. Personally, the whip was a go-to, as it rewarded distance with better damage output, though the spear was a close second.

Also, with Rose’s abilities, which she’d earn after certain bosses, it unlocks various attacks, like throwable crosses or pillars of fire. It leaves customization very open, letting you play how you’d like in terms of combat.

Without going into spoilers, Rose’s journey goes beyond the confines of Paris into various regions. Each of them has some theme and gimmick that makes them memorable in both a playing sense and a backtracking sense. As this is a Castlevania game, you will find yourself going back to certain locations to find secrets and clues for other locations. Luckily, with new abilities like an air dash and, of course, a grappling hook whip, you’ll be able to do so easily and rapidly.

That said, the level design in Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse is phenomenal. Traps and platforming take advantage of Rose’s abilities, including ones she earns throughout her adventure. It takes precision and good reflexes to maneuver through them, and it never gets old. It can get frustrating, though, especially if you’re going back and forth a ton. Still, finding what you need after a seemingly impossible challenge feels so good.

Slaves to our family’s wishes

As the first new 2D Castlevania in decades, there have been noticeable increases in graphical fidelity since then.

Belmont’s Curse blends 2D with 3D to bring a Dead Cells-like style to the gameplay and look. It does keep the drawn silhouettes of characters for dialogue, but in-game cutscenes are all flat 3D. While the pixelated depth in past titles like Symphony of the Night and Order of Ecclesia is sorely missed, Evil Empire’s redesign works well with the series and fits right in.

Frame-rate-wise, there were rarely any hiccups during the playthrough. There was a stutter or two during certain moments with tons of monsters, but it was pretty seldom. However, there were a handful of glitches with the audio, as it would cut in and out and, often, restart with each level transition. While rare, some glitches with the gameplay, like phased-out enemies or awkward platforming, would happen.

It’s also important to mention that it can be quite a difficult game. The series is known for being brutal, and Belmont’s Curse is no exception. A death can bring you way back and reset tons of progress. It’s a worthwhile challenge, but it is one that takes time and patience. Bosses will be the bane of many people’s existence, as some of them, especially late-game ones, are super difficult. It can feel a bit overkill, but it’s nonetheless satisfying to whittle them down and then finally get the last laugh.

In short, Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse is classic Castlevania brought to the modern age. Evil Empire and Konami have crafted a title that, while it’s not the huge blockbuster many would hope for, is a well-done action platformer. It doesn’t go too far outside the box, but it makes the most of what it does have.

With fantastic level design and combat, the franchise is in a position to return to its glory days and its bloody reign over the action platformer genre.

Should you play Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse?

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Accessibility features

While the game touts its difficulty, there are available accessibility features to lessen it. There are also various visual adaptations for thicker outlines or colorblind mode. In addition, subtitles are available in different languages, as well as voice-overs. However, despite some accessibility, some things, like one-hit-kill traps, exist and can be frustrating.

How I reviewed Castlevania: Belmont's Curse

I played Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse for around 16 hours, seeing much of the game’s map, bosses, and secrets. I also got many of the available weapons and spells, as well as heart and mana containers. In addition, I did play the demo, which was released prior to the game’s release, and transferred the save file from that to the full title.

I played the game on a base PS5 with the DualSense Wireless Controller and HyperX Cloud 3 wired gaming headset, all on a Roku 4K TV.

First reviewed October 2026

Anker’s back with another quirky, display-equipped charger that somehow adds a splash of fun into the process of juicing up your phone. I’ve spent a week testing it out at home, using it to revive a number of devices, and it’s impressed me overall — but is it worth the money? Stick around for my verdict.

Let’s start with the display, which is the big selling point of this model. First of all, there’s a lil’ charging blob character that appears, and expresses a variety of emotions depending on charging status, temperature and so on. This adds a bit of charisma and charm to the charger that most plain white or black blocks just don’t exude.

The display itself is bright, responsive, and well-sized — but it’s not just here for fun, it’s also pretty informative. You can touch a button next to the screen to get the visual on a range of factors — like power output and temperature. But you can also use it to toggle on Care Mode, which keeps the charger about 20°C cooler than international safety limits allow, and your actual device’s battery around 5°C cooler, which can protect your devices’ long-term battery health. That in itself is a function that even some of the best iPhone chargers skip on.

In practice, I never found that this model got too hot when in use, even in spite of its small size. Speaking of its size, this charger has a brilliantly compact form factor. It has a considerably smaller footprint than a lot of 45W chargers on the market, making it ideal for use in tight spaces or taking on the go. My only nitpick would be that the UK model I tested doesn’t have foldable prongs. This isn’t ideal if you want to stow the charger in your pocket, as the prongs can cause discomfort when pressed against you, though it’s worth flagging that the US variant folds away fully.

In terms of performance, this charger works as well as you’d hope. I tried charging my Samsung Galaxy S24 FE, which has a battery capacity of 4,700mAh. It brought the phone back to life just as quickly as I’d anticipated (about 80 minutes from 0%). However, my main device, the Xiaomi 17, cannot charge at maximum capacity with this model. That phone supports 100W wired charging, so if you have a device with similarly advanced charging capabilities, then it may be worth looking for something with a higher total power output, like the Anker Prime 100W GaN Wall Charger.

Something else worth noting is that this charger has a single USB-C port, so you can only charge one device at a time. That’s fine if you just want a simple phone charger, but there are models that let you charge your phone and other devices simultaneously, like the UGreen Nexode Charger 65W with Retractable USB-C Cable.

Still, there’s a lot to admire about this compact charger. For example, this model has dynamic, three-stage charging, with a Fast, Steady, and Trickle mode, automatically supplying your device with the power it needs in a safe, managed way. There’s also smart device recognition for iPhones, meaning that the charger can recognize your specific model, and will display it on the screen. Free updates are also planned to recognize upcoming iPhone models.

Another thing I love about the Anker Nano 45W is its look. It comes in a range of color options, intended to mirror those of the iPhone 17 line, and they all look fantastic. I used the Orange model, which is bold and eye-catching, but also built to a high standard. This helps to justify the $39.99 / £34.99 (about AU$55), which is by no means cheap, but fair for the quality and performance you get in return.

All in all, the Anker Nano 45W Smart Display Charger is a very solid model that supplies consistent and reliable performance, considerable visual flair, and an informative, personality-filled display. It’s not the most powerful option on the market, but if 45W is all you need, and you’re fine with a single USB-C port, then I’d certainly recommend it.

Anker Nano 45W Smart Display Charger review: price & specs

Should I buy the Anker Nano 45W Smart Display Charger?

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Anker Nano 45W Smart Display Charger review: also consider

But just how good is Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter? Should you play it? Here are my thoughts after countless hours of gameplay.

I absolutely loved this game’s predecessor, which launched last year and was among the best RPGs released in 2025. Yes, Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter was a phenomenon, supplying a beautiful blend of action and turn-based combat, silky smooth performance, and a brilliantly revamped UI. I sunk so many hours into that game, and so I was delighted to find that everything I loved about 1st Chapter transferred across to this follow-up.

A first-rate follow-up

I’ll start by talking about gameplay, which feels just as tight and refined as it did in 1st Chapter. You can rush around the world and attack enemies with Arts and basic attacks in Quick Battle. This is great if you want to mow through enemies — especially weaker ones — without having to spend too long strategizing, and it feels incredibly rapid and responsive. Being able to hack, slash, and whack your foes in a flash means that the game feels well-paced, and longer dungeons don’t seem too daunting.

However, you also have the choice to partake in turn-based Combat Battles to vanquish your opponents, and this is where a lot of the depth comes in. You have to carefully manage your Craft Points (CP) and Energy Points (EP), which enable you to use brutal physical and magical attacks and support options, while also carefully positioning your units to manage health.

It's also crucial to keep an eye on turn order to avoid getting KO’d before you unleash your attacks, choosing when to steal bonuses from your foes to heal or deal critical damage, and when to launch a deadly all-out team attack.

As you can gather, there are a lot of mechanics to consider, and there’s plenty of depth to be found in command battles. But perhaps the most important thing is to manage your Orbments properly.

Orbments string a number of gems together, known as Quartz, which determine the Arts that you can use in battle. Carefully curating your Orbments for each character is crucial, and I had an absolute blast tinkering around to build the ideal build for every boss.

By travelling the world and taking on optional battles and quests, you can unlock some seriously powerful Quartz too, which makes exploration feel truly rewarding.

This may seem like a lot to take in at once — especially for newer players. But don’t worry — there are plenty of difficulty options to choose from to fit your desired level of challenge. There’s everything from Very Easy to Nightmare (one for the true sadists). I selected Advanced this time out, which is somewhere between Normal and Hard, and while the road got tough at times, the Orbment system gave me all the tools I needed to shield my allies from devastating attacks.

Hey bro, wya?

The follow-up from the 1st Chapter is seamless gameplay-wise, and also in terms of narrative.

You can watch a recap of the first game if you want a refresher (or if you missed it entirely), and you’re reminded that Joshua (the protagonist Estelle’s adopted brother…lover? Both?) has fled. I won’t delve into the reasons why in this review, but essentially, Estelle decides to attend a specialist training camp to bolster her skills and track him down herself. It sounds pretty basic, but the story is pretty engrossing, actually. Like the first game, there are deeper political elements to explore, and you get to learn more about the mysterious secret society, Ouroboros.

The narrative remains gripping throughout, and there is no shortage of characters who join Estelle on her journey, be they returning faces like the travelling musician and romantic Olivier or the alcohol-loving Senior Bracer, Scherazard.

Voice acting is strong across the board, and breathes so much life into this colorful and charismatic cast. Some of the more low-key parts of the story and side content are only voiced partially, though, meaning you can get one character narrating their thoughts aloud while others sit in silence with text boxes. This was also in Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter, and can create a slightly awkward atmosphere in moments, though I understand this is more of a nitpick.

It’s also worth noting that this is a true anime-inspired JRPG with all of the melodrama and theatrics that you’d expect from the genre dialled up to 11. While this produces some stronger emotive moments and a good amount of comic relief, it may feel overbearing for some players. A few characters, like Anelace, go on pretty long monologues about the importance of wearing pretty bows while facing your foes. The wandering priest, Kevin, likes to let Estelle know how pretty she is about 10 times in the space of five seconds during the game’s opening section, too.

While this is by no means something that ruins the experience, I did find some of the characters a little unlikeable. So yes, some dialogue can feel superfluous at times, and it can also stretch on for quite a while. But there is a speed-up mode, and there’s nothing stopping you from skipping over the less crucial dialogue segments.

Robustly revamped for the modern era

On top of what I’ve already mentioned, Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter is filled with a slew of masterful modernizations that really make the game click.

Like last time out, the UI has been considerably revamped and feels incredibly intuitive to sift through, while also looking great. Managing items and skills is seamless and easy, and you can access your quest list, recipe book, and the map in an instant. The speed-up option is also very welcome if you want to fly through your quick battles or travel over a long distance when fast-travel isn’t available.

The visuals are also great once again. Shimmering water, rich forest environments, and character models all look spectacular, at least on the PS5 version I played. By default, the game runs at silky 60fps with next-to-none hiccups whatsoever, but you can also play in performance mode, which targets 120fps at the expense of some graphical fidelity. This is perfect for fast-flowing action combat and exploring vast open areas. Loading screens are also incredibly brief, and I continue to be blown away by how well these games play on modern platforms.

One more thing I absolutely love about this remake is its stellar soundtrack. There’s an eclectic mix of delicate acoustic tracks, funk-infused high-energy tunes, and grandiose, hard-hitting battle themes that totally immerse you in the land of Liberl. Again, you have the option to pick between standard, arranged, or original background music – something that long-time fans no doubt appreciate.

All in all, Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter is another exceptional remake that effortlessly maintains the strong momentum its predecessor picked up. Gameplay is varied, depth-filled, and addictive; the narrative is engaging, and the quality-of-life upgrades make it feel almost like a brand new game — all while carrying over the beloved aspects of the source material. Sure, the game’s melodramatic nature might not be to everyone’s taste, but if you’re a fan of the JRPG genre and want an epic adventure to sink your teeth into, then look no further.

Should you play Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter?

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Accessibility features

You can adjust the subtitle language to English, German, French, or Spanish, and select either English or Japanese voice acting. There are a number of ways to customize the camera’s behavior, too, such as normal or inverted configurations, camera movement speed, and camera distance.

On top of this, there are difficulty options, including a Very Easy mode if you just want to focus on the game’s story. Unfortunately, there is no colorblind mode.

How I reviewed Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter

I spent two weeks playing through Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter, during which time I played through the main story, took on a bunch of side quests, and sunk hours into exploring the land of Liberl.

For the most part, I played the game on my PS5 while connected to the Sky Glass Gen 2 TV and my Marshall Heston 120 soundbar. However, from time to time I dipped into the title on my PlayStation Portal remote player, and had the Sonos Ace Ultra headphones connected to listen to in-game audio.

More generally, I’ve spent years reviewing gaming software and hardware at TechRadar, where I serve as a Senior Reviews Writer. I reviewed the previous game in this series, Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter, and have covered a wider range of JRPGs here, including Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave, Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake, and The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales.

First reviewed September 2026

It ends up being diverting fun and well-priced for what it is, and gamers who loved the original (or perhaps loved games like it, such as Dragon Age: Origins) will enjoy the return to this sort of simple-but-satisfying gameplay loop of hitting orcs, looting gear, and upgrading your characters so they can hit orcs harder, faster, and for longer without falling over.

But while much of the game is fine, if not spectacular, it's a shame there are a few technical problems and deeper issues. Swapping between characters on-the-fly is novel, and there has been an effort to incorporate this into all aspects of gameplay. However, hot-swapping is obviously not quite what the original game intended, so there is some awkwardness here, while glitches and bugs sometimes mar the game at key points.

What about second Fellowship?

If you never played the old version, the basis of the game is this: as the Fellowship of the Ring embarks on their quest for Mount Doom, you play an adjacent, original party consisting of Eradan, a Dunedain ranger with all the skills of Aragorn; Farin, a dwarf warrior from the Lonely Mountain who looks an awful lot like Gimli with the serial numbers filed off; and Andriel, a Loremaster elf from Rivendell who can create magical blasts and forcefields.

Together, the 'other' Fellowship party chats with old friends like Aragorn, Arwen and Gandalf, visits familiar and new locations (book-readers will get a kick out of delving into the Barrow-Downs and fighting the famous Wights), and slices through hordes of orcs led by an evil man called Agandaûr, a fallen Numenorean like the Mouth of Sauron. Agandaûr is one of Sauron's trusted servants, one we've never heard of before or since.

So yes, it's all a bit fan-fictionesque, and it plays a lot like other action RPGs set in fantasy worlds, only this one takes the basic fantasy character set and plops them straight into Middle-Earth rather than a parallel-but-similar setting of elves, dwarves and dragons. It's even funnier when you get hold of special character weapon options, and you're controlling a random dwarf running around with legendary gear like Anduril or Sting. Dedicated Tolkien enthusiasts might find it a bit egregious, but it's all in the name of good fun and enabling the sort of repetitive hack-and-slash gameplay the genre is best at.

If you've played any other Lord Of The Rings games, whether the PlayStation 2's Return of the King or a more recent title like Middle-earth: Shadow of War, you'll be used to LOTR games taking these sorts of creative liberties. As a result, it works for what it is, and even as a die-hard hobbit-enjoyer I had fun scything through the dark lord's evil hordes and meeting characters never adapted like Elladan and Elrohir, Elrond's twin ranger sons.

Old game, new tactics

If you've played any action RPG, you'll know what to expect: you and your party are taking on wave after wave of mooks, weapons swinging with basic attacks, but you'll also trigger powerful maneuvers and spells that require cooldowns and replenishing a power meter, so tactical implementation of these moves is vital. Playing as Eradan, I would be skirting low on health and could use my disappearing skill, so I could make a break for it unharmed to Andriel's side, who can create a protective healing field. I'd quickly swap to Farin to unleash War Cry to up my party's health and durability.

It's this sort of synergy that creates tactical play beyond mashing light and heavy attacks until you see the 'Finish Him!' yellow triangle that pops up over an enemy's head. The ability to swap characters allows the quick-of-thumb to set up these combos without the use of the AI characters, who are otherwise competent enough to look after themselves and augment the main player. But you do need to be nimble, as the controls to do this are awkward on Switch: even ten hours in, I was accidentally drinking potions when I was trying to swap from elf to dwarf. Co-operative gameplay is available on most platforms (both online, in which you drop into someone else's game, and couch), but not on the original Switch.

There's a surprisingly steep learning curve once you learn the ropes: enemies come from all sides thick and fast, in numerous varieties, forcing you to switch from attack to defence, and then to ranged as explosive enemies approach, and implement your powers carefully.

You level up quickly too, and loot is plentiful, so there are plenty of regular rewards encouraging you to persevere through the samey waves of orcs and goblins, as PCs, enemies and environments begin to blend into various overlapping shades of brown and grey. I began the game thinking carefully about upgrading stats at each level, but after a while, I just pumped Stamina to keep myself alive while concentrating on that character's main attack stat, and that strategy seemed to work just fine too. I'm honestly not sure how much difference these RPG elements made.

Feeling thin, sort of stretched...

While a simple-but-satisfying gameplay loop, it's still very much of its time, and parts haven't aged well. The target lock-on can get tricky, and you'll occasionally find your character engaged in a long, sluggish animation, swinging their weapon at empty air while you cringe as you watch orcs running at you from behind.

Despite the hot-swapping feature and inclusion of each character's unique secret-finding ability (the dwarf, for example, can detect treasure hidden behind stone walls), the game is clearly still geared for a single-character experience. Ammo drops are still linked to the character you're playing at the time, so you might find you swap to a character without any ranged capacity. You'll also need to visit shops with each character in turn to do a proper gear comparison before buying new equipment, which is tedious.

Your health and power replenish slowly on their own, but once you've cleared an encounter, you're under no pressure to carry on. Occasionally, I found myself putting the controller down unpaused, heading off to make a cup of tea, and returning with my beverage to a rested, unmolested party at full health.

There's no sheathing weapons, so you'll occasionally be wandering around Bree or Rivendell, incongruously with swords drawn ready for action. There's also no jumping, which is fine on its own, but the frustration of encountering a chest-high wall and having to find a set of stairs is a sensation I've almost forgotten about, a relic of level design marred by the technology of the time.

Worst of all are the bugs, Aspyr's revamp of the game delivering fresh technical glitches alongside the improvements. These are quite common complaints on threads about WITN, and my experience was no different: from flashing inventory tiles to small areas of the map that caused my entire screen to flip to solid green. At one stage I was fighting blind, looking at chequered green flashes, while I could still hear Eradan's shouts of 'You face a Dunedan now!'

Others report platform-specific glitches, such as an 0KB save file problem on PlayStation 5.

The North Remembers

I think you already know if you want this game: you're either a Tolkien fiend who likes the idea of exploring and interacting with lesser-known locations and characters in an original story, a fantasy action RPG junkie, or you played the original and remember loving it. At the reduced price it's selling for, it's worth getting if you fit two out of three of the above criteria.

Personally, even though I'm as Tolkien-mad as they come and I've got no shortage of love for the RPG genre, I think The Lord Of The Rings: War In The North Legacy Edition is... fine. Serviceable. Enjoyable at times, but without much to set it apart from all the other games in the space, even back when it was first released, other than its LOTR wrapper and nostalgia goggles.

I liked my experience with the game, but I can't see myself going back to it once done. It's a poor man's bite of lembas compared to the previous generation's excellent Return of the King hack 'em up.

Should you play The Lord Of The Rings: War In The North Legacy Edition?

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Accessibility

WITN has limited accessibility features. Available languages are English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Chinese, and Polish. Four difficulty levels are available: Easy, Normal, Heroic and Legendary.

How I reviewed Lord of the Rings: War In The North Legacy Edition

I played Lord Of The Rings: War In The North Legacy Edition on my Nintendo Switch (generation 1) for 15 hours, trying each character's various combinations and progressing through the story mode. I used the Switch both in handheld mode and on my LG OLED TV. When I encountered glitches, I examined community pages and threads for similar reports.

First reviewed August 2026

The enemy variety in Way of the Sword appears a little weak initially, but fortunately, there is surprisingly a decent number of diverse enemy types to tackle, some of which will put players' skills to the test, and enemies that tie directly to some of the darker and morbid aspects of the story — giving me every bit of motivation to defeat those responsible.

Much like previous games in the Onimusha series, upgrades and enhancements work by collecting red souls from defeating enemies or by finding other necessary resources to stay well-equipped for more difficult encounters or boss fights (because there are many of them).

Capcom has blended elements from the beloved franchise with modern elements (notably thanks to the RE Engine, used in Resident Evil Requiem), creating a sword-fighting, narrative-driven experience that successfully revitalizes the franchise for future entries — and yet again, it proves that it's in the best form it's ever been in.

What it takes to be the strongest

In Onimusha: Way of the Sword, we follow Miyamoto Musashi, a confident young samurai looking to climb to the very top to be the best swordsman there is, battling rivals and those with the same goal. When an encounter with a fierce rival, Sasaki Ganryu, goes wrong, both Musashi and Ganryu are thrust into lives and roles neither could ever expect.

Genma (demons) are seeping into Kyoto, Japan, from the depths of hell, and chaos is unfolding, with the lives of innocents taken brutally, and formidable Genma tormenting those who are vulnerable.

Musashi and Ganryu seek the same goal: master the blade and become the ultimate swordsman. However, both will eventually learn that far more important matters are at stake: humanity's attempt to repel Genma is in dire need of attention, and with Ganryu led astray, it's up to Musashi to forge the right path to heroism.

Equipped with Oni gauntlets, Musashi and Ganryu possess strengths far above the ordinary human, with plenty of abilities to challenge and defeat Genma. However, as expected, with that power comes plenty of responsibility.

Do strength and power derive from one's own efforts? Is it honorable to seek absolute power with the sacrifice of innocents? These are questions Musashi is left to answer throughout his journey, learning through victory but also through trial and error, ultimately creating an engaging rollercoaster that kept me on the edge of my seat.

Musashi is far from perfect in his use of Oni powers, but the character's development throughout the Way of the Sword and his bravado (significantly amped by the face model of the late and legendary Toshiro Mifune) are the strongest aspects of the game, keeping you coming back for more after each main story mission.

Miyamoto Musashi shines in every single cutscene, with a level of charisma that accurately represents the legendary Japanese figure, Musashi himself, and Toshiro Mifune's prowess. (Video Credit: Capcom)

As much as Onimusha: Way of the Sword maintains a strong focus on sword combat, it's very much a strong cinematic experience, with cutscenes that are absolutely phenomenal. The level of detail in every character's facial expressions and speech makes it feel like you're watching a movie at times.

Unfortunately, that makes the switch back to gameplay and dialogue sequences quite jarring. It's not that the visuals aren't great during gameplay; it just doesn't match up to those cinematic sequences, and I found myself constantly wishing gameplay looked as great as those important cutscenes — but ultimately, those beautiful visuals are designed for what's most important: the story.

Exceptional, addictive sword combat

Unsurprisingly, the combat in Onimusha: Way of the Sword is fantastic, taking fundamentals from what series veterans are accustomed to, alongside new and exciting skills, making every encounter entertaining.

As mentioned in my preview, the Issen technique makes its return, allowing players to viciously strike enemies right before being hit, and it makes for an incredible spectacle.

More importantly, parrying and deflecting are pivotal to overcoming foes in Way of the Sword. Just like Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice by FromSoftware, both defence options significantly deplete enemy stamina or 'posture', leaving them open to attacks for huge damage.

Way of the Sword treats Sekiro's 'deathblows' slightly differently; instead of one central area to attack, players have several options for areas to strike against bosses.

In scenarios where Musashi runs out of Hozuki (used for quick healing), most bosses will have a limb or part of a weapon (notably with the Byakue boss) highlighted in purple that is filled with red, yellow, blue, and purple souls, but does less damage to the enemy compared to the traditional main attack.

It's an aspect of combat that creates a dynamic back-and-forth between Musashi and various bosses, especially if you need more yellow souls for health from dealing too much damage earlier on.

Patience is key when attempting to execute Issen or Chain Issen, as the timing window is very narrow, more so than those for parries and deflects. When mastered, though, you'll overcome most enemies with ease. (Video Credit: Capcom)

Capcom did promise that enemies further into the game's story would be more difficult, after players voiced concerns that the demo was too easy. While I can say that endgame enemies are certainly more formidable and aggressive, some even making me sweat when in larger numbers, most basic enemy encounters are still easy.

This is directly due to Capcom's design for Way of the Sword's combat, which is very obviously focused on replicating samurai-like fights, taking after historical samurai duels that often ended in a single strike. Enemies won't attack Musashi in groups, making clashes with enemies easy, but I can see what director Satoru Nihei was aiming for with slower, more deliberate, and steadily paced sword clashes.

Fortunately, once you beat the game, you'll unlock the hard mode, Carnage, which is encouraged for use in New Game Plus. This raises the stakes to a new level, as a single hit could result in death, similar to Sucker Punch's Ghost of Tsushima and its Lethal difficulty.

While that doesn't directly address the fundamental aspect of enemies not attacking Musashi all at once, it will keep players on their toes to remain efficient in combat.

Onimusha: Way of the Sword genuinely has some of the best animations I've ever seen in any video game, particularly when parrying. Musashi oozes so much swagger in every single fight, making his confident and cocky attitude shine through combat, not just dialogue and cutscenes.

At the same time, I was slightly disappointed to see that Musashi's katana is the only primary weapon to use throughout the game. Yes, you'll find Oni Armaments on the journey, which effectively act as secondary weapons, but they require blue souls to pull off special attacks. It's a step away from a series tradition, where characters like Samonsuke or Jean Reno had a wide arsenal of weapons to use on the fly.

The game excels at its parry and deflect animations, but is surprisingly lacking in the number of animations for enemy finishers — and I couldn't help but feel like another primary weapon besides the katana would instantly fix that.

Nonetheless, Onimusha: Way of the Sword's boss fights make up for it, as they are easily the standout in an already immersive and addictive game experience. While some of the boss encounters are repeated too often, particularly during the game's climax, they are easily among some of the most epic boss battles I've played in games.

Besides the final boss battle, Dohatsu-ten is a strong favourite of mine, putting my reflexes to parry fast attacks to the test, and its design reminds me of Capcom's very own familiar and beloved half-demon, half-human demon hunter, Dante. (Video Credit: Capcom)

If difficulty is a major concern, fear not, because not only are the boss fights a fantastic spectacle, but they're also very challenging. Bosses will often launch attacks (where swords have a purple glow) that can't be dodged or blocked, so players must parry or deflect them or lose plenty of souls in the process.

Losing souls from being hit by an enemy's unblockable attack is very risky, as they'll be collected and used to make them even stronger mid-fight — and this is the last thing you'll want to happen during the final boss fight, which I won't spoil.

Players will also have to look out for bosses attempting to grab Musashi by hitting the dodge button just before it lands, as mistiming this results in serious damage and can single-handedly decide a fight. Pulling off well-timed dodges, parries, deflects, and counters to grabs makes the entire combat experience addictive, and once you unlock the Oni transformation, the game takes a new leap to greater heights.

What about performance?

I played Onimusha: Way of the Sword on my main desktop gaming PC, equipped with an RTX 4080 Super and an AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D processor, and performance was the least of my concerns. Through most of my 30-hour playthrough, I played at maximum graphics settings at the 3440x1440 display resolution, with DLSS Quality enabled, and consistently stayed above the 100 fps mark.

When testing the game on my Lenovo Legion Go S Z1 Extreme handheld gaming PC, I could easily hit around 40fps with graphics settings preset to medium, with FSR set to balanced, at around 24W (power consumption).

This is another Capcom game that runs very smoothly, which was a worry considering some of its semi-open world hubs. The RE Engine seems to struggle in open-world (open-area) games like Dragon's Dogma 2 and Monster Hunter Wilds, rather than those with linear environments in Capcom's Resident Evil games.

I did experience a few odd moments of heavy frame rate dips during some cutscenes, but these were few and far between, so it didn't break the flow of important narrative development.

There is full ultrawide support in both cutscenes and gameplay, which isn't exactly common for PC ports, as the former is often restricted to the 16:9 aspect ratio.

Should you play Onimusha: Way of the Sword?

Play it if...

Don't play it if...

Accessibility features

Onimusha: Way of the Sword has plenty of accessibility options, notably color blindness aids alongside visual and auditory accessibility presets. Within those presets lie options such as subtitles (toggle on or off), subtitle size, subtitle background, menu text size, and HUD size.

There are also numerous options to change the blood color, disable dismemberment, remove action prompts, and motion sickness reduction settings.

Players can also change keybinds for mouse and keyboard play, while there are several different options for sprint control (toggle or hold), deflect control, menu cursor speed, and even one to disable the Windows key's functionality.

The game ships with DLSS 4.5 and FSR 3 frame generation, CPU performance presets, and ray tracing, which doesn't seem heavy to run — at least on a high-end gaming system.

How I reviewed Onimusha: Way of the Sword

Most of my 30-hour playthrough of Onimusha: Way of the Sword was on my main gaming PC, using the LG 45GS95QE OLED ultrawide display, providing exceptional immersion thanks to its 800R curvature.

During my trip to Gamescom, I put Onimusha's performance to the test by lowering my Lenovo Legion Go S handheld's TDP as much as possible, and was quite impressed by how steady it was around 40fps. It's certainly possible to achieve 60fps, but it would require lowering graphics settings further and increasing the TDP.

First reviewed August 2026

Needless to say, this third installment in Asobo Studio's A Plague Tale series is a far cry from the franchise's previous stealth-focused, rodent-infested entries. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Resonance is the latest chapter in the decidedly dark, Black Death-inspired series that previously put players behind the stealthy skills of siblings Amicia and Hugo as they faced relentless Inquisition soldiers and swarms of plague-spreading rats. But Resonance is also a prequel, set 15 years before the events of A Plague Tale: Requiem and starring Sophia, a returning, fan-favorite supporting character from that same entry.

Sophia's a smuggler and skilled swordsman, far more capable in battle than the franchise's previous brother and sister duo. As such, Resonance is a completely different type of game, a third-person action-adventure – with some light role-playing game (RPG) elements – that favors slitting throats and spilling entrails over sneaking in the shadows. It's a pretty drastic pivot, one that might be initially off-putting to longtime A Plague Tale players, but it generally works, allowing Asobo's beloved universe to successfully branch off into a different genre.

Like Assassin's Creed…condensed

What Resonance recalls most, especially in its first few chapters, is a more streamlined, story-driven Assassin's Creed game. Like Ubisoft's sprawling action-RPG series, it sports stunning environmental visuals and plenty of crunchy, dynamic combat – complemented by lots of brutal finishers – as well as a good deal of exploration, parkour, and stealth. Heck, the latter even allows you to deliver death from above à la Assassin's Creed's hidden-blade executions.

There's also a combat-enhancing skill tree to progress through, passive perk-granting relics to equip, and enough lore-expanding collectibles to make any member of the Assassin's Brotherhood envious. But on the plus side – especially for those burnt out on Ubisoft's bloated open-worlds – Resonance layers all these familiar elements into a far more straightforward, cinematic adventure that respects your time.

Borrowing from the best

But while it delivers, arguably, some of the AC series' best bits in a more digestible package, it also borrows inspiration from some other favorite franchises. Its prevalence of engaging spelunking and clever puzzle-solving gameplay, for example, recalls Lara Croft's greatest adventures, while its adrenaline-pumping set pieces could give Nathan Drake and Indiana Jones a run for their fortune and glory.

None of this is to say that Asobo is merely mimicking successful series' formulas that have come before. While its inspirations are obvious, they're also incredibly well realized and organically remixed into a much wider experience that feels fresh, allowing the A Plague Tale franchise to reinvent itself for this prequel installment.

And while you won't find hordes of plague-ridden rats waiting around every corner of Resonance's breathtaking Venice and Crete locations, its story is still very much embedded in the series' overarching narrative. Without spoiling too much, Sophia – it turns out – lived quite a life before taking to the high seas and helping out Amicia and Hugo in Requiem.

And like Hugo, she too is affected by something quite curious, supernatural even, that informs and shapes not just the storytelling, but the gameplay. Her mysterious ties to something quite ancient touch nearly everything in the game, from her puzzle-cracking prowess to that aforementioned gladiatorial arena battle.

But also like Hugo's blood curse, her affliction comes with more than its fair share of terrors. Sophia spends most of her time cracking skulls and conundrums in equal measure, but her swashbuckling sometimes gives way to the sort of nightmare-conjuring stretches that'd set the previous games' sibling duo desperately running for their lives.

Thankfully, Sophia also has some friends to lean on. In fact, Resonance does a fantastic job leveraging side characters to organically flesh out the world and Sophia. Rather than relying on forced exposition, the exchanges between the protagonist and her friends – and sometimes foes – flow naturally to deliver both fun banter and integral information.

Less plague rats, more plundering

Whether with a buddy or on her own, Sophia does indeed occasionally find herself in frightening situations evocative of the first two games' more nail-biting moments. These scarier, often survival-focused moments are some of the game's best, but they also take a backseat to what more often feels like a lighter, blade-clashing, plundering romp.

Again, this isn't so much a knock against the game, as Resonance does a brilliant job blending inspirations from the aforementioned properties while also layering in plenty of its own personality. But passionate fans of the previous A Plague Tale titles, craving more of their suffocating atmosphere and killer rodents, may find Resonance a tad too lighthearted, familiar, and formulaic. While it's not without its scares, surprise betrayals, and emotional gut punches, it's still very much a spirited action-adventure that draws more from Black Flag than the Black Plague.

Beyond that gripe specific to those hoping for a return to rat-infested Middle Ages France, Resonance's battle camera could have benefited from a bit more fine-tuning. Sophia's sword- and dagger-based melees are generally quite rewarding, especially once new weapons, moves, specials, and perks are unlocked and layered into her blood-spilling repertoire; there’s also some welcome nuance and depth, like stun-inflicting parries and a risk-reward system that sees you replenish a health segment with each henchman slain. But the camera can have some difficulty keeping up with all this lightning-quick action. Toss in the lack of a target lock-on, and you're occasionally left wondering what cool thing just happened off-screen.

Nitpicks aside, Resonance makes a compelling case for expanding the A Plague Tale universe, while also serving up 15 or so hours of solid third-person action-adventuring. You'll likely complete Sophia's campaign wondering what exactly the future holds for the series' other characters and narrative threads, but you also won't hold any regrets having conquered a swashbuckling romp as rewarding as a treasure chest brimming with shiny trinkets.

Should you play Resonance: A Plague Tale?

Play it if...

Don't play it if...

Accessibility features

Resonance significantly expands on the accessibility options of the series' previous two installments, offering a number of visual assistance options, including UI, HUD, and subtitle customizations, as well as high contrast and colorblind modes.

Blood effects can be toggled on and off, and five different difficulty settings allow you to tailor the experience to your playstyle and skill level. These options range from a story-focused mode – that puts parrying and dodging on auto – to a deep difficulty mode for those craving the steepest challenge. Difficulty options can also be changed at any time.

How I reviewed Resonance: A Plague Tale

I completed Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy's campaign in about 15 hours, but clocked in another 5 or so revisiting chapters to gather missed collectibles.

I ran the game on a PS5 Pro using my budget TCL 4K 65" TV, with HDR enabled. For audio, I tested with both the display's onboard stereo speakers and Sony's PlayStation Pulse Elite headset.

First reviewed August 2026

The GameSir G8+ Bluetooth is the wireless mobile controller in the G8 family and bolsters compatibility from being simply mobile, to the Nintendo Switch, tablets, and PC. The same full-size grips, Hall effect joysticks and triggers, and programmable back buttons that made the wired versions of the G8 so impressive remain, and at $79.99 / £79.99 / AU$129, so does the price.

On paper, you’d think it’s a no-brainer to go wireless, particularly with the addition of a six-axis gyroscope adding to that strong core experience, but the wireless freedom you gain comes with meaningful trade-offs. Noticeably, the lack of passthrough charging and the lack of a headphone jack, both obvious casualties of the move to Bluetooth.

More importantly for iPhone gamers, the GameSir iOS app doesn't recognize the controller, which means the stick calibration, dead zone tuning, hair-trigger configuration, and back button mapping that make the G8 Plus so compelling as an option on other platforms go completely to waste. The Bluetooth connection itself also feels less locked-in than the wired experience on iPhone, with small stick movements occasionally getting lost along the way.

On Android and PC, the experience is significantly better. The app works, the back buttons are configurable, and there’s haptic feedback on offer as well (albeit with patchy support, particularly on mobile). For the first time, you can even use the G8 Plus with your Nintendo Switch. But if an iPhone is your primary device, the wired GameSir G8+ MFi delivers a more complete, more reliable experience for the same money.

GameSir G8+ Bluetooth: Price and availability

• List price: $79.99 / £79.99 / AU$129
• Available from GameSir and major retailers
• Same price as the rest of the G8 range

The middle sibling, the GameSir G8+ Bluetooth launched in mid-2024 at $79.99 / £79.99 / AU$129, matching the rest of the G8 family.

Each variant has pros and cons, so the consistent price puts the onus firmly on the buyer to decide which set of trade-offs works best for their setup. GameSir has also released a couple of special edition color variants in some regions, including a Hulk and a Thanos Edition, which will set you back slightly more.

At this price, it remains highly competitive against the Backbone One 2nd Gen and is significantly cheaper than the Razer Kishi Ultra, though the Bluetooth limitations on iPhone mean it's not the straightforward recommendation the wired models are.

GameSir G8+ Bluetooth: Specs

GameSir G8+ Bluetooth: Design and features

• Comfortable, console controller-like ergonomics shared with the rest of the G8 range
• Bluetooth versatility across five platforms, but mode switching is a hassle
• Special edition designs are only available in certain markets

The G8+ Bluetooth is the first and only member of the G8 family that cuts the cord entirely. Wireless freedom and the versatility it brings are the entire pitch, and it helps broaden the G8’s platform compatibility too.

Unlike the original G8 Galileo and the G8+ MFi, which are limited to mobile only, this controller works with iOS, Android, the Nintendo Switch, PC (via wired USB-C or Bluetooth, with a wireless dongle sold separately), and macOS. Console gaming aside, in theory, that means the G8+ is ready to follow you anywhere on your gaming journey.

The reality, unfortunately, is a little more complicated. Each platform requires its own Bluetooth pairing mode, triggered by holding different button combinations on the controller. If you're a one-device person, this is a simple pair-once-and-forget situation, and you can skip to the next paragraph.

If you're hopping between platforms, as I was during testing, it gets tedious fast. Switching modes caused regular reconnection failures with devices the controller had previously been paired with, and keeping track of which mode goes with which platform isn't intuitive. It's workable, and we’re in first-world problem territory here for sure, but it's not the seamless experience it should be.

On the plus side, turning it on couldn’t be simpler because stretching the controller open automatically powers it on and letting it close fully again powers it down. This isn’t a life-changing feature but certainly a nice convenience that worked reliably throughout testing.

A 1000mAh battery sits split across both grips, charging via USB-C. The GameSir app tracks each side independently, which is how I discovered the left and right grips drain at slightly different rates despite charging as a single unit. I saw a couple of percent drop over half an hour of active use, and the rated eight-hour battery life seems about right based on that.

The black colorway is a clean, classic look that feels more like a traditional controller than the grey and grey-and-white of its wired siblings. GameSir has also released rather jazzy Hulk- and Thanos-themed special editions in some regions, making this the only G8 variant with cosmetic variety, though they’ll set you back a little more for the paint job.

The build quality and overall shape match the rest of the family; it’s well designed and well built with the same full-size, Xbox-like grips, textured backs and a solid chassis. It’s comfortable to hold for extended sessions, and while at 11oz/314g it's the heaviest of the three on paper, the balance is good, and the weight didn't register during testing.

Case compatibility is a mixed bag, as is often the case with mobile controller grips. Without a USB-C connector going into the phone, there's no port angle to stress about, thankfully, but the physical cradle can still be tight.

My iPhone 17 Pro fit with a slim case on but sat at a noticeable angle towards the left side, which saw it protrude more than I’d like. There is a rubber pad on the phone deck that appears to serve the same purpose as the G8+ MFi's removable magnetic panel for camera bump clearance, but this one is glued down rather than magnetically attached.

GameSir’s marketing suggests this is still meant to be removed to accommodate camera bumps, but it really didn't feel like it wanted to come off, and I wasn't willing to force it. If you do take it off, don’t expect it to go back on neatly and expect to trap plenty of dust in the residue.

The D-pad shares the same feel as the rest of the G8 family: slightly mushy initial movement but with a clicky, short-travel feel once you commit to an input. Swappable ABXY caps and thumbstick caps carry over, too, as do the three alternate stick options, and they’re easily adjusted by popping off the magnetic faceplates.

Once again, however, GameSir only includes one of each of these replaceable sticks, so you can’t run the same option on both sides. One annoyance that cropped up here for the first time on any G8 I’ve tested: on iOS, the controller connects as a DualShock controller, so all on-screen UI elements in compatible games display PlayStation button labels.

GameSir doesn't include any PlayStation-legended alternative keycaps in the box, so you’ll need to remember that triangle is Y, for example.

GameSir G8+ Bluetooth: Performance

• Hall effect inputs are excellent and responsive, but Bluetooth feels a step behind wired
• iPhone users lose app support, back buttons, and customization entirely
• Vibration motors remain largely a spec-sheet feature with no real-world use

As you’d expect, the core gameplay experience with the G8+ Bluetooth mirrors the other options in the G8 range. The Hall effect thumbsticks and triggers are smooth and precise with a high level of sensitivity.

Resistance in these is just right for my taste; I found I was able to confidently hold the sticks at a midpoint for fine adjustments without the sense that the stick was itching to return to its starting point. The triggers offer full analog travel with a responsive hair-trigger mode (assuming you can enable it, more on that shortly). In analog mode, I felt like I had a nice level of control and was able to modulate the throttle in Forza Horizon 6 with plenty of detail.

That said, the Bluetooth connection introduced a subtle but noticeable difference in feel I hadn’t experienced before with a GameSir G8. I couldn’t quite quantify it, but I didn't feel as locked-in using the G8+ Wireless as I did with the wired equivalents.

It's not consistent, obvious latency, or any kind of genuine stutter or interference; it's more that small thumbstick movements occasionally felt like they were getting lost along the way. Everything was perfectly playable, and my skill as a gamer is certainly not high enough for this to be a make-or-break thing, but if you're serious about your gaming, the wired experience is definitely tighter.

The biggest issue I came across, and the one that separates this controller from the rest of the G8 family, is the iPhone experience. It’s somewhat lacking. Because iOS sees the controller as a DualShock 4, the GameSir app doesn’t recognize the G8+ Bluetooth. That means no stick calibration, no deadzone adjustment, no hair-trigger toggling, and no back button mapping.

The two rear programmable buttons, labeled M1 and M2, ship unbound by default, and there's no way to configure them on iOS. They don't appear in the iPhone's native controller settings either because iOS thinks this is a DualShock 4, which doesn't have back buttons. On macOS, I was able to rebind other buttons through native system options, but back button mapping wasn't available there either for the same reason.

On Android, the picture is much better. The app recognized the controller (though admittedly it took a couple of attempts at first), and once connected, all the usual calibration, deadzone, hair-trigger, and back button configuration options were available. Gaming on the POCO X5 Pro was a smooth experience, with Fortnite and Call of Duty Mobile both running well after the usual game-side controller recognition quirks.

PC gaming was the most pleasant surprise. Connected via either USB-C or Bluetooth, the controller was recognized immediately as a PlayStation 4 controller and was fully mapped out of the box for both local and cloud gaming. Gyro tracking worked here too, which is a nice bonus for games that support it. On macOS, things were less smooth.

The controller initially tried to connect as a "GameSir G8" which required manual Steam configuration and then wasn't recognized in-game. Reverting to DualShock mode fixed the issue, and games worked with automated mapping after that.

Shoudl you buy the GameSir G8+ Bluetooth?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Also consider...

Trying to work out if the GameSir G8+ Bluetooth is the one to get? Here's how it compares to other, similar controller grips.

How I tested the GameSir G8+ Bluetooth

• Tested with multiple devices
• A wide variety of games tried
• Compared to other mobile controllers

I spent several days testing across iOS, Android, PC, and macOS, with a focus on comparing the experience to the wired G8 and G8+ MFi I'd previously reviewed.

I tested on an iPhone 17 Pro and POCO X5 Pro 5G, playing Fortnite, Call of Duty Mobile, and Forza Horizon 6 via Xbox Cloud Gaming on mobile, and Stardew Valley via Steam on PC. I evaluated Bluetooth connectivity, app compatibility, back button functionality, latency feel, vibration motors, and cross-platform mode switching.

Read more about how we test

First reviewed June-July 2026

Embarking on a journey to remake one of the series’ finest entries and to ensure the story of one of the best protagonists stays true to its original, Ubisoft has largely succeeded with Resynced. The experience feels fresh and modern, but also has me feeling the same pirate-y feels that only the original ever could.

It’s not without flaws, though. Some particular bits of Black Flag remain that inject some unwanted repetition; some of the cut content is a little disappointing, and there are some rogue bits of oddness in the new additions, as well as overall balances of features.

But those are not huge complaints, and only apparent with close comparison to the original. Zoom out just a tiny bit, and it’s easy to appreciate what Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced is: a fantastically fun version of a brilliant game.

One of the best to ever do it

Revisiting the story of Edward Kenway, chancer and dreamer turned privateer and then assassin — perhaps the only protagonist who can hold a candle to series legend Ezio Auditore da Firenze — Resynced has largely kept the core narrative, characters, and experience as it was with the original. Which is the right approach, as all were excellent.

Bouncing from Caribbean island to Caribbean island with Kenway and his crew on the Jackdaw is the backdrop for a time-enduring Assassin’s Creed story that still holds up today and makes for a great swashbuckling adventure. There’s a certain satisfying way that the game’s narrative weaves living in the golden age of piracy and core characters within that with its own lore of the enduring Assassin’s vs Templar battle.

Exploring mysterious, overgrown islands searching for hidden treasures or hunting down stashes from messages in a bottle, traversing the high seas in the Jackdaw ship, and taking on huge ships from the Spanish and British navies, and following Kenway’s desire for fortune and experiencing him tracking down age-old secrets is all still fantastically fun and ensures the core experience remains exquisite.

The most tangible and clearest way that this core experience has been elevated is naturally the visuals. I said that Assassin’s Creed Shadows was the best-looking game in the series when I reviewed it last year, but now there's a new kid on the block. Resynced is simply wondrous, verdant, gorgeous, and incredibly detailed in its presentation of the Caribbean, and my eyes can’t get enough of it.

Being a new version of Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag, it’s still an absolutely fantastic video game and is the same brilliant original under the surface. But “not all treasure is silver and gold, mate”: it’s not just the impressive visual upgrade which makes the remake a success, as there have been loads of improvements, and a few notable changes or omissions which really make up the meat and potatoes of the differences Resynced offers over its original.

A modern assassin

Each change itself isn’t huge, but when you factor them all in, there’s a huge collection of improvements that paint a bigger, better picture are aesthetic or functional changes, whereas others are much-needed modernizations that bring the game forward a decade and a half.

At their most basic, the changes to menus, controls, and the inventory screen are almost all welcome alterations and bring the game up to speed with the likes of Mirage and Shadows in the modern Assassin’s Creed pantheon. Everything is slick and smooth. The use of the newer Anvil engine and what that allows, such as dynamic weather, a day-night cycle, and so on, is also put to great effect.

In-game minigames like Kenway’s fleet have been overhauled too, and even with the removal of that fun and cartoon-y one in the original, these changes are largely slick and well done. There are also dedicated locations to interact with such things in Kenway’s manor and base of operations on Great Inagua, which has been expanded to include dedicated spots for upgrading the manor or interacting with the fleet.

The island’s upgrades — your Harbourmaster, general store, etc — all have more depth and levels of upgrade to invest in. It’s not as comprehensive as the base-building systems in Shadows, but it’s still very satisfying and drives you to plunder more to unlock the best for your island and ship.

Combat and parkour are both areas with substantial changes as well. Parkour doesn’t look or appear brand new — and once again not as transformative as the change that came after Black Flag with Unity, sadly — but it does genuinely feel smoother and more fluid than before; where there once would have been brief pauses or stutters mid-run, there now aren't.

Combat has definitely taken inspiration from Mirage and largely works as a new style for Kenway. It’s a shame to see some omissions, as Kenway sticks only to cutlass weapons (which sometimes feel a bit messy and button-mashy) but the heavy and light attacks and parries combine to make something more engaging than the parry and finish of the original games. Even so, after a while, it can drag a bit and get repetitive — especially when you’re having to board and take ship after ship after ship to farm upgrade material — and lacks the dynamism of the original at times.

Opening up more of the world has been a success in Resynced, at least. The ability to dive anywhere and swim everywhere in the ocean opens up more areas for discovery and exploration, and the simple addition of a crouch button means that you can explore enemy compounds and warehouse locations rather than just murder your way through them.

A balancing act

More substantial changes to content are more mixed, though, and in the face of so many great updates, upgrades, and enhancements, Resynced has to walk a tightrope of new additions and working with — or avoiding — the original source material.

I really enjoy the new endings that some of the best characters in the game get through new side quests, for example — and there are even new lines, scenes, and actions back at Kenway’s headquarters after those too, which is a nice touch.

The new officer recruitment missions are also good fun; as well as offering a tangible benefit for new ship features or weapons, these are some quite good contained missions. However, the pacing sometimes feels a little odd as you successfully recruit the new officer, midway through their story, and even when they seem unconvinced about joining you.

The most noticeable change to content, however, has been unsuccessful, in my view: entirely removing the modern-day sections is a shame and a missed opportunity. I find myself longing for these bits where you are deep-diving into Desmond’s DNA and scoping out the modern-day Templar offices; the change of pace worked with the original game and played its own robust part in the lore and narrative of the series. While removing tube content was largely welcomed by many and may have seemed like a good idea, in the context of playing the game, it feels a bit of a shame. With Resynced being positioned by Ubisoft as a remake that semi-reinterprets but also modernises and improves parts of the original, it’s a wasted opportunity not to give the modern-day segments the same treatment as other areas of the game and to instead jettison it entirely.

Some 2013-isms remain in this 2026 game, too. Notably, the AI and enemies are as dumb as ever. Being able to whistle and attract a whole heap of guards to a single stalking location and murder all of them in one big bloody pile is still too easy. And while the tailing missions have been changed to be less punishing, you can now just murder your target, loot the info, and scarper just like any other objective in the game.

Despite the drawbacks, though, as a long-time Assassin’s Creed fan, this remake is a blast, and I cannot wait to seek out every corner of the Caribbean and solve every mystery all over again. Those of us who yearn for more from the stories of the Assassins in every game will be extremely happy, I’d wager, with Resynced’s re-look at one of the best games in the series, with the extra story beats for some of the best characters being such examples.

Despite a few creases here and there that raise the eyebrow, this is a solid remake and a wonderful game, and could offer an interesting insight into Ubisoft’s future approach to its older games, which is very exciting.

Should you play Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced?

Play it if...

Don't play it if...

Accessibility features

Ubisoft has done another great job of offering a whole host of accessibility options in its latest flagship game. You can easily alter difficulty settings with a number of sliders affecting different factors such as stealth, naval combat, and activities, and a number of playstyle assists are also present, such as aim assist, parkour assists, camera settings, and even unlimited oxygen to make swimming in the game easier.

The dedicated accessibility menu is broken down into five categories of accessibility presets: Motor (affecting number of actions or precision and timing), Motion & Camera (to reduce motion and camera effects like screen shake), Colors (text colors and so on, but also setting for Red-Green color blindness and Blue-Yellow color blindness), Vision (for changes to the HUD, and subtitles etc), and Hearing (volume, speaker names, etc). All offer substantial options, and accessibility needs are very well served indeed.

How I reviewed Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced

I played nearly 30 hours (and counting) of Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced on a PS5 Pro teamed with an Acer X32QFS gaming monitor and SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Omni headset for this review. I used a standard DualSense Wireless controller, and I also spent many hours playing the game on my PlayStation Portal.

I tested the game thoroughly in all its graphics modes and found that the balanced mode (offering high graphical fidelity and a targeted 40 frames per second) was by far the most enjoyable and my personal preference.

Having followed the Assassin’s Creed series for years and years, and playing a whole heap of them straight for a year a short while ago, I am very familiar with the games and what makes a good one, a great one, and a less good one, so I am well placed to cast an opinion over Resynced.

First reviewed July 2026

The Motorola Razr Plus 2026 (or Razr 70 Plus, as it's known in some regions) is as puzzling as it is pleasing to use. On the plus side, it boasts a sturdier hinge, all-day battery life thanks to its 4,500mAh cell, two displays that are easily visible in direct sunlight, and a main camera that takes stunning portrait photos that are sure to impress your friends and family.

But Motorola made some odd decisions with the Razr Plus that I'm still scratching my head over. In the US, it costs $100 more than its predecessor, which, given the rising cost of pretty much everything right now, might make sense on its own. However, Motorola used the same processor in this new model as it used in the previous two generations of the Razr Plus family. And while it's still snappy and can handle everyday tasks and some gaming with ease, paying more for the same ol' tech doesn't sit right.

What's more, Motorola is promising Razr Plus 2026 owners three years of OS upgrades and five years of security updates, both of which trail Samsung and Google's seven-year guarantee.

The camera setup is a mixed bag. Motorola removed the telephoto camera and replaced it with an ultra-wide shooter. If you take a lot of wide-angle photos, you'll be smitten. However, if you ever find yourself wanting to zoom in on anything — your kid's performance at school or a sign across the room — you're sure to be disappointed.

Ultimately, the Razr Plus 2026 is an excellent clamshell flip phone that is incredibly fun to use, but its recycled hardware places it in an awkward position. If you want a phone that will confidently turn heads, give you an intuitive cover screen experience, and last all day, it delivers — just don't expect it to keep up with the fast-evolving world of on-device AI a few years down the road.

Motorola Razr Plus 2026 review: Price and availability

• 12GB + 256GB for $1,099 in the US
• 12GB + 512GB for £1,000 in the UK
• Not available in Australia

The Motorola Razr Plus launched on May 21, 2026 and is available to purchase from Motorola directly. In the US, it's also available at third-party retailers like Amazon, but only in a single configuration of 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, for $1,099. That's a price increase of $100 over last year's model.

In the UK, Motorola sells a slightly different configuration of the Razr Plus, known as the Razr 70 Plus. It also comes with 12 GB of RAM, but doubles the storage to 512GB for £1,000.

At the time of writing, the Razr Plus 2026 is not available in Australia.

For reference, the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 and Galaxy Z Flip 7 FE cost $1,099 / £1,049 / AU$1,799 and $899 / £849 / AU$1,499, respectively, while the cheaper Razr 2026 and Razr Ultra 2026 cost $799.99 / £799.99 and $1,499.99 / £1,199.99, respectively.

In other words, the Razr Plus 2026 is in the middle of the pack in terms of price. It's not the most expensive flip phone you can buy, but it's far from cheap.

• Value score: 3 / 5

Motorola Razr Plus 2026 review: Specs

Here's a breakdown of the Motorola Razr Plus 2026's key specs:

Motorola Razr Plus 2026 review: Design

• New titanium hinge is more durable
• Mesh pattern on the back adds some grip

The 2026 version of the Motorola Razr Plus is available in one color: Pantone Mountain View. That's a fancy name for what I'd consider forest green. Although, because of the flip design, the color of the phone doesn't dominate the overall aesthetic, with the back panel (when closed) and the frame of the phone being the only areas that show off any sort of color. The rest of the phone is black — well, until you wake it up and realize it's all screen.

The back panel features a textured pattern Motorola is referring to as a "woven jacquard-inspired finish." The woven pattern adds some much-needed grip to the back of an otherwise slick phone. You won't find any MagSafe-like support on the Razr Plus, nor does it support Qi2 wireless charging. Instead, you'll get 15W wireless charging and 5W reverse wireless charging for topping off your smartwatch or wireless earbuds.

It's been a few years since I last used a foldable phone that flips instead of opening like a book, and I've definitely missed using a clamshell phone. When it's closed, its compact size doesn't feel overly bulky in my pocket like my iPhone 15 Pro Max or Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7.

When closed, the Razr Plus fits almost perfectly in the palm of my hand, allowing one-handed use of the front display. The volume buttons, along with the lock/wake button that doubles as a fingerprint sensor, are easily accessible, making unlocking the phone or adjusting the volume while listening to music or streaming a YouTube video a breeze.

I do wish the front screen wasn't broken up by the two camera lenses in the bottom right corner, but that's a byproduct of this form factor.

When opened, the phone is narrower and taller than my iPhone 15 Pro Max and Pixel 10 Pro XL, which means there's a bit of a learning curve at first. I found it difficult to reach the top third of the screen or so when using the phone one-handed. The taller aspect ratio also puts the volume controls and that fingerprint sensor higher up on the right side of the housing. This positioning isn't a deal-breaker, by any means, but it does take some getting used to.

There's a new titanium-reinforced hinge in this year's model, and while I can't speak to how much more durable it is than previous hinges in the Razr line, I can say it feels smooth and sturdy.

The USB-C charge port, capable of charging at up to 45W, is located on the bottom of the phone, as is common practice for all modern smartphones.

The Razr Plus has an IP48 rating, meaning it'll survive an accidental swim in a pool or bathtub. It'll also stand up to pocket lint and everyday debris, but don't drop it at the beach — the sand could wreak havoc.

The Razr Plus doesn't break the design mold for a clamshell-style flip phone, and adapting to the taller design takes some time, but it's a phone that's sure to garner some attention whenever you pull it out and flip it open.

• Design score: 4 / 5

Motorola Razr Plus 2026 review: Displays

• Plenty of brightness, inside and out
• Two displays are better than one

The Motorola Razr Plus has two different displays. When closed, the front of the phone features a 4-inch AMOLED cover display with a resolution of 1272 x 1080, a 165Hz refresh rate, and a peak brightness of 2,400 nits. All of that distills down to a compact screen that looks clear, crisp, and is easy to see in direct sunlight.

As I said earlier, my biggest gripe is that even though the cover display is listed at 4 inches, you don't get to take full advantage of that space because the dual-camera lens setup in the bottom-right corner gets in the way.

Still, I rather enjoyed quickly checking my email or scrolling through my Reddit feed while waiting in line at a food truck. I didn't enjoy typing out long messages on a cramped keyboard, but it was nice to send a quick yes/no or short message without opening the phone.

On the inside is a 6.9-inch AMOLED display, with a 1084 x 2640 resolution, a 165Hz refresh rate, and a peak brightness of 3,000 nits. That peak brightness is on par with the likes of the Pixel 10 Pro XL and iPhone 17 Pro Max, and beats out the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7's 2,600-nit peak brightness. At those levels, you should have no issues seeing the display in direct sunlight.

The inner display uses LTPO technology to adjust the refresh rate all the way down to 1Hz when you're looking at a webpage or reading an email, and all the way up to 165Hz when you're gaming or quickly scrolling a social feed.

There's a noticeable crease in the screen that's easily seen and felt as you tap and swipe across the display. But doesn't get in the way or completely distract from the overall experience — in fact, after a few days, I rarely even thought about its presence.

Specifications aside, the inner screen looks sharp, with deep blacks and bright, vivid colors. The surrounding bezel is thin and sits slightly higher than the screen panel itself. That means there's a slight lip around the edge, similar to the raised border of a phone case.

• Display score: 4 / 5

Motorola Razr Plus 2026 review: Software

• Comes with Android 16
• Will only get 3 years of OS updates
• 5 years of security updates

The Motorola Razr Plus runs Android 16 with Motorola's custom Hello UI skin layered on top, adding customizations and features. I'm a big fan of Google's Pixel lineup and the clean Android experience it offers, but I also appreciate when phone makers like Motorola tweak Android and add to the overall experience.

Google Gemini is baked into the Razr Plus, of course. You can easily access the AI service using your voice or through the Gemini app. It's confusing to me, then, that Motorola has its own Moto AI app on the Razr Plus that duplicates a lot (if not all?) of what Gemini brings to the table.

Inside the Moto AI app, you can use Image Studio to create images from scratch and make stickers to use in your messages. There's also a feature that catches you up on your missed notifications, a playlist creation feature, and even a note-taking transcription service.

I totally get the desire to add AI to all the things right now, but as someone who regularly uses Gemini across all of my devices, I don't want to start investing my time (and data) into another AI tool.

Moto AI aside, my long-standing favorite tweaks Motorola makes to Android are present: Gestures. I love being able to twist my wrist a couple of times and launch the camera app, for example. I wish more phones had a similar capability.

With the cover screen, Motorola effectively manages two different home screens. There's, of course, the internal screen, but instead of just duplicating and shrinking it down to fit the cover screen's size, it's an entirely different experience. You can add apps to a dedicated app drawer, manage calendar or weather panels (basically widgets) you swipe between, and even take pictures of video right from the front of the phone. It's all super easy to understand and intuitive to navigate.

Motorola promises three years of major OS updates and five years of security updates for the Razr Plus, falling well short of Google and Samsung, both of which promise seven years of OS updates and security patches to their respective foldables. Motorola's equivalent commitment is disappointing, even more so when you consider the nearly $1,100 price tag of the Razr Plus 2026.

• Software score: 3 / 5

Motorola Razr Plus 2026 review: Cameras

• 50MP main camera
• 50MP ultra-wide camera
• No telephoto camera this year

The two camera lenses that break up the front display I've complained about a few times already are a 50MP wide camera and a 50MP ultra-wide camera. On the inside is a 32MP hole-punch selfie camera.

For the 2026 version of the Razr Plus, Motorola did away with the telephoto lens and replaced it with an ultra-wide camera. When I first read about the lack of a telephoto lens, I didn't give it much thought — until I actually started taking pictures and realized just how much I was going to miss it.

When I took the Razr Plus to an Alex Warren concert at an outdoor amphitheater, I was really disappointed as I tried to zoom in on the stage and saw nothing but out-of-focus blobs.

The first few selfies I took using the main camera and the front display as a viewfinder didn't leave me overly impressed, either. Each one was muted and downright blurry.

It wasn't until a night out with my family, as we waited for our dinner to arrive, and I started taking portrait photos of everyone, that I realized just how much potential the Razr Plus 2026 has as a camera phone.

Every portrait shot was clear, crisp, and had ample color saturation. You could make a case that the colors are a little too saturated and unnatural-looking, but that's nitpicking. Every person at the table wouldn't stop talking about how good the photos looked, and I was equally impressed.

Then I started taking pictures of our pizzas as they arrived, and I saw that same blurry, out-of-focus look start to creep into some shots. Maybe it's user error? Maybe the camera is just finicky.

The ultra-wide camera has a 122-degree field of view, which was more than enough to capture the entire amphitheater and the audience. However, if you look at the edges of the picture, you'll see it gets blurry and out of focus, while the back of my son's head is perfectly in focus.

Overall, then, the Razr Plus' camera setup is mixed. It's impressive when taking portrait photos, and occasionally when taking normal photos. But replacing the telephoto camera with an ultra-wide shooter feels like a step backward from last year's model — the ability to zoom and take high-quality pictures feels like a must-have in 2026, and the Razr Plus 2026 can't deliver.

• Camera score: 3 / 5

Motorola Razr Plus 2026 review: Performance

• It's plenty fast... for now
• Same exact processor used in the previous two models

Probably the most controversial thing Motorola did with the 2026 Razr Plus is stick with the exact same processor it used in the 2024 and 2025 Razr Plus, while also raising the price of the new phone by $100. Motorola even kept the memory at 12GB and storage at 256GB across all three generations.

In all fairness, the processor — the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 — is no slouch. Over the last month, I haven't noted any glaring performance issues. I've been able to move between apps and multitask, and the Razr Plus kept up with whatever paces I put it through. That often meant watching a YouTube video in picture-in-picture mode, while checking my email, texting my wife, or browsing the web in Chrome. Doing a few laps in Asphalt: Legends also presented no issues (and was actually quite fun).

With AI as a whole at the forefront of almost every tech-related conversation right now, the Razr Plus would surely benefit from an upgraded processor, but I digress.

Just know that if you opt to pick up a Razr Plus, you shouldn't expect any performance issues today — but with an already aging chipset, there's no promise that it won't start showing signs of its age as Android and Motorola's Hello UI software continue to evolve.

For those interested, here's a summary of the Razr Plus' benchmark scores:

• Performance score: 3 / 5

Motorola Razr Plus 2026 review: Battery

• 4,500mAh battery
• 45W wired charging
• All-day battery life

Tucked inside the thin housing of the Razr Plus is a 4,500mAh battery, which Motorola promises will deliver over 31 hours of use.

From my testing, I'd say that's only slightly more than what you get in everyday use. I was routinely able to go an entire day of doom scrolling, bouncing between basically any social media app you can name, chatting with friends in Slack, managing my inbox, and texting my wife and kids without needing to charge.

Like most people, I find it's second nature to plug in my phone as I get ready for bed and start the next day with a full charge. On several occasions, I forgot to plug in the Razr Plus, but instead of waking to a phone that had turned off, I found anywhere from 20% to 30% of its juice left.

When you run out of juice, though, using a 45W wall adapter will net you a 20% charge in 15 minutes. A full charge from a completely drained tank, meanwhile, took around 1 hour and 35 minutes in my testing.

As mentioned earlier, there's no MagSafe-equivalent wireless charging feature, nor does the Razr Plus support Qi2. However, you can wirelessly charge at 15W or charge another device using reverse wireless charging at 5W. You won't want to use the latter feature to charge another phone; it's incredibly slow and inefficient.

• Battery score: 5 / 5

Should you buy the Motorola Razr Plus 2026?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Motorola Razr Plus 2026 review: Also consider

How I tested the Motorola Razr Plus 2026

I lived with the Razr Plus 2026 for over a month. I used Android's restore tool to transfer over accounts and apps from my Google Pixel 10 Pro XL, then signed into the apps I use every day — Slack, Fastmail, Reddit, Mastodon, YouTube, Facebook, Immich, Instagram, and Gemini, to name a few.

I used the Razr Plus as I would my own personal phone throughout each day and over the weeks, taking pictures, watching YouTube, listening to music, and doing all of the other mundane tasks one does on a phone, being sure to take note of my overall impressions along the way.

Read more about how we test

First reviewed June 2026

While many expected the licensed entry to be an Indy-themed re-skin of the studio's popular first-person Wolfenstein games, others thought it might be just another familiar Uncharted or Tomb Raider romp…only topped with a fedora.

Of course, those assumptions proved to be about as reliable as a pet monkey when the game ultimately delivered a sprawling, epic adventure that not only captured the spirit of its beloved source material, but rivaled the legendary archaeologist's big screen exploits.

While the Great Circle indeed packed a literal punch in the combat department, and featured its fair share of tombs to raid, its action and puzzles were organically balanced with immersive exploration, rich world-building, nuanced characterizations, and cinematic storytelling.

But it seems crafting a successful, expectation-subverting Indiana Jones was just the beginning, as MachineGames has unearthed another shiny treasure in the form of the Great Circle's Switch 2 release. Much more than a competent port that retains and optimizes the original's (whip) cracking formula, Indy's debut on Nintendo's new system significantly raises the bar for what's possible on the hybrid hardware.

As pretty as the Lost Ark

The first thing that hit me in the Great Circle on Switch 2 wasn't a foe's jaw-shattering punch, but its striking presentation. Having previously reviewed the game on the powerful PlayStation 5 Pro, I was well acquainted with its eye-popping visuals. That said, I wasn't expecting Nintendo's lower-powered console to serve up a comparable graphical feast, especially when I was playing in its resolution-reducing handheld and tabletop modes.

But the incredible level of detail on display impressed at every turn, whether I was ogling blinding sunbeams being filtered through lush foliage or marveling at the realistic shadows my torches cast on crypt walls. Thanks to DLSS upscaling doing some of the heavy lifting, the game looks as sharp as a Cairo swordsman's blade running at 1080p resolution when docked and played on a separate screen.

It was my time punching Nazis and cracking conundrums in handheld mode, however, that continually had me scooping my jaw from the floor. Whether playing the Great Circle in the palm of my hand or propped on my desk or dining room table, it shined like a golden idol on the system's portable display. While the resolution is dropped to 720p in handheld mode, nothing else is sacrificed in terms of tech, from its leveraging of ray-traced global illumination to the strand-based hair that ratchet's the realism of character models.

Coupled with the game's artistic excellence, this means every last detail, particle effect, shadow and lighting trick — from Marshall College's many reflective surfaces to that intimidating cleft in villain Emmerih Voss' chin — makes a confident leap onto the small screen. And while side-by-side comparisons with more powerful hardware — looking at you, PS5 Pro – will reveal subtle shortcomings, such as fuzzier up-close textures — the differences are generally negligible and never break the immersion.

Smooth as a slithering snake

Indy's search for fortune and glory on the Switch 2 is forced to make a bigger sacrifice in the performance department, as the game is locked at 30fps. But while that dip – down from other versions' 60fps – might sound as detrimental as a massive, rolling boulder on your tail, it barely makes a blip.

Without the luxury of being able to offer the "quality" and "performance" modes that've become commonplace with higher-end consoles, MachineGames (which smartly handled the port in-house) decided to prioritize the former for Switch 2. And, as detailed above, that choice has paid off in spades, resulting in one of the most visually impressive experiences to ever grace the system's 7.9-inch LCD screen.

Of course, the presentation-pushing decision wasn't made hastily, as the optimization-obsessed studio seemed to know exactly what it was doing, cutting corners where necessary, but not at the cost of quality. The Great Circle is a rip-roaring Indiana Jones adventure, but it generally favors measured exploration, careful stealth, and thoughtful puzzle-solving over seat-of-the-pants action.

Sure, the fists fly, Indy's whip cracks, and plenty of makeshift melee weapons break over bad guys' skulls; the story also packs its share of thrilling chases, frantic shootouts, and explosive set pieces. But none of this ever becomes so performance-intensive that it slows the game in the same way a massive open-world or cluttered battlefield might. As such, the rock solid 30fps performance rarely presents more than the occasional hiccup — a bit of pop-in here, a cutscene stutter there.

One of the game's most absorbing aspects is its globe-spanning, semi-open areas — from the Vatican and Gizeh to the Himalayas and Shanghai — all ripe for exploration and discovery. These dense, detail-drenched locales are living, breathing hubs and, to maintain the game's visual splendor and peppy performance, the studio has reduced the number of NPCs populating some of these environments. But unless you've played the previous versions — and took a census of their various hub areas — you likely won't notice.

Ninten-difference

The Great Circle made some small concessions to properly run on the Switch 2, but it's also leveraged many of the hardware's unique features, from mouse and gyro controls to HD Rumble (sadly, motion controls have not been implemented for gesture-based whip-wielding.) The mouse-like functionality works as advertised and is fun to fool around with, but it didn't pull me in to the point I'd trade it for traditional mechanics. The gyro motion, however, definitely upped the immersion, especially when carefully exploring environments and closely inspecting items. If I ever wanted to level-up the first-person perspective, I'd use the feature to truly feel like I was under Indy's weathered hat.

The real star though, is the HD Rumble, which surprised me with every new interaction I had. Incredibly layered and nuanced, the feature injected extra realism into even the simplest inputs, like brushing spiders off double-crossing Satipo's back. But while sweeping away the creepy crawlies triggers a satisfying tactile sensation, that's just a taste of what the tech can do.

The slow-building vibration that pulses over your palms when that oversized rock nips at your heels is a fantastic showcase of the feature, and everything — from enemy-ensnaring whip strikes to the gentle placement of puzzle pieces — significantly benefits from the HD Rumble's masterful implementation. Not since using Sony's innovative DualSense controller have I been so taken with a peripheral's ability to bring something fresh to the medium.

A visually stunning, cinema-rivaling adventure that put players in Indy's well-trodden boots like never before, the Great Circle had already cemented itself as a must-play for fans of the series, as well as armchair adventures of all stripes. On top of providing all the whip-cracking, crypt-exploring, mystery-deciphering fun you'd expect from the franchise, it excelled in its world-building, storytelling, and characterizations — including Troy Baker's spot-on performance as the Harrison Ford-originated hero.

Amazingly, all of this has been retained and optimized — with little sacrifice – to be successfully squeezed onto the Switch 2, giving owners of the system not just one of its best games to date, but one that paves a promising path for the future of highly ambitious, AAA titles destined for Nintendo's hybrid hardware.

Should I play Indiana Jones and the Great Circle on Nintendo Switch 2?

Play it if…

Don’t play it if…

Accessibility

As with previous versions the game, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle's Switch 2 release offers a treasure trove of accessibility options. On top of a ton of customizations for subtitles, closed captions, and user interface elements, camera modes — such as screen shake and motion blur — can be toggled.

Color filter modes – protanopia, deuteranopia, and tritanopia – are available for visually-impaired players, while various HUD settings and adjustments allow for further customization.

The game also features separate difficulty options for its action and adventure elements, allowing for specific aspects – like enemy quantity and behavior — to be tweaked for the former, while the latter offers assists for puzzles, navigation, item location, and more.

How I reviewed Indiana Jones and the Great Circle on Nintendo Switch 2

I played Indiana Jones and the Great Circle for 30-plus hours, with the majority of that time spent in the Switch 2's handheld and tabletop modes.

I paid particular attention to its visual quality and performance, especially in comparison to the PS5 Pro version, which I previously reviewed.

I also focused on Switch 2-specific features, like the mouse and gyro controls, as well as the HD Rumble integration.

First reviewed June 2026

This is a ‘survival’ game where surviving is no trouble at all; it’s just you and your camper (and potentially a companion or three), cruising the wilderness with nary a care in the world.

I, for one, have been waiting for a game like this, and judging by its art style and mechanics — not to mention the dog — it looked to be exactly what I was looking for. Having now played it, I can confirm that it succeeds in painting an idyllic picture of vanlife — to an extent.

On the road

You begin by choosing your van type and creating your character. Of the former, there are three to choose from, varying in their extension capabilities, carrying weight, and handling. You can also choose any base and accent colors you like.

There are a good number of customization options for your character, with face and hair types. There are also various accessories available, including painted fingernails. Oh, and there are shoes that look exactly like Crocs, which is a win in my book (look, they’re the perfect summer shoe, okay, and I won’t hear otherwise). Clothing options are more limited, though.

Once you’ve made your choices, you’re thrust onto the open road for a short drive before pulling up into a scenic parking lot in the middle of what looks like a North American national park. This lot is the site of the Outbound’s mini tutorial, tasking you with downloading a blueprint for a wrench from a nearby signal tower, crafting it, and using it to open the barrier to the map proper.

There’s no story here. No reason given as to why you’re journeying around in your van, other than a couple of lines of monologue at the start about leaving the city behind. There are various notes strewn about the map written by inhabitants, but these merely serve as gameplay hints rather than expounding some kind of overt narrative.

The whole game is rendered in a cell-shaded style, with a vibrant color palette that complements the tone of the game perfectly. Textures are simple but detailed, just enough to offer some semblance of realism, while landscapes on the horizon adopt a cardboard cutout look. The environment can get surprisingly atmospheric, too, especially as night falls, which really helps to sell the idyll of living deep within nature.

This soft aesthetic extends to the music, which is understated and wholesome, if a little anonymous. It drifts in and out rather than playing constantly, although there are occasions when it cuts off abruptly.

Sound effects are well placed and sufficiently detailed to feel immersive, from the cacophony of birdsong to the crackle of campfires. When rain falls, it sounds great both outside when it hits the ground and inside when it hits the roof of your van. And since your van is electric, all you hear as you drive along is the sound of the tires rustling over rough terrain, which I found oddly relaxing. Occasionally, your character will say something to give hints or after completing an action, but these are a little too generic to inject much personality or color.

The game’s map is large and expansive, mixing dirt roads and open forest with rocky canyons, streams, and waterfalls. There are also various man-made structures, from towers to treehouses, acting as points of progression.

The map screen itself is vibrant and detailed, with a rustic, hand-drawn appearance that’s clear and readable. It also tracks player locations in real time, which, as someone with a shocking sense of direction, I welcome.

Camp n’ craft

Outbound is upfront about its laid-back nature. There are no time constraints; you’re encouraged to play at your own pace and explore as you see fit. I did find the day/night cycle a little too fast, but thankfully, you can adjust this.

Attending to your needs is easy. In fact, you only have one, and that’s to feed yourself. What’s more, food is plentiful. There aren’t any real fail states, either. If your health reaches zero, as a result of fall damage or standing in a campfire for too long, the screen merely fades to black and declares that “you fainted,” before respawning you to the next day, with a quarter of your health replenished.

The typical survival gameplay loop is adhered to. You collect resources for crafting and explore the environment, which in Outbound means finding signal towers for downloading crafting blueprints and investigating landmarks for more rewards.

Managing the inventories of your backpack and van storage is easy, thanks to the clear interface of both. You can easily dump everything you’re carrying in the former into the latter with a single input. And if you want to prevent certain items from transferring, you can lock them to your backpack, which is a welcome convenience.

You can also go around the map lighting campfires, although I failed to see the point of doing so, other than to tick them off your list. They offer no special benefits or features, other than letting you sit down in a chair and gaze into the flames.

Driving is fun and fluid. Your vehicle is easy to control, yet feels weighty enough to feel realistic, and provides a soft challenge to make it feel satisfying. You can also change to a third-person camera angle while driving, which helps when manoeuvring in tight spots.

One annoying aspect of driving, though, is getting in and out. It’s a two-stage process requiring you to first open the door, then sit on the seat. This soon becomes a nuisance as you frequently hop in and out to gather resources on the roadside.

To gather certain resources, you’ll need various tools. Once you’ve acquired their blueprint, you can craft them in your van’s workshop. You’ll have to complete a simple minigame where you click in time with on-screen prompts, but there’s no punishment for getting this wrong. Tools can then be upgraded to tackle different types of rocks, logs, and shrubs.

The hammer tool gives you access to the base building menu. There are a fair number of options here, letting you build cabinets, shelves, and extensions on top of and outside your van. Cosmetically, many of these assets are quite basic, but they have their own simple charm.

You can also build various bits of machinery in your van to craft more materials. You feed them resources, and they work on churning out their outputs in the background, freeing you up to go about other tasks.

Naturally, these machines — along with the drivechain — require your van’s battery to be sufficiently powered. As you expand your van’s capabilities, you’ll require more and more power, and it’s this aspect that you perhaps need to be most mindful of in Outbound, as you can quickly find yourself out of charge.

Thankfully, you can feed your battery wood and fibre, both of which are fairly easy to come by. You can also build solar panels and other power-giving equipment to keep your van topped up.

There are multiple upgrade trees for your van, too. For example, you can increase the power of its motor so you can climb steeper inclines and increase building space.

Riding shotgun

Once you’ve got the gist of its central loop, Outbound doesn’t do much beyond it. There are some more interesting things to be found as you explore further afield, but they offer little in the way of interactivity. For all its splendor, the world is just a bit too empty.

I do like Outbound’s pacing, though. Like any good survival game, it holds back on giving you all the toys, requiring some effort to attain them all, which only makes it more rewarding once you do. It takes a while to get a dog, for instance, which is strange given that one features prominently in the game’s promotional material.

There are a few annoyances that spoil the fun slightly. There can be a lot of backtracking to signal towers as new blueprints appear, and while you can look at your map while driving, you can’t move around it or adjust the zoom. You’ll need to be a passenger or on foot to do those.

I can’t complain about the game’s performance, though. I didn’t encounter any visual bugs or drops in framerate. Online multiplayer was solid, too. Again, there was no lag or other glitches, save for a few instances of misaligned character placements. For example, there were times when I was in the back of the van while my partner drove, but on her screen, I was in the passenger seat.

The bigger issue with multiplayer is the absence of shared saves. This means that if you’re the guest in someone else’s game, you can’t carry on the adventure by yourself.

I’m hoping more content will be added in the future to expand the game’s potential, since there’s a good foundation here for more exploration and van-building opportunities to be added on top. For now, though, Outbound is a fun and good-natured way to while away a few hours, either alone or in good company.

Should you play Outbound?

Play it if…

Don’t play it if…

Accessibility

There aren’t many accessibility features in Outbound, although there are some I haven’t seen before. For instance, you can disable consumption sounds, which I presume is designed to aid people with misophonia.

You can also disable the mini games and disable the flashing effects from storms. The size of the UI is adjustable, too, although the range isn’t particularly wide. Thankfully, the maximum size should prove large enough for most gamers to see clearly.

You can toggle subtitles for the narration of player characters, but unfortunately there's no option for audio descriptions.

How I reviewed Outbound

I played Outbound for several hours, which is enough time to see most of what the game has to offer. There’s already a DLC (downloadable content) pack, entitled School Bus Adventures, but I’ve yet to play this.

Most of that time was spent playing cooperatively with my partner, although I also played it solo. We both played on PC: she used an Acer Nitro 14 gaming laptop, which features a AMD Ryzen 7 CPU, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 GPU, and 16GB of RAM, and I used a desktop with an AMD Ryzen 7, an RTX 5070, and 32GB of RAM. My partner played with the GameSir G7 Pro, which is one of the best PC controllers around, while I used the MSI Versa 300 Wireless 8K gaming mouse and the Corsair Vanguard Air 99 Wireless gaming keyboard.

I’ve been gaming for decades, and I’m a fan of titles with similar mechanics and pacing to Outbound, such as walking sims and adventure games. I’m also experienced in the survival and cozy genres, with Hozy and Subnautica 2 being two of my recent favorites.

First reviewed: May 2026

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and if nothing else, it’s something Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight has turned into an art form. Riddled with references, jam-packed with jokes, and quintessential comic book ka-powery, there’s no denying that this is an ode to all things Batman.

But in particular, it’s evident how much the Batman: Arkham series by Rocksteady Studios and WB Games heavily inspired gameplay. If you’re more a fan of Lego than you are Batman, you might have missed the trilogy and its many accolades; released in 2009, 2011, and 2015, the three games in the series were met with abundant praise for their inventive free-flow combat, excellent stealth gameplay, and exploration mechanics.

Of note is that the original Lego Batman trilogy was released almost in parallel (across 2008, 2012, and 2014). While creative and well-received, ultimately, a Lego game is a Lego game; it’s for all ages and somewhat limited by its own bricky source material. Times have changed, and Lego has since gutted its typical game formula enough for Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight to make a pretty big swing at being more Arkham-like, combining the best of these two trilogies and Bat-media beyond. But does it hit or miss?

Put ‘em up…

Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight is still a Lego game at heart; its slapstick humor, goofy parodies of iconic scenes, and low-stakes couch co-op fun form the beating heart of its success. Broadly speaking, Legacy of the Dark Knight respects the Lego gameplay loop: fight, smash stuff, build something grossly overequipped to progress through the level, and repeat.

But hold your horses before you decry it as “just another Lego game”; there are some tweaks to the formula here, including some that fans may take issue with. That starts with the slimmer roster of seven playable characters (compared to over 100 in the most recent Lego Batman game), each with unique skills you’ll unlock as the game progresses. Broadly, these are inventive and distinct, though some fare better than others — I’m looking at you, Batgirl.

Newly added to the mix is a more fleshed-out combat system that mimics the Batman: Arkham series’ free-flow combat system. Now, your heroes can build combo stacks as they attack, dodge, counter, and land satisfying environmental takedowns, combining unique skills with melee combat in a super-fun brawl-style showdown, enunciated by the occasional “THAKK!” or “KAPOW!”.

Fights such as these are a dime a dozen in both the overworld and in-level, and while they can be a little repetitive towards the late game, it’s still a marked improvement over older Lego titles. That being said, it feels like a lot was added in half measures to keep things simple; for example, I was a little disappointed by the skill tree for weapons, which offered a rather uninspiring array of movesets and upgrades, especially for the wider Bat-family.

A lot of fights are entirely avoidable if you opt for the stealthier approach; the game is littered with rafters, tunnels, and alcoves you can traverse or use to surprise enemies with a sneak attack. I got a lot of fun out of this, but again, it does make things a little too easy in places, especially when paired with the Detective Mode-like area scan that will help you locate intractable items and enemies.

Thanks to new difficulty settings, you can choose to make these encounters a little more consequential in play; I played mostly in the medium difficulty Caped Crusader mode, which still has infinite health but with more enemies. That’s more so because, for some reason, enemies could see me through walls on a few levels when I’d switched up to the more difficult Dark Knight mode. I’m hoping that’s a bug we’ll see fixed soon, because I enjoyed the higher stakes of having a finite number of lives… even if it was still pretty easy.

A feast for Bat-fans

So, how does Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight distinguish itself from Arkham and the original Lego trilogy? Well, the game is packed to the brim with trivia, old and new, parodying everything from more obscure comic book references like Bat-Mite right through to The Batman (2022), laced with ample pop culture references to tie in the humor of Will Arnett’s portrayal in The Lego Batman Movie. As a lifelong fan of Batman, it’s a real joy, and the hits just keep coming.

This mashup of references could well have led to frequent tonal whiplash between bleaker Gotham skies and campier retellings of the Caped Crusader’s escapades, but TT Games has sewn together these disparate storylines wonderfully through the power of parody. Still, over the course of its six chapters, the story does, in places, lose its way, but I was too enamoured by the imaginative level design, slapstick humor, and endless reel of references to really care about whether or not a game built around kids' toys is delivering a powerful narrative experience.

For me, Lego games have always scratched my collectathon itch, and this new Batman adventure is no different; you’ll collect everything from driveable vehicles, wearable costumes, and props inspired by the franchise, which you can proudly display in your customizable Batcave between bouts of pummeling through mindless hordes of henchmen.

Exploring Gotham City is also great fun as you zip and glide between the looming skyscrapers, scoring Wayne Tech and hidden loot from the rooftops and alleyways. It’s teeming with life and, despite the gloomy backdrop, there’s a real vibrancy to the game — not to mention the somewhat excessive levels of detail. You can literally see the texture of the Lego character paint as though they were real toys, and I’m not sure I even liked it as much as I was impressed with it.

On that note, I had never imagined — or hoped — a Lego game could be one of the more demanding games in my library, and had to drop a fair few settings to eke out the best performance from the game, especially when playing on my Steam Deck. Plus, I’m slightly disappointed to see that the same wall glitches I found in my demo playthrough are still there in the pre-launch software I’ve been reviewing, and I also found a fair few more bugs in the overworld. I was rewarded for completing encounters without ever going near them, the Sub-Wayne entry points frequently reset mid-solution, henchmen didn’t always spawn, and when they did, as aforementioned, they were sometimes X-Ray visioned.

All that being said, it’s undoubtedly up there with my favorite Lego games, and the magic is in how much love and appreciation the developers clearly have for both Lego and Batman. I doubt the new additions to Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight spell too much about the future of Lego games overall; in fact, it tells me that TT Games might just be itching to do more new and exciting things with each franchise, and that’s never a bad thing. There’s still plenty of fun to be had with the Lego formula, though, and Legacy of the Dark Knight stands as a fantastic example.

Should you play Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight?

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Accessibility features

There’s great attention to accessibility options within Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight; on first launch, players can select from Vision, Hearing, Motor, and Motion Sickness accessibility presets, as well as between the three difficulty levels, two of which have no fail state (Classic and Caped Crusader).

If these presets aren’t quite right, there’s a litany of settings to customize; for visual needs, you can toggle audio description, high contrast mode, color blindness, full screen effects, text size, HUD visibility, marker display, camera shake, persistent center dot, and third-person camera reset, set up customizable subtitles, and choose between adjustable and dynamic field of view. For auditory accessibility, there are volume controls, closed captions, voiceover icons, night mode and audio output settings, and for any motor needs you can remap controls including sticks, invert the camera and tweak sensitivity, adjust controller deadzone and held or repeated button inputs, toggle aim snap and lock-on assist, adjust the game speed, aiming mode, gadget rapid fire, and skip quick time events or simplify them.

You can also toggle stud loss so the game is less punishing, it auto-saves for ease, and you can review text logs and tutorials at any time from the pause menu. Certain events are skippable via the pause menu (indicated on the HUD), and you can pause any time, even during cinematics.

How I reviewed Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight

I spent over 20 hours in Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight, playing on my custom-built gaming PC with a Dell S3225QS monitor, 8BitDo Ultimate controller, and Razer Kraken Kitty headset, but also on my Steam Deck.

I covered a majority of the main storyline, explored Gotham to complete side quests and unlockable content, and played in all three difficulties to assess their impact on play. I compared my experience to other recent Lego games like the Skywalker Saga as well as my fond memories of playing the original Lego Batman trilogy.

First reviewed Mat 2026.

If you’re familiar with Returnal, it probably doesn’t come as a surprise that Housemarque has once again deployed the Torment Nexus for Saros’s doomed spacefarers, and the concept of its protagonist being forced into a seemingly eternal cyclical hell is very much present here. That said, Saros is decidedly more manageable than its predecessor, featuring gameplay and progression systems that allow for a more forgiving experience overall.

Don’t get me wrong, though; Saros is still a tough PS5 game. Strip away all its new systems, and I’d say it’s about on par with Returnal in terms of difficulty. Enemies hit hard, and bosses demand keen focus when it comes to learning and dodging their bullet patterns. You’re going to die a lot in Saros, but given I reached the true ending in a tidy 20 hours, it’s a good bit friendlier to the average player.

A skill tree packed with permanent upgrades — alongside a very clever modifier system unlocked early on — ensures that protagonist Arjun grows steelier with each run. Furthermore, checkpoints placed at the start of each biome mean that, unlike Returnal, you don’t have to play through the whole thing in one flawless run. That alone condenses runs from Returnal’s 2-3 hours to a far more manageable 30 or so minutes, depending on what you’re looking to achieve on each run.

And like its predecessor, Saros is polished to a mirror sheen. Arjun’s movements are fast and snappily responsive. Color-coded bullet patterns instantly communicate the approach you need for each enemy. Weapons are varied and often creative in design and their sub-weapon functionality. And those haptics and adaptive triggers? Simply the best I’ve ever experienced and reminded me that, for all its faults, the DualSense is still capable of wowing me after all these years.

All in all, Saros is very much another slam dunk from a studio that has mastered the art of blending arcade-like trappings with AAA production values. It’s not quite perfect; I wish there were more post-game activities (and no daily challenge system yet, a la Returnal), and there are very (and I do mean very) occasional performance dips on base PS5 hardware. But there’s nothing that puts a serious dent in what I’m sure will be a game of the year frontrunner for many who seek Saros’s yellow shores.

Hail to the King

Saros puts you in the role of Arjun Devraj, portrayed by actor Rahul Kohli. Arjun is a member of Echelon IV, a team sent by megacorporation Soltari to the planet Carcosa. Their purpose is twofold: to continue the extraction of a valuable resource called Lucenite, as well as to uncover what happened to the previous three Echelon teams that have made no contact with Soltari since planetfall months ago.

It’s not long before the truths of Carcosa are laid bare. In a phenomenon unique to the planet, it undergoes regular eclipse phases that rapidly advance time. Oh, and people who look directly at the eclipse are driven mad. This is all spelled out pretty early on through collectable audio and text logs left behind by prior Echelon expedition teams. From there, the madness only increases at a rate of knots.

If you’re familiar with Returnal, then you’ll know that there was more to its protagonist, Selene, than met the eye. It’s a similar case with Arjun in Saros. I won’t spoil the finer details here, but there’s still an element of his trauma seemingly manifesting itself in the form of Carcosa’s horrors.

That said, I find Carcosa to be a tremendously compelling setting. Housemarque certainly isn’t shy about its horror inspirations here. Namely, the stunning H.R. Giger-esque architecture left behind by the planet’s former inhabitants, and The King in Yellow, a collection of short stories that revolve around a stage play of the same name, which causes all of its readers to go inexplicably mad. It’s rather on the nose with the latter, actually, but it all serves to create an aggressive brand of horror here that pairs beautifully with Saros’s fast-paced third-person shooting.

I'm Blue

Saros, at its heart, is a third-person shooter with roguelite elements. There’s no trudging movement speed or ducking behind cover here, though. Arjun’s default run speed would be enough to set off a highway speed camera, and he can dodge, jump, and air dash on a dime to quickly reposition or blink through incoming projectiles.

It’s a game with myriad arcade sensibilities. Enemies’ primary method of attack is intricate bullet patterns reminiscent of danmaku shoot-em-ups like DoDonpachi Resurrection or Ikaruga. Okay, Saros never gets as intimidatingly screen-filling as that, but I think it does take some inspiration, especially from that latter title.

A new addition to Saros is Arjun’s Soltari Shield. Bound to R1 by default, holding the button down produces a protective globe around Arjun that absorbs projectiles, converting them into ammunition for his currently equipped power weapon. As a result, Saros directly encourages you to get stuck into the line of fire. You’ll need to watch out here, though; only blue projectiles can be absorbed without penalty. You can absorb yellow projectiles, but they’ll cause corruption, eating into your maximum health until cleansed with power weapon usage. Red projectiles, meanwhile, cannot be absorbed or even dodged through.

There’s plenty of weapon variety in Saros. From powerful revolvers and close-range shotguns to energy crossbows and auto-targeting smart rifles. You’ll need to use power weapons in tandem with these to deal devastating damage and effectively turn dire situations in your favor. Some are great for immediate single-target damage, while others excel at crowd control, spreading damage-over-time projectiles around the room.

One thing I adore about Saros’s weapons is that they all come fitted with an alternate fire module. By holding down L2 about halfway, your weapon’s behaviour changes. These typically consume more energy, but can do things like turn your shotgun into a grenade launcher, or your energy crossbow beams into a single concentrated blast. My favorite weapon comes a bit later in the game, though; a chakram launcher that embeds blades into enemies, spinning inside them to deal damage when you activate its alt fire. It’s so awesome.

Helping hands

As I said at the top, Saros has a similar difficulty curve to Returnal, but it’s much less mean. Early on, you’ll unlock the ‘Armor Matrix’, a massive skill tree that improves stats and offers various perks (such as a ‘second chance’, allowing you to get back up once when you die) when you pump collectible Lucenite currency into it. A secondary resource, Halcyon, can also be gathered to unlock particularly potent enhancements.

You’ll typically be faced with a boss at the end of a biome. Levels can take around 20-30 minutes per run, depending on how much optional exploration you undertake, and beating a boss will unlock a checkpoint for you to return to upon death. These checkpoints can be teleported to from your home base of the Passage, letting you begin a run from your most recent one, or for returning to older areas for side collectibles like audio logs and Halcyon.

This is probably the main thing that makes Saros a much more manageable beast compared to its predecessor. Returnal (outside of its split halfway through the game) demanded a full run every time. Dying to a late-game boss there often meant 2-3 hours of lost progress. Saros is far more forgiving in this regard, making it a far more accessible game for those who were put off by Returnal’s difficulty and the time investment it demanded.

Fear not if you’re after a meatier challenge in Saros, though. After a few early biomes, you’ll unlock Carcosan Modifiers at your base. This system presents you with a range of modifiers to make your life on Carcosa both easier and more difficult. You can give yourself stronger firepower and better defenses, but you’ll have to balance that out with detrimental modifiers, like the loss of your second chance or more aggressive enemies.

Easy modifiers decrease the number on the scale, while hard ones increase it. There is no upper limit to this, either; you’re free to pack on as many modifiers as you choose, so long as the scale doesn’t dip too far in the easier direction. In short, if you want to bring all the modifiers that make your life easier, you are required to pile up the ones that increase the game’s challenge. It’s a really smart way of increasing difficulty and adds tons of flavor to runs once you have a good grasp on the game.

Bathed in yellow

I found Saros to be a deeply enjoyable game, then, and I didn’t find its additional safeguards and progression systems made it any less when compared to Returnal. But one area where I think Saros surpasses its prequel is in presentation.

It’s one of the most visually stunning games put out by a PlayStation Studios team to date. Biomes are vast and varied, ranging from chalk-like canyons and underground mines to dilapidated docks and swampy marshlands. Draw distance is also remarkable, and you can often see entire levels span out when you look out over a vista. You can even spot landmarks from areas further in the game off in the distance. It’s awe-inspiring stuff.

I would also strongly, strongly recommend bolstering your experience with a pair of headphones. Sound design in Saros feels tailor-made for the PS5’s Tempest 3D audio. Roaring winds and distant alien screams fill the soundstage, while gunshots and explosions all sound satisfyingly chunky. The soundtrack is also a massive highlight for me, blending chaotic synths with wailing electric guitars.

Once again, Housemarque has really put the DualSense Wireless Controller through its paces. The novelty of its haptic feedback and adaptive triggers has long worn off for me, but Saros really surprised me with its usage of these. Things like the pattering of rain and feedback from power weapons echo through the controller’s vibrations accurately and immersively. And the usage of those adaptive triggers to open up secondary fire options is a brilliant touch, as it was in Returnal, too.

To close out, I really have very few complaints from my time with Saros. The game largely holds an impressive 60fps (frames per second) on base PS5, but there was the very occasional slight chug in busier, enemy-filled rooms. It’s never anything game-breaking, though.

Beyond that, I’d really like to see more postgame activities come to Saros. Returning to older areas for collectibles is fun, but it’s currently lacking anything like leaderboards or Returnal’s daily challenge runs. That game did eventually receive a chunky free expansion with new story elements, so I’d love to see the same thing happen again in Saros. Right now, I’ve just been left wanting more, which is hardly a bad thing.

Should you play Saros?

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Accessibility features

Like most contemporary PlayStation Studios titles, Saros has plenty of accommodating options for gamers of all stripes. Up front, you can disable the Carcosan Modifier limiter if you desire an easier experience, and there’s no penalty or trophy-gating for doing so. Full button remapping is also supported.

There are plenty of colorblind options, too, to the point where you can even change the default color of different projectile types. Meanwhile, subtitle options are robust. You can change their size, color, and background opacity.

Audio options are especially broad. A dialogue priority slider ensures spoken lines aren’t drowned out by other audio sources, and you can fine-tune bass, treble, and the lower and higher ends of dynamic range. There’s even an average loudness setting if you’re hard of hearing or don’t have access to speakers or a surround sound system.

How I reviewed Saros

I reached Saros’s true ending in 20 hours of play. In addition to the main campaign, I spent plenty of time gathering optional collectibles and collecting currencies to build up the Armor Matrix skill tree.

I played with a DualSense Wireless Controller on a base PS5, often pairing my play time with the RIG R5 Spear Pro HS gaming headset for more immersive audio. My display of choice is the LG CX OLED TV.

I went into this review with extensive playtime in Housemarque’s previous games, most notably Returnal. It was one of my favorite games in the year it came out, so I was excited and plenty prepared to take on the horrors of Saros using Returnal as one of my frames of reference.

First reviewed April-May 2026

The interactive survival horror series as a whole has seen us unearthing the secrets of a ghost ship, navigating the fog of an eerie New England town, descending into the depths of a Sumerian temple, and even investigating a replica of H.H. Holmes’ notorious Murder Castle.

Meanwhile, the studio’s standalone titles, The Quarry and Until Dawn, have placed us in the bloodied sneakers of oblivious teens trapped in scenarios ripped straight from the slasher playbook. While the cast, locations, and twists have changed, the goal has ultimately remained the same: try to keep everyone alive. Well, if that’s what you want to do – who am I to judge if you take pleasure in the demise of a mouthy jock?

This core element remains unchanged in The Dark Pictures Anthology's latest entry, Directive 8020. Once again, you act as the puppet master of fate for a cast of diverse personalities, trapped in a nightmare situation that is up to you (and maybe some friends) to navigate them through. This time, the unfortunate bunch is the crew of the Cassiopea, a colony spaceship travelling to the planet Tau Ceti f in hopes that it can be terraformed into a livable planet, offering humanity salvation as Earth withers and dies.

Yes, a bit like Interstellar. But, as you may expect, the mission isn’t quite as straightforward as it seems. 12 light-years from home, having just awoken from a four-year cryogenic nap, the crew finds that they’re far from alone, as a shape-shifting extraterrestrial (much like The Thing) being has infiltrated the ship and is impersonating them, making it hard to know who to trust.

Directive 8020’s story plays out across eight episodes, each roughly an hour long, meaning you can feasibly play through them all in a day if you’re so inclined. It’s a bit of a slow-burn, almost too slow at times, but the many twists and turns (that I won’t spoil here), combined with the constant sense of uneasiness about who you can trust, keep the story gripping. As with previous games in the series, picking up the breadcrumbs of clues scattered through the eight episodes is pivotal in helping you make critical decisions down the line that could lead to the death of a character.

Collectibles, including documents, video logs, and personal belongings, are worth seeking out as they delve deeper into the crew, their mission, and hint at what exactly is tormenting them. Unlike in previous entries, there are no premonitions here to steer you; some detective work is required to connect the dots and make the “right” choices.

On rare occasions, these collectibles require you to solve a puzzle to access them, but these feel superficial for the most part: the ease of their solutions makes them feel like an unnecessary obstacle. Some require you to find and move a power cell or reroute power to unlock a door, while some require you to solve a rudimentary lock-picking puzzle that simply tasks you to select segments of a circle to complete it (or select an orange segment that immediately unlocks it). While finding another piece of the story puzzle feels rewarding, I wish there were more to find, with more challenging ways to access them, or more environmental clues.

While Directive 8020 looks great – especially its cutscenes – the ship itself feels a bit bare at times. Sure, practicality is the aim of the game in space, but a few more personal touches and varied environments – as we’ve seen in previous Dark Pictures games – could have helped immerse us in Supermassive’s sci-fi world, especially given the detail of its characters.

There are five playable members of the Cassiopea for the majority of the game, but seven in total if you include those in the first episode. Each looks incredibly detailed, with pilot Briana Young instantly recognizable as No Time To Die’s Lashana Lynch. However, as we’ve seen with some Dark Pictures characters before (most notably, personally, Ashley Tisdale in House of Ashes), there is, at times, a hint of them looking dead behind the eyes. However, the acting and voice performances are excellent, with Kathryn Wilder and Danny Sapani in particular knocking it out of the park as Anders and Commander Stafford, respectively.

Supermassive has worked to flesh these characters out through dialogue, collectibles, and backstories, but some are definitely more interesting than others. The friendship between ballsy medical specialist Cooper and plucky science officer Anders never failed to make me smile, while technical engineer Cernan’s philosophical takes on life and death struck a chord. However, it was much more difficult to connect to Young, Eiselle, and Stafford, with each falling a bit flat.

Playing in Solo Story Mode enables you to take control of all crew members, while the return of Movie Night Mode offers you the ability to play couch co-op with up to five players, with each player able to control a member of the crew. While online multiplayer isn’t available at launch, Supermassive Games has confirmed this mode will be released in a free update after launch.

Second chances

While the core of Directive 8020 stays true to what we’ve come to expect from The Dark Pictures Anthology, there are a few new additions that may split series fans. The first is the new Turning Points feature, which allows you to rewind a scenario at any time. For example, if you are in a chase and you miss a quick-time event (QTE) resulting in a character’s death or make the “wrong” decision in a conversation, which results in an unwanted outcome, you can immediately replay the scene and do it differently. All your decisions and the overall story path are tracked in the Turning Points tree, allowing you to replay scenes whenever you wish.

I had mixed feelings about this at first, as a large part of what makes Dark Pictures games unique and tense is the weight (and irrelevance) of your actions. If you screw up, you have to live with the consequences. However, this can be frustrating for many players – especially if someone dies early and you want a no-death run. The good news is you don’t have to use the feature.

Directive 8020 offers two Playstyles: Explorer and Survivor. Explorer gives you access to Turning Points, while Survivor offers the classic experience, where there are no second chances. You can switch between playstyles during the game, too, so if you think you don’t need a safety net, there’s always the option to implement it later.

But Turning Points isn’t perfect. While it makes it easier to see the game’s various endings and outcomes, and to pick up missed collectibles, navigating the paths can be a pain. My first piece of advice is to first play through Explorer without using this replay feature as much as possible, using it only to rectify major mistakes or deaths. Initially, I jumped back and forth in episode one to see different outcomes, and it seriously impacted the flow and impact of the story. Once I used it sparingly, I enjoyed the game much more.

However, upon completing the game, I thought the feature would make it pretty easy to explore different paths and endings quickly, as I could jump back in time like Dr. Strange, change a choice, then jump forward to a different outcome. That’s not the case. While it is easier to explore the full game than in previous Dark Pictures titles, this can become monotonous as you rewatch the same cutscenes repeatedly without the option to skip.

What’s more, to alter certain outcomes, and therefore unlock new ones, you must replay an entire path again from one pivotal choice, or make several smaller choices. This may be lazy from my side, but for a feature meant to encourage exploring the story’s various facets, it can make it a serious slog, and I can’t help but think it would be more beneficial to players if you could replay a pivotal decision and then jump forward to just before when that decision takes effect (so long as you’ve already reached that point before).

Silent as the grave

To date, the action elements in Supermassive’s interactive survival horror games have boiled down to running for your life or smashing a QTE. While this survival horror certainly sees you legging it from the shape-shifting beasties, there are (thankfully) fewer QTEs than we’ve seen before. Instead, there are stealth sequences that see you sneaking around the lifeform, hiding behind crates, walls, and seating, to get to your destination, using a scanner to keep track of the enemy.

While these stealth elements do add to the tension, they’re pretty mundane. You see your destination, keep track of the creature’s predictable patrol sequence, and sneak over there – occasionally triggering a distraction to help or maneuvering around noisy glass. If they catch you, you will either be smooshed or, more than likely, given a QTE chance to stun them and run to the end point. Supermassive almost plays it too safe with this new feature.

These slower sequences have the potential to instill an Alien Isolation-esque terror in you. Supermassive could have included unpredictable enemy movements or alternative escape route options to up the ante and make you feel like you’re one misstep from being torn open like a bag of crisps. I understand, the studio likely doesn’t want to alienate its fanbase, but it's hard not to make comparisons to sci-fi horrors like SOMA and Alien Isolation, which simply implemented this better.

Similarly, there are a few first-person elements included, too, that don’t feel fully utilized. When you crawl into a vent, the camera view shifts from third-person to first-person, reflecting the uneasy, claustrophobic feel of these tight spaces. The shape-shifting creature can’t get you in the vents; you simply use them to bypass obstacles and occasionally the enemy, which seems like a wasted opportunity. Pairing more hair-raising stealth moments with those oppressive spaces feels like a match made in heaven (or more likely hell), and yet Supermassive appears to simply dip its toe in the water.

Overall, Directive 8020 evolves The Dark Pictures Anthology series by offering improved graphics, more forgiving gameplay, and introducing new gameplay elements, but it doesn’t quite push the boundaries enough and lacks the bite of other sci-fi survival horrors – and prior titles in the series. If you’re a Dark Pictures fan, it’s well worth checking out, but I can’t help but wonder if it will mark a welcome turning point for the series as a whole.

Should you play Directive 8020?

Play it if...

Don't play it if...

Accessibility features

Directive 8020 offers a handful of accessibility features, primarily focused on UI, QTEs, and subtitles. QTEs can be adjusted so that players can hold a button instead of bashing it, so the button you use on your controller for QTEs remains the same, and to disable the QTE timer. In addition, accessibility options offer the ability to enable a simplified UI font, to set puzzles to be completed with one input, remap controls, and to change the background opacity, size, colour, and more of subtitles and in-game text.

Directive 8020 also offers three preset difficulty options – Forgiving, Challenging, and Lethal – alongside a custom difficulty option that allows you to change QTE difficulty, enable or disable QTE warnings and threat indicators (and their colour), and adjust parry recharge time. However, we’d have loved to see the inclusion of a few more accessibility options, such as a dedicated colorblind mode.

How I reviewed Directive 8020

I reviewed Directive 8020 on PS5 on a Samsung Q80T QLED TV, using a DualSense Wireless Controller. I spent over 10 hours playing Directive 8020 in Solo Story mode, on Challenge difficulty, primarily using the Explorer playstyle. During this time, I completed all eight of the game's episodes (each of which takes around one hour to complete), explored various story paths and outcomes via the Turning Points feature, and aimed to collect as many collectibles as possible.

Having played every entry in the Supermassive Games' The Dark Pictures Anthology, as well as standalone titles The Quarry and Until Dawn – and being a keen survival horror fan – I was able to compare Directive 8020 to the studio's previous offerings and therefore offer insight into the key similarities and differences between their latest choice-based survival horror adventure and previous games.

First reviewed May 2026.

Every element of the core Division experience is here. The systems work and are easily navigable on a different scale, the combat is still fun and engaging, and the loot-and-improve loop is just as moreish.

Combine that with a story that’s relatively plain but one that perfectly complements the events of the first game and will be best enjoyed by existing fans, and a well-realized version of that post-apocalyptic New York City setting (complete with weather effects and a robust standard of graphical quality) as well as an intuitive and excellent control scheme on mobile, and the experience is complete.

It’s winter in NYC again

As an agent of the Strategic Homeland Division (SHD) activated after the deadly Green Poison rips through the populace after spreading on money during Black Friday, your job is to save what’s left of the civilized world, help out its inhabitants, defeat factions looking to take control, and build up the SHD’s presence.

You might not have a military background, but you do have access to weapons, gear, and specialist skills and abilities. You’ll choose the latter by picking a specialization based on some pretty typical video game archetypes: there’s a tanky one, a healer, an assault expert, and an engineer type. Familiar skills such as the shield and gun combo, turrets and drones, and an excellent pulse ability work beautifully once again as you tear up Resurgence’s streets.

It’s worth noting that the protagonist actually offers something more than those found in the main games, too: they’re fully voiced and, as such, feel like more of a character. It’s a welcome move as spending hundreds of hours in the likes of The Division 2 and its many expansions, and even the Ghost Recon games, without saying a single word felt odd. Still, it is a shame that there aren’t more character customization options for the lead in Resurgence, which may irk some used to more expansion character creation systems.

Your chatty agent can combine your preferred specialization with a host of different weapons, which provide a huge range of ways to play. From assault rifles to sub-machine guns and high-powered shotguns to marksman rifles, there are loads of combos to try out, and you’ll also have lots of opportunity to level up and improve gear, and make it your own with a variety of attachments.

Most of your time will be spent in the expansive PvE part of the New York map, which features a host of recognizable foes for returning players. There’s the Rikers and fire-crazy Cleaners, as well as a newer faction in the form of the Freemen.

As you cross the map, unlocking safe houses and new areas, you’ll carry out a lot of story missions and side missions that take place up and down the streets. Th overall story are nothing to really write home about, but one specific gripe I do have is that at multiple points in the main story (and thus overall progress) are level gated, requiring you to grind.

At least the selection of enemy nests, alcoves, and urban squares all make for fun and action-packed arenas. The world is very nicely executed on the whole, and does a great job of nailing the aesthetic and vibes of the original game.

Encounters can feel straightforward in design, but still manage to be suitably high-octane and high-tension. It’s a great mix to have, as you can settle into the rhythm of looting, but still have to sometimes get creative and tactical to get yourself out of sticky situations.

For committed looter shooter players, the extraction shooter style Dark Zone is back to provide a sterner PvPvE test, while Conflict offers a dedicated PvP mode for those who fancy testing their skills against other players directly. As someone who prefers cooperation over competition, I’ve really enjoyed the fact that the open world is shared with other players, and there are ample informal opportunities to help others or be helped by them with no matchmaking necessary.

While pouring time into the game to level up my character, I soon found that Resurgence really scratched that looter-shooter itch of needing to find more gear to improve, take down enemies more efficiently, and get even more gear in the process. The steady stream of upgrades keeps pulling you along, as does the desire for the XP gained from main and side missions.

The handful of ongoing elements in the game, such as weekly and daily tasks and plenty of fresh bounties, should also be enough to keep fans engaged over the long term, too. Adjacent to this, the series' monetization and microtransactions are, naturally, present too, and while they can largely be ignored and not engaged with, it is a looming factor.

Running the streets

While the game successfully translates the core experience established in The Division series, it’s another thing to have it perform on smaller, less powerful hardware.

With the visual settings cranked up to max, environments in Resurgence certainly look the part. It feels very faithful to the original 2016 game, thanks to its highly atmospheric snowy New York streets and a great level of environmental detail. It can achieve a mostly solid 30fps on a beefy Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3-powered gaming tablet, though cracks do start to show if you want to hit a higher framerate.

Dash mostly plays on the medium pre-set in order to reach a smooth 45 fps, and the difference in quality is stark. The models of prominent objects, like abandoned cars, look slightly lower fidelity, and the textures become quite muddy. Render distance takes a bit of a hit, too, resulting in quite obvious pop-in on the horizon as you explore. The game is still perfectly playable and holds up decently well on a smaller phone screen, but it’s not as good-looking as similar AAA mobile releases like Delta Force and Once Human.

Even when it looks a bit grim, the game still feels fantastic to play as touch controls are brilliantly implemented. The layout (which includes a wealth of movement options like vaulting, diving, and jumping into cover in addition to your standard virtual thumbstick and aiming stroke firing buttons) does a commendable job of translating a The Division 2-like control scheme to a touch screen format.

Although it's no trouble for experienced touch control players, there are still loads of options to simplify the controls if you’re finding it a little too much. This includes the ability to automate entering cover, aiming down sights, climbing, or vaulting. You even have the option to aim weapons from a first-person perspective, something found in the recent Ghost Recon games but a new and welcome addition for The Division.

Mobile controller support is top-notch, too, as we tested multiple mobile pads from the likes of GameSir, Nacon, SteelSeries, and 8BitDo that all enabled the game to be played exactly like one can play The Division 2 on console.

The control scheme will be instantly familiar to existing fans and intuitive to those new to the franchise, but we think it really excels when played with a controller.

Should I play Tom Clancy's: The Division Resurgence?

Play it if...

Don't play it if...

Accessibility features

Tested as it was initially released as a mobile game, The Division Resurgence sadly doesn’t have a huge number of accessibility features. While there are a host of settings around controls that allow you to change sensitivity across touch, controller, or even mouse and keyboard inputs and gyro sensitivity, there is no way to change subtitle size or color (though you can change languages), no colorblind modes, or extra audio settings.

There are also some assists you can alter with to find the right balance of play, such as aim assists, aiming down sights settings, and things like vaulting and climbing can be toggled to become automatic.

How we reviewed The Division Resurgence

We tested The Division Resurgence in both single-player and multiplayer modes for many hours. Dash tested the game on an Honor Magic 8 Pro, while Rob used a Samsung S20 Ultra (which was only capable of running it on the lowest settings), and then an Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro combined with a Nacon MGX-Pro mobile gaming controller.

Rob also tested the game using other mobile controllers such as the 8BitDo Ultimate Bluetooth Controller, the GameSir G8+ Bluetooth controller, and a Stratus+ from SteelSeries. Often using the ROG Phone 8 Pro's own speakers for audio, he also tried the game through the new SteelSeries Arcits Nova Pro Omni headset.

While Dash is TechRadar Gaming’s mobile gaming expert, Rob is a longtime fan of the Division series, having committed hundreds and hundreds of hours to both main games on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 since 2018. He still plays The Division 2 regularly with friends, and is perfectly placed to know what works and what doesn’t in this mobile version.

First reviewed March-May 2026.

Compulsion Games' single-player, story-driven third-person action-adventure scored the 2025 BAFTA for "New Intellectual Property," and after replaying it on the PlayStation 5 Pro, it's easy to see why. Set in the American Deep South, the game spins a folklore-fueled tale filled with magic, monsters, and a stylized presentation that's unquestionably dark and macabre, yet still surprisingly vibrant and uplifting.

Its excellent story, visuals, and sound work are nicely complemented by a fun gameplay mix of combat, platforming, and puzzle-solving, resulting in a compelling package that previously impressed us upon its release last year. But like Avowed, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, and other games launched exclusively on Sony's rival platform, South of Midnight is just as good, if not a bit better, on PS5.

A fantastic folklore story

Several hours into the Southern Gothic third-person action-adventure, I find myself fighting Two-Toed Tom, an angry alligator that's literally as big as an island. As Hazel – the teen protagonist desperately searching for her mom following a hurricane that washed their home away – I'm repeatedly attacked by the beast's massive tail and maw full of choppers.

But despite this terrifying foe attempting to floss its teeth with my spine, I'm able to feel some sympathy for it. While I won't spoil the specifics, suffice it to say the game's stellar, emotional storytelling and moving use of original music deserves most of the credit. Like many of the game's characters, Two-Toed Tom is afforded the sort of fleshed-out backstory typically reserved for a game's hero.

As a "Weaver," Hazel can access the animal's complex, tragic past, therefore allowing her – and the player – to empathize with it even as she faces it in a fight to the death. But the Godzilla-sized gator is just one example, as Hazel encounters a variety of colorful characters – of the good and evil varieties – from the past and present, who all have engaging stories to tell.

Hazel has the power to see and affect the world's "Grand Tapestry," a sort of invisible fabric that connects all life. Her power allows her to tap into this ethereal quilt's threads to help restless souls, restore balance, and heal traumas. But beyond that premise – which injects a welcome dose of positivity into a genre frequently more focused on stacking corpses – the story serves as a thoughtful coming-of-age tale that sees Hazel discovering her unique place in the world right alongside the player.

Rather than relying on text-heavy lore drops and tedious, exposition-heavy dialog exchanges, however, the game utilizes a number of clever devices to spin an authentic tale rooted in real folklore from the region. While it does include some of those familiar lore collectibles and character conversations, it really shines in its use of visions Hazel sees – from ghosts appearing right before her eyes to mystical realms offering an emotional peek into her missing mother's complex life.

South of Midnight's also packed with polished cutscenes and cinematics, the highlight of which are hand-drawn, storybook-inspired segments that introduce each of its chapters. And to further stress the game's dedication to imaginative, personality-packed storytelling, these scenes are narrated by a giant catfish with a charming Cajun accent.

Of course, the game's excellent score and music also do their part to ensure the narrative and presentation shine as brightly as the gameplay. A Deep South-inspired mix of subgenres and instruments perfectly blends to deliver an ear-pleasing soundscape that never feels like simple background accompaniment, but rather rich, emotionally-charged music organically woven through the story.

This is especially true during some of the boss encounters, which are complemented by lyrical-heavy songs that seem to dynamically react to the on-screen action while telling the antagonist's story.

Familiar, yet satisfying gameplay

While South of Midnight deserves extra credit for giving its big bads their own theme songs, its creative means of unraveling its Southern Gothic yarn is also supported by solid gameplay. Its blend of combat and platforming will feel familiar to anyone who's played a third-person action-adventure in the last decade, but the tried-and-true mechanics still manage to impress thanks to some smart design choices.

For starters, Hazel packs a fun arsenal of magical powers introduced at a rewarding pace. This results in a nice sense of progression that regularly sees you building on previous abilities with brand new tricks. By the time you're at the game's midpoint, you'll be unleashing a satisfying combat cocktail of light and heavy attacks, Force-like spells, special skills learned along Hazel's skill tree, and a useful power that turns foes against each other – performed by an adorable, voodoo-inspired ragdoll named Crouton, obviously.

Enemies aren't especially varied, and most encounters play out pretty similarly, but it's still a ton of fun fluidly combining Hazel's growing arsenal of Weaver magic to take down the game's nightmarish creatures. There's also a bit of risk-reward strategy layered in by way of the magic spells' cool-down meters, as well as some limited health resources you need to properly manage.

It doesn't hurt that Hazel's acrobatic skills evolve almost as often as her more aggressive moves. Double-jumps, wall-runs, glides, and a grapple hook-like ability can be seamlessly swapped on-the-fly. Her impressive move set is often leveraged in combat – bringing even more strategic options to the battlefield – but it really shines in dedicated platforming sections.

Being able to string her selection of agile abilities together for exploration, puzzle-solving, and even simple navigation quickly becomes one of the game's obvious strengths. This is especially apparent when attempting to survive one of the game's tension-ratcheting chase sequences.

The PlayStation 5 (in)difference

South of Midnight's visual presentation is gorgeous, imaginative, and clearly driven by passion. Its unique artistic style, which borrows inspiration from stop-motion animation, is especially easy on the eyes on PlayStation platforms. Enhanced for the PS5 Pro, the game packs stunning 4K visuals and maintains a peppy 60 frames-per-second.

That said, the game was no slouch on its launch console, the Xbox Series X. While side-by-side comparisons might reveal minor improvements in graphics and performance on the Sony consoles, the differences aren't dramatic enough to recommend the PS5 versions solely on those merits.

Xbox titles ported to PlayStation platforms often earn my recommendation almost entirely on their ability to significantly crank the immersion through smart, thoughtful DualSense Wireless Controller integration. Sadly, South of Midnight misses an opportunity here, ignoring the full potential of the controller's adaptive triggers and haptic feedback features. It doesn't skimp on rumble and vibration effects, but does lack the layers and nuance present in other ports. The game's awesome opening hurricane scene, for example, could benefit greatly from a deeper use of the tech.

South of Midnight's arrival on Sony platforms probably won't pull you in for its visual and performance bumps alone. That said, its improvements, while not game-changers, do make an already fantastic experience slightly better.

More than that, though, the game's worth a look if you missed it the first time around – especially if you're craving an incredibly unique, artistically absorbing action-adventure that prioritizes narrative as much as gameplay.

Should you play South of Midnight on PS5?

Play it if...

Don't play it if...

Accessibility features

South of Midnight returns with the same impressively robust suite of accessibility features it was recognized for its first time around. A number of options for those with audio and visual impairments offer a deeply customizable experience, while the game's abundance of difficulty settings goes far beyond the usual selection of modes, allowing players of all skill levels to tweak and tailor the experience to their specific needs.

How I reviewed South of Midnight on PS5

I weaved Hazel's magic for about a dozen hours on my PlayStation 5 Pro, paying particular attention to graphics and performance, comparing them to the Xbox Series X version I'd previously played.

Additionally, I focused on the game's leveraging of the DualSense's haptic feedback and adaptive trigger features. I played on both my TCL 4K display, with HDR enabled, as well as remotely with my PlayStation Portal. For audio, I tested with my PlayStation Pulse Elite headset, PlayStation Pulse Explore earbuds, and my television's onboard stereo speakers.

First reviewed March-April 2026

According to sales figures, Samsung's budget-friendly A-series phones generally sell better than their pricier S-series siblings (aka the best Samsung phones). So, while the Galaxy S26 Ultra is the brand's newest flashy flagship, a good deal more buyers are probably considering the Samsung Galaxy A57 instead.

For those not versed in the Samsung taxonomy, here's a quick recap: 'A' = cheap, '5' denotes the place in the lineup (it goes 0-5), and '7' is the generation (this is the 2026 model). That's all to say that the Galaxy A57 is the brand's most advanced mid-ranger of 2026, succeeding the Galaxy A56.

Like the S26 family, this is an iterative upgrade, bringing spec tweaks and a new (but familiar) roster of colors, rather than any truly significant changes. Mind you, a price hike makes those same specs look a little bit less appealing this year, given that you're paying extra for them.

The largely unchanged specs list means you're getting similar highs and lows to last year's model. The A57's display is one standout feature, with the bright, bold screen a blessing for your Prime Video binge or commute-based gaming sessions.

Samsung's software is another treat; One UI largely avoids the problems that befall OS packages on many other mid-range phones, and there's much less feature-bloat here than you'll find on the Galaxy S-series phones.

The perks return, but so do the pitfalls. The A57's Exynos processor is simply no good for gaming, and I'd recommend doing your photo editing on a computer, too. For that matter, pictures taken on the A57 aren't up to snuff, which is a surprise given Samsung's usual pedigree in the field.

If you want a phone that just works, without drowning you in AI or automation features, you'll like the Galaxy A57. It won't suit avid photographers, gamers, or people who want a bit more out of their mobile, but it's a reliable workhorse for the average buyer. Its battery life is also solid, and the slightly shrunk frame will fit in your hands a little better than most large-screen phones.

Galaxy A-series phones are understandably popular, but with the price hike, this latest model is a tad harder to recommend than normal. It's definitely worth picking up if you find a solid discount, but with competitors from Nothing, Google, and various Chinese brands offering more for less right now, Samsung's top-end mid-range phone feels a little less valuable than it should.

Samsung Galaxy A57 review: price and availability

• Released on April 10, 2026
• Starts at $549 / £529 / AU$749, but for different variants
• Price hike over Galaxy A56

The Samsung Galaxy A57 was announced on March 25, 2026, alongside the more affordable A37. It went on sale several weeks later, on April 10.

There are three variants of the phone, with availability changing by region. The only model everyone gets costs $609 / £529 / AU$849, and that’s for 8GB RAM and 256GB storage. A cheaper model with only 128GB storage is available in the US and Australia, for $549 / AU$749, while Brits get a super-charged 12GB RAM and 512GB storage model for £699. I tested the 8GB / 256GB model for this review.

For ease of viewing, here are those prices in table form:

No matter where you live, one thing’s for certain: the A57 has seen a significant price hike versus the Galaxy A56. That model started at $499 / £499 / AU$699 — again for different variants, which the table below details — meaning buyers of the new phone will have to shell out much more than they would have for last year’s model.

Given that the A56 wasn't particularly competitive in terms of price, either, an even higher price tag for the A57 will understandably give buyers pause.

Samsung Galaxy A57 review: specs

Samsung Galaxy A57 review: design

• Thin and light phone
• Some neat design touches that improve comfort
• Four color options, all sadly lifeless

To some degree, the Samsung Galaxy A57 has inherited a trait from the ill-fated Galaxy S25 Edge: thinness. The phone’s training regimen has seen it shrink to 6.9mm thick, which is thinner than anything else in Samsung’s roster beyond the Edge.

This doesn’t result in a massive overhaul of the Galaxy A’s hand-feel, not with the height and width still stretching the hand, but it’s a nice touch that makes the device look a little more svelte.

There’s clearly also been some weight loss, with the Galaxy A57 tipping the scales to 179g; again, this is a spec beaten only by Samsung’s year-old lean machine.

Samsung has toned down the fun of its A-series color options over the past few years, and it’s no different this time around. I tested the ‘Awesome’ Icyblue (scare quotes my own), and there’s also Awesome Navy, Awesome Lilac, and Awesome Gray (now that’s what I call an oxymoron). So that’s blue, blue, nearly-blue, and gray.

On the right edge of the A57, the power button is within easy thumb reach, and the volume rocker is only a small stretch higher. I appreciated that the phone’s edge slowly curves up just ahead of the power button, which meant it was simple to naturally find the button with my thumb without needing to look.

The A57 has a triple-camera rear module on the back, which looks identical to those of the last few A-series generations, and it doesn’t stick out too far, so the phone didn’t wobble much when I put it flat on a table.

The Galaxy A57 also has an IP68 certification, which means it’s safe against ingress from small particles, and can survive submersion in water of up to 1.5m for up to 30 minutes (that may sound specific, but it’s what the ‘8’ stands for). When a phone has IP68, you can rest assured that it’s safe for all everyday functions.

• Design score: 4 / 5

Samsung Galaxy A57 review: display

• 6.7 inches, 1080 x 2340 resolution
• 120Hz refresh rate, 1,900 nits max brightness
• Super AMOLED Plus gives display punch

The Samsung Galaxy A57 gets a 6.7-inch display, with a thin bezel that's broken up only by a small punch-hole for the front-facing camera.

Like the A56’s panel, it has a 1080 x 2340 resolution and hits a 120Hz refresh rate, so it’ll handle anything Netflix or your chosen mobile game can throw at it.

Colors are bright and vibrant, thanks in part to two upgrades over the previous model: a higher max brightness (1,900 nits) and the use of a Super AMOLED Plus panel, which offers a wider color gamut. It’s been said before, and it’s truer than ever now: it’s hard to find a better screen on a mid-range phone than on a Galaxy A-series device.

The A57 also has what Samsung calls Vision Booster, a feature that turns brightness and vibrancy up to 11 when the device recognizes that you’re watching content outdoors (as in, grappling with the shiny, reflective sunlight on the display). I didn’t have an A56 to test it against, and it’s not a feature that you can manually toggle, but I never had a problem using the A57 while outdoors.

A fingerprint sensor embedded under the phone's display worked well in my experience, never failing to recognize my thumb.

• Display score: 4.5 / 5

Samsung Galaxy A57 review: software

• Android 16 with One UI 8.5
• Six years of OS updates
• Software is cleaner and simpler than rivals'

Out of the box, the Galaxy A57 runs Android 16, the latest version of Android at the time of its release, with Samsung pledging six major Android updates to the phone.

This isn’t stock Android but One UI 8.5, which the Samsung Galaxy S26 also runs on, except here you get a tuned-down version of that same software.

Some may miss the flagship phone’s various premium features (you don't get generative AI tools like Drawing Assist, for instance), but I actually preferred the Galaxy A57's interface: you don't get inundated with AI features, random reminders, and gimmicky tools that do little.

One feature you do get is an upgraded version of Circle to Search. If you press and hold the home button, you can circle anything on screen and Google search it. The selling point of this feature is that it gives you the ability to find the outfits of people you see online — a pretty niche use case, it must be said — but I found Circle to Search pretty useful for searching for actors I recognized, settings in videos that I wanted to locate, and sports teams that I didn't recognize by their uniforms.

A common feature of mid-range smartphones is bloatware, but the Galaxy A57 is pristine and clean out of the box. You get barely any unwanted pre-installed apps (I can overlook Netflix and Spotify, given how ubiquitous they are), and there are barely any Samsung apps pre-installed either.

I’m a fan of the look of One UI, and it offers loads of customization options. You can bend the wallpaper, color palette, and icons to your will, and add Samsung-made widgets and tools that change how you use the phone.

I like to set up Modes on Galaxy phones, which let me quickly change various settings at the tap of a button. For example, I can design a Game mode, which mutes notifications and boosts screen and performance power, or set up a Sleep mode, which automatically turns on my alarm and switches the display to an eye-friendly grayscale. To easily switch these Modes on and off, I can plonk a carousel on my home page. It's pretty impressive stuff.

• Software score: 4 / 5

Samsung Galaxy A57 review: cameras

• 50MP main, 12MP ultra-wide, and 5MP macro cameras
• Cameras lack some vibrancy and optimization
• A range of useful camera features

Samsung has been using the same camera setup on its A50-series for years now (the A53 was the last model with a different main sensor), and in 2026, it's starting to show show its age. It’s simply not competitive compared to other similar-priced phones.

The main camera is a 50MP f/1.8 unit, which is joined by a 12MP f/2.2 ultra-wide lens and a 5MP f/2.4 macro lens. Around the front, there's a 12MP f/2.2 selfie snapper.

In anything shy of blinding sunshine or studio lighting, the Galaxy A57 struggled to capture an adequate level of vibrancy or color detail — for instance, in the camera samples below, you’ll see foliage that looks desaturated and lacks dynamic range. An upgraded ISP (Image Signal Processing) chip was cited as an upgrade with this phone, but it's not made a significant improvement.

Get some strong sunlight, and some colors do seep through, but you can’t control how sunny it is outside, and besides, sunshine didn't always fix the problem. Other phones do well to edit photos to pull out the contrast and boost the saturation if needs be, and I was surprised by how light-touch (read: ineffectual) the Galaxy A57 could be.

For some praise, I'll point to the auxiliary lenses. I was impressed by how consistent the color was between lenses — I often find ultra-wides lack the color of their main siblings — and the lack of distortion on the wide lens. The macro was a little finicky at finding focus on close subjects, but it's definitely more useful than many others I've tested (though it doesn't come close to making up for the lack of a dedicated zoom camera).

Selfies on the Galaxy A57 were a little better, offering some contrast that will make social media pictures look postable, though, as you can see in the pictures below, Portrait mode struggled with fluffy strands of hair.

The A57 offers you a reasonable range of expected camera modes, including Night and Samsung's stalwart Food, and there's also the A-series-exclusive Fun mode, which basically offers you Snapchat filters on your camera app. Single Take isn't available by default, but you can enable it via the Camera Assistant app in the Samsung Store.

Video recording hits 60fps at 1080p or 30fps at 4K, with a slow-mo app that doesn't reveal its framerate.

Once you've taken a photo, you can use a few tools to brush it up in the Gallery app. There's no built-in chatbot to AI slopify your pictures like in the S26 series, and instead, you get Object Eraser and a remaster tool, which auto-applies edits. The latter's actually pretty good, and I found it reliable for adding some zest to the default pictures that otherwise lacked it.

• Camera score: 3.5 / 5

Samsung Galaxy A57 camera samples

Samsung Galaxy A57 review: performance and audio

• Samsung's Exynos 1680 chip + 8GB RAM (for most)
• Fine for everyday use, not for gaming
• Bluetooth 6.0 for audio

Samsung’s Galaxy A-series phones have never won awards for their blazing-fast performance — plenty of Chinese mobiles at this price point can run rings around them — and the Galaxy A57 is no different.

The phone has an Exynos 1680 chipset, made by Samsung itself, paired with 8GB RAM in most versions.

Geekbench 6 multi-core benchmark tests returned scores in the 4,400s. That’s a step above the 3,900s we saw in the A56, but less than half of what the S26 Ultra returned, and a big step below similar-priced alternatives I’ve tested recently, like the 8,600-scoring Poco X8 Pro Max. Unfortunately, every 3DMark test I ran crashed, which wasn't necessarily the fault of the phone (sometimes, new devices just don’t like benchmarking software), but it did mean I wasn’t able to dig much further into the A57's numbered performance…

… until I started actually playing games.

The A57 could handle well-optimized games like Call of Duty: Mobile, but only on lower graphics settings. Try to match the display quality with some resolution or graphics effects, and the handset would suffer. It would also heat up a little during longer gaming sessions, which is not something you'll encounter with most Snapdragon-powered phones, for instance.

So, the Galaxy A57 is no performance wunderkind, even if you can play certain titles with compromises. But if you're not a gamer, you can ignore all that, as the phone has all the performance credentials necessary for non-intensive everyday tasks like scrolling and streaming. If I weren't an avid gamer, I'd probably deem the Galaxy A57 powerful enough for me.

Audio-wise, you’re looking at support for Bluetooth 6.0, with the built-in stereo speakers about as passable as on any other phone at this price point. And no, there’s no 3.5mm jack, so you’ll have to use the USB-C port for wired audio.

• Performance score: 3.5 / 5

Samsung Galaxy A57 review: battery life

• Average-sized 5,000mAh battery
• Single day of use per charge
• 45W charging powers the phone in roughly 90 mins

The Samsung Galaxy A57 has a 5,000mAh battery, which is the same size battery as you'll find in the A56, as well as the flagship Galaxy S26 Ultra.

A capacity like this is, in most phones, shorthand for ‘all-day battery life’. That’s no different with the Galaxy A57 — I could use the device as much as I wanted, without worrying that it’d run out of juice.

You won’t get two days of battery life, though — not unless you don’t use your phone very much. For average use, you’ll get about a day and a half all in.

The A57 powers at 45W, so it’s not particularly fast, and with a compatible charger, you’ll get from empty to full in about an hour and a half. When the handset’s plugged in, it’ll tell you how long it’ll take to power up at its current speed, which is a really useful quality of life feature that I appreciated.

• Battery score: 3.5 / 5

Samsung Galaxy A57 review: value

Samsung's Galaxy A-series phones are reliable and have some great traits, but they don't offer as impressive value for money as their competitors. Bear in mind that A57 isn't cheap; at its price, it's firmly in the 'mid-range' category.

Many rivals at a similar price point will offer you one or two incredible specs along with a few average ones, like a huge battery, incredibly fast charging, a top-end processor, or a telephoto zoom camera. If you wanted the A57's specs from another brand, you'd probably find them for much less money.

Samsung does nothing to sweeten the deal, and so it's hard to argue that the A57 offers particularly exciting value for money. But as reliability and longevity go, there aren't many 'safer' all-round options than this one.

• Value score: 3.5 / 5

Should you buy the Samsung Galaxy A57?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Samsung Galaxy A57 review: Also consider