↩ Accueil

Vue lecture

Bob Odenkirk Wants to Be a Different Kind of Action Star in Normal | Fan Fest 2026

Star of the new action-packed thriller Normal, Bob Odenkirk, joined IGN Fan Fest 2026 to talk about his role in the creation of his character Ulysses, and why he does his own stunts.

"I like doing my own fighting. And if I'm doing my own fighting, they can keep the camera on me and I can play the guy. I can do his expressions," Odenkirk explained. "I wanted to play a guy who actually got hurt, who actually got worn down as you watch the movie. He gets tired. He gets hurt. He gets dinged up because I just feel like that is actually not something you've seen a lot of. Action stars that I know of, I don't know all of them, but the ones that I know are somewhat... they're machines. They never really get hurt. They never accrue damage. And I wanted to play a guy who in these movies starts with a little bit of self-doubt and also accrues damage along the way."

His character in Normal, Ulysses, is a man sent to be temporary sheriff to the town of Normal, Minnesota, and soon finds himself caught up in way more excitement than he was expecting.

Odenkirk also spoke about his character in Normal compared to Hutch Mansell from the Nobody movies. "Both guys are, for different reasons, holding back their reactionary impulses. In the case of Hutch, he's doing it to present as a family man and to live that life, to live a double life, forcing himself to hold that in. So that's nobody. In Normal, here's a guy who's a little bit broken when we meet him. And it's because he made a choice once before that just destroyed his life that he had, his perfect life. And so he's just gotten gun-shy. But believe me, by the end of the movie Normal, he's not gun-shy any longer. Is he gun-crazy? A little bit. He's a little bit gun-crazy."

Normal is directed by Ben Wheatley and also stars Henry Winkler and Lena Headey. It will be released in theaters on April 17.

This is just the latest news from IGN's Fan Fest 2026, check the schedule to see what else is coming and to keep up to date on all the latest from the worlds of entertainment and games.

Rachel Weber is the Head of Editorial Development at IGN and an elder millennial. She's been a professional nerd since 2006 when she got her start on Official PlayStation Magazine in the UK, and has since worked for GamesIndustry.Biz, Rolling Stone and GamesRadar. She loves horror, horror movies, horror games, Red Dead Redemption 2, and her Love and Deepspace boyfriends.

  •  

Crimson Desert Drops New Behind-the-Scenes Look With Official Voice Actors | IGN Fan Fest 2026

Open-world action-adventure game Crimson Desert is coming on March 19 and a new IGN Fan Fest 2026 behind-the-scenes look at the game gives the cast of voice actors a chance to add some more fuel to the hype fire.

Crimson Desert stars Rebecca Hanssen as the voice of the fighter Damiane, Stewart Scudamore as the orc with the impressive axe Oongka, and Alec Newman as main character Greymane Kliff Macduff. All three give an insight into working on the project and bringing their particular characters to life.

"Oongka is a nomadic warrior," Scudamore says in the clip. "I think he has a passion for everything that is fighting for the cause, for his people, for his tribe, and for the Greymanes. First impressions, you're thinking, what can I bring to the table that I can connect? What's the in? His DNA was very economical."

"With Oongka, what surprised me was that he was more of a philosophical orc," Scudamore continues. "He had that sort of world-wise nomadic element. And what I found challenging for Oongka is that he often communicated in grunt, but it was finding those levels of grunt that was challenging."

Crimson Desert will be released on March 19 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC (Steam and Epic Games Store), and the Mac App Store.

This is just the latest news from IGN's Fan Fest 2026 – check the schedule to see what else is coming and to keep up to date on all the latest from the worlds of games and entertainment.

Rachel Weber is the Head of Editorial Development at IGN and an elder millennial. She's been a professional nerd since 2006 when she got her start on Official PlayStation Magazine in the UK, and has since worked for GamesIndustry.Biz, Rolling Stone and GamesRadar. She loves horror, horror movies, horror games, Red Dead Redemption 2, and her Love and Deepspace boyfriends.

  •  

Devil May Cry Season 2 Exclusive Clip | IGN Fan Fest 2026

A new exclusive clip for Devil May Cry Season 2 has a couple of new characters it wants you to meet: Ebony and Ivory, Dante's trademark guns from the games. Devil May Cry Season 2 arrives on Netflix on May 12, 2026, and will see Dante once again at odds with his twin brother, Vergil.

"The interesting part is that Vergil’s a guy who can stand completely still and still feel like the most dangerous one in the room," Adi Shankar, the showrunner and executive producer of the animated series, told Collider. "His presence does the talking."

Season 1 of the show focused on Dante's conflict with the terrorist White Rabbit and an impending apocalypse. Shankar promised Season 2 will continue to deliver plenty of surprises for fans. “I’m allergic to formula. I dislike when successful shows turn into comfort food," he said in the same Collider interview. "Devil May Cry won’t be TV that loops. My mission for Season 2 was to capture the feeling of a 2000s film franchise entry where the audience can’t predict the next turn.”

Johnny Yong Bosch will return as Dante, Robbie Daymond will lend his vocal cords to Vergil once again, while Scout Taylor-Compton is Lady, AKA Mary Ann Arkham.

This is just the latest news from IGN's Fan Fest 2026 – check the schedule to see what else is coming and to keep up to date on all the latest from the worlds of entertainment and games.

Rachel Weber is the Head of Editorial Development at IGN and an elder millennial. She's been a professional nerd since 2006 when she got her start on Official PlayStation Magazine in the UK, and has since worked for GamesIndustry.Biz, Rolling Stone and GamesRadar. She loves horror, horror movies, horror games, Red Dead Redemption 2, and her Love and Deepspace boyfriends.

  •  

007 First Light Cinematic Shows Lenny Kravitz Was Born to Be a Bond Villain | IGN Fan Fest 2026

Lenny Kravitz is playing villain Bawma in 007 First Light, and the latest trailer shows that he can serve Bond bad guys with the best of them. We've had a glimpse of the charismatic pirate king before, but this extended look shows just what happens when you upset him. Spoiler, it involves crocodiles.

“I’ve met some folks that are… similar to his character," Kravitz told IGN in January. "I grew up in the Bahamas as well as New York City, and there were guys who had [Bawma’s] vibe and were doing similar things in the islands. He’s an interesting guy. We’re not quite sure how he’s going to turn.”

“We wanted more than just a one-sided villain, like we wanted to have some kind of charisma," added 007 First Light Director Hakan Abrak. "He has more sides to him that could maybe turn out surprising in the story. You’ll need to wait to see that until the game comes out.”

007 First Light will be released on May 27, 2026, so while you wait check out our first big preview from last year.

This is just the latest news from IGN's Fan Fest 2026 – check the schedule to see what else is coming and to keep up to date on all the latest from the worlds of games and entertainment.

  •  

New Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Trailer Is Serving Tentacles | IGN Fan Fest 2026

Season 2 of the Apple TV Monsterverse show Monarch: Legacy of Monsters launches on Friday, February 27, and Fan Fest 2026 gave us a look at the chaos those super-size scamps are getting up to now. Spoiler: tentacles.

Those appendages belong to Titan X, who is the real headliner for the new season and a new addition to the Legendary Monsterverse. Its official description suggests that it's going to prove a worth adversary for Kong and Godzilla: "In addition to Kong, Season 2 will feature Godzilla and introduce a new Titan: the enigmatic Titan X, now officially on the loose. Titan X isn’t just another monster; it’s a living cataclysm. When its massive bioluminescent form breaks the surface of the ocean, the world seems to hold its breath. In Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Season 2, Titan X stands at the center of the mystery – an ancient force emerging from the deep, its purpose uncertain, its power unmatched, its awe and terror in equal measure."

If you need a recap, Season 1 continued the story of the 2014 Godzilla movie and the covert organization known as Monarch, combining it with flashbacks to the early days of the monster monitoring outfit. In the 2015 storyline, Cate (Anna Sawai) and Kentaro Randa (Ren Watabe) searched for the truth about their father, Hiroshi (Takehiro Hira), while the 1950's timeline followed Bill Randa (Anders Holm) and Keiko Miura (Mari Yamamoto), a cryptozoologist and scientist studying big old beasties.

This is just the latest news from IGN's Fan Fest 2026 – check the schedule to see what else is coming and to keep up to date on all the latest from the worlds of entertainment and games.

Rachel Weber is the Head of Editorial Development at IGN and an elder millennial. She's been a professional nerd since 2006 when she got her start on Official PlayStation Magazine in the UK, and has since worked for GamesIndustry.Biz, Rolling Stone and GamesRadar. She loves horror, horror movies, horror games, Red Dead Redemption 2, and her Love and Deepspace boyfriends.

  •  

The Vampire Lestat Hits AMC in June | IGN Fan Fest 2026

What's cooler than vampires? Rockstar vampires. The follow-up series to Interview with the Vampire gets meta with the Vampire Lestat (Sam Reid) seeking to control his own narrative by starting a band, and we'll get to see it happen in June 2026 when the series premieres on AMC. A new sneak peek at IGN Fan Fest 2026 revealed the date, along with Lestat and Louis being adorable on FaceTime.

On February 13, we got a coppery taste of what is to come, with the first official single from Lestat de Lioncourt, with Long Face releasing on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, and more. The track is performed by Reid as Lestat, and written by composer Daniel Hart. AMC also released a statement from Lestat himself about the song and its composer.

"Long Face is the first song Daniel Hart ‘produced’ for my album. He decided early on to steal where he could from Bowie because he hasn’t had an original idea for five years now (is that his Green Knight score fading in the rear view?). As for Long Face, the bass should have walked down with the guitar at the end instead of pedaling on E. Predictable. Like everything Daniel Hart touches."

At San Diego Comic Con 2025, the stars of the show – Reid, Jacob Anderson (Louis) and Eric Bogosian (Daniel Molloy) – spoke about the new season of The Vampire Chronicles, the change from the focus on Louis to Lestat, and the movement between the different eras in Lestat's life.

"The tone of the show now is so different and it's heightened in such a different way that I think that it's apples and oranges, but they're also telling the same story," said Anderson.

"We'll see a lot of the past," added Reid. "That's kind of one of the joys of the show is how jarring those jumps are going from the 1790s into today.

"[Showrunner] Rolin [Jones]'s done a wonderful job of integrating the two time periods simultaneously as we go along," Reid continued. "So it's not quite like the books where you get a bit at the beginning and a bit at the end and a whole bunch in the middle. It's intertwined through the beautiful songs written by Daniel Hart. So it's a really really hard book to adapt, I don't think anyone could have done it better than Rolin Jones and [executive producer] Hannah Moskovich."

The original Interview with the Vampire novel was published in 1985 and had its first iconic adaptation with Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, and Kirsten Dunst in 1994. AMC's series version first hit screens in 2022, and scored a full-blooded 9 in its IGN review.

This is just the latest news from IGN's Fan Fest 2026 – check the schedule to see what else is coming and to keep up to date on all the latest from the worlds of entertainment and games.

Rachel Weber is the Head of Editorial Development at IGN and an elder millennial. She's been a professional nerd since 2006 when she got her start on Official PlayStation Magazine in the UK, and has since worked for GamesIndustry.Biz, Rolling Stone and GamesRadar. She loves horror, horror movies, horror games, Red Dead Redemption 2, and her Love and Deepspace boyfriends.

  •  

AEW’s Kenny Omega Brings Alex to Life for Street Fighter 6 | IGN Fan Fest 2026

On March 17, Street Fighter 6 is getting a new DLC character: the pro wrestling-inspired Alex, and All Elite Wrestling's own Kenny Omega is the man behind the motion capture. At IGN Fan Fest 2026, he explained how the opportunity to do the motion capture actually came out of a simple misunderstanding.

"When the news broke and they told me, we signed the NDAs and we know who the characters are and Alex will, in fact, be one of them. And they said, 'For you being such a good sport, it'd be cool if we put a move of yours in,' maybe one or two or a taunt or something," Omega told IGN.

"I had said, 'Wow, that would be great. I just don't know when I could fit that into my schedule to do the mocap for it.' And they'd said, 'Oh, wait, you do the mocap for it?' I said, 'Yeah, is that what you were talking about, or no?' They said, 'Oh my, if you would do the mocap for it, that would be awesome.' And so a misunderstanding on my part is what led to me actually going to the studio and doing a slew of mocap for the character. If there was ever a better time to be stupid, that was one of them, because it worked out in my favor completely to not understand what they were talking about at that moment. So because of that one discussion, I got invited back to the next year's Tokyo Game Show. And then before doing the game show, I stopped over at Osaka, where they do the mocap for Capcom. And we hammered it out in one day. It was a grueling 10- or 11-hour shoot. I remember losing like 8 or 9 pounds of water weight, but it was so worth it and so fun."

He also revealed that the developers were open to suggestions – he can see how his ideas were incorporated into the final game animations – and that wrestling without an audience wasn't as alien of an experience as people might expect.

"I think because of COVID, I got used to wrestling and performing in front of no one. It reminded me of being back into an empty arena and just having cameras all around me, but there's no sound. There's no adulation. There's no people. I see staff here and there, but it brought back memories of the COVID era, for sure."

Alex first appeared in 1997 Street Fighter III: New Generation in arcades. Early concept art shows the professional wrestler character was initially positioned as the new face of the franchise. In Street Fighter 6, his super moves include Raging Spear, Sledgecross Hammer, and The Final Prison. He also has an alternate level 2 super called the Omega Wing Buster, which is a sequence of moves inspired by Kenny Omega's own trio of signature moves, including the V-Trigger, Snap Dragon Suplex, and of course, the One Winged Angel.

This is just the latest news from IGN's Fan Fest 2026 – check the schedule to see what else is coming and to keep up to date on all the latest from the worlds of games and entertainment.

Rachel Weber is the Head of Editorial Development at IGN and an elder millennial. She's been a professional nerd since 2006 when she got her start on Official PlayStation Magazine in the UK, and has since worked for GamesIndustry.Biz, Rolling Stone and GamesRadar. She loves horror, horror movies, horror games, Red Dead Redemption 2, and her Love and Deepspace boyfriends.

  •  

Check Out the New Electrifying Invincible VS Gameplay Trailer | IGN Fan Fest 2026

Powerplex, aka Scott Duvall, takes the spotlight in this new Invincible VS gameplay trailer, proving he can really take a punch. It's the latest look at the upcoming superhero 3v3 tag fighting game set in the Invincible universe. The game will be released on April 30 on PC, Xbox Series X/S, and PS5.

Powerplex is just the most recent reveal on a roster that includes the titular Invincible, Atom Eve, Bulletproof, Battlebeast, Ella Mental, Lucan, and more.

The game features an original story from the same team that worked on the hit animated series, and Invincible creator Robert Kirkman told IGN players should expect the unexpected.

"What we're really trying to do is provide an in-game experience that is like watching an episode of the television show," he said. "It’s a really cool story that uses the characters in a really exciting and authentic way, and I think goes into some directions that people are really going to be surprised by. There's a lot of unexpected twists and turns."

Executive producer Mike Willette likened it to the special prequel episode focused on Atom Eve.

"We wanted it to feel like a playable episode," Willette said. "It's this standalone narrative. In the same vein that the Atom Eve special is like a special episode, this is a special episode, too."

The publisher Skybound Games promises that the game is being made by "both Invincible and fighting game lovers with deep roots in competitive and combat-focused games."

This is just the latest news from IGN's Fan Fest 2026 – check the schedule to see what else is coming and to keep up to date on all the latest from the worlds of games and entertainment.

Rachel Weber is the Head of Editorial Development at IGN and an elder millennial. She's been a professional nerd since 2006 when she got her start on Official PlayStation Magazine in the UK, and has since worked for GamesIndustry.Biz, Rolling Stone and GamesRadar. She loves horror, horror movies, horror games, Red Dead Redemption 2, and her Love and Deepspace boyfriends.

  •  

Exclusive New Mortal Kombat II Trailer | IGN Fan Fest 2026

Karl Urban joined IGN Fan Fest 2026 today to introduce the brand new Mortal Kombat II trailer. It shows our boy Johnny Cage (Urban) looking pretty unhappy at a fan convention before finding himself battling other realms in a fighting tournament. It's a spicy little taste of the new movie, which will arrive in theaters on May 8.

"Johnny Cage, when we first see him in Mortal Kombat II, is a very dispirited character," Urban told fans at New York Comic Con 2025 back in October.

"His career is completely in the tank, he’s not been keeping up with his martial arts training. The world has forgotten who Johnny Cage is. He has very little of that brash, cocky Johnny Cage you know from the games. He’s a broken man… Through the course of the movie, we get to see him transform into a true champion of Earthrealm and involuntarily get launched into this insane action epic adventure. It’ll blow your minds, man."

Mortal Kombat II is directed by Simon McQuoid, with 2017's Death Note and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire writer Jeremy Slater on story duty. A third film, also announced at NYCC, is reportedly already in development.

This is just the latest news from IGN's Fan Fest 2026 – check the schedule to see what else is coming and to keep up to date on all the latest from the worlds of entertainment and games. And if you need a quick recap on the Mortal Kombat characters and their lore, check out this handy guide.

Rachel Weber is the Head of Editorial Development at IGN and an elder millennial. She's been a professional nerd since 2006 when she got her start on Official PlayStation Magazine in the UK, and has since worked for GamesIndustry.Biz, Rolling Stone and GamesRadar. She loves horror, horror movies, horror games, Red Dead Redemption 2, and her Love and Deepspace boyfriends.

  •  

Dead by Daylight's All-Kill: Comeback Adds Game's First Urban Map

The new Dead By Daylight chapter, All-Kill: Comeback, will add the game's first urban map, which will include a two-story nightclub and plenty of neon lighting. The Trickster’s Delusion Map is part of the new chapter that launches on March 17, along with new survivor Kwon Tae-young, and an update to K-pop Killer the Trickster himself. If you can't wait, today marks the launch of the PTB for the new chapter on Steam.

"Woven by The Entity from The Trickster’s twisted subconscious, the new area features shops to browse, a marketplace, and a two-story nightclub, along with scattered details reflecting the Killer’s erratic state of mind," reveals developer Behaviour Interactive.

Yesterday IGN revealed that Kevin Woo, who had previously consulted on Dead By Daylight for the first All-Kill K-pop themed chapter, was returning to voice Survivor Kwon Tae-young. Even if you don't recognize Woo's name, you've definitely heard his voice, as he provided the vocals for demonic boy band member Mystery in KPop Demon Hunters. His Survivor isn't an idol though, he's a tech specialist working on a virtual idol called MiNA, designed to replicate the original K-pop star turned Killer, the Trickster.

"Voice acting for KPop Demon Hunters deepened my appreciation for how much storytelling can be communicated purely through tone, breath control, and texture. Without physical performance to rely on, your voice becomes the entire emotional instrument. In a game like Dead by Daylight, that responsibility is amplified," he explained.

"As a consultant, I wanted to ensure that the cultural references remained authentic. As a voice actor, I focused on making every breath, every strained scream, and every moment of fear feel grounded within the brutal, high-stakes environment of the Entity’s realm."

The Trickster's update is focused on the Killer's gameplay, with a new Style Rank system "rewarding creativity, aggression, and momentum as The Trickster builds towards unleashing his Main Event and a barrage of blades."

Other adjustments players can expect to see are a new Aura Accessibility feature, refined perk descriptions are also getting an overhaul for readability.

Rachel Weber is the Head of Editorial Development at IGN and an elder millennial. She's been a professional nerd since 2006 when she got her start on Official PlayStation Magazine in the UK, and has since worked for GamesIndustry.Biz, Rolling Stone and GamesRadar. She loves horror, horror movies, horror games, Red Dead Redemption 2, and her Love and Deepspace boyfriends.

  •  

KPop Demon Hunters Singer Kevin Woo Exclusively Reveals His New Dead By Daylight Survivor

KPop Demon Hunters voice actor Kevin Woo has exclusively revealed a new Dead By Daylight Survivor to IGN — for which he'll be providing the voice, if not his singing talents.

If you've watched or sung along to the animated Netflix phenomenon, you'll have heard Woo as the singing voice of Mystery (the boyband member with purple hair over his eyes).

"I personally think as a Killer, Mystery Saja would thrive on psychological manipulation rather than brute aggression," Woo said Woo, who's set to star in a brand new chapter for the horror game, All-Kill:Comeback.

Here, he plays Kwon Tae-young, a tech designer Survivor hired to work on a virtual idol. Players will be able to check him out in a Public Test Build that will go live on Steam tomorrow, on February 24.

"I focused on making every breath, every strained scream, and every moment of fear feel grounded"

Woo previously worked on Dead By Daylight as a consultant on its previous K-pop storyline, which introduced the sociopathic idol the Trickster.

"Transitioning from consultant to fully embodying a character through voice was both surreal and deeply fulfilling," Woo said. "As a consultant on the original chapter, I was involved in shaping the Trickster’s emotional identity — his ego, his obsession with artistry, and the narcissistic rage simmering beneath his polished idol exterior.

"Stepping into Kwon Tae-young’s perspective in this new release allowed me to approach the world of Dead by Daylight from the other side of that mythology. Because I understood the Trickster’s lore so intimately, his betrayal, his fixation on control, and his warped perception of performance. I was able to layer that history into Kwon Tae-young’s fear and internal conflict."

Woo is the perfect person to act as a consultant on the world of K-pop. He performed as part of the line up for K-pop bands XING and U-KISS, and recently announced he was part of a new subunit of U-KISS with bandmates Hoon and Kiseop. But how did his bandmates feel after his consultant work on the role of a killer K-pop idol?

"The irony is that while Ji-Woon Hak’s lore in Dead by Daylight explores betrayal and ego within a band dynamic, my real-life band experience was built on camaraderie and growth. That contrast actually helped me understand the tragedy of the Trickster even more," he revealed.

"They mostly praised me about becoming a 'global Hollywood superstar' after KPop Demon Hunters. It was flattering — but I reminded them that none of this exists without our shared experience as global idols that paved the way for K-pop."

Since Woo first worked on the game in 2021 the world of K-pop has grown to be a much bigger force in the world of global entertainment, in no small part thanks to the incredible success of the Netflix movie KPop Demon Hunters, which first aired last year. Woo explained how his work on that project helped him embody the character of Kwon Tae-young in All-Kill: Comeback.

"Voice acting for KPop Demon Hunters deepened my appreciation for how much storytelling can be communicated purely through tone, breath control, and texture. Without physical performance to rely on, your voice becomes the entire emotional instrument. In a game like Dead by Daylight, that responsibility is amplified," he explained.

"As a consultant, I wanted to ensure that the cultural references remained authentic. As a voice actor, I focused on making every breath, every strained scream, and every moment of fear feel grounded within the brutal, high-stakes environment of the Entity’s realm."

He also revealed that voicing a Dead By Daylight Survivor demanded a lot more of him than just reading a script.

"To authentically capture that experience, I had to embody exhaustion, adrenaline spikes, and sudden bursts of panic. I would run in place during takes to elevate my breathing. I rehearsed strained vocalizations that mimic being hooked, injured, or chased," he continued.

"Unlike polished K-pop tracks, which prioritize control and tonal perfection, horror voice work embraces imperfection, cracked screams, unstable breathing, and vocal strain. The chaos is the performance."

And Woo isn't just a consultant or a voice actor when it comes to Dead By Daylight, he's a player too.

"I gravitate toward a tactical Survivor play-style, focusing on stealth loops, careful map awareness, and team synergy," he said. "I’m usually the one prioritizing safe unhooks, body-blocking when necessary, and healing teammates in concealed areas."

Dead By Daylight was first released in 2016 and since then has introduced a steady and increasingly terrifying number of Killers and Survivors to the game, including characters from Stranger Things, Attack On Titan, Resident Evil and of course, Nicolas Cage.

Rachel Weber is the Head of Editorial Development at IGN and an elder millennial. She's been a professional nerd since 2006 when she got her start on Official PlayStation Magazine in the UK, and has since worked for GamesIndustry.Biz, Rolling Stone and GamesRadar. She loves horror, horror movies, horror games, Red Dead Redemption 2, and her Love and Deepspace boyfriends.

  •  

Styx: Blades of Greed Review

It might not have the same kind of ambition or bells and whistles as its contemporaries, but Styx holds a special place in my heart as one of very few pure stealth game series we have left. Will you find the incredibly creative scenarios of Hitman or the insane level of polish and replayability of Dishonored? Nope. Instead Styx contents itself with simply being a reliable way for stealth fans to get their fix, and Styx: Blades of Greed is no exception. More often than not, the usual playbook of sneaking around, stealing and assassinating everything in sight, is as fun as it’s ever been, and this sequel makes some important tweaks, like removing weak multiplayer mechanics to refocus on a solo stealth experience and swapping smaller, mission-based maps for absolutely massive regions. But it’s also saddled with quite a few of the same issues it’s always had, finicky movement, performance issues, and an unremarkable story, which are as disappointing as they are completely expected.

Like its predecessor from 2017, Blades of Greed puts you in the leather boots of an elderly, grumpy goblin as you sneak into small spaces, stab humans, elves, and monsters in their soft places, and use an arsenal of gadgets and special abilities to overcome the fact that getting spotted will get you killed in two seconds flat. There are some modest additions, like a couple of new gadgets and abilities that let you do things like mind control NPCs from afar or use a grappling hook to close large gaps in a short period of time, but for the most part there’s very little that’s changed about the moment-to-moment gameplay. You’ll still find, for example, the ol’ reliable ability to turn yourself invisible for a short period of time, and will still find yourself hiding inside closets and barrels before popping out to slit the throat of some idiot guard. Good times. As ever, stealth is absolutely the star of the show, and Blades of Greed has the same high quality sneaking around that you’d hope it would.

The story in Styx has never been very good, and Blades of Greed lives up to those low expectations by having a completely forgettable story in spite of the fact that its protagonist is inherently interesting and unique. After developing a craving for magical abilities granted to you by quartz crystals found throughout the world, you begin a repetitive journey to, well, find more of it, and 90% of the campaign is just going from place-to-place stealing these glowing rocks to power yourself up with little in the way of plot in between those scavenger hunts. You meet some characters along the way, like a gadget-obsessed dwarf and an orc who becomes your spiritual guide, but they don’t get enough screen time to leave much of an impression and what they do get isn’t used effectively, with everyone spouting off explanations of telling you what you need to do next and little else. You’re unlikely to have come to the Styx series looking for an engaging story, but just in case you were hoping to be pleasantly surprised: I wouldn’t count on that.

Though the vast majority of Styx’s bones remain the same, one major change is that instead of treading (and sometimes retreading) through mission-specific levels, Blades of Greed lets you loose in three extremely large maps filled with both mandatory and optional areas to explore, pilfer, and fall to your death within. It’s a neat idea that allows for significantly more freedom over prior adventures, and it’s quite easy to become distracted and assassinate your way through an entire region before realizing you didn’t even really have any objective behind any of it, except that it’s just hard to see a guard walking by unaware and not take him down. These huge levels also allow you to express creativity in how you navigate the area and solve the problem of getting around when every 10 feet there’s someone who could kill you by breathing on you. When you’re staring at an objective that’s a mountain’s distance above you, you’ll need to just creep around and try things to figure out how to get there – maybe you’ll find a nice spot on the side of a tower to make daring leaps while avoiding the notice of guards along the way, or maybe you’ll find a quieter path via a sewer system that leads you to the same spot, but is infested with giant bugs that will swarm you if you get too close.

That can be a really interesting stealth challenge to figure out, but comes with some unique drawbacks as well. For one, it can be exhausting to have to cross such a massive area slowly sneaking along all the while, and if you try to just sprint past everything to get to the objective, you should be prepared to reload a whole bunch as you work through the trial and error process of doing so. That travel time feels significantly less focused and curated than the more linear model for level design as well, and oftentimes you’re kinda just half-assedly sneaking through ruins and across rooftops with no real obstacles along the way until you get to the place that the objective marker wants you to be, at which point things start to feel much more focused. In other words, it’s a whole lot of fat before you get to the meat of the main objectives. I actually spent the vast majority of the more than 20 hours it took me to beat Blades of Greed trying to figure out where exactly my next objective was and how to get there, rather than actually pulling off the heist in question.

The good news is that each of these maps is pretty awesome across the board. The Wall is an absurdly cool vertical labyrinth of concrete castles and rickety slums, Turquoise Dawn is a jungle of trees, swamps, and massive, deadly roaches swarming in dark areas, and the Akenash Ruins are a ruined, kingdom where everything floats in the air unnaturally and enemies are extremely weird monsters, like something out of Elden Ring. Each visit to these places throughout the story unlocks new areas to explore, though you’ll also do quite a bit of backtracking through areas you’ve already been, which is a bit of a drag. Still, these are some of the more interesting areas I’ve stalked the halls of in a stealth game and highlights the unique, strange, and magically-infused world that this curmudgeonly goblin calls home.

Though the huge amount of space these maps have can be pretty great to explore, they sometimes feel a bit too big for the much smaller objectives within them. The story’s main objectives are much smaller than a typical stealth mission, usually just requiring you to steal a key and open a locked door, or shut down a machine so you can reach your objective – miniature quests that usually only take a couple minutes to complete, if that. Once you’ve checked it off your list, you’re back to the mostly uneventful traveling stealth as you find a way to the next objective, often requiring you to backtrack through some of the same spots in the process, which is how I have spent the bulk of the adventure so far. On the bright side, this format means you’re basically just locked into a constant stream of pure, unadulterated stealth scenarios for hours on end as you work your way through each set of missions, and since that’s Blades of Greed’s strong suit, you’re getting exactly what the doctor ordered.

If you’re familiar with the shortcomings of the previous Styx games, then you’ll probably be less-than-stoked to hear that Blades of Greed doesn’t address most of these. Combat, which is a last resort, but sometimes required, is quite sloppy and overly simplistic, and moving around, especially jumping onto ledges and the like can be finicky at times and caused me to fall to my death or get caught out in the open dozens of times by this point. Worse than those though, are the usual performance issues and technical challenges, like NPCs becoming invisible while talking to them and frames dropping to horrifyingly low levels after extended play sessions. Framerate issues are actually a fair bit worse than I remember them being in previous games, presumably due to the significantly larger maps, and it can get pretty bad for long stretches when there’s a lot happening on screen. Most of these issues are sort of baked into Styx by this point, but it’s still worth shouting out that the bulk of this stuff has mostly gone unaddressed, seemingly.

  •  
❌