Payload Studios takes the construction-heavy sandbox foundations of TerraTech and pushes them into entirely new territory with TerraTech Legion, a survivors-like roguelite that immediately stands apart from the crowded field through one deceptively simple idea: every upgrade physically changes your vehicle. While countless games have chased the Vampire Survivors formula over the past few years, few feel as mechanically distinct as this. Rather than controlling a lone character weaving through projectile storms on foot, TerraTech Legion transforms the genre into a chaotic vehicular warzone where survival depends just as much on engineering as it does on positioning and reflexes. The narrative framework is intentionally minimal, built around hostile AI swarms overrunning planets, but the game wisely keeps the focus on experimentation and escalation instead of lore-heavy storytelling. Continue reading “TerraTech Legion review (Xbox)”
Dungeon Clawler review (PS5)
Dungeon Clawler takes a premise that initially sounds like little more than a novelty joke and somehow turns it into one of the more inventive roguelike experiments in recent memory. Developed and published by Stray Fawn Studio, the PlayStation 5 version blends turn-based dungeon crawling, deckbuilding systems, and the chaotic unpredictability of arcade claw machines into a gameplay loop that constantly teeters between strategy and disaster. Players guide a rabbit adventurer through a series of combat encounters in an attempt to reclaim a stolen paw, gradually building out a collection of weapons, status effects, and utility items that are physically dumped into a claw machine before every battle round. It is an absurd concept on paper, but one that quickly proves it has far more depth than its silly premise first suggests. Continue reading “Dungeon Clawler review (PS5)”
HyperX Origins 2 65 review
HyperX has gradually evolved from a brand known primarily for dependable gaming peripherals into one increasingly willing to experiment with enthusiast-inspired hardware design, and the Origins 2 65 reflects that shift clearly. Rather than simply shrinking a traditional gaming keyboard into a smaller footprint, HyperX has tried to create something that appeals both to competitive players and to users who care about typing feel, acoustics, and customization. The result is a compact mechanical keyboard that feels far more deliberate than many of the lightweight “gaming-first” 65% boards currently flooding the market. Continue reading “HyperX Origins 2 65 review”
Indie roundup: Causal Loop, The Tag-Along Obsession & Ninjora Echoes
This roundup brings together three distinctly different indie experiences on PS5, each built around familiar genre foundations but attempting to stretch them in their own direction. In Causal Loop, a cerebral first-person puzzler leans into time-bending “echo” mechanics and sci-fi mystery to reframe familiar Portal-style logic through layered spatial experimentation. The Tag-Along Obsession, by contrast, trades clean abstraction for grounded psychological horror, focusing on folklore-driven tension and slow-burning exploration inside a decaying, supernatural space. Meanwhile, Ninjora Echoes shifts the tone entirely, offering a compact platforming adventure built around clone-based puzzle navigation and lightweight combat systems. Taken together, the three games highlight how small-scale developers continue to reinterpret established genres through focused mechanics and restrained production scopes. Continue reading “Indie roundup: Causal Loop, The Tag-Along Obsession & Ninjora Echoes”
Directive 8020 review
Directive 8020 feels like the moment Supermassive Games finally commits to evolving the Dark Pictures formula instead of simply reshuffling it into another horror setting. Trading haunted houses and occult conspiracies for deep-space paranoia immediately gives the experience a fresher identity, and the influence of classics like Alien and The Thing (and a personal favorite of ours, Event Horizon) is impossible to miss. Set aboard the colony ship Cassiopeia as humanity searches for survival beyond a dying Earth, the game leans heavily into mistrust, isolation, and the fear of losing control over both your body and your crew. That premise works remarkably well for Supermassive’s choice-driven storytelling style, especially once the alien organism begins infiltrating the ship and turning every interaction into a potential threat. The narrative does occasionally rely a little too heavily on familiar sci-fi horror beats, and some twists are easier to anticipate than the writers likely intended, but the tension generated by not knowing who is still human keeps the momentum alive for most of the campaign. Continue reading “Directive 8020 review”