Reviewed on: PlayStation 5
Platform: PlayStation 5
Publisher: PlayStation Studios
Developer: Team Asobi
Release: September 6, 2024
Rating: Everyone 10+

Astro Bot has done a lot to prop up Sony’s recent hardware efforts. Astro Bot: Rescue Mission successfully demonstrated PlayStation’s creative potential in virtual reality in 2018. Astro’s Playroom launched as a pack-in with the PlayStation 5 in 2020, offering entertaining examples of the console’s haptic feedback features. Now, instead of only serving the hardware, Astro Bot gets to go into business for himself by fully showcasing his platforming prowess. This third act is a monumental success, rivaling and, in some aspects, even exceeding Mario’s finest platforming outings.  

If you played Astro’s Playroom, consider it a proof-of-concept for Astro Bot. You travel to dozens of immaculately designed and beautifully rendered platforming levels collecting coins and hundreds of hidden bots. Exploring every stage is a joy due to entertaining platforming challenges and playful tactile interactions that make every world feel like a big toy box. Completing special tasks can transform stages in cool ways, such as watering a massive seed to sprout a giant singing tree serving as a new platforming section. 

While the standard stages are generally great and creatively distinct from one another, several specialized zones further mix up the action. Speedrun gauntlets veer from the otherwise approachable difficulty to offer more blistering trials of your dexterity and reflexes. Construction-themed zones challenge players to survive waves of foes atop ever-crumbling arenas. Voxel-based worlds seem like excuses to revel in the primal satisfaction of smashing everything to blocky bits. The most ambitious destinations are entire worlds themed after PlayStation franchises. I won’t spoil them, but they essentially serve as the platforming equivalent of a good cover band of your favorite game, incorporating imagery and mechanics from those titles in neat and effective ways. I didn’t walk away from a single stage thinking “I could’ve done without that one.” I was always pumped to see what was next. 

Platforming is tuned to the highest degree. I execute every action, whether crossing large gaps using Astro’s rocket feet or pummeling foes with a charged spin fist, with complete confidence because the controls have my back. Fun power-ups, such as wielding spring-loaded punching gloves or transforming into an expanding liquid-absorbing sponge, are creatively utilized and a blast to use. This imaginative design extends to the boss battles that, while centered on familiar baddies, offer entertaining and bombastic exclamation points to a completed world. These bouts culminate in an incredible and surprisingly emotional final confrontation, concluding the adventure on a high note. 

Playing feels great in a literal sense since Astro Bot utilizes the DualSense’s haptic and motion features better than any PS5 game. From feeling the subtle pitter-patter of Astro’s feet as he scuttles along a fragile glass surface to swatting away piles of small physics objects like giant acorns or sprinkles, I can’t remember a game where simply touching things makes me so happy. Puzzle-solving takes fun advantage of these sensations, such as walking over visually identical tiles to determine which one is a button purely from sensory feedback. Every interaction, no matter how trivial, has more personality and garners more smiles than many full games. 

 

Astro Bot remains an endearing celebration of PlayStation’s history. This time it spotlights the characters who built the brand more than the hardware itself. Dozens of charming, often surprising cameo bots representing current and former first-party Sony franchises, plus an impressive roster of third-party IP, offer a well-rounded snapshot of PlayStation’s software history. Several familiar faces from long-dormant, seemingly forgotten franchises garnered an audible gasp or cheer from me; I couldn’t wait to conquer another platforming gauntlet to see who would pop up next. What could have easily amounted to a cynical nostalgia play works primarily because the bots are gleefully cosplaying as these icons without overtly stating who they are, winking to the players in an “if you know, you know” manner. It feels less like a commercial and more like Team Asobi playfully expressing, “We love these franchises as much as you do and wish some of them would come back.”

Astro Bot is such a wonderful experience, it makes me question if I’ve ever felt this much pure joy playing other games I’m fond of. From its tight design to its incredible visuals to mechanics that feel carefully tested to generate as much pleasure as possible, Sony has its new standard bearer for platformers. Astro Bot has always been good at propping up its contemporaries, but the adorable little robot can now proudly stand beside the PlayStation icons it so fondly celebrates. 

This 2025 review reflects our thoughts on the game’s current state at publishing. As such, post-launch updates were factored into the final score.

Score: 10

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Reviewed on: PC
Platform: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC
Publisher: Behaviour Interactive
Developer: Supermassive Games
Release: September 3, 2024
Rating: Mature

Dead By Daylight, the asymmetrical multiplayer horror game, has long rewarded players’ dedication and love for the genre with dozens of additional killers, maps, and more. Though much of the game’s expansion has been anchored in no-brainer IP like Halloween, Scream, and Resident Evil, developer Behaviour Interactive has also done a great job building its universe with original ideas. Its biggest attempt yet to expand the game’s reach arrived with The Casting of Frank Stone, a single-player adventure game set in the Dead By Daylight universe. However, despite horror-adventure veteran developer Supermassive Games developing it, The Casting of Frank Stone fails to instill new nightmares into this universe thanks to rote gameplay, an unengaging narrative, and a forgettable cast. The game neither works as a standalone experience nor a method to entice players to jump into Dead By Daylight. 

The Casting of Frank Stone sets the stage with a 1963 segment showing local police officer Sam discovering the gruesome acts Cedar Steel Mill worker Frank Stone gets up to on his off time. Just as Frank is about to throw an infant into a fiery hot furnace, you (as Sam) shoot Frank, ending his life. From this point onward, the game takes place during two eras: the 1980s, with a group of young adults attempting to shoot a horror film in the abandoned mill, and 2024, where multiple adults visit Gerant Manor to meet a collector and seemingly Frank Stone fanatic named Augustine. Throughout the game’s roughly paced story, you control various characters in each period, learning how the past informs the present. In the present, Augustine has invited various individuals to her manor to purchase pieces of the film, Murder Mill, which was shot but never released by the characters you control during the 1980s segments of the game. 

As the story unravels, you learn why Augustine wants to secure the entire film and why Murder Mill was never released. Unsurprisingly, it has to do with Frank. He haunts the mill during the shoot, and it’s here where Supermassive’s typical survive-or-die gameplay makes an appearance. The narrative choices you make and how you handle Frank when he appears using a gimmicky and simple camera gameplay mechanic determine who lives or dies. I felt little when someone died or survived because The Casting of Frank Stone fails to make these characters feel real or unique. They are predictable, cliche, and lacking in the character work seen in other Supermassive games. The same can be said for those in the present day segments, which are bogged down by light, unimaginative puzzle work and a boring manor to explore. 

The two timelines culminate in a climax the game hints at far too early, leaving little suspense on the table during its final moments. And after The Casting of Frank Stone reveals its hand, it quickly becomes a metanarrative that poorly attempts to justify itself as part of the Dead By Daylight experience. However, longtime fans might find more enjoyment in the connection here than I did. Still, playing through roughly seven hours of bog-standard horror adventure game and then concluding with a wink and a nudge (and that’s putting it generously) toward the universe it’s set in was disappointing. 

Though there are collectibles to find and a Cutting Room Floor feature that makes it easy to change the story and see how different choices and actions affect the wider narrative, I wasn’t compelled to return after rolling credits. It’s a shame, too, because Supermassive’s art team clearly put a lot of love into the visuals, and the narrative is designed to return to key plot points to discover what else could be done. But first impressions are important, and The Casting of Frank Stone’s falls flat. 

Horror stories, whether movies, books, or games, often fall into two camps: great enough to infiltrate my dreams or bad enough I enjoy the laughter they bring me. There’s a third camp, however, and it’s the most disappointing of all: boring, leaving me with nothing to chew on, be scared of, or laugh at. It’s here I found Supermassive’s latest. Though the developer has some horror highs in its catalog, The Casting of Frank Stone rests six feet at the bottom of it.

This 2025 review reflects our thoughts on the game’s current state at publishing. As such, post-launch updates were factored into the final score.

Score: 5.5

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Reviewed on: Xbox Series X/S
Platform: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC
Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Massive Entertainment
Release: August 30, 2024

Star Wars is in a strange place. It began as a dedicated film and left an enduring mark on the industry. Today, it is more of an ongoing collection of television shows on Disney’s online subscription streaming service. Thankfully, the video game side of Star Wars still represents the kind of experience I personally want from one of my favorite childhood franchises – one that I only check in on every few years for a big, bold, blockbuster adventure. Outlaws does not fully live up to the excitement of only getting to see a Star Wars movie every few years, but when you meet it on its terms and recognize that it is making a concerted attempt to re-examine the elements of Ubisoft games that we find increasingly exhausting, then you will find one of the more fun Star Wars experiences of the last few years.

Comparable Star Wars video games are great at placing a lightsaber in your hand or putting you in an X-Wing to emulate the more explosive elements of the films, but Outlaws is the best at just letting you hang out. Exploring its large open areas on your speeder bike or simply walking around the densely populated back alleys of its wretched hives of scum and villainy are where I had the most fun. Outlaws excels when it leans into its Star Wars mood, and you can just stand and listen to all the impressive Star Wars noises happening around you.

When you do actually have to do something, Outlaws delivers some compelling action and character moments. Kay Vess is a familiar Star Wars archetype, but not one we’ve seen truly explored in a Star Wars video game since Shadows of the Empire. Playing as a character who can’t afford to support the Rebellion, but can still see the villainy in the Empire’s evil ways is refreshing, and I appreciated her dedication to herself and her pet-companion, Nix. She doesn’t trust anyone, often for good reason, and I enjoyed the story moments when she was proven right.

The attempt to extend that into player choice by choosing which factions Kay sides with is less successful. The highest compliment I can offer for that mechanic, where helping one faction might ding your relationship with another, is that I could see what the team at Massive Entertainment was going for, but when everyone you potentially work for is a villain, you don’t like any of them, and you can really only play them against you and not each other, it’s hard to be compelled by your choices. The “reward” for who you end up siding with most at the end of the game was also so small that I had to look up the tiny moment online to confirm it after watching the credits.

Thankfully, Kay’s mainline story is more compelling than the faction relationships and I liked learning about her familial relationships and why she ended up in her predicament to begin with. It didn’t take long for me to care about Nix as much as Kay does and their relationship with the droid, ND-5, ended up being a stronger highlight than I expected. I hope I am able to go on more adventures with Kay and pals in the future.

My early hours with Outlaws’ gameplay felt surprisingly stifling. The introductory moon, Toshara, looks like an open-world game (and it is), but I felt constricted by not being able to take any speeder I saw or climb any cliff I needed to. Speeder bike crashes out in the open also felt lifeless and awkward. But once I started working with the game and not against it, I found the advantages and came to appreciate them. You can’t steal any vehicle because you have your own speeder bike and spaceship that you upgrade and grow to love. And the open world is not the space where you go and get lost. It’s where you appreciate stunning Star Wars vistas between missions. In this way, Outlaws feels unique and different from other open-world games, and specifically open-world Ubisoft games. I admire it for that reason.

The act of leaving a planet to enter space is also consistently thrilling. You can see The Matrix of it all where cutscene transitions move you from planet to open space and where loading screens are being masked, but the important part is that it feels seamless. You can skip those transition cutscenes, and I would when I was eager to get to the next mission, but I rarely did just because the emotion of traveling from one planet to another was so well executed that I was happy to embrace it.

 

Shooting in space and on foot are both just above passable, but neither are gameplay highlights. Moving through space feels good and I liked docking at different space stations, but dogfights feel perfunctory and on-rails. The third-person shooting also feels just okay, and I was grateful I could use Kay’s blaster to get myself out of trouble when I tripped alarms, but I had more fun using the game’s light stealth gameplay to lurk around. I prefer Kay as the sneaky smuggler than the shoot-from-the-hip space cowboy, but I appreciate that Outlaws allows for both, and doesn’t punish you for switching between them.

The video game side of Star Wars is in a good place right now. Kay Vess and her companion, Nix, are both good additions to the Star Wars canon and I appreciate that her role in the larger, ongoing story is zoomed in and more personal. It’s difficult to be bothered about the whims of warring Jedi and Sith when you’re just trying to make sure you can buy dinner for you and your pet and play a surprisingly in-depth minigame to consume it. Moving between planets and wandering Outlaws’ dense cities is where the adventure shines, but shooting your way through your current gig so you can make it to the next is also compelling, if sometimes a little simple.

This 2025 review reflects our thoughts on the game’s current state at publishing. As such, post-launch updates were factored into the final score.

Score: 8.5

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Reviewed on: PlayStation 5
Platform: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC
Publisher: EA Sports
Developer: EA Tiburon
Release: August 16, 2024
Rating: Everyone

The Madden NFL franchise is often criticized for its stagnation. With no real competition to speak of, it’s easy to see how one could conclude that the development team is resting on its laurels, opting for short-yardage plays that are all but guaranteed to move the ball forward rather than trying to stretch the field with higher risk play calls. Madden NFL 25 is undoubtedly an improvement over its predecessor, but at this point, it feels like a .500 team from last year taking home an extra win or two to barely earn a winning record this season.

Stepping up to the line of scrimmage in Madden NFL 25 is better than last year thanks to bigger and more complete playbooks, better audible options, and more customizable route adjustments at the line. Once the ball is snapped, the action on the gridiron typically looks and plays authentic. Each QB I took control of plays similar to his real-world counterpart; Lamar Jackson has the excellent ability to emerge from would-be sacks and miraculously get the ball downfield, Patrick Mahomes can make acrobatic throws like nobody else, and Josh Allen has an uncanny ability to make something out of nothing.

Regardless of the position or situation, the improved physics and animations for contact and tackles create substantially more realistic engagements. I appreciate how tackles look and develop, and the improvements made to blockers lead to better pockets and running lanes. Blockers are much less likely to get stuck in engagement animations like in past years, but quarterbacks and receivers are sometimes prone to scripted sequences.

 

Stepping into the shoes of an elite quarterback feels markedly different from a middling passer, thanks to various gameplay mechanics, not the least of which is the X Factor. This feature, which grants special abilities to superstars on each team, continues to receive refinements each year. Whether it’s Mike Evans’ powered-up play against single-coverage or Marshon Lattimore’s advantage during contested catches, Madden NFL 25 effectively differentiates the superstars from the rest of the league in ways attributes cannot.

Madden NFL 25 delivers an often gorgeous gridiron experience. Player models are authentic, improved animations permeate the entire experience, and the broadcast graphics closely emulate what you see watching a real NFL game. I love the addition of new commentary teams as a way to address the perpetual problem of hearing the same conversations and calls game after game. Though the two new duos feel less fleshed out than the pre-established commentary team, it’s a net positive for Madden NFL 25 that should only improve year over year. Unfortunately, the immersion falters multiple times throughout a given game. Broadcast graphics breaking, awkward pre- and post-play animations, and the ball sometimes appearing glued to a player’s hand instead of being held by it were all common during my gameplay.

For many years, the single-player-focused career modes were my destinations. The NBA 2K series repelled me from its version due to the egregious use of microtransactions, and I worry the Madden series is heading down that same path, thanks to the integration of Showdown’s online play. You can stay exclusively in the single-player portion of the mode, but that doesn’t free you from the monetization attempts of the broader suite. On top of Showdown mode being the default option every time you load into the Superstar menu, the game constantly tries to convince you to check out the monetized online side of the experience through in-game quests and even video messages from NFL players.

Madden NFL 25’s career mode presents you with various quests to complete as you play multiple seasons of your created character’s career. I’m a big fan of checklists in games, so I enjoy how the interface surfaces relevant goals at the start of each drive. The goals range from single-game to full-career in scope, though I’m annoyed at how some push you towards opportunities to at least notice the monetizable elements like boosts and emotes. Each time you complete a set of quests, you get rewards like XP to level up your player, bringing an RPG-lite flavor to the mode. There are plenty of things to love about Superstar mode, but regularly trying to get you to jump to the other side irks me.

I instead opted to spend most of my time in Franchise, which has been a focus of EA Tiburon’s in recent years. The thrill of taking the reins of my favorite team to draft, deal, and make the business decisions on their behalf en route to hopefully taking home the Lombardi Trophy is an annual tradition in my house at this point. Improved menus, more cinematic elements, and more storylines make for a better overall experience, though I wish the storylines featured higher production values than characters stoically talking to one another. Still, it’s a massive improvement over how neglected Franchise was just a couple of years ago.

Madden NFL 25 may not throw many Hail Marys, but as the Super Bowl Champion Philadelphia Eagles can attest, those small yardage plays can still be meaningful. Despite their success with the Tush Push on fourth down, they still relied on the big play capabilities of Saquon Barkley, Jalen Hurts, and AJ Brown. That’s what Madden NFL 25 is missing; it is effective at chipping away with forward progress, but the franchise feels gun-shy about trying to go big with any of its modes. Madden NFL 25 is a consistently good entry in the annualized franchise, but it does little to push for the highlight reels.

Score: 7.5

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Reviewed on: PC
Platform: Switch, PC
Publisher: Panic Inc.
Developer: Franek, Max Cahill, Bibiki, Fáyer
Release: August 15, 2024

In a world where your greatest adversaries fire pistols, rifles, and other firearms, Tizo wields a simple bow and arrow, or "arco," as the Iyo culture calls it. It is a deadly, capable weapon, but arrows are hopelessly outclassed by bullets, especially in a fight with multiple guns in play. Yet in the face of merciless killers and overwhelming odds, the only way forward is to fight back with whatever tools are at your disposal. Arco's thrilling, compelling story enthralled me with its seamless blend of gameplay and narrative. The dialogue is sharply written and the combat is carefully tuned, but these disparate elements combine to tell a story that makes Arco memorable.

Arco is a pixelated RPG that follows a series of Indigenous travelers seeking revenge on a colonizing force that laid waste to their lives. Through each of the game's acts, you play as one of these adventurers and get a glimpse into a different tribe in Arco's countryside; Tizo is a grizzled old man, Itzae is a spirited brawler, and Afur and Chio are merchant siblings. Including so many perspectives of the same essential conflict injects plentiful nuance into the story, and I was always eager to see how new characters would affect the plot.

Fresh protagonists come with unique abilities in combat encounters, one of Arco's strongest elements. When conflict is triggered in the overworld, Arco zooms into an isometric battlefield, where the player engages in combat against wildlife, bandits, or colonizers. The action is turn-based with a twist: While time is frozen, you can see what your opponents plan to do next, but once you decide what your next action is, every person's turn unfolds at the same time. A bow is a great tool for foes several feet away, but a knife moves faster, so it's not wise to ready an arrow if you're within melee range. On the other hand, it's usually a good idea to use a quick attack like a slap to interrupt an enemy who pulls out a firearm, which is particularly hard to avoid. And if there are multiple guns in play, your turn is best spent dashing or teleporting around until the enemy is forced to reload. It's a tactical style that forces the player to carefully consider each action, making every victory feel satisfying and earned.

There's another twist on Arco's turn-based combat: ghosts. Depending on your decisions in the story, your protagonist can be haunted by guilt, and that guilt manifests as dangerous specters in battle. Even while the rest of the world isn't moving, the ghosts are, and they'll hurt you if they get close enough. This simultaneously puts a time limit on your actions and keeps you away from certain areas. So much for that melee attack you had planned – you either need to take some damage or run in the opposite direction for three turns until the ghost dissipates. This mechanic can be frustrating, but it's avoidable depending on your decisions in the story or if you use consumables to make the guilty condition disappear, which I often did in later chapters. That said, guilt can also unlock new, darker story content, serving as both a narrative consequence and a difficulty level I hope to revisit in later playthroughs.

These intersections between story and gameplay are where Arco shines the brightest. Healing items are relatively plentiful, but not infinite, so deciding whether to take sidequests or unnecessary risks is always consequential, as you don't want your health to get too low. If you're kind and trusting to passersby, you might be taken advantage of, but if you're too quick on the draw, you can cause unnecessary bloodshed and become guilty again. I was invested in Arco's story to begin with, but the mechanical incentive to think about my actions kept me truly immersed.

This Mesoamerican epic is told in a minimalist pixelated art style, a visual direction that has stuck with me for weeks after playing. In the overworld, characters are depicted as just a few pixels large in a full screen of desert, woods, or other environments. It creates a palpable sense of grandeur and respect for the vast, natural world the characters inhabit, a recurring theme in the narrative. The music evokes the same sensation. Sparse acoustic guitar notes score your exploration of the first area while combat cranks the tempo up with electric guitar chords.  But my favorite moment of the entire game is when the soundtrack cuts out, replaced by a quiet singer and her guitar, representing the sincere, emotional undertone of an otherwise violent moment in the narrative.

Arco tells a story about consequence, sacrifice, colonialism, revenge, and grief. From small, funny exchanges between siblings to the dramatic, overarching plot connecting the main characters, the phenomenal writing is only elevated by how the player can affect it. The ending I got was a fitting conclusion you'd expect to see in any classic Western film, and I'm eager to return to see how dark it gets if I make different choices.

This 2025 review reflects our thoughts on the game’s current state at publishing. As such, post-launch updates were factored into the final score.

Score: 9

About Game Informer's review system