The Video Games You Should Play This Weekend – May 22

I have been vocal about my love for Lego games over the years, but I am not blind to the fact that my nostalgia colors most of the series with the rose-tinted glasses of childhood glee. Despite loving the games, I wouldn’t recommend most to a modern audience. Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight is in a completely different boat. If you’re a Batman fan of any age, it’s worth checking out. By combining sequences from the character’s beloved history of live-action films with the highly praised combat from the Arkham games, Legacy of the Dark Knight celebrates the best of Batman. It’s cleverly designed, a blast to play, and full of surprises. It’s not perfect – there are some bugs with the physics and I’m not a fan of the stealth system – but it’s strong where it counts the most, and I’m still absolutely satisfied with the final product.

For my full thoughts, you can check out my review from earlier this week.

ZA/UM’s sophomore effort, after the phenomenal breakout Disco Elysium, is certainly still feeling the tremors of everything that happened in Elysium’s wake. From the ousting of several major creative leads, ensuing lawsuits, and a crossfire of allegations and controversy, there’s been no shortage of furor over Zero Parades: For Dead Spies, a new project from the current team under the ZA/UM banner. And for all the ways in which Zero Parades differentiates itself from Disco Elysium – a new setting and a Le Carré spy thriller bend rather than detective noir – it still rekindles the wick of ZA/UM’s debut with voices in your head, die rolls, and a striking, gritty atmosphere weighing down the town of Portofiro.

Your job as decommissioned espionage agent and possibly irredeemable screw-up Hershel Wilk (codename CASCADE), goes to absolute crap in about five seconds flat. But like a ricocheting pinball sent flying into the Theatre of spycraft by the plunger of your handlers, your only course of action is to ping-pong around town, trying to pick up the pieces of what went wrong, and discern why you were called back into action in the first place. Zero Parades feels like an extension of Elysium’s ideas at times, allowing CASCADE to overexert her faculties for a higher chance of success, accruing anxiety, fatigue and delirium all the while, threatening to leech away hard-earned skill points when any meter goes beyond its breaking point. There’s a tension to working your way around Portofiro, as the unassuming town lifts its mask to reveal a thrumming hive of hidden blades and cipher drops beneath the veil.

In not-so-short, I’m enjoying Zero Parades: For Dead Spies quite a bit. I can trace some clear love for the craft of Disco Elysium in its scaffolding, while still noting all the ways in which this ZA/UM, both old and new, tried to put their own vision of spies and subterfuge out into the world. If the many studios and projects born from the shattering of the original ZA/UM can all meet or exceed Zero Parades’ bar, then we’re in for a good few years of virtual storytelling.

While it shares much in common with the recently released Saros, including cosmic horror elements and bullet hell dodging of multi-hued attacks, Luna Abyss has a lot to recommend a playthrough all on its own. The first-person action features excellent traversal options that help you feel fast and mobile. The combat is intense and (eventually) quite challenging. The music and the voice acting is stellar. And the story, which sees you exploring the depths of a strange moon in a body that is not your own, is weird and compelling. Luna Abyss surprised me and keeps me coming back from more; if you’re looking for a new story-heavy action title to keep you busy over the weekend, I think you’ll be similarly delighted.

If you’re on the hunt for a new board game to bring to the table, the latest adventures of The Witcher might be worth a close look. Based on the previously released Path of Destiny game (which is also quite good), I’m partial to this creative reimagining, which takes Geralt, Yennefer, and the rest of the cast into the realms of Japanese folklore for their adventure. Ronin is a completely standalone game — no need to have played the original Path of Destiny — and it sees you controlling these familiar characters as they confront challenges across an intriguing mix of locales and creatures that draw from both The Witcher fiction and Japanese mythology. Different variants include both competitive and cooperative elements, as well as a solo mode if your buddies don’t manage to show up for board game night. The game plays smart and smooth, and features beautiful components, including a game mat that looks like real bamboo. If you love these characters, but you’re eager to see a twist on expectation after all these years, this one could hit the mark.