Month: September 2019

Tokyo Game Show 2019 is now in full swing. A number of games are being shown at the event and among them is Death Stranding. Over the course of the show game director Hideo Kojima will appear on three streams to showcase gameplay from Death Stranding. The first provided more insight into more of Death Stranding’s open-world gameplay, which involves navigating mountainous terrains to deliver goods and even sneaking through bases, which will be a welcome treat for fans of Kojima’s Metal Gear Solid titles. The second Death Stranding demo, meanwhile, focused on the safe house; a private area of sorts where players will spend time between missions.

As shown in the demo, in this area you don’t actually play as Norman Reedus’s character, Sam Porter Bridges. Instead, you play as a “soul” that commands his actions. The player has free reign over the camera and Sam will react to your movements. During the presentation, Kojima compared it to a Bishojo Game, where it’s about interacting with the character on screen. In the demo Sam was pointing at where he wants to go, such as the shower because he was covered in dirt or the storage area where weapons are kept, where he can stock up and inspect his tools.

Since Sam is basically at home in the safe house and you can observe him with less pressure of being set upon by the strange things that occupy the world outside. Opportunists who try and swing the camera around to look at Norman’s Reedus, when the chance arises, will find that he covers his bits up. Keep trying to look at his junk and eventually he’ll lose his cool and punch you, which results in the lens of the camera cracking.

As the soul influencing Sam’s action, you can get him to shower. Given that it’s a Kojima Production game, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to hear that the act of taking a shower has some unexpected gameplay implications too. The biological fluid collected from your showers is converted into a crystal which can then be used to power weapons. This process also happens outside of the shower–it seems Death Stranding takes place in a world where effectively using your pee, poop, sweat, and blood is important to survival.

Another interesting element of Death Stranding shown during the demo was Sam’s interaction with the enigmatic Bridge Baby, also known as a BB. The child is shown mimicking what Sam does, so when he taps on the glass, BB does the same. But then BB gets a bit too into it and escalates to smashing its head against the glass, eventually breaking through–but it turns out to be a daydream.

Death Stranding will also let players return to the game world after the credits roll and help out fellow players by leaving things that will guide them on their journey. As shown in the first gameplay demo, players will be able to rate these.

There are a number of other small things revealed in the demo, such as the ability to wear sunglasses and customize aspects of your character. One such thing you can customize is your backpack, which you can add additional pouches or batteries to. Players will have to physically place them and use limited space efficiently. It’s reminiscent of the inventory from Resident Evil 4. You can also change the color of the backpack, if you’re into that sort of the thing.

Eventually, Sam points at the table and directs your attention there. On the table are a number of items, including a jar with some sort of bug in there, which Sam eats. There’s also a pretty rad-looking pair of sunglasses, which Sam puts on and models, before giving a thumbs up to the camera. A hat with the Bridges logo can also be found on the table, and the colors of the glasses and hat can be tweaked.

On a nearby wall is a holographic map of the world, where players can look at main missions, read important mail–which sometimes feature mission hints, requests, or general correspondence. There’s a data archive that contains important documents that will fill the player in on the world and story.

Much later in the game demo, we’re shown a scene from the viewpoint of a BB, who is seeing Mads Mikkelsen’s character drinking wine. He talks to the BB and then toasts it, before taking a sip of the wine–it’s a bit weird and out of place, but it’s Death Stranding, so to be expected. A quick cut later and we’re back in the open-world, customizing voice clips that alert Sam to key information, selecting music, and

There are a number of cool little touches in the location which you can see for yourself in the video. These include a music player, drinkable beer, singing with characters in other dimensions, and a mirror that takes pictures of you when you pose and make funny faces, among other things.

Make sure to watch the first presentation too, if you haven’t already. It’s around an hour of Death Stranding gameplay and showed off a boss battle, bike travel, and more.

Death Stranding’s release date has been confirmed as November 8, 2019 for PS4.

With John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum now available on home video, let’s rank the top 10 best fight scenes from the entire John Wick series!

Borderlands 3 includes four Vault Hunters to choose from–FL4K the beastmaster, Zane the operative, Moze the gunner, and Amara the Siren. If hunting the bandits of Pandora with a trusty pet by your side sounds like your ideal playstyle, then look no further than FL4K. Below, we’ve detailed the pros and cons of this character’s three skill trees so you know which abilities to unlock.

FL4K is the lone wolf among Borderlands 3’s Vault Hunters, with his skill trees combining perks from Borderlands‘ Mordecai and Borderlands 2‘s Zer0 to focus on long-ranged combat and self-sustainability. If you’re going to play Borderlands 3 on your own, you’ll probably have the easiest time with FL4K as all three skill trees contribute to solo play. Plus, who needs real friends when you can rely on the aid of your in-game monkey, dog, and spider companions, amiright?

Stalker

You’ll notice a few Zer0-inspired skills in FL4K’s Stalker tree, the one that’s specifically tied to his monkey-like Jabber companion. The action skill associated to Stalker is Fade Away, which allows FL4K to temporarily turn invisible.

In this tree, try putting points into Self-Repairing System early so you can regenerate your health and cut out the cost of health packs. You want to invest five points into this tree and get to the second tier as quickly as possible to unlock the Guerillas in the Mist perk, which allows FL4K to attack multiple times during Fade Away instead of just once. Eager to Impress–which lowers the cool down time on FL4K’s action skill whenever they or their pet kill someone–is also a good second tier ability to have.

Things start getting really good at the third tier. Lick the Wounds allows your pet to revive you, Not My Circus has your pet draw enemy fire after you use Fade Away, and your Jabber evolves into a Beefcake–making it a lot stronger. At this point, it might be worth investing in FL4K’s other trees, but you should certainly come back to this tree in the late game. Hidden Machine is great once you have a powerful sniper rifle or assault rifle with a long-range scope. The ability increases FL4K’s attack damage against enemies that haven’t noticed them–a phenomenal skill to pair with the Hunter tree’s Ambush Predator skill.

Hunter

Speaking of the Hunter tree, this is the one you want to invest points into if Mordecai was your favorite Vault Hunter back in the day. This tree is all about getting critical hits, as well as increasing the power of FL4K’s spider-like Spiderant companion and the character’s Rakk Attack–an action skill that’s basically an elemental version of Mordecai’s Bloodwing action skill. If you invest in this tree, start looting and buying Jakobs guns. Soon you’ll be one-shotting foes before your teammates even have a chance to notice that there are enemies to kill.

Right off the bat, you want to invest in Interplanetary Stalker, which increases the damage FL4K does after every enemy they kill. Leave No Trace–which has a chance of adding a bullet back into FL4K’s gun whenever they score a critical hit–is a pretty good choice too, especially if you’re carrying a Jakobs shotgun or sniper rifle as both are typically single-shot weapons. With Leave No Trace, you’ll get a chance to sometimes fire off two shots instead of one, making it easier to get the kill and activate Interplanetary Stalker’s effects.

In the second tier, start putting all your points into Ambush Predator, an ability that makes FL4K stronger the further they are from enemies. Once you do, and once you secure a Jakobs gun with a decent scope, FL4K becomes a sharpshooter of no equal on the battlefield. The remaining perks in this tree are mostly devoted to upgrading your Spiderant, which eventually evolves first into a fire-breathing Scorcher and then a corrosive-splashing Countess. As a side note, if you invest in this tree, you’ll be far richer than all your friends as the fourth tier ability The Most Dangerous Game nets FL4K a generous cash reward for killing badass level foes. Considering you’ll be a sniping god at this point, you’ll probably be able to down most badass enemies before your friends can even reach them.

Master

FL4K’s Master tree is probably the one you want to invest in if you really just don’t want to be a sniper. The Master tree doesn’t have the sneaking potential of the Stalker tree nor the critical hit damage power-up of the Hunter tree. Instead, the Master tree focus on FL4K’s pet, increasing the power of what they can do so they can protect FL4K as they fight side by side at mid- to close-range. The pet associated to this tree is the dog-like Skag and the action skill is Gamma Burst, an ability that teleports FL4K’s pet to a location through a radiative portal that mutates the pet into a more powerful form.

Considering how much this tree focuses on FL4K’s pet, start putting points into the skills that will ensure they can be the most help to you. In the first tier, Ferocity (which increases your pet’s attack power) and Go For The Eyes (which makes your pet’s first attack a critical hit) are your best choices. From there you’ll reach the second tier of the tree and, honestly, from this point on almost every skill just makes your pet stronger and stronger. You can’t go wrong with where you invest. You basically just want to keep putting points into the tree until you reach the final tier and can unlock Dominance, a skill that allows FL4K to take control of enemies with a melee attack.

Like Amara’s Mystical Assault tree, FL4K’s Master tree is probably the last one you want to invest in or at least the one you want to save until after you’ve left Pandora. FL4K’s pets are actually pretty durable and deadly early on, so increasing their health and attack power isn’t an immediate priority. You will at some point, especially for the challenging endgame, but increasing FL4K’s own abilities should be your priority first, and that’s easier to do in the other two trees. If you’re not a fan of long-range combat, then this is probably the tree you want to focus on. But at the same time, if you’re so against sniping, then why are you playing as FL4K in the first place?

Borderlands 3 lets you play as one of four distinct Vault Hunters–Zane the operative, Moze the gunner, Amara the Siren, and FL4K the beastmaster. If sneaking around and teleporting throughout the battlefield as Zane is how you want to play, then read our guide below. It includes the pros and cons of the character’s three distinct skill trees so you can craft the ideal build.

Zane has the ability to sacrifice using grenades to equip two action skills at once. If you choose to do this, you’ll likely end up weaker in the early game. But don’t worry, Zane possesses plenty of excellent first and second tier abilities across all three of his trees, so you’ll have plenty to work with until you hit the mid-game and probably want to invest in two action skills and skill trees. We advise focusing a bit more on his Double Agent and Under Cover trees. Once you reach Eden-6, combat gets much harder and–without much in the way of survivability–Zane’s going to need those later tier skills, such as the self revive skill Old-U, to boost his defense and chances of surviving.

Doubled Agent

Zane’s Doubled Agent tree is tied to his Digi-Clone action skill, which summons a holographic decoy that distracts and shoots at enemies and can also switch places with Zane. If you’re going to play Borderlands 3 solo, this is one of the two trees you should invest in, as you can evolve Digi-Clone to take the brunt of most of the damage you take as well as rely on the second pair of hands for the bullet-sponge boss battles.

The first tier ability Synchronicity is a good early investment, increasing Zane’s gun damage for every action skill active. With one skill on, that’s pretty good. With two, it’s phenomenal. Once you hit second tier, nearly every skill in the Doubled Agent tree is worth investing in. Boom, Enhance is the one exception. Some notable standouts are Quick Breather (Zane’s shield immediately begins recharging when he swaps with his decoy), Old-U (Zane can get an instant second wind by swapping with his decoy), and Dopplebanger (the Digi-Clone can be recalled early in an explosion that deals massive splash damage).

The utility of the Digi-Clone ability cannot be undersold, as it’s probably Zane’s most useful action skill. You’ll want to equip Digi-Clone and invest heavily into Doubled Agent if you decide to play as Zane. Think Borderlands 2‘s Zer0, but less ninja and more secret agent.

Hitman

Though helpful early on in Borderlands 3’s campaign, Zane’s Hitman tree offers less worthwhile returns the further you invest in it. You shouldn’t focus on this tree alone, especially if you’re playing through the campaign solo. That said, the Hitman tree–which is tied to Zane’s drone-summoning SNTNL action skill–does have a few useful perks, so it’s worth putting a few points into it. Maybe just invest in this tree early and then leave its more advanced abilities for when you’re going into the endgame content.

In the first tier, put points into both the Violent Speed and Violent Momentum abilities. The first increases Zane’s movement speed after an action skill use, while the second increases gun damage the faster he’s moving. If you’re looking for more skills to put points into, then you can put some into second tier Cool Hand to increase reload speed whenever you kill an enemy. When paired with Violent Speed and Violent Momentum, it makes Zane a speed demon with a Jakobs revolver or bolt action rifle.

After that, however, the Hitman tree loses most of its luster. The remaining skills are tied to increasing the effectiveness of Zane’s SNTNL drone, but none of them are exceptionally good. They’re not nearly as good as the late-game skills found in the Doubled Agent tree and when you do hit the latter half of the campaign, you’re going to want the perks found in the Under Cover skill tree a lot more. Like, a lot more.

Under Cover

The Under Cover tree contains most of Zane’s defensive skills. None of them are terribly important early on but grow exponentially in effectiveness the further you progress the campaign. Remember how we said in the Doubled Agent section that there are two skill trees you want to invest in if you’re playing with Zane solo? Well, this is the other one. Under Cover is tied to Zane’s final action skill, Barrier, which erects a force field that can be picked up for additional defense while on the move or left on the ground to amplify all outgoing shots with increased attack power.

Early on, put points into Adrenaline to increase action skill cooldown so you can throw out your shield more often (as well as your Digi-Clone or SNTNL drone if you have those equipped). Hearty Stock increases Zane’s maximum shield capacity and Ready For Action ensures his shield recharges faster. The Under Cover tree doesn’t truly come into its own until the third tier though, when Nanites Or Some Shite provides health regeneration, increases reload speed, and supplies a faster shield recharge rate while near the Barrier. You also get All-Rounder, which changes the Barrier into a dome for protection from all sides.

That’s most of what you need out of the tree. From there, start focusing points on the Doubled Agent tree and increasing the effectiveness of the Digi-Clone with it’s more advanced perks. Together, the Digi-Clone and Barrier ability allow Zane to keep teleporting around the battlefield and dealing damage from all sides, relying on his force field to recover and increase his combat prowess. If you find yourself with excessive skill points, then go ahead and work towards a few of the late-game Under Cover abilities. Deterrence Field causes Zane’s Barrier to shock enemies and Distributed Denial applies Zane’s shield effects to the Barrier. If you have a nova or spike shield, then Distributed Denial can be paired with Deterrence Field to turn Zane’s Barrier into an offensive tool. And remember, you can pick up said offensive tool and run at the enemies if they don’t come to you.

Borderlands 3 is finally here, allowing you to play as one of four Vault Hunters–Moze the gunner, Amara the Siren, FL4K the beastmaster, and Zane the operative. If you’re interested in Moze, then keep reading. Below, we detail her three distinct skill trees and go into their respective strengths and weaknesses.

Moze’s skill trees are built a little bit differently in comparison to her fellow Vault Hunters. When Moze uses her action skill, she summons her massive Iron Bear mech–regardless of which skill trees you invest points into. However, each skill tree contains several different weapons for you to unlock, allowing you to customize how Iron Bear fights. Moze’s skill trees do possess a few perks geared towards her own growth as well, however–much like Borderlands 2‘s Gaige–Moze is all about working towards summoning her giant mechanical companion. Iron Bear is the star of the show.

Demolition Woman

The Demolition Woman skill tree is all about explosions, amplifying the amount of splash damage that both Moze and Iron Bear can do. This tree automatically allows Iron Bear to equip a V-35 semi-automatic grenade launcher to one of its two arms, but investing points into the tree allows you to also unlock a Vanquisher Rocket Pod, homing missiles, and a nuke. Yup, you can just pop off a nuke whenever you summon Iron Bear if you put points into Demolition Woman. It’s awesome.

The tree is also geared towards keeping Iron Bear active for longer periods of time, so if you just want to use the mech more often and for longer periods, then throw a few points into the first few tiers of abilities. Deadlines, for example, allows Iron Bear to use less fuel when firing its weapons and Stainless Steel Bear increases Iron Bear’s armor and maximum fuel storage.

There are some fun mid- to late-game perks too. While not necessary for building the perfect Moze loadout, you might want to invest in them just because they’re cool. Auto-Bear, a third tier skill, keeps Iron Bear on the battlefield after Moze has exited, allowing you to fight side by side and fulfill your Titanfall fantasies. If you loved playing as Krieg in Borderlands 2, then you’ll probably also enjoy one of the final skills unlocked in the Demolition Woman tree: To The Last. With this fifth tier skill unlocked, Moze is able to throw grenades while in fight for your life–giving you an explosive option for nabbing a second wind.

Shield Of Retribution

If you want to increase Iron Bear’s defensive potential, then Shield of Retribution is the skill tree you want to put points into. Right from the get-go, this tree allows you to equip a Railgun that deals precision shock damage. The tree also includes the option for equipping a Bubble Shield to Iron Bear though, as well as the Bear Fist attachment–giving Iron Bear a powerful melee attack.

The Bubble Shield is in the first tier of abilities and probably the first skill you want to unlock. Honestly, you probably want to unlock this skill first regardless of which tree you want to focus on. Despite being a giant mech, Iron Bear can’t really take much of a beating so investing in a means of better defense is crucial for combat after finishing the campaign’s early chapters.

Unfortunately, there aren’t that many decent skills in the Shield of Retribution tree’s second and third tiers. This isn’t a very good tree, and you’ll struggle to do enough damage to defeat foes if this is the tree you focus on. You definitely don’t want to spec into it if you’re playing solo, as then you’ll really struggle against the bullet-sponge bosses. At the fourth tier, you do unlock the useful Close The Distance evolution for the Bear Claw that transforms the melee attack into a grappling hook, making it easier to bust through an enemy at point-blank range with one of Iron Bear’s many weapons. However, without putting points into the other trees, you won’t have the necessary attack power to really put this skill to use. You’re probably best off just nabbing Bubble Shield and moving on to one of the two other trees.

Bottomless Mags

Bottomless Mags is a fun skill tree to invest in and probably the one best suited for solo play with Moze. It’s all about dealing as much damage as quickly as possible, starting off with a Minigun attachment for one of Iron Bear’s arms. This tree also provides the option of unlocking a Dakka Bear manned turret for Iron Bear (which lets teammates catch a ride on your back and fire away), a flamethrower, a corrosive launcher, an ice cannon, and a mine cannon. That last one should please Titanfall 2 fans, as it basically transforms Iron Bear into a Scorch Titan.

Obviously avoid the Dakka Bear manned turret in the first tier if you’re playing solo, but consider unlocking it if you know you’re regularly going to play with others. Cloud of Lead is one of Moze’s best skills, and it’s found in the first tier of this tree–giving both Moze and Iron Bear a chance to deal incendiary damage with every attack and fire their guns without consuming ammo. You can continue the flame pain with the second tier Stoke the Embers ability, which increases Moze and Iron Bear’s incendiary damage. This may go without saying, but if you decide to put a flamethrower or the fire-based mine cannon on Iron Bear, Stoke the Embers allows the mech to do tremendous amounts of damage to a group of enemies very quickly.

Consider investing in both Rushin’ Offensive and Fuel Economy as well. The former allows Moze to sprint and shoot at the same time and the latter allows Iron Bear to run and consume less fuel while moving. With both, you can more easily make your way through a group of enemies more quickly. Once you’re in the late game, grab Exploding, Bullets so that Iron Bear’s minigun can fire explosive rounds (and be sure to put some points into the Demolition Woman skill tree so you do even more damage).

Then you can focus on Moze. Try to find a Vladof assault rifle or pistol with an additional gun barrel attachment that transforms the firearm into a minigun. This is perfectly paired with Some For The Road, where exiting Iron Bear will briefly give Moze infinite ammo. To continue the pain when the effect stops, unlocking Click, Click makes Moze more powerful when her gun’s clip is almost empty.

As is tradition, Borderlands 3 introduces four brand-new Vault Hunters to play–Amara the Siren, FL4K the beastmaster, Moze the gunner, and Zane the operative. If Amara sounds like the one for you, then you’ve come to the right place. Below, we detail her three distinct skill trees and go into their respective strengths and weaknesses.

Amara is the elemental damage dealer amongst the Vault Hunters, which isn’t new for the Siren class. However, unlike her more support-focused Siren sisters Lilith and Maya, Amara is a close-quarter bruiser. Much like Borderlands‘ Brick and Borderlands 2‘s Krieg, Amara’s skill trees are designed to get her into the middle of a fight where she can bring the hurt to as many people as possible. Your choice of skill tree basically determines how you want to get there.

Fist Of The Elements

The Fist of the Elements tree is built around Amara’s Phasegrasp action skill, which allows her to grab an enemy and hold them in place. It’s a great tree to invest in first–and the one you probably want to focus on if you’re still new to first-person shooters. Early on, skills like Steady Hands–which increases weapon handling and accuracy–pair well with Phasegrasp to make it easier to shoot enemies.

If nothing else, you’ll want to invest at least five skill points in Fist of the Elements to unlock its second tier–netting you the perk to switch Amara’s action skill from shock to incendiary damage. Borderlands 3 begins on Pandora where there are a lot of fleshy bandits, so securing a way to deal out incendiary damage–no matter your character–should be your first priority in the campaign.

In its second tier, Fist of the Elements also gives you two excellent skills for Borderlands 3’s early game: Tempest (increases elemental damage) and Illuminated Fist (increases elemental melee damage and applies action skill element to melee attacks). After that, most of Fist of the Elements skills are fairly straightforward, with most increasing the elemental damage Amara’s firearms can do or helping her slow down the hordes of enemies that regularly populate the world. If you’re struggling with the shooting part of Borderlands 3, then this tree will help you out in that regard.

Brawl

Though not as flashy as Fist of the Elements and Mystical Assault, Brawl is probably Amara’s best skill tree. It’s certainly the one you want to heavily put points into if you know you’ll mostly be playing through Borderlands 3 solo–as this is the tree that includes all of Amara’s best defensive abilities.

Like Fist of the Elements, you want to put at least five points into this tree to unlock an additional element for Amara’s action skill. In this case, it’s corrosion–not super important early on but you’ll be thankful for the option when armored enemies start regularly showing up about halfway through the story. Brawl’s skills are tied to Amara’s action skill Phaseslam, which sees her jump into the air and then careen back into the earth in an elemental ground pound. Brawl’s got some great first tier skills. Root to Rise increases Amara’s max health, Personal Space increases Amara’s weapon damage at close range, and Clarity gives Amara health regeneration. That last one is especially good to invest in, as removing the need to purchase health packs just saves you a bunch of money early on–which is better spent on gun ammo.

Of all Amara’s trees, Brawl has the best late-game perks. Regardless of which tree you focus on, putting points into Brawl should be a part of your strategy. Helping Hand(s) allows Amara to summon her elemental arms to deflect grenades and block bullets, Do Unto Others sends powerful elemental orbs at enemies who dare attack you, Blitz transforms Amara’s melee into a nearly one-hit kill dash attack, and Guardian Angel allows Amara to self-revive herself. You really can’t go wrong with this tree.

Mystical Assault

Mystical Assault is built around Amara’s third action skill, Phasecast, which fires a ghostly elemental projection of Amara at enemies. Phasecast is probably Amara’s coolest-looking skill, and it can evolve into some pretty badass secondary abilities. Unfortunately, overall, the skills in this tree don’t have nearly as much utility as the ones found in the other two.

This tree encourages Amara to use her action skill more often, as it includes perks that increase the damage the skill can do while decreasing the time it takes to use the action skill again. However, all of Amara’s action skills already do tremendous amounts of damage and none of them take all that long to recharge. If anything, Mystical Assault is a good tree to invest in once you’ve finished Borderlands 3’s campaign and have started doing the endgame content–especially Proving Grounds which grades your performance based on how fast you kill enemies. Until that point, however, you probably don’t need to pay attention to this tree.

Once you do think you need to speed up your action skill usage because your guns and fists just aren’t cutting it anymore, there are a few skills in Mystical Assault you should pay attention to. Remnant causes Amara to send homing missiles of elemental energy at enemies after Amara kills someone–allowing the Siren to mow through foes a lot more quickly. Avatar is another good one, occasionally giving Amara the ability to use her action skill while it’s still cooling down.

AI: The Somnium Files is an adventure game that combines two classic storytelling genres: the murder mystery and the buddy-cop movie. On top of that, the “buddy” for AI’s lead character, detective Kaname Date, isn’t human. Or animal, for that matter. Rather, it’s a snarky, quirky, super-powered feminine artificial intelligence in the shape of an eyeball–named Aiba–that lives in his left eye socket and has a direct connection to his brain. Oh, and she also helps Date by transforming into a humanoid avatar form to explore the dream worlds of various characters you meet throughout the game. Talk about an odd couple, huh?

It’s an intriguing concept for sure. Thankfully, the near-future sci-fi detective story that AI: the Somnium Files tells lives up to the promise of its unique premise, delivering a great dialogue-driven adventure that sucks you in and doesn’t let up until all of its twisted mysteries have been unraveled.

Date is a detective for a secret, experimental Tokyo police division called ABIS. When the body of his best friend’s ex-wife is found displayed in an abandoned amusement park, Date soon finds himself swept up in a complex investigation to find the culprit before they strike again. Along the way, he crosses paths with a bubbly up-and-coming internet personality, her diehard fanboy (and his beleaguered mother), a Yakuza group, a corrupt politician, and the victim’s young daughter, amongst many other odd, interesting, and sinister personalities. And that’s not even mentioning the oddest personality of them all: Aiba, his quick-witted and sharp-tongued AI partner and confidant in exploring the case.

Having a smart-alecky AI constantly feeding commentary into your brain might sound nightmarish, but Aiba comes with some special skills to aid Date with his investigations: X-ray vision, heat sensing, zooming to check up on faraway places, and even the ability to help Date in quick-time event-style combat. But Aiba’s biggest role is to help Date get information from the various characters by acting as his avatar in their dream worlds. When interrogation gets tough, ABIS staff hooks a subject up to a Psync machine, which allows Date and Aiba to explore their subjects’ subconscious “somnium” dream world to uncover clues and deeply hidden (and sometimes forgotten) secrets. The excursion is under a strict time limit–otherwise their consciousnesses become forever intertwined.

Gameplay in the exploration and investigation sections of AI: The Somnium Files follows a fairly typical point-and-click adventure game style: You look at objects in the environments for clues and talk to characters by making comments and asking questions. The way AI handles these sections makes you less likely to get stuck than in other adventure games, however. You’re only given the option to move to a new area once you’ve done everything necessary to advance the story in one particular location, which ensures you won’t need to backtrack or worry that you’re missing anything important. If you can’t move to the map, you know there’s still more to do.

While exploring the various environments will yield a fair amount of clues, it’s the interactions Date has with the various characters (and Aiba’s reactions to those interactions) that really move AI’s twisting mystery along. Each character you interact with is unique and memorable in their own way. There’s Iris, the cheery aspiring internet idol whose mischievous personality causes Date much consternation; Ota, a devoted fan of Iris with numerous nerdy pursuits; So, a slimy politician with his fair share of secrets; Boss and Pewter, two eccentric personalities that work with Date at ABIS; and Mizuki, Date’s friend’s daughter with a sour attitude and strength beyond her years. There are many more interesting faces you’ll meet, too, each with an important role to play in the story and a strong personality to match. The excellent character designs by Yusuke Kozaki (Fire Emblem Awakening, No More Heroes) also give each NPC a striking visual element to match their distinct characterizations.

At certain points in the story, you encounter other modes of gameplay, like interrogation scenes where you present evidence to a character and action scenes involving quick-time event-style button presses to help Date fend off threats. However, the most important parts of the game take place when Date uses the Psync machine to explore another character’s somnium worlds. Using Aiba as an avatar, you interact directly with elements within these characters’ surreal, illogical, and often very disturbing dream worlds, with every action she performs costing precious time. If Date and Aiba can’t solve the puzzles in the somnium within the time limit, they’ll be forced out, and you will have to start the somnium exploration over from the beginning.

Solving the puzzles to progress in the somniums involves performing certain actions in a certain order on certain objects–and since these are bizarre, often illogical dreamscapes, sometimes the solution isn’t obvious or runs contrary to common sense. You can earn and use items called TIMIEs to help conserve time, but if time grows short, your best option might be to restart. This involves repeating much of the same actions and dialogue to get back to where you were, but skipping all the previous, time-wasting actions you tried before. If you don’t want to do the whole event over, you can go back to checkpoints within a somnium to try and save time by only performing necessary actions. However, you can only do this up to three times before you are forced to restart. Making this even worse is that sometimes you’re saddled with time-penalty TIMIEs from certain actions, meaning that your next action will cost significantly more time than usual and possibly even lead to unwinnable situations. As a result, the six-minute time limit winds up being a source of stress, discouraging you from exploring and appreciating the well-crafted dreamscape environments as much as you’d like and sometimes standing as a roadblock to further progressing the story.

Besides revealing important story beats, the somnium sequences serve another important purpose: Depending on your actions within the somnium, the overall story will branch down one of many different potential paths, with different events taking place on each story branch. Only by seeing all of the various story possibilities, good and bad, will the whole truth behind AI’s saga be revealed. Fortunately, you’re able to jump around to various points in the game’s saga (and replay somnium sequences) whenever you want, so you can put one story branch aside and pick up another anytime you feel like–though there will be roadblocks in some spots if certain plot points have yet to be revealed. As the various branches of the story give tantalizing tidbits of information and reveal more about each of the main characters, you feel like you’re piecing together an elaborate puzzle, which makes it all the more satisfying when big revelations happen.

Despite the occasional frustration in exploring its dream landscapes, the whole of AI: the Somnium Files winds up being a fun, thrilling, and engaging experience. The story is filled with intriguing twists and shocking surprises, and the characters and their individual arcs inspire you to care about what happens to them. The somnium dream worlds add a layer of psychological horror to the ongoing mystery, and Date and Aiba’s constant back-and-forth interactions provide levity to make every investigation all the more amusing. AI’s unconventional detective story is one you won’t soon forget.

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I remember seeing Star Trek: The Motion Picture when it first came out. Yeah, that dates me as the film turns 40 this year (and is returning to theaters for its anniversary thanks to Fathom Events — get tickets here). But I recall it so clearly. My dad, my sister and I went to see the film, and it was a special occasion because the old man didn’t takes us to the movies very often. But we knew the TV show. And now, Captain Kirk and Spock and the rest were back, only on the big screen. Exciting! And then we watched the actual movie…

I still remember my dad just shaking his head as we exited the theater.

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