Zenless Zone Zero 2.0 Review

For full disclosure, most story cutscenes and dialogue were blocked during the preview session. There are new events coming in Zenless Zone Zero 2.0 not available at this moment, so fans should expect more content in the coming weeks.

That being said, the start of Zenless Zone Zero 2.0 threw us headlong into its story missions, having us meet up with its new characters.

First up is Yizuan. We’ve played tons of Genshin Impact these past few years; we know an OP character when we see one!

Yizuan’s damage is huge – and we mean huge! Her skills chain easily with other characters, and her ultimate has the chance to twice in a row. She also brings with her an elemental called Auric Ink truly unique to her and her alone.

Get your wallets ready, lads.

Also new to Zenless Zone Zero 2.0 is Ju Fufu – a tiger girl with a big tail and plenty of speed.

She proved to be my favorite of the three, since fire and speed are kismet with my playstyle. Despite that, she wasn’t putting out the numbers Yizuan was doing.

Finally, Zenless Zone Zero 2.0 brings with it the large bear Pan Yinhu. While a great tank, Pan doesn’t do too much on the damage front. That being said, he’s an A-tier while the others are S-tier – so I doubt he gets much love.

Zenless Zone Zero 2.0 also brings the new town Failume Heights ripe for exploration – alongside side areas for loot and side missions.

Players will be able to check out the Suiban Temple, which serves as the big attraction of the area. The story eventually does lead players here, and one will begin to run it as another side business. Think of it somewhat like the Video Store from the start – albeit more involved.

While appearing run-down arrival – with no one doing anything – players will secure help getting everything running again. From there, they can secure a “somewhat” passive income if they keep visiting every now and again.

Somewhat is important – because one still needs to craft items to sell. The Temple has three main functions: crafting items, discovering new items, and selling the items.

The selling part is passive; just list the items, and in time customers will come to buy. Doing so nets another new currency that can be used to upgrade the Temple or buy materials to craft more items.

To discover new items to sell, players will send out Bangboos out to do exploration nearby. One can choose which one goes where, along with what area they explore and how long they are out for.

As one levels up their Temple in Zenless Zone Zero, they will gain access to new areas and can thereby send out more Bangboos.

Once a new area is cleared, a new recipe is unlocked and one can make that item to sell at your stand. One then repeats that cycle to keep upgrading the Temple and get new quests and items.

Once you have the Temple back up and running, one can start getting commissions from the local citizens via the Neighborhood Wishes board.

Most asks require players to craft certain items, but on occasion one will get a mission to kill enemies or solve a puzzle. The whole area synergizes very well, and will easily become another part of one’s daily Zenless Zone Zero routine.

Small bugs did rear their head during our Zenless Zone Zero 2.0 playtime, with trouble interacting wtih quest objectives and boxes, along with missing scenes failing to load. That being said, we expect this to be fixed come its widespread launch.

Zenless Zone Zero 2.0 is an excellent excuse to pay another visit to New Eridu this summer season – or at the very least claim some amazing rewards.

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The post Zenless Zone Zero 2.0 Review appeared first on GamersHeroes.

Can this co-op adventure compete with heavy hitters like Monster Hunter Wilds? Check out our review to find out.

Split Fiction Honest Review

Split Fiction follows the story of Zoe and Mio, two unpublished authors looking to get their big break. Answering a recruitment ad for a publishing agency promising to make their words a reality, they both go to check it out.

This process proves to be a little fishy, as it requires one to put a whole-body suit on and enter a simulation.

Zoe willingly enters, but Mio tries to leave before being pushed into Zoe’s simulation with her; thus, Split Fiction is born.

As it turns out, Zoe is a fantasy writer and Mio is a sci-fi writer – this makes for some truly wild rides and ideas.

Once inside, the group teams up to find a way to escape. While the pair agreed to give one story to this publisher, the simulation is taking all of their ideas – even ones they forgot.

If Zoe and Mio can find the glitches and make the system unstable, they can escape. While this sounds simple enough, the guys on the outside would rather have you die inside than reveal their secret. One will have to team up and bust out before getting erased.

Split Fiction has players finding these glitches through living withing stories in Zoe and Mio’s heads.

Each level of Split Fiction has players traverseing either a fantasy or sci-fi world, giving each character new abilities to try out.

Both are required to solve most puzzles; for instance, the first mission involves players assuming the role of cyber ninjas. One has a sword that shifts gravity, so one can walk on walls and the ceiling. Meanwhile, the other has an energy whip that enables one to throw items and grapple. When switching levels in Split Fiction, it takes a minute to get used to your new skills.

As it turns out, all of Split Fiction’s levels are fun to play.

While Split Fiction has some combat, it’s mostly a puzzle platformer. On that note, Split Fiction is one of the best puzzle platformers I’ve played in years.

For one, Split Fiction’s platforming is flawless, to the point that a new Mario should launch next year if it wants to win Best Platformer at The Game Awards.

Split Fiction’s platforming is quick, easy, intuitive, seamless, and – most importantly – fun.

We’re even confident a child could pick Split Fiction us and play with little to no practice. That being said, the deaths in this game are pretty savage, so I’m not sure if Split Fiction would make for a good kid game.

Puzzles in Split Fiction are fantastic. One WILL get stumped, but that is the point.

Split Fiction gives players everything one needs to solve the challenge in your head. There was one moment when the game wanted both players to spam R2 – or so we thought. We tried a couple of times and failed, wondering what happened.

Instead, we did back-to-back: I’d hit R2, then my co-op partner would hit, then back to me, and it worked. Nothing needed to be looked up; no hour-long YouTube video was required, just using our heads to try new things.

That’s just one example out of dozens that make Split Fiction truly shine.

While the main crux of each Split Fiction’s mission is either fantasy or sci-fi, there are side stories that sometimes switch things up.

Early on in a Sci-fi level, we did a side story for Zoe where we became super pigs. This allowed us to fly via farting, or alternatively turn into a springboard pig to access higher spots.

It was wacky, sure, but also a good time!

Split Fiction gives players a new tool or skill to use as mentioned before, bu each level also has multiple boss battles where one needs to use those skills.

One will need to worry about one’s own hide during the fight, but each one always requires both players to do maximum damage. Split Fiction’s combo attacks are just as creative as its worlds and puzzles.

However, said boss battles are home to one of our main issues.

Split Fiction has very generous checkpoints, but also terrible spawn points. As a result, one will spawn in a boss fight as a laser or flame is coming and just die again. It happens so often that it can be compared to Call of Duty, like a grenade was at our feet once spawned.

Split Fiction can also be jarring to swap from one ability to a new one in a different world. Do note there is also no online matchmaking, but this does require players to communicate – always a good thing.

Split Fiction is truly a blast to play and is one of the only games this year that I recommend to everyone. Needless to say, 2025’s Game of the Year discussion just got even more complicated with Split Fiction.

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The post Split Fiction Review appeared first on GamersHeroes.

SteamWorld Heist 2 Review

SteamWorld Heist 2 kicks off with players having a skeleton crew and their ship impounded by the Navy – talk about humble beginnings.

However, your crew is deathly loyal, and they help you get your submarine back. While that puts a huge mark on your back from said Navy, you were also planning to steal from them anyway.

You travel the ocean helping out other Steambots by clearing out levels and getting more fresh water. As you progress, you get additional crew members, better ship parts, and even more fame and glory. The ultimate goal? Rally the troops, push back the darkness, and keep the water free from oppression.

The story of this ragtag crew becoming something greater than themselves is certainly a good one, but the real story comes from Captain Leeway. Leeway lost his gun arm, his sub, and his confidence before the start of the game, and you have to help him earn it back.

Being the son of the great Krackenbane, he has a lot to live up to, and that pressure often overwhelms him. Despite this, his crew is adamant that he is the man to lead them. They believed in him, and as a result, I believed in him.

At that point, the rest of SteamWorld Heist 2’s story didn’t matter much to me; it was now all about getting my man his gun arm back and regaining his confidence.

To do this, you take on missions from various areas of the world. Most are quick affairs, with SteamWorld 2 having that “one more run” feeling in spades. Mission types vary, but since the game has “Heist” in the title, one is often stealing loot from someone or something.

On that note, players will have a set amount of turns to get said loot before it disappears. After securing the loot, players will have to fight back to the ship to escape. How one actually gets to the loot is up to you, because this game really lets you play the way you want to play.

For instance, there are no penalties for playing on easy or even quitting a level. Each character starts with a class, but you are highly encouraged to swap their class. In fact, not only is it encouraged, but on higher difficulties, it is mandatory. By switching to other classes, you can then learn the moves from that class.

Let’s say you are a Sniper, but you want to be able to move really far and shoot each time. By swapping into the Flanker class, you can Wheel and Deal, which lets you move twice and then shoot.

As for the combat itself, it’s pretty simple – at least, at first. Every class has their own weapon type and starts with one or two abilities.

For instance, Reapers can kill an enemy and then shoot again because they killed someone. Engineers can put down cover and eventually heal allies as well. Melee charges in, and bashes enemy bots to bits.

It’s a simple system, but depending on your skills, classes, and weapons, you can make some incredible things happen. There is nothing like missing with your sniper only to have the bullet bounce off an icicle, which falls onto an explosive barrel and kills three enemies. Happy accidents, as Bob Ross would say.

When you aren’t scraping bots, you are exploring the overworld in your sub. When you first get it, the sub is bare bones; in fact, it can’t even go underwater. As you progress, though, you get new weapons, engines, and boosts and can go underwater.

You can think of this sub as a separate character from the rest of your crew; it needs to be managed, upgraded and kept safe for you to succeed. The best part is that all you have to do is steer and aim; the guns fire on their own. That might sound annoying, but the contrast between combat and open-world exploration is a welcome one.

Besides, it’s nice just to spin the stick until enemy boats sink.

Between missions, you can also hang out at bars to buy items, recruit new allies, and sometimes even receive missions. The bar is also where you will call it a night to rest up your crew.

After you rest, any missions you complete will reward you with bounty coins that you can spend on items, more water, and other upgrades. Any coins not spent are converted to water, and you are reset to zero each day. It’s just another incentive to grind missions for more loot and EXP.

I didn’t run into any bugs or crashes, but there were a couple of annoyances. When aiming down and to the right, your skill bar will sometimes get in the way. The worst part is that a big box with the skill description pops up and takes up a large chunk of that bottom-right sector.

I don’t know if I missed the prompt to remove the box, but man, it was annoying. You can work around it, but you shouldn’t have to. I also had a pretty jarring difficulty spike at one point. I went back and grinded for a bit, and it was good again, but it hit me like a truck.

Fans of the SteamWorld series will be happy with Heist 2. If you like steam bots and robot pirates – and who doesn’t? – pick this one up.

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The post SteamWorld Heist 2 Review appeared first on GamersHeroes.

Remnants of Naezith Review

Though there is not much exposition during the majority of the game, things kick off with a brief cinematic made up of some stills. After the thunder dragon Naezith was vanquished, his power was spread far and wide. As it turns out, our hero Kayra finds out that he can channel the power of this beast through his hooks. With this new power in hand, Kayra sets out to find treasure. The story is not an overly verbose tale, but it sets the stage quite well.

To make his way to the treasure, Kayra must navigate through a series of progressively more difficult levels, each centered around a certain theme. Some levels are straightforward affairs, with some spikes or water hazards to worry about. However, things quickly ramp up with rising water, saw blades, lasers, and even portals standing between you and victory. It can feel somewhat unfair at times, like the game wants to see how far it can test your patience. However, victory is possible, and he possesses a number of moves that can be utilized to get ahead.

The platforming in Remnants of Naezith is momentum-based, one that relies heavily on a grappling hook. With the press of a button, Kayra can launch a hook diagonally that can latch onto certain surfaces. He can then use that to swing along to the next spot. This might seem simple at first, but there are a number of intricacies. More momentum can be gained by dashing before latching on, and players can also rotate around to wind themselves up. Successfully mastering this system is a thrilling feeling, and though death is imminent at any given time, there are a number of checkpoints in each level to make things bearable.

There are some solid enough platforming mechanics outside of the hook too. Players can double jump, wall jump, and dash jump around, making traversal a speedy affair. Certain surfaces affect your trajectory as well, making each series of levels stand out from one another.

Though the game can be completed in a few hours if you know what you are doing, replayability is high. There is a “Mastery Time” for each level, along with Global Leaderboards – perfect for speedrunners. There is also a Level Editor in place, which means that the sky is the limit as far as custom levels are concerned.

Remnants of Naezith’s rock solid physics make for an enjoyable platforming experience. The grappling hook is a game changer, and though it can quickly become frustrating, it also plays fair.

The post Remnants of Naezith Review appeared first on GamersHeroes.