Kotaku’s Weekend Guide: 4 Cool Games We’re Vibing With As May Evaporates Before Our Eyes

Play it on: Windows PCs (Steam Deck: Playable)
Current goal: Sling spells and smite foes, retro-style

Yes, I know that Doom: The Dark Ages just came out, but it’s another new first-person shooter with medieval fantasy vibes that’s calling to me right now: the fast-paced Wizordum, a pixel-art FPS that just emerged from early access into its full release and is bursting with color. There’s at least one gun in the game, but from what I’ve seen (I have yet to play much of it myself), it largely forgoes the weaponry we typically assort with “boomer shooters” for a wonderful assortment of magical spells you sling at enemies. The trailer suggests that it sports a terrific variety of environments as well, with traditional fantasy towns, dank, spider-infested dungeons, icy caverns, and much more. I may give The Dark Ages a whirl eventually as well, but right now, its more muted color palette and grim tone just aren’t calling to me the way Wizordum’s vibrancy is. It seems to be the type of game in which gems as bright as candy sometimes burst forth from your vanquished enemies, and right now, that’s the kind of fantasy hyperviolence that’s calling to me. Still fast and over-the-top, but in a cheery, pixel-y way. — Carolyn Petit

Play it on: PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Windows PCs (Steam Deck: YMMV)
Current goal: Finish the story

I like trash. Am I saying the new Doom game is trash? No. It’s fun! But I don’t think anyone’s fooling themselves into thinking it’s fine art, is what I’m getting at. And no, you won’t get three weeks of me talking about how much I love this game like you did for Clair Obscur—which I still haven’t finished because I am glued to several grinding zones I’ve mapped out in the world where I’ll just spend five or six hours a night leveling up and drilling the combat. It’s so good that I—see? I almost wrote another damn entry for that RPG again!

Read More: Doom: The Dark Ages: The Kotaku Review

But no, this weekend I’m gonna log some hours with the new Doom (and maybe with Clair Obscur in between somewhere). Normally, I might’ve just not cared about a new Doom. 2016’s reboot was entertaining, but I bounced off of Eternal in its opening moments and never looked back. In recent years, I’ve also been properly introduced to ‘90s-era Doom, and I really fell in love with those games and various wads. So when I’m seeking Doom vibes, I tend to prefer perusing the older entries or toy with neat player-made creations.

So why am I playing the new Doom game? For the story, mostly! Though it’s less that the story has gripped me and more that I have a kind of morbid curiosity about what kind of story a narrative- and cutscene-heavy Doom could even be telling. Just like that one time I got curious about how a story that spans seven loosely adapted video-game films could work and thus watched every Milla Jovovich Resident Evil movie (wasn’t worth it, but there was some unexpectedly neat cinematography from time to time!). Maybe you have similar proclivities. If so, why not check out what the heck kind of story is in this narrative-focused prequel to the current Doom series?

Five hours into the game, however, I really couldn’t tell you what’s going on. The story seems to be more interested in just showing things happening when what’s needed is a bit of explanation for where the hell we even are. Or maybe it’s just that the dialogue is so nebulous and uninteresting that it’s easy to check out. The good news, though, is that the core loop, which is a bit long as it includes shooting, blocking, shield charging, shield throwing, and ammo-based melee strikes on top of the glory kill stuff that 2016’s Doom introduced, is fun if not a little easy on Ultra Violence difficulty.

I do still want this story to surprise me with at least one compelling scene, some clever line of dialogue, perhaps a bit of humor or some neat worldbuilding, so hopefully I come across that this weekend. Or not. Game’s fun either way! — Claire Jackson

Play it on: Windows PCs (Steam Deck YMMV)
Current goal: Vibe fish the day away

What if you mashed together the 2D sidescrolling Minecraft-like Terraria with the Zelda-infused top-down survival crafting sim Forager? You might get something like the post-acopacalytic cozy farming game Doloc Town. It hit Early Access on Steam this month and has been accruing a small but devout set of followers who just want to upgrade tech trees in a cute little pixel art world. There’s nothing specifically unique about Doloc Town that you can’t get in a dozen other Stardew Valley-inspired clones, but I spent an hour with the game this week and am desperate to go back.

It’s just the right, breezy mix of resource accumulation, light combat, and worldbuilding exploration to keep me engaged but keep that min-maxing voice in the back of my head relatively quiet. It’s pretty chill, reminds me of Fez for some reason, and presents a perfect little progression grind to vibe out to. The debut project from RedSaw Games Studio, it’s already carving out a nice little niche for itself amid a crowded subgenre, and I’m looking forward to seeing where it ends up by the time it eventually hits 1.0. — Ethan Gach

Play it on: Switch, Windows PCs (Steam Deck: “Playable”)
Current goal: Save humanity

I’ve written about The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy a couple times for the Weekend Guide, but the deeper I get into Too Kyo Games’ tactics RPG visual novel the more I have to sing its praises. I’m still not done with even one of the game’s many routes, but just learning more about the scope of this game with each decision I make frankly has me in awe. The game’s branching narrative is one of the most complex I’ve ever experienced in a game, and it’s the kind of sicko shit that only Danganronpa creator Kazutaka Kodaka and Zero Escape lead Kotaro Uchikoshi could have concocted. Kodaka has been pretty candid about the fact that the game’s development put the studio in debt and it’s in danger of going under. So if the goal of the Weekend Guide is to recommend a game, then I can’t recommend you play anything this weekend more than The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy. — Kenneth Shepard

And that wraps our picks for this weekend. Happy gaming!