Editorial Review for February | Zing

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We had more reviews in February than almost any other month, which reflects how busy it was with exciting new games being released. As a fan of the genre, I should probably be most excited about the big trio of JRPGs, but it was a low-key indie survival game from a new studio called Pacific Drive that stole my heart. I first sunk 70 hours into it on PC (it can be completed in 20 hours, but I really enjoyed it and loved it), and then I played it again on PS5, and I like the second playthrough even more than the first. The immersive combination of a melancholy forest in the rain at night, behind the dashboard of your car, with beautiful songs playing on the radio while all sorts of paranormal anomalies flicker around you in the darkness had me completely hooked, similar to games like Inside or Inscription in the Past.

March will also be rich in new interesting games: from another epic JRPG (Dragon’s Dogma 2) to an impressive open-world co-op samurai action (Rise of the Ronin), a very stylish strategy game Unicorn Overlord, the return of the horror series Alone in the Dark, another very promising platformer from Nintendo, this time starring Princess Peach, or perhaps the Polish “Human” or a historical RPG with demonic Thaumaturges. We are very lucky that despite the brutal layoffs in the games industry, we still release so many interesting games. Let’s see how long this will last.

Daniel Jarocki

In February, I mostly returned to a select few older games. First and foremost, the simulator SnowRunner, which will be replaced by Expeditions: A MudRunner Game in early March. It will try to implement more different gangs and offer a more diverse composition of individual missions. However, I must admit that even at almost four years old, SnowRunner still has a lot to offer, thanks to constant support and additional content.

I also spent some time with Codemasters’ latest F1 racing game, a series I’ve been returning to regularly since the real-life World Championship kicked off this weekend. Coincidentally, this week we saw the announcement of a new edition due out at the end of May. I also got to play the recently released survival game Pacific Drive at the end of the month, which I enjoyed mainly for its focus on building, gradually upgrading, and then repairing your own futuristic car.

And what am I expecting in February? In addition to the already mentioned off-road simulator Expeditions: A MudRunner, I will be interested in seeing the first impressions of the full version of Survival Horror Alone in the Dark and the expected news from the Team Ninja studio in the form of the Action RPG Rise of the Ronin, which attracts me mainly with its setting and a noticeable effort to maximize variability in the field of combat and weapons. Among the less popular games, I can note the action South Park: Snow Day from the publisher THQ Nordic and the turn-based strategy inspired by the XCOM series, Classified: France ’44, which introduces players to the period of the world war. II.

Jan Urbanczyk

While game developers are unfortunately going through very tough times and not a day goes by that we don’t hear about layoffs, the pace of game releases continues unabated and February has been another busy month. I started things off with a review of the surprise release of Silent Hill: The Short Message, which is a very unconventional but really powerful experience. This was followed by the successful DLC for Last Train Home with a good dose of story and humor, and a great remake of the puzzle platformer Mario vs. Donkey Kong, which I highly recommend to Switch owners.

Aside from reviews, I’ve been playing Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden, clocking in at around 10 hours. The story and characters haven’t disappointed so far, but the gameplay is a bit bland and the combat is very flat, so we’ll see how it goes. On Steam Deck, I finished the first installment of the Zero Escape series (999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors), an incredibly fun mix of visual novel and adventure game with an intertwined and extremely engaging storyline, but also great characters. I can’t wait to get to the next one.

March is also going to be a strong month, but luckily some of the big games in the genre have already passed me by, so hopefully I’ll have plenty of time for my favorites. I’m especially looking forward to the very creative Princess Peach: Showtime and the reboot of survival horror Alone in the Dark.

Philip Svoboda

For me, the biggest game of February was Banishers by Don’t Nod. I started on it when it was released, but I’m moving pretty slowly. However, I found it enough to struggle with the narrative or the characters, which the developers just know how to do. I found a few complaints about the game, but I like the cutscenes and the action.

I also played the aforementioned Pentiment, one of my big vacations. I hope that in the future Obsidian will have the opportunity to move away from things like Avowed and The Outer Worlds and into smaller things like this, because if there’s one thing you can’t deny about Pentimento, it’s that it’s absolutely unique.

March brings some interesting games, like the delayed pairing of The Thaumaturge and Open Roads. Add to that the exciting Reveil coming next week and the post-apocalyptic Highwater, and it’s clear there’s plenty to choose from.

Pavlina Nouzova

My February was marked by small but excellent and above all original games. And also a legend. In the news, I played the metroidvania Ultros (review here), full of colors, plant juices and a hallucinogenically told story. Add to that a great soundtrack, sometimes languid and sometimes truly humming. Games like Ultros remind us how “different” games can be.

I also gave last year’s indie hit Cocoon a try – a puzzle game where you’re also sometimes not sure what you’re looking at. That’s how I imagine the microscopic world at the molecular level. A sort of fly prince solves puzzles, defeats strange enemies here and there, and jumps from reality to reality, which he then folds into himself in the form of colorful balls. Again, a standalone game, but full of original ideas – and at the same time polished to a form without errors and technical problems.

And then… I was back in my childhood. I played the original Half-Life and couldn’t put it down. Yes, everything is so square, the voice acting is hellish, and there are parts that require a YouTube tutorial (or a lot of patience). But years later, I managed to beat the game and defeat the Nihilianth! There’s a possible sequel coming next month, and maybe a delayed smaller family road trip title called Open Roads. As for the bigger games, I’m definitely interested in Dragon’s Dogma 2 and Rise of the Ronin, but they’re coming out on the same day, so I guess I’ll end up flipping a coin.

Ondrej Zeman

February turned out to be filled with more games than I had originally expected. In fact, I thought I’d play a few, but it ended up being a decent avalanche, triggered by the Helldivers 2 event, after which I dove into Skull and Bones on an ocean cruise, which, unfortunately, I’m not too happy about. Fortunately, the strategy game Solium Infernum came on the scene after that, which helped me work up an appetite.

As for March, it already looks like an unusually bloated month. Soon there will be a sequel to the legendary Dragon’s Dogma or the equally famous event The Outcast, and there will be many more of them. For millennia, it will get competition from Civilization, and when it comes, the full version of the building pleasure Farthest Frontier will also appear. In short, there will be many worlds to visit, so hopefully there will be enough time to explore them.