Gearing up for the end of the year and leading up to the holiday season, there are a few long-awaited sequels among the fall’s video game releases. One studio takes a crack at remastering a classic horror game, while the makers of “Call of Duty” and “Assassin’s Creed” push past controversy to deliver another entry in each of their franchises.
‘Silent Hill 2’ (Oct. 8)
Silent Hill 2 is a “definitive cult classic” and a “Lynchian slice of psychological horror” that has “cultivated a rabid fanbase in the 23 years since it was released,” Vulture said. Bloober, the Polish studio and horror experts, has taken up the task of remastering and modernizing Konami’s flagship horror franchise. So far, the remaster “looks competent enough,” the outlet said, “the famously obfuscating fog is suitably thick, and the genre-definingly creepy monster designs of Masahiro Ito are rendered more grotesquely than ever.” This will be the first major release for the franchise since 2012’s “Book of Memories” and will be one of two re-releases for Konami this year, along with “Metal Gear Solid Delta.” Pre-order here for PlayStation or Steam.
‘Call of Duty: Black Ops 6’ (Oct. 25)
The “Call of Duty” franchise’s latest entry is the first to come out since Microsoft acquired developer Activision Blizzard last October, setting off several legal battles for the tech giant. Game Pass subscribers will have access to the game as soon as it drops, and the game will also be available on PlayStation consoles “thanks to a bitterly negotiated agreement made between Microsoft and Sony during said acquisition,” said Vulture. Set in the early ’90s and developed by Treyarch and Raven Software, “Black Ops 6” features a spy thriller single-player campaign, an online multiplayer mode with 16 new maps and a new zombie mode. Pre-order here.
‘Life Is Strange: Double Exposure’ (Oct. 29)
A return to the supernatural mystery series, nearly a decade after 2015’s “Life Is Strange” ended, protagonist Max is back. The new game respects the two possible endings from the first game, allowing you to bounce back and forth between parallel timelines. The series has “mastered the art of single-player storytelling, emphasizing exploration and player choice, delivering often hard-hitting and emotional plots with characters you come to love over the course of their journey,” said Dexerto. “Double Exposure” reinvigorates all things people loved about its predecessor. “The clever use of each game’s main mechanic or power, the world-building, the strongly written characters and the laidback yet momentous story are all present in the new title,” Dexerto said. Pre-order here.
‘Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ (Nov. 15)
Another video game release that has been tinged with controversy is the upcoming “Assassin’s Creed Shadows,” which takes the Assassin Brotherhood and the Templar Order to feudal Japan. Players will control two characters, with ninja Naoe, a female shinobi, and Yasuke, a Black samurai based on the real-life figure. Including the latter character led to some backlash from Japanese players over the historical accuracy, as Yasuke’s position as a samurai has been a source of debate. Beyond that hiccup, fans of the series will likely be “thrilled to see the combination of samurai and ninja abilities both fully represented in gameplay through unique protagonists” while maintaining the game’s “fictionalized takes on historical figures that are essential to its DNA,” said Rolling Stone. Pre-order here.