Author Archives: Dan Stapleton

Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous is big. It is a massive, life-dominating endeavor likely to take weeks of playing before completion, dominating your thoughts and plans during that time. Sometimes that size means spending hours on frustrating time as an army manager, but the role-playing, exploring, and especially combat make it very much worth it. Wrath of the Righteous leaves a memorable mark on the throwback-style RPG genre, with strong companion personality and turn-based combat.

The pedigree of Wrath of the Righteous is big as well, adapting another of the Pathfinder tabletop game’s epic “Adventure Paths” and honing the concepts of 2018’s similarly large Pathfinder: Kingmaker. Kingmaker’s generic fantasy kingdom is replaced here by the specific story of a crusade against a demon army on the border of the world and the Abyss. Sometimes this is a little off-putting, in that it’s easy to miss fighting ogres and goblins in a fantasy game when you’re neck-deep in nabasu and dretch (whatever those are). But the decision to give Wrath of the Righteous a specific focus like this mostly pays off, especially when it allows for the party’s companions to have stronger personalities. I even found myself having strong enough feelings about my party members’ behaviors that I ended up killing or removing some of them from the group at multiple different points, which I’ve never done in an RPG before the endgame.

Wrath of the Righteous also improves on Kingmaker and other RPGs from the Baldur’s Gate family in a few important technical ways. For instance, it’s the first isometric game like this I’ve seen to allow the camera to be spun around the game world, while still looking great from any angle. Even better, the finicky rules-lawyering that made Kingmaker such a pain when it first came out is long-gone, making Wrath welcoming to new players. I’ve noticed almost no arbitrary punishments for not knowing all of Pathfinder’s rules, which was my main problem by far with Kingmaker. It also adds dozens of new character classes and variants, with Cavaliers and Shamans joining the typical Fighters and Clerics.

Turn It Up

The biggest and best change for the Pathfinder series and for the genre as a whole, however, is that Wrath of the Righteous has a turn-based mode available from the start. The Baldur’s Gate or Infinity Engine-style of isometric D&D-based RPG has always been built on a foundation of “real-time combat with pause,” where either all your little dudes run at the monsters at once before a few corpses explode and you hope none of them are yours, or you spend half an hour pressing pause on and off trying to manipulate a system into a messy facsimile of turn-based combat in order to have some feeling of control over it. That manner of combat is one of my least favorite in gaming, and it’s stood in the way of my enjoyment of a genre that’s otherwise made for me. Kingmaker and Pillars of Eternity 2 both experimented with turn-based modes, but these were patched in well after release. Wrath of the Righteous is the first major Infinity Engine-stlye game to have a full turn-based mode from the start (and also, because of that, the first of these turn-based modes that I’ve personally played).

And it’s amazing. The interface switches seamlessly between the two game modes at the press of the T-key, which you can do at any time. Even better, having a legitimately fun turn-based mode makes me care about the occasionally complex systems of the Pathfinder ruleset. Because of this mode, I can focus on actually learning how to break down enemies that have great saving throws or armor classes, for example, or care about the difference between the Searing Ray and Burning Arc spells. The only real downside is that combat encounters which might only take 10 to 30 seconds in real-time mode may take much longer in the slower-paced turn-based mode, which can make an already massive campaign feel even more drawn out – but that was a small price to pay for me to actually care about combat.

The specificity of Wrath of the Righteous’ setting also helps in that systemic development. As you play the Commander of a grand crusade to defeat the demonic invasion forever, your character isn’t just a hero, but a Mythic Hero, who gets granted special powers over the course of the campaign. These can work to accent and dramatically improve existing skills; my barbarian Bloodrager, for example, gained the ability to use her Bloodrage skill as much as she wanted instead of having a cap on it. Meanwhile, I could give my Wizard extra first-level spells and a bonus to ice magic so she could throw dozens of high-damage snowballs at foes.

Angels, Demons, and Tricksters

The major plot differences between Wrath and other fantasy RPGs also show up in the story side of the Mythic Paths. Based on your ethical choices as the quest starts and your alignment overall, you’ll have the option to pick one of several paths, from the somewhat generic good and evil of the Angel and Demon paths, to the freedom-loving Azata that my Chaotic Good character took, to darker paths like becoming a Lich and even resurrecting otherwise dead enemies as new party members. There’s a lot of promise in this system and when it works it’s great for keeping the plot flexible, but actually understanding how, why, and where you’ll have access to those various Mythic Paths can be difficult to parse. As a Chaotic character it feels like I should have had access to the Trickster path, but apparently I’d missed a single dialogue option 10 hours before setting that decision in stone, and so was locked out.

Even with that, there’s still a lot to recommend about the plot and writing. The overall plot can be fairly conventional with the mostly-good mortals finding off the demonic hordes, but it’s given some extra spice when the legendary demonic witch, Areelu Vorlesh, shows up and starts raising complicated questions about free will and morality.

I was also particularly impressed with how, when you’re given notable choices while adventuring, your party members won’t merely chime in but will actually argue with one another in some detail. In one choice I happened to have the naively optimistic Ember and the polite-but-selfish prissy noble Camellia in my party; Ember responded to some clearly over-the-top nastiness by believing that the crusaders in question were just good people trying to do the right thing but making mistakes, and Camellia just tore into Ember’s childlike ignorance. More could be done, of course (more could always theoretically be done to have writing for everything in an RPG) but Wrath follows games like Pillars 2 in pushing boundaries.

Heavy Lies The Crown

Unfortunately, that attention to storytelling and systemic detail is lacking from a major part of Wrath of the Righteous: its crusade management. This is divided into a strategic component of building up the crusade infrastructure and making choices in events, and a wargame of moving armies of crusaders around to reclaim territory from the demon hordes. Both are underwhelming.

The strategic layer is very similar to that of Kingmaker, where advisors present you with choices and you also have to develop your capital and forts with buildings. It feels like busywork and also unbalanced – you rarely have to make an actual difficult decision beyond just waiting for more money or more time. The risk/reward element of Kingmaker having you send different advisors to handle situations in their own unique and possibly wrong way is entirely gone as well, with all of the potential failures channeled over into the army side of things. It’s also annoying that going to and from the strategic layer requires going through load screens, a minor problem with the game overall generally but an eye-rollingly annoying one in this mode.

Armies move and fight in a very simple turn-based facsimile of a King’s Bounty-style tactics game. You recruit units to give your armies different capabilities, such as sorcerors to cast some extra spells, but for the most part combat is a matter of having your generals use the same abilities over and over while your troops just conk enemies on the head for 10 minutes until the battle is won – then rinse and repeat. It’s not terrible, but it’s not especially good, either, and I would genuinely recommend that most people set it to automatic from the options menu. The sheer length of battles and amount of attention it takes can wreak havoc on the campaign pacing.

And yeah, that pacing simply has to be mentioned. Wrath of the Righteous is a long, involved game even by the standards of being in the long, involved genre of role-playing games and the specific extra-long, involved type of the retro isometric RPG. I have played probably over 100 hours – multiple hours every day since release – and am 3/4s of the way to the level cap but the campaign just keeps going. However, there is depth here to earn that time investment; even beyond playing through the campaign to win, there are different mythic paths to try out, the ability to roll your own parties, and just raising the difficulty for greater challenge. It would be easy to fall into Wrath of the Righteous for months on end, and I say that intending it to be both a recommendation and a warning.

With no alarms and no surprises, EA Sports has pumped out yet another incremental update to its football simulation series. FIFA 22’s graphical upgrades and new animation technology make the beautiful game feel better, with goals demanding a more deliberate and rewarding playstyle. Tiny tweaks also improve FIFA 22’s Career Mode and Volta Football ahead of a proper revamp. However, aside from those minor but largely positive changes, this is the same game in a new pair of pants – which means its microtransactions are just as eager as ever to get you to turn your pockets inside out.

David Beckham has ordered pancakes on a Parisian balcony. As the server slaps the plate down in front of him, you can see the individual blueberries jostle. The camera then pans down a floor, past rippling flags and flowerbeds to reveal you, the protagonist of FIFA 22, having a cheeky lie-in. Don’t worry; EA Sports hasn’t transformed its beloved football series into a JRPG (that would be far too interesting) but it’s just put together an absurdly lavish opening to try and convince all of us that this is the next generation of virtual football. Some of that Ultimate Team cash has to go somewhere right? Having made the leap to a PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X for this year’s game, I quickly noticed the aesthetic facelift.

It’s mostly little things that stick out, like the way a football shirt catches a player’s skin or the forehead sheen of a busy winger. At the same time, there’s still a very evident gulf in consistency between character models; the world’s most popular footballers are rendered in remarkable detail, sporting bouncy hair and expressive features while managers, on the other hand, look like they’ve all had dodgy head transplants onto the same stock body. With action both on and off the pitch looking better than ever, FIFA 22 can often be an intoxicating atmosphere to take in then, but these are all surface-level improvements.

If you’re a perennial FIFA player, you’ll know that graphical bumps are nice-to-haves, but gameplay is king. This is where FIFA 22 has made some meaningful progression. Most of the improvements this year can be attributed to “HyperMotion,” a new motion-capture technology that EA is leveraging to make FIFA 22 feel more fluid on new-gen consoles by adding over 4,000 new animations harvested from real-life matches. This may sound like brain-numbing marketing jargon, but it actually results in tangible improvements on the pitch.

A forward’s legs will buckle from the momentum after they ping a shot in the top corner from outside of the box. Midfielders will react naturally to the blowback from a strong pass, and wingers with high dribbling stats feel more flexible on the break. Players still clatter into each other and fuse into well-paid Cronenberg monsters, making the ball’s trajectory anyone’s guess, but it’s a rare occasion this time around. Collisions seem to have been improved, with opposition AI being dragged up in tandem.

FIFA 22 is a slower game than FIFA 21 as a result, but that doesn’t mean it’s all about defence. There’s not a lack of goals; you just have to earn them with careful passing play and a healthy dose of vision. Patience often seems to trump pace, which is very refreshing. I’ve muttered ‘what a ball’ more than ever this year, most often after spotting one of my wingers in space and switching it with a dreamy late lob across the pitch that leads to a dazzling equaliser.

I’ve always been a big proponent of using both triggers to jockey, intercept a pass, and counter when defending in FIFA, and it feels more important than ever to play deliberately and capitalise on these opportunities in FIFA 22. Players like Jack Grealish and Jadon Sancho are a real challenge to track, with the new explosive sprint mechanic letting them leave you in the dust with a knock-on if you don’t try and read their run. It can get hectic as the opposition closes in on goal, and this is where player switching becomes a bit too frantic as you try to fill all the gaps in your armour and survive an onslaught of Tiki-taka. The new Icon Switch mechanic tries to fix this by letting you click in the right stick and flick to the player you need, but it’s still not as quick as hammering the bumper, so it’s hard to justify and ends up feeling redundant when the timing is tight.

Because of these changes, I rarely end up in goalless draws in FIFA 22, though I have also let in some absolute howlers. Goalkeepers’ fingers aren’t as buttery as last year, but even top dogs like Alisson can fumble under pressure and leave you scratching your head. It’s much harder to get past them in basic one-on-ones, but a quick fake shot or a long cross across the box seems to give them an existential crisis. Finesse shots from range also feel particularly deadly, with statistical all-rounders curling them in like it’s nothing.

My favourite metagame addition to FIFA 22 is the fleshed-out stats screen you can see during and after each match. At a glance, you can see your dribble success rate and pass accuracy, but dig a little deeper, and you’ll find diagrams showing where and how you lost possession, the angles when your shots were blocked, and what your distribution looks like. It’s invaluable information for developing your skills with certain players and teams, even if your expected goals stat can border on depressing in a match that is slipping away from you.

This is all subject to change with post-launch patches, but right now, FIFA 22 feels like a solid blend of offence and defence with a surprising amount of over-the-top play. It’s a brave new world where sweaty pace demons can’t just run riot, and strong strikers are viable. It’s still early days, but I’ve already developed a complex where my hands will start getting clammy if I see Romelu Lukaku or Erling Haaland appear in Division Rivals.

Volta Football, Career Mode and Ultimate Team

Outside of the bread and butter gameplay, several revisions have been made to FIFA’s major modes this year. There’s nothing revolutionary to note, but careful tweaks here and there have made FIFA 22 enjoyable across the board, with the new-gen console’s loading time boosts and graphical upgrades pulling some serious weight.

I played on the PlayStation 5, and the low hum of the DualSense’s haptics is a nice touch that pulls me deeper into the action with the thud of a good through ball or the crunch of a nasty tackle coming through to my palms. Each mode in FIFA 22 is also complemented by one of the best licensed soundtracks in recent memory, featuring earworms from an eclectic mix of artists, including Brockhampton, Sam Fender, and Kero Kero Bonito.

Career Mode is very similar to FIFA 21’s version but with a few new additions, such as the ability to create a club. In this separate mode, you’ll replace an existing team and make your own crest, kit, and stadium, tweaking the board’s expectations to your liking. It’s a neat idea, but in practice I much prefer taking a real club in an exciting direction rather than developing a squad of randomly generated androids, so I quickly put it down.

Player Career Mode now offers RPG-style objectives in each match that you must complete to build a relationship with your manager. Think of it as a visual novel, except you’re trying to romance Steve Bruce into putting you in the starting XI of Newcastle United. This is a lot of fun if you create your own player as it features a massive skill tree, attributes to upgrade, and perks to unlock that help the whole team. You get to feel like you’re building a footballer’s career within an established club, and it can hurt when you don’t live up to your potential. The character building also helps to offset the dull moments when you’ve got no control over the team’s direction at large.

However, the Career Mode upgrade that I appreciated most was a simple quality-of-life tweak that lets you bypass Training Days and simulate them at the highest rank you’ve previously achieved, which cuts out a lot of the menu monotony. It was also great to hear Alex Scott pop up to talk about goals across the grounds during Premier League matches. By FIFA standards, the Career Mode package is solid, but there’s a reason why so many people still prefer Football Manager.

Meanwhile, Volta Football edges closer but doesn’t quite commit to being the new FIFA Street game we’re all hoping for. This time there’s no story mode, but it leans further into absurdity with abilities that give you supernatural powers on the pitch, such as lightning pace and deadly shots. The more focused football lets you appreciate the extra animations and visual enhancements. As always, Volta is a handy training ground for figuring out skill moves without the pressure of a full-size pitch.

Bizarrely, Volta’s most interesting new addition is annoyingly only available at the weekends. Volta Arcade has you competing online in Fuzion Frenzy-style party minigames where you can hone some important skills. Tense games of Foot Tennis help with crossing, while Disco Lava has you dribbling carefully to steal squares from your opponents. It feels more worthwhile than repeating skill games and is the perfect chaser after bottling it on a cold, rainy night in Stoke; it’s just baffling that I can’t play these whenever I want.

Over in Ultimate Team, it’s another year of minor revisions on a formula that clearly works very well for EA, even if it delivers waves of Stockholm Syndrome to many players. Some extra stadium customisation options help make your club feel more like home, and the Division Rivals framework has been made more forgiving with checkpoints and seasonal rewards. In the absence of anything new, I’m holding out for a training mode that lets you play skill games with your Ultimate Team to get used to how they play together ahead of matches.

The online multiplayer is what I am sticking around for, though. It’s as palm-wetting and foot-twitching as ever, with the meta still in flux as FIFA 21 players throw off the complacency that 99-rated, end-of-year cards afford. Gone are the days when you would tremble in fear at your opponent’s team before a match, too, as the PlayStation 5’s SSD and a solid internet connection pretty much erase the loading process, so if you blink you’ll miss the screen that displays them.

I’ve forced a few rage quits with my J1 League team centred around ‘King’ Kazuyoshi Miura (a 59-rated Bronze Striker who is 54 years old), so it’s fair to say you can still have a good bit of fun in Ultimate Team without feeding EA’s golden goose. Still, I don’t recommend getting sucked into the billion-dollar money vortex for the sake of a few good cards, and given my track record over previous years, I’ll likely play it for a few months and then drop it because of the growing temptation to dig into my pockets.

For FIFA 22, EA has fully implemented Preview Packs that let you look inside one loot box every day before you buy, but, even so, the microtransactions are still very much front and centre here. EA is not yet brave enough to tame the rampaging elephant in the room, and FIFA 22 suffers for it.