DARK CLOUD

had an answer to with Firestorm; this year’s entry is in conversation with instead. The result is Hazard Zone, a mode in which several four-person squads compete with each other and defending AI to retrieve and extract data drives. Their reward for doing so? Currency to fund better gear for their next run. Permadeath contributes some tension, but there’s nothing as characterful as ’s monster bosses here, and maps reused from the other modes add to the sense that is a barebones release. That said, Hazard Zone’s squad setup makes your small victories seem larger, and it’s the one place where the game’s climate-change premise can be seen to rumble overhead, the storms inexorably sweeping in.