EREBAN: SHADOW LEGACY
Developer Baby Robot Games Publisher Raw Fury Format PC, Xbox Series Release 2023
With Assassin’s Creed focusing ever more on open combat and Splinter Cell still MIA, there’s a gap in the market for a stealth-action game where there’s a clear benefit to staying in the dark. In Baby Robot Games’ debut, protagonist Ayana (voiced by Firewatch’s Cissy Jones) can avoid the searchlights of her mechanised pursuers by turning into black smoke, although she can only remain in this form by sticking to the shadows. That sometimes means snaking along the ground before popping up behind your targets and jamming your blade into their skulls. But you’ll also hare along walls, dodging wandering beams and following the silhouettes of moving objects to stay hidden. Some things, though, must be brought into the light: namely Ayana’s past, which provides the narrative incentive to ‘avoid or kill’ your way through this dystopia.