Video games gets its very own James Bond this month, with 007 First Light launching a new, entirely digital chapter for the super spy. It headlines May’s slate of new games, but isn’t the only highlight. Also on the way is Supermassive’s latest interactive horror story, Directive 8020, and the music-heavy youth sim Mixtape. And we’re curious to see what happens with two auspicious returns. Bubsy, a ’90s mascot who’s basically been a punchline for 30 years, is back with the surprisingly good looking Bubsy 4D. And ZA/UM, the studio that released the all-time classic Disco Elysium and eventually had a very public, very acrimonious split with its creative team, is set to release its second game, Zero Parades: For Dead Spies. Here’s what’s on the docket in a big month for games.
Mixtape
Release Date: May 7
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Switch 2, Xbox Series X|S
Beethoven & Dinosaur’s latest uses music to drive its glowing, generalized nostalgia for teenagerdom, soundtracking its tribute to one of life’s most formative periods with a slew of ’80s and ’90s bands—some cool, some “cool,” but all evocative of the power music has to help us understand who we are. It also has a minigame where you slather tongues together while Frenching at summer camp. That sums up the game’s mixtape approach to play; during a demo we played last year, the story drove the mechanics, with short bits of disparate action that used the controller in various unexpected ways during routine teen experiences like skateboarding, rocking out in your card, and making out. Even if that scattershot approach isn’t enough to support a whole game, at least Mixtape will sound great, with songs from Devo, Joy Division, The Jesus And Mary Chain, and other punk and alt-rock faves. [Garrett Martin]
Directive 8020
Release Date: May 12
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S
Since Supermassive Games released its breakout hit, Until Dawn, the studio has largely been chasing that success with a prolific run of horror-themed interactive dramas; it’s released, like, seven of them in the last decade. None have quite reached the schlock charm of their first crack at the form, but that could very well change with Directive 8020, a “we’re trapped on a spaceship with a monster” type affair with heavy allusions toward Alien and The Thing. The biggest break from the team’s previous work is that, in addition to the cinematic sections where you make pivotal decisions, the game will also feature player-controlled exploration where you try to escape from the monster in real-time. It will be interesting to see if these more traditional survival horror elements successfully mix up the studio’s formula, or if they get in the way of the choice-based drama. Given Supermassive’s previous work, it’ll be worth taking the time to find out. [Elijah Gonzalez]
Zero Parades: For Dead Spies
Release Date: May 21
Platforms: PC
Zero Parades: For Dead Spies is going to have an uphill battle. After ZA/UM management fired most of the key creatives who helped make Disco Elysium a singular masterpiece, many assumed that the studio’s next game would be a hollow imitation of what came before.At least based on its first few hours, this doesn’t seem to be the case. Despite corporate mismanagement, the employees who escaped the guillotine have carried forward much of what made the studio’s previous work so great: sharp writing, dense political theater, and a sad-sack protagonist trapped in a hot mess situation. The bones of the experience are the same, with a heavy focus on tabletop RPG dice rolls and baroque literary fiction prose. You play as a struggling communist spy attempting to prove that she can still make a difference. Even if it can’t reach the heights of Disco Elysium, getting remotely close would still put Zero Parades well above almost everything else. What we’ve seen makes this a distinct possibility. [Elijah Gonzalez]
Bubsy 4D
Release Date: May 22
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Switch 2, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, Switch, Xbox One
The Bubsy series has become a bit of a running joke, with Bubsy 3D in particular often singled out as one of the worst games of all time. So when Atari announced a sequel to this unloved series, it was quite a headscratcher. For many, these doubts will probably go away once they play it. Having demoed this unlikely sequel, it’s a free-form, expressive platformer very much in the mold of Mario’s three-dimensional adventures. This turnaround makes a lot more sense when you learn that Bubsy 4D is being developed by Fabraz, an experienced team behind the similarly free-form Demon Tides and Demon Turf. Here, Bubsy can combine dives, rolls, and glides until he’s an orange ball of sheer momentum, bouncing through stages at a speedrunner’s pace. Whether the fourth wall-breaking sense of humor and overall structure of the experience will hold up remains to be seen, but if nothing else, this infamous bobcat finally got his legs. [Elijah Gonzalez]
007: First Light
Release Date: May 27
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S
The folks behind the Hitman games, IO Interactive, get a crack at creating the first wholly original version of James Bond in a video game, and anybody who’s ever played the World Of Assassination trilogy knows they’re the ideal pick for this assignment. This young Bond—mid ’20s, just out of training, already a ladies’ man—aims to revive the gaming wing of a franchise that’s at a crossroads; during First Light‘s production, Amazon bought full IP rights to Bond from EON Productions and the Broccoli family, and immediately threatened to turn it into the kind of over-extended multimedia hash that has hurt interest in so many other popular franchises in the streaming era. With nobody yet announced to follow Daniel Craig in the on-screen role, First Light‘s Bond doesn’t just get to be the first original video game Bond; he gets to be the only active Bond, for a short period of time. First Light promises a more action-packed riff on the sandbox espionage that’s defined Hitman for the last decade, so even if you aren’t a 007-head or interested in the business and politics of multimedia IP management you still have something to look forward to. [Garrett Martin]
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