Surgent Studios' is a fantastic-feeling Metroidvania that wears its heart on its sleeve. Much of that is due to the studio's (and the game's) lead, Abubakar Salim, who players may recognize as Bayek from He's also become quite a prolific actor, from working on episodes of to starring in and Ridley Scott's This year, he'll be appearing as Alyn of Hull in season 2.
When not on screen, however, Salim has been hard at work as the game director for Recently, Screen Rant got the opportunity to meet with Salim ahead of the worldwide launch of on April 23, 2024, and spoke for roughly 25 minutes about the inspiration behind the game's heavy themes (the death of his father), how being open and honest with who you are as a person is integral to creativity, and why sometimes a good takeaway pizza is all you need.
...this game, at its core, this is about grief.
Screen Rant: First of all, I wanted to say I played the demo for back when it came out during Steam Next Fest, and instantly fell in love with the game. It was just so much fun, and I love how quick the combat is. Now, obviously you've been very open [about the game's influences], and I've also lost my father, about five years ago. And that was, as you know, a very difficult thing to have to go through. And so, the first thing I wanted to ask is, when looking at the game as a whole, which part of it do you feel is most influenced by your father?
Abubakar Salim: Oh, man, we've laced this whole game with it. First of all, I just want to say thank you very much for playing the demo. I'm so grateful that you enjoyed it. I'm really thankful for that. Something that I've been saying a lot is, you know, we're a studio of 30. So every decision counts, and we've tried to lace as much of the elements of mechanics of the story, even to the degree of the music, to that journey of grief.
One thing I'd say is very pure is the reflection moment, you don't really get that in the demo, but you'll get that in the full game, where it's the only way of increasing your health, your max health — because we had to have an element of increasing your health, to survive the treacherous planes of Kenzera. And to me, it just didn't feel right to just have a health pickup or something that you just pick up and kind of move on with your journey.
One thing that I realized actually was, as soon as I started talking about how I felt, talking about where my head was, I almost felt like [I was] adding years to my life, you know what I mean? I felt like I was I was genuinely growing and evolving. And I think that was a journey that I had to go through, in order to come to that sort of conclusion that yeah, actually, by talking about how you feel, by actually actively kind of accepting,
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PlayStation Plus Premium and Extra have been around for almost two years, and during that time the subscription service has established itself as an ample competitor to Xbox Game Pass. That means there is a wealth of great games for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 owners to check out if they’re looking for something to play this weekend. I think PS Plus subscribers should be looking toward some of the more underrated games in the subscription service this weekend too.
Microsoft has announced the first wave of titles coming to Game Pass in May. It’s kicking things off early with Have A Nice Death, a 2D action rogue-like available today on console, PC and the cloud.
ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke with Moon Knight costume designer Meghan Kasperlik about designing the Marvel Cinematic Universe series‘ incredible costumes ahead of the Disney+ show coming out on 4K and Blu-ray. Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Moon Knight, Andor, and Obi-Wan Kenobi will be released on 4K UHD and Blu-ray SteelBook on April 30.
While it wasn’t marketed as being a particularly punishing game, Tales of Kenzera: Zau is by no means easy. You will have plenty of environmental challenges that can instantly sap your life, and the enemies you face — especially the bosses — are no slouches. When you first begin, it will only take a couple of bad hits to send Zau to the land of the dead himself. Alongside the Trinkets you can unlock through hidden challenges around the map, there are also Baobab Trees where Zau can stop to reflect on his journey thus far, have a short dialogue with Kalunga, and get a small addition to his health bar. Like everything in the game, these trees aren’t prohibitively hidden, but you could easily pass one by and have no idea where it was when trying to backtrack. These are all the Baobab Tree locations so you can max out your health bar.
Your main upgrades in a metroidvania like Tales of Kenzera: Zau will always be your new abilities. These transform the way you move and fight, but there are other ways you can make Zau a more powerful shaman. Trinkets are introduced right away, but aren’t given away as freely as you might think. Each one requires you to overcome a small trial that tests your platforming abilities off the main path. Technically, you can miss every single one aside from the one you begin the game with. Even though there are a few fast travel points, backtracking isn’t a particularly fun experience. Here are all the Trinket locations in Tales of Kenzera: Zau, plus which ones you should equip.
Wētā Workshop and Private Division have officially announced a new title, , coming later this year. This is the first collaboration by developer Wētā Workshop, known for its work on the special effects in film series, and Private Division, the prolific publisher of indie games ranging from and to and.
We are in the midst of a Metroidvania renaissance. Metroid: Dread, Ori, Hollow Knight, Dead Cells, and more have kept fans of the genre fully satiated in recent years. 2024 has already seen the launch of one of the genre’s best in Price of Persia: The Lost Crown.
is a new game that explores the depths of grief, a topic often avoided in and outside of games. Published by EA Originals, Electronic Arts’ indie-focused label, is a project born out of Surgent Studios’ Abubakar Salim’s own journey through grief. The metroidvania was announced at The Game Awards 2023 by Salim himself, who shared a portion of his story and how the game came into being. is an homage to Salim’s late father, Ali Abubakar, who died over 10 years ago from cancer.
Loss is inevitable, and yet, knowing that makes it no less difficult. Grief is all but guaranteed to touch your life — to touch my life. And, most certainly, it already has. That assuredness — that we’ll all be touched by death — is part of the reason so much art is dedicated to interrogating those feelings. For so long, video games have been one medium that, for all its death, dying, and multiple lives, had not quite unpacked the emotion of grief. There was little reason to: When you die in a video game, you always come back to life. The danger of death amounts to nothing but a few hearts on a screen, a number. Oftentimes, it’s encouraged. The more kills you get, the better. Death is not something to mourn there, but a celebration. But this isn’t a universal truth across all games. More and more video games are exploring what it means to lose — no longer just a level, but the more tangible, life-altering loss. It’s games like Spiritfarer, a “cozy management game about dying,” which is about life after death; What Remains of Edith Finch, about the stories that are left behind; or A Mortician’s Tale, which has you going hands-on with death. You’ll find grief in games, too, that are not explicitly about loss; like I said, it’s inevitable.