Prime Gaming - March 2025 | Phenixx Gaming

The problem with writing these Prime Gaming pieces, typically opening with a bit about hating Jeffrey and the “in-game content,” is the fact very little changes on the latter’s side. Lost (T)ark still has an awful logo and free-to-play freebies to keep you paying and playing, and so does Throne and Liberty. As do the Daily Challenges in Wordle-likes for housewives who have gotten bored of the teenager who cleans their pool. It is all very boring, and I don’t want to bore you anymore talking about it.

Available now via a GOG code, Saints Row: The Third Remastered is of course the remaster of the second reinvention of the GTA-clone that aimed a little too close to GTA to be good. Before you jump down my throat, Saints Row: The Third is still fun (4 jumps the shark), but it threw away all of Saints Row 2‘s brilliant writing and pitch-perfect storytelling in favor of cheap jokes and meaningless, over-the-top violence… and sex on TV. Saints Row: The Third leans too much (in my opinion) on the “silly” without something to counter it.

Speaking of heavy topics and general graphic violence, Mafia II: Definitive Edition is also available through GOG via a code. The one everyone played and mostly loved is a GTA-clone that is very linear and offers some interesting ideas that weren’t as capitalized on well as they could have been. Not so much an open-world, but a world brimming with atmosphere and the reality that maybe the Mafia life is not about sex, drugs, and violence. A Sons of Anarchy episode. Favored by many and derided by some, the story of Vito Scaletta is pragmatic and generally enjoyable.

However, if we are to stick with violence, crime, and the organized destruction of famous people’s careers, Epic has you covered right now. Crime Boss Rockay City has spent a lot of time trying to claw players back, similar to Payday 3 but set in the mind of a Gen Alpha’s idea of the 90s. It wasn’t that colorful, it wasn’t that techno-fantastic, and given some of the guns, I’m going to be fighting with someone.

Basically, Call of Duty with all the mechanics of every game and a touch of Payday 2 in there, smattered with typical multiplayer modes to play with AI, I think a dead-blind dog could see the problems with Crime Boss Rockay City. Not just for Michael Madsen’s poor performance.

The final game that is available right now as the article goes out is Artefacts Studio and Dear Villagers’ Naheulbeuk’s Dungeon Master, available through the Amazon Games App. It is a 2023 take on the Dungeon Keeper model by way of Evil Genius, but it’s not as good. There goes any chance of getting codes from them anytime soon. Of course, based on the French series Le Donjon de Naheulbeuk, the parody-fantasy gets lost in the shuffle of being very fantasy. Games like Dungeons 3 did the parody Dungeon Keeper thing a bit better for me.

Returning on March 13th, you’ll be able to pick up if you haven’t already, Wall World through the Amazon Games App. In Wall World, all of humanity has decided to live in a rather large wall, only leaving the community to gather resources in a spider-tank. Not Peni Parker’s one, a more pixel-based event than anime, you’ll fight off hordes of monsters and get resources in this Rogue-like tower defense. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: It is not too exciting, especially as a repeat.

Going back a year further, we’re doing the TellTale thing before Telltale was even popular, or at least in terms of the series. Available through GOG, you can pick up Syberia: The World Before, the fourth (fifth) installment in a series that started in 1999 under a different name and was received fairly well. However, as always, this is just a taste of the series before a remake of the original (Amerzone – The Explorer’s Legacy) releases in April. Something, something, Nazi-analogue, something, something, Lara Croft and Indiana Jones comparisons to be made.

Another god-awful repeat of something I’ve already given too much of my energy trying to find something to say about it is also available through the Amazon Games App on the 13th. Endling – Extinction is Forever isn’t an awful game, but it is one of those push-right to progress, let’s beat you over the head with the climate crisis, aren’t you depressed yet(?) simulators. You play as the mother fox to her skulk of babies, trying to avoid hazards like it is Limbo/Thatcher’s Britain. A fine game if that’s what you want and you play it once, but it’s nothing to scream from the rooftops about.

A repeat of what we’ve seen from Epic before, Dark Deity Complete Edition is an indie take on the Fire Emblem series with all the improvements of an indie version. That’s not to say it is perfect. Dark Deity Complete Edition is available from the 13th via a GOG code through Prime Gaming and is aimed at those nostalgic for a series that may have passed some of us by. Mostly because we don’t have a thing for pointy-eared twinks and manic-pixie Boobarella, often shrunk down into pixel art for battles so you don’t get breast jiggle and crotch bulge. Sorry, have I just given the game away on “weebs?”

This isn’t the first time I’ll mention Beholder 3 this week, as the studio behind it (Paintbucket Games) is set to release a far more visually interesting detective sim in a time of Nazis. Ahh, escapism, only if it were. Asigned the property manager of a building by the totalitarian fascist state instead of shoveling coal on Terok Nor, you (Frank) have to keep the apartment building operating smoothly, but most importantly be the sniveling little stooge for the government, reporting the “crime” of not being uniform with everyone else to the government. Beholder 3 will be available from the 13th via the Amazon Games App.

On the 20th, you get a much better experience with the Nazis and one I wish we were paying a bit more attention to right now. From the 20th, you can pick up the Wolfenstein: The New Order prequel, The Old Blood, via either the Xbox Store or the Microsoft Store on PC. Not particularly long, but does let you make some good Nazis out of some people, i.e dead Nazis. I’m not going to sugarcoat that; if you’re upset by it, then you kind of become the problem rather than the solution.

From one very serious comment to far less serious ones: Mutazione is a story-rich “mutant soap opera.” No, it isn’t the latest X-Men film with actors younger than your children; you explore the community of Mutazione as Kai as she looks after her ill granddad. Available from the 20th via a GOG code through Prime Gaming, this isn’t the first time we’ve spoken about Mutazione. It was previously available on the Epic Games Store. A bit more of just a narrative adventure, Die Gute Fabrik uses the soap opera framework to highlight the difference between Kai and the residents of Mutazione.

Despite loving and constantly banging on about how fantastic Bedtime Digital Games’ Figment is from 2017, its 2023 sequel is something I haven’t found time for. Still exploring the human mind, Figment 2 is set to expand on just about everything Dusty’s previous adventure through the abstract and strange place of the human mind. Right down to bosses who sing at you and have interesting designs.

There’s no “a huge supply of ’tish come from my chocolate starfish,” but I don’t see anyone else doing singing bosses like a rock pig. Available through the Amazon Games App from March 20th, you need to play at least the first Figment and maybe Figment 2: Creed Valley too.

Going back depressingly two decades (and then some in change), the next game is once again available through GOG, but for good reason this time. From the 20th of March, you can pick up Legacy of Kain: Defiance, the 2003 title is also the third title (and series finale) that was directed by Amy Hennig. The same Amy Hennig that served as creative director for Uncharted 1–3. Before vampires were poncy teenagers being emotional and thin, we had deep-voiced, ugly withering creatures with proper accents in PS2-era action-adventure titles. When games were weird and good.

Editor’s Note: Nerd Note here – Legacy of Kain: Defiance is actually fifth in the series, closing out arcs from both the main Legacy of Kain franchise and the Soul Reaver side-series.

The final game for the 20th of March is one we’ve covered before, and more shockingly, very recently by the time it is available. If you missed that Mortal Shell is available on the Epic Games Store (again) from the 13th through the 20th, then you can pick it up through Prime Gaming. A Souls-like that tries to add a bit too much and asks you to “git gud” rather quickly, all without telling you what it is doing.

I know that’s the MO for Dark Souls, but there is a difference between vague mystery and running away any time I ask what’s going on, sending round the big lads to kick me until candy falls out my chocolate starfish. There is a twisted sickness to me that says to push on with Mortal Shell, then I pick up an item, and need to go find several more of these ultra-rare killer mushrooms and maybe eat them to get the description of what they are. In any other game that system sounds interesting, but in a Souls-like it’s an arse!

If vagueness and a self-proclaimed mystery are still your thing, but you prefer a narrative that doesn’t have you jumping in and out of people like a sex-pest or Mario’s hat, then The Forgotten City might be for you. Originally a Skyrim mod, as future developers will explain, their original ideas came from their Roblox games. The Forgotten City had a lot of hype surrounding it back in 2021 and lots of praise since. Available through the Amazon Games App from the 27th, the time loop ’em up by Modern Storyteller (original name) is probably fighting Outer Wilds for the best time-looping game.

Though returning to wanting to jump up and down on someone’s hands until they stop making games that are this poorly explained, made, and generally thought out, we’ve got Deus Ex: Invisible War. Despite being a sequel to the second coming of gaming Jesus Christ (Denton), its entire concept just makes you want to walk out into the center of the motorway and lay down for a bit. Dumbed down, castrated, and generally a little more shonkily made, Deus Ex: Invisible War should have been invisible. Available from the 27th, you’ll be infecting your GOG account with the complete collection, sadly.

I have no Earthly idea why the next game would be announced to be available this month of all things. Session: Skate Sim is the big, super sexy, “look, we don’t need the name of that comedian from England who gets confused for the skater from San Diego.” Playing a bit more like Skate (the EA one to avoid confusion) you use both sticks to continually smack your clacker bag off of every railing as an effective way of birth control. Offered through the Epic Games Store, you’ll need to wait until the 27th for Session: Skate Sim.

Just so I’m not ending on something depressing that makes me want to jump off of very high things, let’s talk Legacy Games. The offering for Legacy Games this month is The Wisbey Mystery, a game released on Steam in 2017 that looks like it was made by Big Fish Games in 2006. From a clip art cat that is so out of place in the screenshots to that homeless-looking version of Gary Cole carrying the dead Desperate Housewives character, it looks like all of these Hidden Object games typically do: poorly made to fleece a couple of bucks from old people.

So let’s get back to something more interesting: a bit of a mismatch between Disco Elysium and Ready Player One, Gamedec – Definitive Edition has you playing as a game detective. Set in the 23rd century, virtual reality gaming has become a way of life. Everyone has a neck like an F1 driver being always in VR, but because everyone’s always in VR, they also commit crimes while in it. So you’re job as a game detective (Gamedec) is to go around a cyberpunk (the genre) style set of worlds chasing people down like you were a cop. Hence Disco Elysium.

Not disco-fantastic Harry’s drug/alcohol-fueled adventures, but if we’re honest here, it is difficult to quickly improve and build upon one of the best games ever. Indeed an instant classic we’ll be talking about until we’re shuffled into virtual worlds where the blurred lines of simulation theory becomes a topic for discussion. Gamedec has all the right ideas but never really shines a new and interesting light on them to ultimately escape the mention of Disco Elysium for its comparisons. It is available through GOG, and you might actually want to pick this one up if you’re a fan of lots of stories.

The final game available for March is also available on the 27th, and this time through the Epic Games Store, Let’s Build A Zoo. Let’s Build a Zoo is one of those Rollercoaster Tycoon-style management games, but it makes you a horrible person. Have you ever wanted to build a zoo and breed a monkey with a lion? A snake with a rabbit? An aardvark with an elephant? Then, when you decide the carnivorous sheep you have in the petting zoo aren’t doing anything, you can turn them into burgers?

You thought Frostpunk was dark, the vegans are crying right now. Conversely, you could be one of those eco-tramps who don’t like that their clothes are made by child slave labor, always recycles, hugs all the animals (even the bitey ones), and rarely washes their armpits with soap. The morality system of Let’s Build a Zoo is one of the most unique points added to the Bullfrog-style management titles, but so are the Crisper DNA splicing aspects. From its cute, colorful, and inviting graphical styles to its darker morality, Let’s Build a Zoo is worth the many hours you’ll put into playing both morality systems.