Attack On Titan 3: The Big Hands-On Preview

AOT 3 Preview: One Of The Best Ways To Relive The Legendary Series Published Oct 29, 2026, 10:00 PM EDT Sam Woods is TheGamer’s Senior Reporter. He’s been in games journalism since 2020 and has undertaken a variety of roles in that time. These have included roles such as SEO Editor, Managing Editor at DualShockers, and Global Head of Gaming, and he's also been seen on the BBC. He was promoted to the Senior Reporter position in 2025 following a series of high-quality reports and exclusives for TheGamer. Since 2020, Sam has written over 3,000 articles and specializes in telling the stories of the people behind the games. He’s interviewed the biggest game directors, some of the industry’s top talents, told the stories of how indie games came to be, and spoken to players about what really makes them tick. He’s also interviewed some of the world’s biggest musical artists to find out how the medium has inspired their work, and TV and Film actors about their roles in video game adaptations. He even hosted a PAX panel in 2021 and made a documentary in 2024 surrounding the creation of a Disney game. Alongside this, Sam focuses on breaking news. He got the scoop on Perfect Dark’s cancellation, provided context on some AI drama, and revealed that Lady Dimitrescu’s actress would love to step back into the character’s giant shoes. These articles have been picked up by the biggest gaming sites, including IGN, GameSpot, and PC Gamer. He also loves to dive into the numbers behind the games. Sam’s journey in games journalism has taken him all over the world. He’s covered Gamescom in Germany, Summer Game Fest in Los Angeles, and Tokyo Game Show in Japan, each on three occasions. He’s been learning Japanese since 2024 with the intention of identifying and translating Japanese-language news and bringing it to English-language audiences first, something he’s done countless times. Sam’s first review was 2020’s Battletoads reboot, and he’s since reviewed games in The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario, and Pokemon franchises. I’m a big Attack on Titan fan. I’m now on my sixth, maybe seventh, watch-through of the series, and I truly believe it’s one of the best stories ever written. That said, while I’ve been aware of the two previous AOT games, I’ve never played them. I finally broke that duck earlier this month after playing three hours of AOT 3, and you can read my thoughts below. Another Jaunt Through The Anime's Early Seasons The first Attack on Titan game covers season one of Hajime Isayama’s anime series. The second, once again, covers the first season, but adds the second season and a new non-canonical ending. AOT 3 will be the third consecutive game to cover the show’s opening season, this time going all the way through to the show’s conclusion. Much like the second game, you play a custom-created character with their own backstory. However, unlike its predecessor, you're not a member of the 104th Cadet Corps; you are from an earlier generation, the one that birthed the likes of Levi Ackerman and Zoë Hange. Complete with your own traumatic backstory, you take charge of Eren, Mikasa, et al., leading them through the show’s major story beats. After a much-needed tutorial, I was thrust into action during the Struggle for Trost arc, with my character seamlessly planted into the series’ narrative. I used everything I’d learned to hold back hordes of titans, but if you’ve seen the show, you’ll know that arc isn’t sunshine and rainbows. Things quickly started to go south, with Eren devoured while saving Armin’s life. While the tutorial made everything clear, there was a lot to take in, and putting it all into action proved tricky the first time around. Swinging through the streets of Trost felt natural, and while it isn’t quite onthe same level as Marvel’s Spider-Man, it works excellently. Combat is just a lot. While the tutorial made everything clear, there was a lot to take in, and putting it all into action proved tricky the first time around. As with the show, titans and abnormals come in multiple classes, and the bigger they are, the harder they are to defeat. The diddy four-meter class titans can be taken down with a swift blow to the nape; but the bigger ones have more sticking power. Locking on and gliding around, I had to target different body parts to weaken and stagger them; only then could I target the nape. It doesn’t sound like much to juggle, but the titans have multiple attacks you need to avoid, you can unleash a range of your own attacks, and you need to focus on swinging. With time, this felt more (but not entirely) natural, but at first, I’ll admit I struggled. My next mission was to escort Eren in his titan form, carrying the giant boulder to Trost’s gate, and keep encroaching titans off him. Throughout, I was faced with life-or-death decisions the Scout Regiment had become all too accustomed to. I could save comrades caught in the clutches of titans, giving me the option to recruit them to my squad later, or focus on Eren and make sure he made it to the gate. A couple of failures didn’t deter me, and we made it in the end, earning the first major win for humanity. Perhaps what surprised me most wasn’t the titan-fighting action, but the downtime in between. There was a wealth of activities I could partake in between missions. I could upgrade my equipment, make plans to retake more of Paradis’ land, or have Fire Emblem: Three Houses-style tea parties with the scouts. I spoke with the game’s director, Hayato Iwata, who told me the team at Koei Tecmo used their Fire Emblem expertise to implement a mechanic not too dissimilar to the Tea Party minigame in AOT 3, and it works. It offers a nice respite from the game’s breakneck action, gives deeper insight into each character, and helps bonds form between squadmates, which then translate to the battlefield. While I really enjoyed what I played, I couldn’t help but feel a little put off by the art direction. It follows a similar style to the first two games, but it feels a little… childish. Eren and co. are far more doe-eyed here than in the anime, and it’s hard to see how sticking to a more anime-inspired approach would have done anything but improve the game. Reliving The Raid On Liberio Spoilers for Attack on Titan: The Final Season ahead. After finishing my jaunt through Season 1, I got to play through one of the show’s most explosive moments: the Raid on Liberio. For the first time in the video game series, A.O.T. 3 lets you fight the Nine Titans. This mission had me square up against Pieck’s Cart Titan, Porco’s Jaw Titan, Zeke’s Beast Titan, and the Tybur Family’s Warhammer Titan, which was the crux of this battle. In a change to the canon, with Eren forced out of action, my custom hero and Mikasa faced the Warhammer Titan head-on in a true battle of attrition. I had to put everything I learned in the first portion of the game to good use, along with a few new tricks, zipping around and chipping away at them bit by bit. The Thunderspears came in very handy here. While the cartoonish art style irked me during this battle, it was every bit as epic as that moment in the show. Omega Force pulled out all the stops here, and it really whetted my appetite for what’s in store against the other eight. AOT 3 feels like the best version of a 2000s licensed game. I am still not a fan of the art direction; the characters look off, but the combat and movement, albeit fiddly at points, are perfectly fine-tuned. The game also takes great care to keep the anime’s main story beats intact while cutting filler and adding its own spin on the proceedings. I’m not sure this title is going to do anything for those who haven’t watched Attack on Titan (but you all should), but for fans of the series, there’s a lot to like about this one. It might just be the next way that I relive Isayama’s gripping tale. Released December 10, 2026 ESRB Mature 17+ / Violence, Blood and Gore, Partial Nudity, Language Developer(s) Koei Tecmo Publisher(s) Koei Tecmo Prequel(s) Attack on Titan 2, Attack on Titan