Title: Oxenfree
Developer: Night School Studios
Platforms: PC, Mac, Xbox One
Price: $19.99
---
A group of teenagers. A weird crazy adventure. Otherworldly happenings. From E,T, and The Goonies to more recently Super 8, it's a story told quite a few times in film. Oxenfree continues that tradition, telling the story of five friends, a mysterious island, and malevolent forces.
Oxenfree is a narrative-driven adventure game about Alex, a teenager still suffering from a great loss, and a group of other seniors spending the night on Edwards Island: step-brother Jonas, friend Ren, quiet Nona, and "mean-girl" Clarissa. It's a long-honored tradition in the community, hanging out on the beach, by the bonfire, drinking. But emotional turmoil and burgeoning relationships all bubble beneath the fun and small talk, and it's your dialogue choices that can make or break friendships, build or shatter trust, among more life-threatening consequences.
The bonfire drinking and games of truth or slap soon morph into a life-and-death struggle to escape the island when insidious supernatural forces are awakened. The story of Oxenfree is best experienced as blind as possible, so I won't delve into the specifics, but it's a gripping tale of coming-of-age and supernatural horror.
You won't find puzzles in Oxenfree, besides using Alex's radio to tune into different frequencies, nor moments of fast-paced action. Oxenfree is a game about atmospheric exploration and dialogue, and it absolutely excels. The landscape of Edwards Island is one of quaint shops, of colorful forests tinged brown and yellow from the autumn weather, of sheer sea-side cliffs and dank caves, of abandoned buildings holding chilling secrets. The place is as much as character in Oxenfree as Alex and the other teens, and a joy to explore.
And every moment of exploration is accompanied by some of the most natural likable dialogue I've heard in a game. Natural not just in tone and cadence, but in execution. Oxenfree evolves the choice-driven narrative genre popularized by Telltale by adopting a walk-and-talk pacing, letting you choose dialogue while on the move or in the midst of other actions. From trying to rationalize terrifying occurrences to making jokes and revealing hurtful secrets, the choices never feel like the mechanical good/bad/neutral options of other games, but natural responses to the situations.
Those situations are tinged with menace and unnerving horror. Oxenfree never resorts to jump scares or gore to be scary; instead it builds an atmosphere of dread and unease, through weird scenarios, excellent sound design, and visual aberrations that morph and contort the soft inviting aesthetic. Like a Stephen King novel or Poltergeist, the horror comes from seeing these normal characters you're invested in facing cruel ruthless evil.
Oxenfree's story ranges from four to seven hours, varying based on how much you explore the island and its secrets. While I typically play these choice-driven narrative games only once, I'm compelled to play Oxenfree again. It was a story I didn't want to end, with characters I liked, and I'm excited to dive in again and see how the story can change with different choices.
Oxenfree is available on Steam, Humble, and Xbox One. A PS4 version is releasing later this year.
Developer: Night School Studios
Platforms: PC, Mac, Xbox One
Price: $19.99
---
A group of teenagers. A weird crazy adventure. Otherworldly happenings. From E,T, and The Goonies to more recently Super 8, it's a story told quite a few times in film. Oxenfree continues that tradition, telling the story of five friends, a mysterious island, and malevolent forces.
Oxenfree is a narrative-driven adventure game about Alex, a teenager still suffering from a great loss, and a group of other seniors spending the night on Edwards Island: step-brother Jonas, friend Ren, quiet Nona, and "mean-girl" Clarissa. It's a long-honored tradition in the community, hanging out on the beach, by the bonfire, drinking. But emotional turmoil and burgeoning relationships all bubble beneath the fun and small talk, and it's your dialogue choices that can make or break friendships, build or shatter trust, among more life-threatening consequences.
The bonfire drinking and games of truth or slap soon morph into a life-and-death struggle to escape the island when insidious supernatural forces are awakened. The story of Oxenfree is best experienced as blind as possible, so I won't delve into the specifics, but it's a gripping tale of coming-of-age and supernatural horror.
And every moment of exploration is accompanied by some of the most natural likable dialogue I've heard in a game. Natural not just in tone and cadence, but in execution. Oxenfree evolves the choice-driven narrative genre popularized by Telltale by adopting a walk-and-talk pacing, letting you choose dialogue while on the move or in the midst of other actions. From trying to rationalize terrifying occurrences to making jokes and revealing hurtful secrets, the choices never feel like the mechanical good/bad/neutral options of other games, but natural responses to the situations.
Those situations are tinged with menace and unnerving horror. Oxenfree never resorts to jump scares or gore to be scary; instead it builds an atmosphere of dread and unease, through weird scenarios, excellent sound design, and visual aberrations that morph and contort the soft inviting aesthetic. Like a Stephen King novel or Poltergeist, the horror comes from seeing these normal characters you're invested in facing cruel ruthless evil.
Oxenfree is available on Steam, Humble, and Xbox One. A PS4 version is releasing later this year.
Title: Sublevel Zero
Developer: SIGTRAP Games
Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux
Price: $14.99
---
The six-degrees of freedom subgenre of shooters had an illustrious start thanks to the Descent franchise, but in recent years, the genre has laid relatively dormant, not yet rising anew like the space sim and CRPG outside of minor titles such as NeonXSZ and Kromaia. But while the Kickstarter success of Descent Underground offers some competitive 6DOF action, Sublevel Zero blends the genre with the looming tension of a roguelike, to stellar results.
The story merely serves as a framework for the action. Reality has been crumbling for centuries, parts of the universe vanishing from existence and appearing elsewhere or not at all. The secrets to discovering why space-time has been torn asunder and saving the ravaged universe rests inside a mysterious facility.
Finding that secret won't be easy. Throughout cramped technological tunnels and lava-lit caverns where it's easy to lose your bearings to cavernous crystalline quarries, mechanical threats lurk at every turn. Enemies range from drifting slow-firing drones to wall-crawling tanks, and you can't take any lightly. Permadeath looms over every new room and every unknown corner, so each encounter must be tackled like it could be your last. An aggressive offense is the best defense here: deftly weaving between projectiles, boosting past enemies to spin around and unleash a storm of energy as they're turning to lock onto you,
Agility and speed will only get you so far in Sublevel Zero, and a vast arsenal awaits you. Autocannons and miniguns that fire out bullets at a lightning pace. Railguns, flamethrowers, devastating shredder shotguns. Grenades and homing rockets. Each weapons has unique stats - Marksman class being more accurate, Relentless having better firing rates and damage - and by combining two weapons, you can create a new weapon that inherits those two. This simple crafting system expands your array of weapons even more, unlocking powerful firepower like the ion beam, plasmacaster, homing missile swarm, magnetic explosives, and more.
Each weapon feels powerful and satisfying to use, tearing through the levels in overwhelming streaks of colorful energy. You never know what weapons you might come across, so improvising with what you have on head is key to survival. One minute, you might be a sniper taking out enemies from a distance with a railgun; later, you'll be softening up drones with lasers before boosting in to finish them off with a shredder blast.
But all those weapons wouldn't matter if Sublevel Zero's movement was as fun and responsive it is. Thrusting down its serpentine tunnels or flipping around a junction or retreating from a relentless ground of enemies is always satisfying and you always feel in control.
Sublevel Zero combines the claustrophobic tunnels and hectic action of Descent with the looming tension and unpredictable nature of the roguelite, each playthrough delivering reckless flights down tight corridors and relentless firepower. You can purchase Sublevel Zero on Steam, Humble, and GOG.
Developer: SIGTRAP Games
Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux
Price: $14.99
---
The six-degrees of freedom subgenre of shooters had an illustrious start thanks to the Descent franchise, but in recent years, the genre has laid relatively dormant, not yet rising anew like the space sim and CRPG outside of minor titles such as NeonXSZ and Kromaia. But while the Kickstarter success of Descent Underground offers some competitive 6DOF action, Sublevel Zero blends the genre with the looming tension of a roguelike, to stellar results.
The story merely serves as a framework for the action. Reality has been crumbling for centuries, parts of the universe vanishing from existence and appearing elsewhere or not at all. The secrets to discovering why space-time has been torn asunder and saving the ravaged universe rests inside a mysterious facility.
Finding that secret won't be easy. Throughout cramped technological tunnels and lava-lit caverns where it's easy to lose your bearings to cavernous crystalline quarries, mechanical threats lurk at every turn. Enemies range from drifting slow-firing drones to wall-crawling tanks, and you can't take any lightly. Permadeath looms over every new room and every unknown corner, so each encounter must be tackled like it could be your last. An aggressive offense is the best defense here: deftly weaving between projectiles, boosting past enemies to spin around and unleash a storm of energy as they're turning to lock onto you,
Each weapon feels powerful and satisfying to use, tearing through the levels in overwhelming streaks of colorful energy. You never know what weapons you might come across, so improvising with what you have on head is key to survival. One minute, you might be a sniper taking out enemies from a distance with a railgun; later, you'll be softening up drones with lasers before boosting in to finish them off with a shredder blast.
But all those weapons wouldn't matter if Sublevel Zero's movement was as fun and responsive it is. Thrusting down its serpentine tunnels or flipping around a junction or retreating from a relentless ground of enemies is always satisfying and you always feel in control.
Title: Flywrench
Developer: Messhof
Platforms: PC, Mac
Price: $9.99
---
Almost two years ago, I wrote about the allure of difficulty, how the looming challenge of roguelikes and hard-as-nails platformers offer a unique kind of satisfaction by demanding the utmost focus and skills from the player. How each failure sharpens your skills until you finally pull off that white-knuckle, honed-to-perfection finish. Flywrench encapsulates that perfectly, in a stylish psychedelic package.
In each stage, you guide a rectangle through claustrophobic gauntlets of gates, projectiles, rotating barriers, and more. Your default movement is a simple floating descent; flapping and flipping round out your moveset. While you only have three movements, they compliment each other, letting you pull of acrobatic evasive maneuvers with ease. You're always in control, especially once you master the feeling and physics of the movement. Learning how to time your flaps and flipping or the amount of upward movement you'll gain from each flap, and maintaining your momentum are all crucial to weave between the tricky array of hazards that Flywrench throws at you,
But evasion isn't the only thing you have to worry about. Each movement is color-coded - default being white, flapping is red, and flipping green - and you can only pass through same-colored barriers. This adds a slight puzzle element to Flywrench's precision flapping, as you figure out the best route through each level, when it's best to flap, flip, or float, when you need to act to build momentum or bleed off speed to fly around a corner at the perfect angle.
You might not reach the finish on your first attempt, nor your second or third or perhaps even your thirtieth. But Flywrench throws you right back to the start a split-second after each failure and like with the best in the genre, soon your losses start to feel less like losses and more like learning. With each reckless collision with a wall, you learn to slow down a second earlier to gracefully reverse direction and keep moving. Each crash into a spinning barrier trains you to flap earlier or later to better maintain control, or to flip now to ricochet at just the right angle to careen through a narrow passage a hair's-breadth from danger. Each loss improves your mastery over the controls, until perhaps you can enter a level for the first time, study the hectic arrangement of lines and color, and pull it off in a single flowing maneuver.
The aesthetic and music certainly make tackling Flywrench's challenges much more enjoyable. The game is pure spectacle of color and motion, as you leave a fluid trail of red and green and white in your wake, distorting the background with each movement. The soundtrack, with music from artists like Daedelus, Dntel, and Goodnight Cody, perfectly complements the arcade action. You might even find yourself flapping and flipping to the beat.
Rounding out its sizable selection of 170 levels with time trials, leaderboards, and even a level editor to craft your own gauntlets, Flywrench offers hours of content for the fans of the genre. Tight responsive controls, a colorfully minimalist aesthetic, and a rapid-fire pace that demands honed skills makes for an always tough but satisfying arcade experience.
You can purchase Flywrench on Steam.
---
The game is currently on sale for $6.49 (35% off) during the Steam Winter Sale.
Developer: Messhof
Platforms: PC, Mac
Price: $9.99
---
Almost two years ago, I wrote about the allure of difficulty, how the looming challenge of roguelikes and hard-as-nails platformers offer a unique kind of satisfaction by demanding the utmost focus and skills from the player. How each failure sharpens your skills until you finally pull off that white-knuckle, honed-to-perfection finish. Flywrench encapsulates that perfectly, in a stylish psychedelic package.
In each stage, you guide a rectangle through claustrophobic gauntlets of gates, projectiles, rotating barriers, and more. Your default movement is a simple floating descent; flapping and flipping round out your moveset. While you only have three movements, they compliment each other, letting you pull of acrobatic evasive maneuvers with ease. You're always in control, especially once you master the feeling and physics of the movement. Learning how to time your flaps and flipping or the amount of upward movement you'll gain from each flap, and maintaining your momentum are all crucial to weave between the tricky array of hazards that Flywrench throws at you,
But evasion isn't the only thing you have to worry about. Each movement is color-coded - default being white, flapping is red, and flipping green - and you can only pass through same-colored barriers. This adds a slight puzzle element to Flywrench's precision flapping, as you figure out the best route through each level, when it's best to flap, flip, or float, when you need to act to build momentum or bleed off speed to fly around a corner at the perfect angle.
The aesthetic and music certainly make tackling Flywrench's challenges much more enjoyable. The game is pure spectacle of color and motion, as you leave a fluid trail of red and green and white in your wake, distorting the background with each movement. The soundtrack, with music from artists like Daedelus, Dntel, and Goodnight Cody, perfectly complements the arcade action. You might even find yourself flapping and flipping to the beat.
You can purchase Flywrench on Steam.
---
The game is currently on sale for $6.49 (35% off) during the Steam Winter Sale.
Title: Devouring Stars
Developer: Nerial
Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux, IOS Universal
Price: $9,99 (Steam), $4.99 (IOS)
---
You've waged war on land, air, and sea. And more than a few real time strategy and tactical games take place in space. But in Devouring Stars, your conflicts don't just occur among the cosmos. Here, the cosmos are your weapons, as you wield the stars themselves in a war between celestial forces.
As a cosmic being far beyond mortal comprehension, you challenge the might of other cosmic factions among the nebula clouds and black abyss. Devouring Stars's gameplay is relatively simple: gather resources to strengthen your units, capture the enemy's portal, and escape the stage. But simple doesn't mean easy, and there's an array of mechanics and complexities that make Devouring Stars stand out.
While it may be an RTS, the game strips back the complex base and building systems of other titles in the genre in favor of a more minimalist approach. Stars act as resources for both you and your enemies, and there's only a finite amount on each battlefield, forcing you to assess the stage and decide when and where to gather cosmic energy.
Each star gathered makes your units stronger, but strength isn't always enough to emerge victorious. Before each mission, you're able to select a small group of units to bring into battle, compared to the typical RTS method of spawning units during battle. This challenges you to consider what strategy you plan on using and choosing which units best suit your plan of attack. While that mechanic may seem limiting, Devouring Stars' units are more versatile than they may first seem.
By combining two units, you can create a single, more powerful unit. These celestial warriors not only gain increased stats that could boost their movement or their efficiency at absorbing stars, but also have unique abilities that can turn the tide of battle. Your merged units can do everything from teleporting short distances to freezing opponents in their tracks, to unleashing powerful ranged attacks or achieve damaging critical hits.
Devouring Stars may lack the bombastic spectacle of other real time strategy games like Planetary Annihilation and Supreme Commander, but what it lacks in bombast, it makes up for in beauty. Battles in Devouring Stars are dances of swirling particles and flashing color as stars and galaxies become weapons of the gods. It's always satisfying to watch.
Devouring Stars is available on Steam, and recently released on IOS. You can learn more about the game here.
Developer: Nerial
Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux, IOS Universal
Price: $9,99 (Steam), $4.99 (IOS)
---
You've waged war on land, air, and sea. And more than a few real time strategy and tactical games take place in space. But in Devouring Stars, your conflicts don't just occur among the cosmos. Here, the cosmos are your weapons, as you wield the stars themselves in a war between celestial forces.
As a cosmic being far beyond mortal comprehension, you challenge the might of other cosmic factions among the nebula clouds and black abyss. Devouring Stars's gameplay is relatively simple: gather resources to strengthen your units, capture the enemy's portal, and escape the stage. But simple doesn't mean easy, and there's an array of mechanics and complexities that make Devouring Stars stand out.
While it may be an RTS, the game strips back the complex base and building systems of other titles in the genre in favor of a more minimalist approach. Stars act as resources for both you and your enemies, and there's only a finite amount on each battlefield, forcing you to assess the stage and decide when and where to gather cosmic energy.
By combining two units, you can create a single, more powerful unit. These celestial warriors not only gain increased stats that could boost their movement or their efficiency at absorbing stars, but also have unique abilities that can turn the tide of battle. Your merged units can do everything from teleporting short distances to freezing opponents in their tracks, to unleashing powerful ranged attacks or achieve damaging critical hits.
Devouring Stars may lack the bombastic spectacle of other real time strategy games like Planetary Annihilation and Supreme Commander, but what it lacks in bombast, it makes up for in beauty. Battles in Devouring Stars are dances of swirling particles and flashing color as stars and galaxies become weapons of the gods. It's always satisfying to watch.
Title: Galak-Z
Developer: 17 Bit Games
Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux. PS4
Price: $19.99
---
I had been anticipating Galak-Z for a while. The fluid combat, the bright flashy visuals, mech mode, roguelike elements...all signs pointed towards a fast-paced frenetic dual-stick shooter with screen-filling missile barrages. And Galak-Z definitely has all those things and more, but what I wasn't expecting was a deliberately-paced shooter with a focus on stealth and cautious exploration. It was a welcome surprise.
As ace pilot Atak, you alone must take on the might of the Empire. But while you may be outnumbered, you aren't outmatched; your fighter is an agile weapon, able to strafe and reverse direction with ease. Part of the challenge and fun of Galak-Z is mastering its movement, learning to handle momentum and thrust, how to dodge over bullets and circle around enemies.
Modulating your thrust is crucial, because despite its frenetic appearance, Galak-Z actually has a large focus on stealth. Reminiscent of Mark of the Ninja, enemy light of sight is visually represented on screen, and the sound of engines displayed as a circle around your ship. Enemies will investigate suspicious sounds, become alerted if they catch a glimpse of you. You only have a few health and shield points, and enemies attack relentlessly, so hiding and flanking and attacking when you have the advantage is key to surviving.
But when combat does finally erupt, it does so in a spectacle of swooping missiles, colorful explosions, flaring thrusters and neon bullets. Galak-Z certainly doesn't disappoint in the action department. Weaving between lasers, unleashing a flurry of missiles, then boosting out of sight to flank your enemies is always satisfying. Mods and blueprints found through each stage can upgrade your ship with extensive array of bullet types, shot speed and range, and enhancements like immunity to lava.
Sometimes your arsenal isn't enough and Galak-Z features emergent gameplay elements that allow for more strategic depth. Enemy factions fight each other, so leading a fleet of Empire ships into a nest of space bugs is always a viable tactic. The environments are filled with hazards that can be used against enemies, from lava pools and drifting debris to alien growths that unleash shield-draining spores. Choosing where you fight can be just as important as how you fight.
But no element is Galak-Z is as stylish as its seamless mech transformations, At the press of a button, your ship shifts into a sword and shield-wielding robot that can slash through a squadron, or grapple an enemy and fling it into an asteroid. Fluidly switching between ship and mech mode, along with stealth and environmental hazards and your arsenal, lets you turn the tides against the game's challenging enemies and bosses.
The PC version of Galak-Z features a new Arcade mode, to complement its original roguelike structure. The threat of permadeath looms over every encounter in Galak-Z, but Arcade mode lets you save your progress and restart stages without losing all your upgrades.
Galak-Z is available on Steam, as well as PS4
Developer: 17 Bit Games
Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux. PS4
Price: $19.99
---
I had been anticipating Galak-Z for a while. The fluid combat, the bright flashy visuals, mech mode, roguelike elements...all signs pointed towards a fast-paced frenetic dual-stick shooter with screen-filling missile barrages. And Galak-Z definitely has all those things and more, but what I wasn't expecting was a deliberately-paced shooter with a focus on stealth and cautious exploration. It was a welcome surprise.
As ace pilot Atak, you alone must take on the might of the Empire. But while you may be outnumbered, you aren't outmatched; your fighter is an agile weapon, able to strafe and reverse direction with ease. Part of the challenge and fun of Galak-Z is mastering its movement, learning to handle momentum and thrust, how to dodge over bullets and circle around enemies.
Modulating your thrust is crucial, because despite its frenetic appearance, Galak-Z actually has a large focus on stealth. Reminiscent of Mark of the Ninja, enemy light of sight is visually represented on screen, and the sound of engines displayed as a circle around your ship. Enemies will investigate suspicious sounds, become alerted if they catch a glimpse of you. You only have a few health and shield points, and enemies attack relentlessly, so hiding and flanking and attacking when you have the advantage is key to surviving.
Sometimes your arsenal isn't enough and Galak-Z features emergent gameplay elements that allow for more strategic depth. Enemy factions fight each other, so leading a fleet of Empire ships into a nest of space bugs is always a viable tactic. The environments are filled with hazards that can be used against enemies, from lava pools and drifting debris to alien growths that unleash shield-draining spores. Choosing where you fight can be just as important as how you fight.
But no element is Galak-Z is as stylish as its seamless mech transformations, At the press of a button, your ship shifts into a sword and shield-wielding robot that can slash through a squadron, or grapple an enemy and fling it into an asteroid. Fluidly switching between ship and mech mode, along with stealth and environmental hazards and your arsenal, lets you turn the tides against the game's challenging enemies and bosses.
Galak-Z is available on Steam, as well as PS4
Title: Mushroom 11
Developer: Untame
Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux
Price: $14.99
---
We're all quite familiar with the standard platformer formula nowadays. Run around, jump over gaps, possibly some wall-jumping, dashes, and other maneuvers. But how would a platformer work if your character lacked limbs? Or had no concrete form at all? Mushroom 11 is a challenging physics-based puzzle platformer that turns the typical genre gameplay on its head by putting you in control of an amorphous fungus that can mold and shift into any shape.
The world is ruined. Humanity is absent, perhaps extinct or long gone, leaving only dilapidated cityscapes and overgown environments in its wake. But life continues, from weird insects to your character: a green fungus that absorbs other organisms and is nearly impossible to destroy. In fact, destruction is your means of movement. Using the mouse, you can erase parts of the fungus and it'll regrow those sections elsewhere on its form; through careful erasure, the fungus can flow through chapters with speed and agility by continuously growing in a certain direction.
But Mushroom 11's unique control scheme is used for far more than movement through destruction. You have no defined shape, able to mold into any form, and can be divided into multiple parts that can all act independently. Split in half to hold down a button with one part while moving the other through a now-open gate. Carefully shave off parts to extend into a tower to bridge a gap. Mold around ledges. Clamber up walls and across ceilings. One of the most important aspects of a good platformer is satisfying movement, and it never got old experimenting with and mastering Mushroom 11's free-form traversal.
However, traversing the chapters is only part of Mushroom 11's challenge. Each section is rife with hazards and physics puzzles. From fireball-flinging organisms and lava to fungus-melting acid and challenging bosses, you need to carefully move around these dangers, considering how each erasure will affect your mushroom's form, weight, and balance. Later chapters will have you molding the mushroom into the shape of gear, shifting its weight around to stay within a speeding minecart, forming ramps for rolling objects, completing circuits, and much more.
Each chapter introduces new mechanics and dangers, always exploring new uses of the mushroom's amorphous design. The unique gameplay was Mushroom 11's initial hook, but discovering what new hazards and puzzle elements the developers would introduce next was what keep me intrigued throughout my six-hour playthrough.
Mushroom 11 isn't just enjoyable to play, but also offers a atmospheric apocalyptic world to admire, an array of ruined cities, otherworldly environments, and faded graffiti that hint at the fate of mankind. The mushroom itself is always fun to watch, as it instantly reforms, or its insides pulse and rumble, or absorbed organisms dissolve into splashes of color within its green body. Each chapter features a ticking clock, offering replay value for fans of speed-running, and hard-to-reach insects that challenge the limits of your mushroom molding skills.
Mushroom 11 is available on Steam, Humble, and GOG. IOS and Android versions are expected to release next year.
Developer: Untame
Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux
Price: $14.99
---
We're all quite familiar with the standard platformer formula nowadays. Run around, jump over gaps, possibly some wall-jumping, dashes, and other maneuvers. But how would a platformer work if your character lacked limbs? Or had no concrete form at all? Mushroom 11 is a challenging physics-based puzzle platformer that turns the typical genre gameplay on its head by putting you in control of an amorphous fungus that can mold and shift into any shape.
The world is ruined. Humanity is absent, perhaps extinct or long gone, leaving only dilapidated cityscapes and overgown environments in its wake. But life continues, from weird insects to your character: a green fungus that absorbs other organisms and is nearly impossible to destroy. In fact, destruction is your means of movement. Using the mouse, you can erase parts of the fungus and it'll regrow those sections elsewhere on its form; through careful erasure, the fungus can flow through chapters with speed and agility by continuously growing in a certain direction.
But Mushroom 11's unique control scheme is used for far more than movement through destruction. You have no defined shape, able to mold into any form, and can be divided into multiple parts that can all act independently. Split in half to hold down a button with one part while moving the other through a now-open gate. Carefully shave off parts to extend into a tower to bridge a gap. Mold around ledges. Clamber up walls and across ceilings. One of the most important aspects of a good platformer is satisfying movement, and it never got old experimenting with and mastering Mushroom 11's free-form traversal.
Each chapter introduces new mechanics and dangers, always exploring new uses of the mushroom's amorphous design. The unique gameplay was Mushroom 11's initial hook, but discovering what new hazards and puzzle elements the developers would introduce next was what keep me intrigued throughout my six-hour playthrough.
Mushroom 11 is available on Steam, Humble, and GOG. IOS and Android versions are expected to release next year.
Title: Cryptark
Developer: Alientrap
Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux
Price: $12.99
---
Massive derelict space ships drift through the black abyss, filled with valuable alien technology to pilfer. But the ultimate prize is the mysterious Cryptark and its advanced cargo. To find the titular vessel, you'll need to scour intel from other ships. It won't be easy.
In this new rogue-lite shooter from Alientrap, you're a commissioned alien privateer, scavenging abandoned space hulks as your team closes in on the Cryptark. But while vessels may be abandoned, they certainly aren't empty. The security systems of these ships are still active and alien entities lurk within. The only way to disable a ship is to destroy its central core, and that's where you come in.
Piloting a heavily-armed mech suit, you must explore hazardous ship interiors, choosing which defenses to disable before launching your assault on the core. From shield generators and repair systems that fix destroyed systems to turrets and map jammers, these defenses can easily overwhelm you if they aren't dealt with. You don't have to destroy every system though; choosing which to prioritize and which order to disable them is the key to success in Cryptark.
The security systems aren't the only dangers. Mechanical organisms roam the vessels, ranging from massive sawblades to shielded Juggernauts that unleash powerful scatter shots. However, you're more than capable of matching enemy firepower with your own arsenal.
Your mech has four weapon slots, four items slots, and an extensive array of equipment to mix and match. Smart machine guns whose bullets can curve around corners, nuke rockets, slime mortars that unleash corrosive fluid, EMP shotguns, lightning guns, lasers, flamethrowers, shields, and much more. You can dual- or even quad-wield weapons too, unleashing a storm of lead to annihilate your enemies.
It's in the midst of that chaos that Cryptark shines. Your firepower feels heavy and powerful, and deftly evading projectiles, lasers, and charging enemies is just as satisfying. Visually, the action pops with vibrant colors and lighting, illuminating the dark interiors with explosions and flames and lasers.
The pre-assault planning is engaging too: weighing the cost of your equipment against the payout of the ship you're going to scavenge, molding your loadout to best deal with the defenses and enemies onboard, scanning ships to see which systems are present and deciding which to tackle first, from what entry point.
Cryptark is currently on Early Access, but it's easily one of the most polished and content-heavy Early Access releases I've played yet, on par with the gold standards like Prison Architect and Darkest Dungeon. The developers plan to expand the game with persistent upgrades, new mech suits and weapons, more enemies, systems, and ship designs, an expanded narrative, and even co-op.
You can purchase Cryptark on Steam, Humble, or directly from the game's site.
Developer: Alientrap
Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux
Price: $12.99
---
Massive derelict space ships drift through the black abyss, filled with valuable alien technology to pilfer. But the ultimate prize is the mysterious Cryptark and its advanced cargo. To find the titular vessel, you'll need to scour intel from other ships. It won't be easy.
In this new rogue-lite shooter from Alientrap, you're a commissioned alien privateer, scavenging abandoned space hulks as your team closes in on the Cryptark. But while vessels may be abandoned, they certainly aren't empty. The security systems of these ships are still active and alien entities lurk within. The only way to disable a ship is to destroy its central core, and that's where you come in.
Piloting a heavily-armed mech suit, you must explore hazardous ship interiors, choosing which defenses to disable before launching your assault on the core. From shield generators and repair systems that fix destroyed systems to turrets and map jammers, these defenses can easily overwhelm you if they aren't dealt with. You don't have to destroy every system though; choosing which to prioritize and which order to disable them is the key to success in Cryptark.
Your mech has four weapon slots, four items slots, and an extensive array of equipment to mix and match. Smart machine guns whose bullets can curve around corners, nuke rockets, slime mortars that unleash corrosive fluid, EMP shotguns, lightning guns, lasers, flamethrowers, shields, and much more. You can dual- or even quad-wield weapons too, unleashing a storm of lead to annihilate your enemies.
The pre-assault planning is engaging too: weighing the cost of your equipment against the payout of the ship you're going to scavenge, molding your loadout to best deal with the defenses and enemies onboard, scanning ships to see which systems are present and deciding which to tackle first, from what entry point.
You can purchase Cryptark on Steam, Humble, or directly from the game's site.
Title: Snakebird
Developer: Noumenon Games
Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux
Price: $6.99
---
If there's one thing more satisfying than a tough puzzler, it's a seemingly simple puzzler surprising you with its secret depth and challenge. The minesweeper/picross hybrid Hexcells is probably the current poster child in that department, but I think Snakebird's charming cutesy facade usurps it. Because beneath the colorful aesthetic lies one devious puzzle game.
The basic idea is simple: you control a titular snakebird through each stage, eating fruit to unlock the exit. Each fruit you eat increases your length, like the classic Snake game. Sounds easy enough; you don't even have to worry about a game over if you run into your tail.
But very quickly Snakebird reveals its brain-breaking nature. Soon you're navigating cramped areas, carefully contorting your snakebird to reach platforms above and not fall into the surrounding abyss. Then you're moving around spikes, falling through portals, and pushing blocks. Each movement must be considered; thankfully you can easily undo a move if you find youself stuck.
And then on top of all those elements, the game plays its trump card: controlling multiple snakebirds. Puzzles can be tricky enough with merely one, but with several to move and twist, they gain a new level of complexity. Learning how the birds can interact is key to making sure you get all of them to the exit.
You can use birds as staircases or bridges across spikes for others. You can push one bird with another. Birds maintain their shape when falling from above or through portals, challenging you to consider how birds could mesh together from various angles.
Snakebird never evolves beyond moving and twisting those colorful birds, but uses that seemingly simple mechanic to deliver an incredibly tricky puzzler. A single puzzle could take an hour or more, but it's always satisfying to figure out the game's spatial challenges.
You can purchase Snakebird from Steam, Humble, and itch.io.
Developer: Noumenon Games
Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux
Price: $6.99
---
If there's one thing more satisfying than a tough puzzler, it's a seemingly simple puzzler surprising you with its secret depth and challenge. The minesweeper/picross hybrid Hexcells is probably the current poster child in that department, but I think Snakebird's charming cutesy facade usurps it. Because beneath the colorful aesthetic lies one devious puzzle game.
The basic idea is simple: you control a titular snakebird through each stage, eating fruit to unlock the exit. Each fruit you eat increases your length, like the classic Snake game. Sounds easy enough; you don't even have to worry about a game over if you run into your tail.
But very quickly Snakebird reveals its brain-breaking nature. Soon you're navigating cramped areas, carefully contorting your snakebird to reach platforms above and not fall into the surrounding abyss. Then you're moving around spikes, falling through portals, and pushing blocks. Each movement must be considered; thankfully you can easily undo a move if you find youself stuck.
You can use birds as staircases or bridges across spikes for others. You can push one bird with another. Birds maintain their shape when falling from above or through portals, challenging you to consider how birds could mesh together from various angles.
You can purchase Snakebird from Steam, Humble, and itch.io.
Title: SOMA
Developer: Frictional Games
Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux, PS4
Price: $29.99
---
Amnesia: The Dark Descent is considered by many to be one of the scariest experiences the medium has to offer. The supernatural game forced the player to flee and hide from monstrosities whose mere visages tore at your character's sanity.
SOMA sheds that game's Lovecraftian trappings for a research station on the ocean floor, but the horror and the oppressive atmosphere remains, anchored by a compelling and thought-provoking story influenced by the works of Harlan Ellison and Philip K. Dick.
Soma puts you in the frightened and confused shoes of Simon, a man trapped in the sprawling underwater facility known as Pathos-II. Horrific things roam the dank dilapidated corridors, monstrous fusions of flesh and machine, and like Amnesia, hiding from and sneaking around these creatures is your only course of action.
Saying anything more specific about SOMA's engrossing narrative would do a disservice to its carefully-paced reveals. But rest assured, it's a journey filled with haunting moments, interesting sci-fi concepts, and compelling questions about humanity.
"Haunting" is probably the most apt way to describe SOMA's atmosphere. While there are enemies in the game, encounters are sparing, which, in turn, makes each one more memorable and unpredictable. The horror in SOMA comes less from its terrifying creatures and more from the atmosphere, the themes, the sound design and setting. Every moment is fraught with tension, enhanced by the music and the groaning of metal being crushed by the immense ocean pressure. The game is a slow-burn experience, letting the unnerving uneasy implications of grotesque sights and of your actions stew in your mind.
SOMA's sci-fi horror is spread across 8 to 10 hours of thought-provoking narrative, cautious exploration, puzzles, and desperate stealth around bio-mechanical monsters. If you're looking for a horror game that's focused on dread and vice-like tension and story rather than jump scares, or are interested in high-concept science fiction stories, SOMA is a must-play.
You can purchase SOMA on Steam, GOG, and PS4.
Developer: Frictional Games
Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux, PS4
Price: $29.99
---
Amnesia: The Dark Descent is considered by many to be one of the scariest experiences the medium has to offer. The supernatural game forced the player to flee and hide from monstrosities whose mere visages tore at your character's sanity.
SOMA sheds that game's Lovecraftian trappings for a research station on the ocean floor, but the horror and the oppressive atmosphere remains, anchored by a compelling and thought-provoking story influenced by the works of Harlan Ellison and Philip K. Dick.
Soma puts you in the frightened and confused shoes of Simon, a man trapped in the sprawling underwater facility known as Pathos-II. Horrific things roam the dank dilapidated corridors, monstrous fusions of flesh and machine, and like Amnesia, hiding from and sneaking around these creatures is your only course of action.
"Haunting" is probably the most apt way to describe SOMA's atmosphere. While there are enemies in the game, encounters are sparing, which, in turn, makes each one more memorable and unpredictable. The horror in SOMA comes less from its terrifying creatures and more from the atmosphere, the themes, the sound design and setting. Every moment is fraught with tension, enhanced by the music and the groaning of metal being crushed by the immense ocean pressure. The game is a slow-burn experience, letting the unnerving uneasy implications of grotesque sights and of your actions stew in your mind.
You can purchase SOMA on Steam, GOG, and PS4.
Title: Vagante
Developer: Nuke Nine
Platforms: PC
Price: $14.99
---
What games belong under the roguelike umbrella is a common discussion when the term comes up, but one can't deny the appeal of roguelike (or roguelite) platformers. Spelunky is easily the poster child of the subgenre, but it's an thriving genre, from Catacomb Kids and Rogue Legacy to Cavern Kings and 20XX. Vagante is another game to add to that list, with its RPG focus and challenging gameplay.
The premise of Vagante is simple. Choose a class, venture into the waiting mouth of a dark hazard-filled cave, and survive. Treasure, traps, monsters, and loot can be found within, if you have the skill to endure the challenges of the procedurally-generated levels.
While Catacomb Kids stands out with its interlocking systems and Rogue Legacy with its generational progress and hectic gameplay, Vagante excels at blending elements of the action RPG and the roguelite platformer. Each of the three classes - Knight, Mage, and Rogue - have their own unique skills as well as stats to upgrade, and each upgrade expands your moveset with new abilities and powers. The bow-wielding Rogue can cloak himself in shadows, the Mage unlocks new spells, the Knight can unlock falling stabs, and so on.
Loot found throughout the level or bought from shops allow you to equip new gear, some imbued with special passive abilites. From helms that make your strikes freeze enemies and heavy gauntlets that knock foes backwards to scrolls and potions that provide one-use magic attacks or stat buffs, Vagante provides many ways to fight enemies.
The action is fast-paced and challenging, as you jump over projectiles and time your strikes against bats, rats, ghouls, imposing dragons, and other beasts and bosses that await. Using traps like spike pits or arrow turrets to your advantage is a valid tactic too; sometimes fleeing to gather some health, swap out weapons, or use a scroll is the best option. If the dungeon prove too challenging for a lone adventurer, you can always fight alongside three other friends in 4-player local co-op.
Vagante is currently on Steam Early Acess, and the developers are working on implementing online multiplayer. You can purchase Vagante on Steam and Humble, and follow the game's development here.
Developer: Nuke Nine
Platforms: PC
Price: $14.99
---
What games belong under the roguelike umbrella is a common discussion when the term comes up, but one can't deny the appeal of roguelike (or roguelite) platformers. Spelunky is easily the poster child of the subgenre, but it's an thriving genre, from Catacomb Kids and Rogue Legacy to Cavern Kings and 20XX. Vagante is another game to add to that list, with its RPG focus and challenging gameplay.
The premise of Vagante is simple. Choose a class, venture into the waiting mouth of a dark hazard-filled cave, and survive. Treasure, traps, monsters, and loot can be found within, if you have the skill to endure the challenges of the procedurally-generated levels.
While Catacomb Kids stands out with its interlocking systems and Rogue Legacy with its generational progress and hectic gameplay, Vagante excels at blending elements of the action RPG and the roguelite platformer. Each of the three classes - Knight, Mage, and Rogue - have their own unique skills as well as stats to upgrade, and each upgrade expands your moveset with new abilities and powers. The bow-wielding Rogue can cloak himself in shadows, the Mage unlocks new spells, the Knight can unlock falling stabs, and so on.
The action is fast-paced and challenging, as you jump over projectiles and time your strikes against bats, rats, ghouls, imposing dragons, and other beasts and bosses that await. Using traps like spike pits or arrow turrets to your advantage is a valid tactic too; sometimes fleeing to gather some health, swap out weapons, or use a scroll is the best option. If the dungeon prove too challenging for a lone adventurer, you can always fight alongside three other friends in 4-player local co-op.
Title: Stasis
Developer: The Brotherhood
Platforms: PC, Mac
Price: $24.99
---
The last twelve months have been a wonderful time for sci-fi horror fans. Alien: Isolation last October; Solarix, Duskers, and Quadrant this year; SOMA later this month. And of course, now Stasis. The sci-fi horror adventure game has been in development for five years, highly anticipated due to its isometric art and gory gritty style.
Having finished Stasis a few days ago, I think it's safe to say the game absolutely succeeds, delivering the kind of industrial atmosphere and gruesome visuals that would make Ridley Scott and David Cronenberg proud.
To put it simply: this is one disturbing and violent horror game. Stasis earns its M rating, in terms of both narrative and content. You are John Maracheck, who awakes from stasis on the mysterious vessel The Groomlake. Your family is missing, and the pools of blood and body parts are a clear indication that something very bad has happened on the ship. Drifting in deep space around Neptune, far from earth, no help is coming.
As you search the massive Groomlake for your family, you'll discover the truth behind the research and experiments conducted there, through the PDA logs of scientists and crew members. Those short vignettes flesh out the world, provide insight into the horrific secrets of the Groomlake, and give the setting a real sense of place. It's not just a drifting haunted house; people lived and worked here.
Due to the focus on the narrative, the less known about the plot, the better, but I'll say it's mature, engrossing, and realistic. You're just a normal man, looking for his family, on a research vessel-turned-living nightmare.
Being an adventure game, Stasis is all about puzzles. For the most part, the puzzles and goals were pretty logical, adhering to the rules and tone of the setting. Let's just you have more uses for viscera here than you do in other adventure games. You might need to figure out how to falsify a secret alert to open a locked door, how to bypass a bio-metric scanner, or clear toxic gas from a room. One of the engaging aspects about Stasis' puzzles is that many of the clues and hints are found in the game's logs, facts and statements that you could use to solve puzzles or learn how to fix a problem.
However, the game also had several more obtuse puzzles, with confusing combination and uses of items that left me stumped for a while.
You might be wondering how an isometric adventure game can be scary. There's no combat in the game (although you might need to use the environment to neutralize some dangers). But make no mistake, Stasis is a scary game, focusing on constant unease, fantastic sound design, and some incredibly disturbing visuals and situations. The grimy and blood-soaked industrial corridors of the Groomlake feel claustrophobic and eerie; the echoing screams and other ambient noises only add to the atmosphere.
You aren't safe either; there are many gruesome ways to die on the Groomlake, from being melted to more...exotic deaths. The stakes are high, and the things John has to do to survive and find his loved ones are easily on par with gaming's most uneasy and disturbing moments. If you thought Heavy Rain's Lizard Trial or Dead Space 2's eye surgery were nauseating, Stasis finds a way to top those moments. This is horror on an intimate level, rather than shadows and monster closets and jump spaces (although there are some of those too).
But Stasis isn't perfect. The ending of the game felt rushed and abrupt, and the narrative conclusion unsatisfying and cliched. And, as mentioned before, the occasional obtuse and confusing puzzles can bring the pacing to a frustrating halt.
Despite those gripes, Stasis was one of the most engaging game I've played this year. It's a tightly focused game, about a solid 8 or 9 hours of puzzles and exploration. The unnerving soundscape, the disturbing and mature atmosphere, the wonderfully detailed isometric art style all coalesce into a sci-fi horror game absolutely worth experiencing
You can purchase Stasis on Steam and GOG.
Developer: The Brotherhood
Platforms: PC, Mac
Price: $24.99
---
The last twelve months have been a wonderful time for sci-fi horror fans. Alien: Isolation last October; Solarix, Duskers, and Quadrant this year; SOMA later this month. And of course, now Stasis. The sci-fi horror adventure game has been in development for five years, highly anticipated due to its isometric art and gory gritty style.
Having finished Stasis a few days ago, I think it's safe to say the game absolutely succeeds, delivering the kind of industrial atmosphere and gruesome visuals that would make Ridley Scott and David Cronenberg proud.
To put it simply: this is one disturbing and violent horror game. Stasis earns its M rating, in terms of both narrative and content. You are John Maracheck, who awakes from stasis on the mysterious vessel The Groomlake. Your family is missing, and the pools of blood and body parts are a clear indication that something very bad has happened on the ship. Drifting in deep space around Neptune, far from earth, no help is coming.
As you search the massive Groomlake for your family, you'll discover the truth behind the research and experiments conducted there, through the PDA logs of scientists and crew members. Those short vignettes flesh out the world, provide insight into the horrific secrets of the Groomlake, and give the setting a real sense of place. It's not just a drifting haunted house; people lived and worked here.
Due to the focus on the narrative, the less known about the plot, the better, but I'll say it's mature, engrossing, and realistic. You're just a normal man, looking for his family, on a research vessel-turned-living nightmare.
However, the game also had several more obtuse puzzles, with confusing combination and uses of items that left me stumped for a while.
You aren't safe either; there are many gruesome ways to die on the Groomlake, from being melted to more...exotic deaths. The stakes are high, and the things John has to do to survive and find his loved ones are easily on par with gaming's most uneasy and disturbing moments. If you thought Heavy Rain's Lizard Trial or Dead Space 2's eye surgery were nauseating, Stasis finds a way to top those moments. This is horror on an intimate level, rather than shadows and monster closets and jump spaces (although there are some of those too).
Despite those gripes, Stasis was one of the most engaging game I've played this year. It's a tightly focused game, about a solid 8 or 9 hours of puzzles and exploration. The unnerving soundscape, the disturbing and mature atmosphere, the wonderfully detailed isometric art style all coalesce into a sci-fi horror game absolutely worth experiencing
You can purchase Stasis on Steam and GOG.
Title: Super Mutant Alien Assault
Developer: Cybernate
Platforms: PC
Price: $9.99
---
On a freighter in deep space, danger lurks. Grotesque mutants emerge from within the walls, altered by radiation. And the only thing between them and your death is a lot of big guns and agile platforming. That's Super Mutant Alien Assault in a nutshell, a randomly-generated 2D shooter inspired by Super Crate Box.
Mutant Alien Assault was already a fun and addictive experience as a flash game, and this expanded version is bigger and better in every way. The core gameplay remains the same: armed with guns and other equipment, you must fend off relentless waves of aliens across random stages. Some stages are pure timed survival, while others have you transporting energy canisters or powering down overheated fuel rods. There's no story or narrative to consider here, just frenetic and colorful action.
Similar to Super Crate Box, you'll pick up randomized weapons, adapting your strategy on the fly depending on what guns you have. From the simple handgun to devastating sniper rifles, machine guns, rocket launchers, rail guns, and more high-tech armaments, the arsenal at your disposal is vast and varied, with new guns added to the pool as you progress.
But your toolset is far more expansive than just guns. Your character can equip a whole suite of randomized gadgets, with slots for explosives, sidearms, defense moves, special abilities, and perks. This extensive loadout means there's your playstyle is always evolving, as you unlock new items for each category, including double-jumping, dashing and doge rolls, temporary shields, area-of-effect energy blasts, hacking, shockwaves, extra health and ammo, blades and explosive boomerangs, and much more.
You'll need every special ability and powerful gun because Super Mutant Alien Assault is a difficult experience. Playthroughs start out relatively easy, but soon you're facing flying and charging foes and bosses. To add to the challenge, these enemies can evolve into more powerful versions if you don't kill them fast enough.
If the alien threat proves too overwhelming to handle on your own, you can team with a friend in local co-op, doubling the on-screen chaos. Super Mutant Alien Assault's pixel art action looks wonderful in motion, with fierce explosions and colorful stages and satisfying weapon effects that makes each new gun and skills a joy to try out.
Super Mutant Alien Assault is currently on Steam Early Access, and the developer promises more stages, enemies, bosses, new items and weapons. You can purchase the game on Steam and Humble.
Developer: Cybernate
Platforms: PC
Price: $9.99
---
On a freighter in deep space, danger lurks. Grotesque mutants emerge from within the walls, altered by radiation. And the only thing between them and your death is a lot of big guns and agile platforming. That's Super Mutant Alien Assault in a nutshell, a randomly-generated 2D shooter inspired by Super Crate Box.
Mutant Alien Assault was already a fun and addictive experience as a flash game, and this expanded version is bigger and better in every way. The core gameplay remains the same: armed with guns and other equipment, you must fend off relentless waves of aliens across random stages. Some stages are pure timed survival, while others have you transporting energy canisters or powering down overheated fuel rods. There's no story or narrative to consider here, just frenetic and colorful action.
Similar to Super Crate Box, you'll pick up randomized weapons, adapting your strategy on the fly depending on what guns you have. From the simple handgun to devastating sniper rifles, machine guns, rocket launchers, rail guns, and more high-tech armaments, the arsenal at your disposal is vast and varied, with new guns added to the pool as you progress.
You'll need every special ability and powerful gun because Super Mutant Alien Assault is a difficult experience. Playthroughs start out relatively easy, but soon you're facing flying and charging foes and bosses. To add to the challenge, these enemies can evolve into more powerful versions if you don't kill them fast enough.
Super Mutant Alien Assault is currently on Steam Early Access, and the developer promises more stages, enemies, bosses, new items and weapons. You can purchase the game on Steam and Humble.
Title: Duskers
Developers: Misfits Attic
Platforms: PC
Price: $19.99
---
There are many ways a game can be immersive. First person games like Mirror's Edge use full-body awareness so you're controlling a body with heft and limbs rather than a disembodied camera. Gone Home, Amnesia, and The Room utilize tactile hands-on gameplay. And then you have games like Her Story and Uplink, where you're not merely controlling a character. You are the character, your computer screen acting as the in-game monitor, a direct window into the game's world.
The recently released Duskers fits in that latter category and this tactical sci-fi survival roguelike utterly succeeds at delivering an immersive, atmospheric experience,
The universe is dead. You are alone. Supplies are dwindling. Welcome to the bleak world of Duskers. As the lone survivor in a galaxy gone silent, you travel from ship to ship, derelict barges and stations and outposts now drifting through space. Fuel and resources diminish with every jump, as you desperately stave off starvation or avoid becoming stranded in the endless abyss.
But exploring vessels yourself is too dangerous because, while you may be the last human,...you certainly aren't the last organism. Death lurks everywhere, from alien horrors and active security systems to radiation leaks.
So you use the next best option, From your ship's console, you remotely guide drones through the dark rooms and corridors. You view the world through your ship's monitor and the drones' limited, grainy camera feeds, sensors and cameras that can fail or make errors. They act as your eyes, ears, and hands from the safety of your ship. And you don't guide these drones through icons or RTS-style controls, but by typing in command lines.
While it may sound archaic and clunky, the command line interface is part of what makes Duskers so brilliant and immersive. Every command must be planned and carefully considered, because if something goes wrong - and it will - you must adapt and improvise on the fly. It gives the game a deliberate, cautious pace, as you command your fragile drones to maneuver between rooms, use motion detectors, gather supplies, power generators, and so on. When you're hurriedly typing in commands as radiation is spreading through an outpost and power is failing and the creatures you had trapped in a room are breaking free, Duskers is at its most tense, thanks to that careful pacing and detached perspective.
But Duskers is also a tactical experience. Scavenged gear can be used to modify drones with lures, cloaking, motion detectors, even the rare weapon, but the best tools are the vessels themselves. You can trap aliens in a room then activate a vessel's on-board defense system, or open an airlock to suck a roaming turret into space. Caution and planning ahead are how you keep your drones intact.
Duskers mixes moments of unease and fear of the unknown with satisfying strategy and on-the-fly improvisation. Similar to Her Story or Uplink, the command console interface results in an immersive intimate experience. You are the last human, controlling your drones, from your computer.
Duskers is on Steam Early Access, but it's already an engaging and challenging game. Procedurally-generated galaxies and ships mean there's a hefty amount of content, and the developers plan to expand the game with more drone upgrades and modifications, more visual effects, atmospheric audio, a finished story, and general polish.
You can purchase Duskers from Steam and Humble,
Developers: Misfits Attic
Platforms: PC
Price: $19.99
---
There are many ways a game can be immersive. First person games like Mirror's Edge use full-body awareness so you're controlling a body with heft and limbs rather than a disembodied camera. Gone Home, Amnesia, and The Room utilize tactile hands-on gameplay. And then you have games like Her Story and Uplink, where you're not merely controlling a character. You are the character, your computer screen acting as the in-game monitor, a direct window into the game's world.
The recently released Duskers fits in that latter category and this tactical sci-fi survival roguelike utterly succeeds at delivering an immersive, atmospheric experience,
The universe is dead. You are alone. Supplies are dwindling. Welcome to the bleak world of Duskers. As the lone survivor in a galaxy gone silent, you travel from ship to ship, derelict barges and stations and outposts now drifting through space. Fuel and resources diminish with every jump, as you desperately stave off starvation or avoid becoming stranded in the endless abyss.
But exploring vessels yourself is too dangerous because, while you may be the last human,...you certainly aren't the last organism. Death lurks everywhere, from alien horrors and active security systems to radiation leaks.
While it may sound archaic and clunky, the command line interface is part of what makes Duskers so brilliant and immersive. Every command must be planned and carefully considered, because if something goes wrong - and it will - you must adapt and improvise on the fly. It gives the game a deliberate, cautious pace, as you command your fragile drones to maneuver between rooms, use motion detectors, gather supplies, power generators, and so on. When you're hurriedly typing in commands as radiation is spreading through an outpost and power is failing and the creatures you had trapped in a room are breaking free, Duskers is at its most tense, thanks to that careful pacing and detached perspective.
Duskers mixes moments of unease and fear of the unknown with satisfying strategy and on-the-fly improvisation. Similar to Her Story or Uplink, the command console interface results in an immersive intimate experience. You are the last human, controlling your drones, from your computer.
You can purchase Duskers from Steam and Humble,
Title: INK
Developer: Zack Bell Games
Platforms: PC, Mac
Price: $4.99
---
Zack Bell was one of the developers behind the platformers Frog Sord and Super III. They were solid platformers even as alphas, but unfortunately, both had to be put on hold. So it was nice to see INK released on Steam, a new game from Bell, just as solid and fun as his past work, and an excellent precision platformer.
The most succinct way to describe INK is Super Meat Boy mixed with The Unfinished Swan. INK was originally made for Ludum Dare 32, and has been expanded with more levels and new mechanics. It's a challenging platformer, each level filled with hazards ranging from roaming enemies and deadly drops to turrets. The controls are responsive, letting you to evade danger with ease and deftly double-jump over projectiles. You're not defenseless either, able to stomp on enemies and bosses to damage them.
But on the other hand, INK feels different from other precision platformers in regards to pacing. Levels in INK start out as blank canvases; sometimes there are enemies visible, but typically, floors and walls are hidden. Upon death or when double-jumping, you release an explosion of paint, revealing the area around you. Gradually, the outlines of surfaces become visible, as you carefully jump around the levels
This change adds an interesting wrinkle to INK's gameplay. I found myself approaching levels more cautiously and slowly than other games in the genre, at least towards the beginning of the levels. It's not until many deaths later that the levels are clearly visible and you can quickly make your way towards the exit.
INK is colorful, fun, and challenging, and adds an interesting technicolor twist to the genre. You can purchase the game on the Steam.
Developer: Zack Bell Games
Platforms: PC, Mac
Price: $4.99
---
Zack Bell was one of the developers behind the platformers Frog Sord and Super III. They were solid platformers even as alphas, but unfortunately, both had to be put on hold. So it was nice to see INK released on Steam, a new game from Bell, just as solid and fun as his past work, and an excellent precision platformer.
The most succinct way to describe INK is Super Meat Boy mixed with The Unfinished Swan. INK was originally made for Ludum Dare 32, and has been expanded with more levels and new mechanics. It's a challenging platformer, each level filled with hazards ranging from roaming enemies and deadly drops to turrets. The controls are responsive, letting you to evade danger with ease and deftly double-jump over projectiles. You're not defenseless either, able to stomp on enemies and bosses to damage them.
This change adds an interesting wrinkle to INK's gameplay. I found myself approaching levels more cautiously and slowly than other games in the genre, at least towards the beginning of the levels. It's not until many deaths later that the levels are clearly visible and you can quickly make your way towards the exit.
Title: Feist
Developer: Bits & Beasts
Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux
Price: $14.99
---
You are not alone in Feist's dense forests and dark caverns but you certainly are on your own. Danger abounds, from traps to deadly animals, and only through quick thinking and agile platforming can you survive. At a glance, Feist may bring to mind puzzle platformers like Limbo, but this action platformer is all about desperate combat.
You're a small fuzzy creature, escaped from the clutches of the bipedal troll-like beasts that roam this atmospheric landscape. In pursuit, you traverse towering trees, overgrown marshes, and claustrophobic caves, using the environment to your advantage to overcome overwhelming odds. You have no means to defend yourself, no talons or tough hide, only your agility and size.
Feist's world is not a kind place. From the start, you're evading spiky caterpillars and buzzing flies that pounce with long stingers. Desperate is the word that describes the experience best; you're always outnumbered and overpowered, always a hair's breath away from death. You're running through logs and under mushrooms to avoid stingers, snatching up rocks and pine cones and twigs to stun and kill creatures.
But your greatest ally is the environment itself. Traps that can skewer you with flying barbs can just as easily be triggered to kill other animals. Stunning flies let you pick them up and fire their stingers. Cave-ins underground can crush leaping spiders if you're quick enough to evade the falling rocks. The reactive environments and fast-paced combat makes for frantic, challenging, and satisfying encounters. Death can occur quite frequently; thankfully frequent checkpoints alleviate some of the frustration,
Feist oozes with atmosphere, from the shadowy aesthetic of the world or hazy reflections as you run past a lake to the haunting soundtrack. It's a short experience, but the tension and challenge doesn't let up. Feist can be purchased from Steam, Humble, GOG, and itch.io.
Developer: Bits & Beasts
Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux
Price: $14.99
---
You are not alone in Feist's dense forests and dark caverns but you certainly are on your own. Danger abounds, from traps to deadly animals, and only through quick thinking and agile platforming can you survive. At a glance, Feist may bring to mind puzzle platformers like Limbo, but this action platformer is all about desperate combat.
You're a small fuzzy creature, escaped from the clutches of the bipedal troll-like beasts that roam this atmospheric landscape. In pursuit, you traverse towering trees, overgrown marshes, and claustrophobic caves, using the environment to your advantage to overcome overwhelming odds. You have no means to defend yourself, no talons or tough hide, only your agility and size.
Feist oozes with atmosphere, from the shadowy aesthetic of the world or hazy reflections as you run past a lake to the haunting soundtrack. It's a short experience, but the tension and challenge doesn't let up. Feist can be purchased from Steam, Humble, GOG, and itch.io.
Title: Starship Rubicon
Developer: Cheerful Ghost Games
Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux
Price: $9.99
---
Earth is gone. The remnants of humanity are drifting in cryopods or were lucky enough to be piloting spaceships off-world. In Starship Rubicon, you alone must defeat the alien Nemesis that wiped your home world off the galactic map. A titanic task for sure, but agile dogfighting and in-depth-customization even the odds
At its core, Starship Rubicon is a space shoot-em-up with rogue-lite elements, as you take on the Nemesis armadas, rescue cryopods, and gather NPC allies. A shmup lives or dies by its gameplay and Starship Rubicon just shines in that aspect. A varied array of ships are available to unlock, each with their own unique starting stats, weapon, special ability, and chassis shape. The latter is important in how it ties in with the game's customization. Similar to Resident Evil 4's inventory system, you fit together modules, some of which are in odd shapes or must link with other pieces.
Those modules allow you to mold each ship to your playstyle. Swap out your laser for a shotgun, tri-blast, flamethrower, gravity gun. Imbue your ship with the ability to teleport, cloak, unleash a barrage of homing missiles. Equip enhanced shields, damage buffs, auto-targeting protection drones, additional armor, and much more. Thrusting between projectiles, boosting to outrun lasers and missiles, cutting the engine to drift forward while firing at pursuing enemies...the fast-paced combat is reminiscent of Vlambeer's sepia bullet hell Luftrausers. Rubicon isn't as frenetic or fast as that game, but the responsive controls and one-against-many dogfights offers a similar satisfying thrill, especially once environmental hazards like black holes and minefields start appearing.
You journey across a galactic map, jumping from node to node and choosing your battles along the way. Each node informs you of what enemy types await and what rewards you'll gain by surviving the encounter, ranging from credits to spend on repairs and at shops to new equipment and allies. This risk/reward system adds another layer to Starship Rubicon's action. Do you risk a tough battle and bring an NPC ship into the fray, knowing there's a greater chance of that companion being destroyed? Choose less challenging fights at the expense of credits and equipment? Decide wisely.
Between a plethora of ships to unlock, a level and ship editor, and a hardcore mode, there are hours of challenging interstellar dogfights to be found in Starship Rubicon. The game is available on Steam, Humble, and itch.io.
An early freeware version, lacking the campaign and ship customization, can be downloaded here.
Developer: Cheerful Ghost Games
Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux
Price: $9.99
---
Earth is gone. The remnants of humanity are drifting in cryopods or were lucky enough to be piloting spaceships off-world. In Starship Rubicon, you alone must defeat the alien Nemesis that wiped your home world off the galactic map. A titanic task for sure, but agile dogfighting and in-depth-customization even the odds
At its core, Starship Rubicon is a space shoot-em-up with rogue-lite elements, as you take on the Nemesis armadas, rescue cryopods, and gather NPC allies. A shmup lives or dies by its gameplay and Starship Rubicon just shines in that aspect. A varied array of ships are available to unlock, each with their own unique starting stats, weapon, special ability, and chassis shape. The latter is important in how it ties in with the game's customization. Similar to Resident Evil 4's inventory system, you fit together modules, some of which are in odd shapes or must link with other pieces.
You journey across a galactic map, jumping from node to node and choosing your battles along the way. Each node informs you of what enemy types await and what rewards you'll gain by surviving the encounter, ranging from credits to spend on repairs and at shops to new equipment and allies. This risk/reward system adds another layer to Starship Rubicon's action. Do you risk a tough battle and bring an NPC ship into the fray, knowing there's a greater chance of that companion being destroyed? Choose less challenging fights at the expense of credits and equipment? Decide wisely.
An early freeware version, lacking the campaign and ship customization, can be downloaded here.
Title: Ronin
Developer: Tomasz Wacławek
Platforms: PC
Price: $12.99
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2D platformer and turn based gameplay sounds like an incongruous mix, but Ronin combines those elements to deliver a fast-paced game of tactical maneuvering and stealth action.
Ronin's story is light, more of a framework for the action than a compelling narrative. You're a motorcycle helmet-wearing heroine exacting vengeance of five powerful people involved in your father's death. Each target is approaching in a similar fashion; across three levels, you hack computers for intel on their locations, and then infiltrate their compound to kill them. This structure means Ronin can feel quite repetitive, as the gameplay doesn't really evolve beyond that core concept.
But what Ronin lacks in story and variety, it makes up for in style and fun. You can move around, scale walls and ceilings, and swing from a grapple hook; once stopped by an enemy, the game becomes turn-based, as you leap between laser sights and strike down foes with your katana. While Ronin makes sure to tell you it isn't a stealth game, there is a slight stealth element. Sticking to the shadows allow you to even the odds through silent kills or move into a better position to start your assault on a room.
You start with an effective array of skills that only expands as you progress. Special abilities such as holographic decoys, teleporting attacks, a ranged sword attack, and more allows you to execute stylish attack combos. A typical encounter has you smashing through a window, leaping between projectiles before swinging into a guard, knocking him through the opposite window, then using your accrued skill points to teleport to a distant enemy and continue your slaughter. It's fast, strategic. and always satisfying to clear a room through a well-planned chain of kills, leaps, and gadgets.
Ronin isn't the longest game - 15 missions, 3 per target - but bonus objectives and a New Game Plus mode adds some replayability. While the mission structure can feel repetitive, the core blend of turn-based action and tactical movement remains stylish and enjoyable throughout.
Ronin is available on Steam, Humble, and GOG, and is coming to PS4, PS Vita, and mobile devices later this year.
Developer: Tomasz Wacławek
Platforms: PC
Price: $12.99
---
2D platformer and turn based gameplay sounds like an incongruous mix, but Ronin combines those elements to deliver a fast-paced game of tactical maneuvering and stealth action.
Ronin's story is light, more of a framework for the action than a compelling narrative. You're a motorcycle helmet-wearing heroine exacting vengeance of five powerful people involved in your father's death. Each target is approaching in a similar fashion; across three levels, you hack computers for intel on their locations, and then infiltrate their compound to kill them. This structure means Ronin can feel quite repetitive, as the gameplay doesn't really evolve beyond that core concept.
You start with an effective array of skills that only expands as you progress. Special abilities such as holographic decoys, teleporting attacks, a ranged sword attack, and more allows you to execute stylish attack combos. A typical encounter has you smashing through a window, leaping between projectiles before swinging into a guard, knocking him through the opposite window, then using your accrued skill points to teleport to a distant enemy and continue your slaughter. It's fast, strategic. and always satisfying to clear a room through a well-planned chain of kills, leaps, and gadgets.
Ronin is available on Steam, Humble, and GOG, and is coming to PS4, PS Vita, and mobile devices later this year.
Title: Steredenn
Developer: Pixelnest Studio
Platforms: PC, Mac
Price: $8.99
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If there's one thing more satisfying than evading screens of varied bullet patterns from increasingly dangerous waves of enemies, it's laying wastes to those incoming enemies with an equally varied array of weapons...and Steredenn delivers on that front in spades.
Steredenn doesn't waste your time. From the first procedurally-generated wave of space pirates, the game offers an uncompromising and frenetic challenge. An armada of ships approach from the right, filling the screen with bullets and lasers and devastating hazards. You alone must face this overwhelming force, dodging between swirling projectiles and sweeping beams and rocket-propelled chainsaws. But agility isn't enough. A powerful selection of weapons lets you even the odds.
Superlasers that tear through entire squadrons. Homing missiles, flamethrowers, and torpedoes. Heavy-hitting crusher bolts, a devastating death ray. More exotic weapons like stasisbeams, drones, and a massive sawblade. Steredenn's arsenal is vast, and you can equip any two weapons at a time, depending on what you come across throughout your playthrough. The game's randomized rogue-lite nature means the combinations might not always be ideal, but on the other hand, you're always coming across new weapons and experimenting with different synergies, such as shield and torpedoes, drill and shotgun, and other interesting combos.
But Steredenn's hectic combat wouldn't be nearly as spectacular if it wasn't for the game's gorgeous art style. Enemy vessels erupt into pixel flames and debris, as you fly past vivid nebulas and galaxies, past flaring suns and capital ship graveyards. Each new stage is an experience to see some new wallpaper-worthy background.
Steredenn is currently on Early Access; the last update added a plethora of new content, including a reworked weapon drop system, the powerful Hypergun, and more enemy waves. You can purchase the game on Steam and Humble.
Developer: Pixelnest Studio
Platforms: PC, Mac
Price: $8.99
---
If there's one thing more satisfying than evading screens of varied bullet patterns from increasingly dangerous waves of enemies, it's laying wastes to those incoming enemies with an equally varied array of weapons...and Steredenn delivers on that front in spades.
Steredenn doesn't waste your time. From the first procedurally-generated wave of space pirates, the game offers an uncompromising and frenetic challenge. An armada of ships approach from the right, filling the screen with bullets and lasers and devastating hazards. You alone must face this overwhelming force, dodging between swirling projectiles and sweeping beams and rocket-propelled chainsaws. But agility isn't enough. A powerful selection of weapons lets you even the odds.
Title: Hand of Fate
Developer: Defiant Development
Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux, PS4, Xbox One
Price: $24.99 (PC), $19.99 (Consoles)
---
I've never been a fan of card games or deck-building; usually the inclusion of the mechanics are a turn-off for me. But Hand of Fate combines card game, dungeon crawler, and action RPG/brawler to deliver a brilliant and incredibly addictive hybrid of an experience.
It all starts with the cards. In Hand of Fate, you have two decks: the equipment deck and the encounter deck. The equipment deck contains all the items you've acquired: weapons, armor, shields, helmets, special abilities, and so on. On the other hand, the encounter deck contains all the potential events and situations you'll face during the game. Deadly trap mazes, ancient alters, rivers to cross and deserts to get lost in, bosses to face, and much more await you in that deck.
When you start out, you only have basic equipment, but you gain more powerful cards to add to your deck. Know you're going up against undead skeletons? Add more holy weapons and armor to your deck. Likewise, you can also choose what cards are in the encounter deck. However, this doesn't mean you can only add easy cards and make the next playthrough a walk in the park. Certain encounters provide tokens when you successfully complete them, and those tokens unlock new cards, thus new equipment and weapons to add to the decks. On top of that, the nefarious Dealer will include unique cards of his own into the game decks, adding more challenges and unpredictable encounters.
Those cards, laid out on the game table, essentially make up the tiles of a dungeon level. With each move, you deplete your limited food supply and if it runs out, you lose health until dying from starvation. This balance of risk and reward is the crux of Hand of Fate's dungeon crawling. Do you explore every card, or take a more straightforward route? You might get lucky, and find a shop or a priest or some new encounter that nets you a better weapon. Or you might find yourself cursed, or making a wager with a tricky Devil, or have goblins steal some gold, or get ambushed. Some encounters play out through choose-your-own adventure-style text; the choices are dictated by the items you might have or the effects of other cards.
Or you might be very unlucky and the Dealer will draw cards from the monster desk. Combat in Hand of Fate is modeled after the popular system seen in the Arkham games, down to counter icons over enemy heads and a shield bash that acts the same as Batman's cape. While the fighting can't live up to its inspiration in terms of animations or fluidity, it excels in other areas. Your early-game rusty axes and swords and light armor are soon replaced by more exotic equipment. Hammers that unleash lighting blasts, swords that set the undead aflame, armor that slows surrounding enemies, helmets that increase your movement speed. Magic abilities let you imbue your attacks with fire or send out magic blades in all directions or freeze enemies in the vicinity. All buffs and abilities stack, allowing you to tailor your play style as a damage-dealing powerhouse or a magic-enhanced tank. And at its core, combat is just fun, as you deflect fireballs from lizardmen, evade bandits, and face powerful Lava Golems and Mages.
All in all, that's the word that best describes Hand of Fate: fun. Other games may have more complex card mechanics or better combat, but combine the addictive nature of the gameplay with the engaging deck-building, the varied locations, and the excellent voice acting from the mysterious Dealer, and you have a compelling experience that you want to dive back into again and again.
Hand of Fate is available on Steam, GOG, Humble, PS4, and Xbox One.
Developer: Defiant Development
Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux, PS4, Xbox One
Price: $24.99 (PC), $19.99 (Consoles)
---
I've never been a fan of card games or deck-building; usually the inclusion of the mechanics are a turn-off for me. But Hand of Fate combines card game, dungeon crawler, and action RPG/brawler to deliver a brilliant and incredibly addictive hybrid of an experience.
It all starts with the cards. In Hand of Fate, you have two decks: the equipment deck and the encounter deck. The equipment deck contains all the items you've acquired: weapons, armor, shields, helmets, special abilities, and so on. On the other hand, the encounter deck contains all the potential events and situations you'll face during the game. Deadly trap mazes, ancient alters, rivers to cross and deserts to get lost in, bosses to face, and much more await you in that deck.
When you start out, you only have basic equipment, but you gain more powerful cards to add to your deck. Know you're going up against undead skeletons? Add more holy weapons and armor to your deck. Likewise, you can also choose what cards are in the encounter deck. However, this doesn't mean you can only add easy cards and make the next playthrough a walk in the park. Certain encounters provide tokens when you successfully complete them, and those tokens unlock new cards, thus new equipment and weapons to add to the decks. On top of that, the nefarious Dealer will include unique cards of his own into the game decks, adding more challenges and unpredictable encounters.
Hand of Fate is available on Steam, GOG, Humble, PS4, and Xbox One.
