When United States president Theodore Roosevelt is kidnapped by mysterious forces, it’s up to you, a stalwart little robot agent, to head out and save him – that’s the basic premise of Bartlow’s Dread Machine, a charming twin-stick shooter that’s just launched via Steam Early Access and is ready to take the mechanical world by storm.
The ratio of indie versus AAA games has seemingly shifted in the past few years, at least judging by the recently-held Steam Game Festival. However, a numerical advantage in itself – no matter how much gamers longing for an indie renaissance desire it – is hardly a guarantee that the majority of the games we end up getting will offer more than a regurgitation of the easily marketable formulas so prevalent in the industry. With that said, our staff set out to fish out some of the more promising titles from the crowd – below are my brief impressions of all the games I’ve personally tried, from best to worst.
As a result of the ongoing global pandemic, a new trend has emerged in the game industry: digital events taking the place of actual, physical trade shows. One such digital event is Steam’s so-called Game Festival, which essentially allowed everyone around the world to try out early demo versions for a large selection of upcoming games – needless to say, we felt compelled to dive right into the thick of it and take several promising titles for a spin. Here are our quick thoughts on each of them:
The Waylanders, developed by Gato Studio, is a party-based RPG with an ambitious mission, to say the least. According to its Steam store page, it’s a project that the supposed veterans of the Dragon Age and Mass Effect franchises have worked on, and a game that very much tries to live up to that illustrious legacy. Needless to say, this carries with itself a certain set of expectations...
Set in the same universe as Blackwell with an even greater emphasis on the supernatural, Unavowed follows a protagonist freshly liberated from the clutches of a demonic possession that lasted a whole year.
The game industry has told the tale of valiant heroes time and again – determined warriors fighting to save mankind, eradicating all the monsters and all the evil that dare stand in their way: because, as we know, good always prevails. But not this time…
What many have been anticipating has finally been officially announced – Killing Floor 2, the sequel to the widely popular online co-op zombie FPS, is in the works and if developer Tripwire’s vision is realized, will be gorier than any other shooter on the market.
If human history and civilization is fully explored, where to proceed next? “To outer space, of course!” – echoed the order from Sid Meier, who, soon enough, will cast brave players into the dark unknown of outer space and a human civilization that – as the title implies – goes beyond just Earth.
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, an upcoming psychological horror of considerable promise, is a labor of love born from the efforts of the 8-man team at Polish studio The Astronauts.
The story of Reaper of Souls, as one would expect, is going to continue the plot where the original Diablo III left off: a new evil, Malthael, a former Archangel of Wisdom returns after a long absence as an Angel of Death to threaten the world of Sanctuary with unimaginable horrors.
