Time Treker wasn’t an easy game for me to judge. In fact, after my first hour with the title, I felt certain that it simply wasn’t for me... until it was. But before I get ahead of myself, let’s actually talk about what it even is.
Soulslikes have become an immensely popular genre, with many a developer trying their hand at crafting their version of what From Software began more than a decade ago. We’ve seen creators put their own spin on the genre in various ways, but what if I told you there was a game that sort of just... paid homage to the original Dark Souls in a very obvious way?
I love games that let you unwind in a Zen kind of way. Whether it’s arranging your personal belongings in a title like Unpacking, or driving across a lonely highway in the calming silence of the night in Euro Truck Simulator 2, I can always appreciate it when a game lets you completely tune out the outside world to the point it becomes almost therapeutic.
Man, how do I even begin? Dark and Deep is a game that kept me in a cautiously optimistic mood at first, because clearly a good deal of work had gone into it. It’s a first-person, narrative-driven adventure game with puzzle-solving and mild exploration as its main focus, featuring a storyline that’s hoping to blur the lines between the real and the nightmarish.
The game wastes no time when it comes to grabbing you by the collar and pulling you right into its creepy, Lovecraftian bog of otherworldly secrets, utilizing narrated quotes from the original story to set its eerie mood.
Mountains of Madness is pretty much an exploration simulator, where 90% of your gameplay will consist of wandering around massive open spaces and trying to find your way forward with varying levels of success.
When I first came across Felvidek, the initial emotion I felt was probably... confusion. I was taken by surprise by what I was seeing: a retro-style RPG set in medieval Europe (more specifically, 15th century Slovakia), with engaging turn-based combat, extremely lofi graphics, dialogue scenes that alternate between the serious and the outrageously comedic, and a plot that takes a handful of unexpected turns?
The genre of brick breaker video games is as old as time itself – a genre that most people probably associate with oldschool, tried-and-true titles like Breakout and the original Arkanoid. Needless to say, I approached Firebat Revolution, an absolute love letter to that bygone era of gaming, with ample curiosity; as I wrote in my initial coverage of the project, Firebat Revolution does a great job of authentically recreating the style and feel of a game that could’ve come out for PC in the mid-1990s.
Instead of making you memorize and practice combos like most fighting games, Yomi 2 focuses entirely on the mental aspects of the genre, choosing to instead represent its flashy brawls in the form of quick card matches where planning – and listening to your gut – is key.
If you’ve played the demo of INDIKA, you probably understand why it was one of my most anticipated releases of the year – a strange, historical narrative game taking place in a bizarre, alternate version of 19th century Russia that presents its dramatic story with a healthy dose of absurd comedy, developer Odd Meter’s odd little project is something that I can only describe as... a genuine breath of fresh air.
