Being trapped in a facility – or on a spaceship – while a hostile alien entity is trying to hunt you down is likely a video game premise we’ve all heard of: from Amnesia: The Dark Descent to Alien: Isolation, a large variety of games have made sure that the idea of playing a deadly cat-and-mouse game with a relentless adversary would become an integral part of the horror genre’s collective consciousness.
Awesomenauts developer Ronimo Games has announced a July 29 launch date for the Steam Early Access version of multiplayer dungeon crawler Blightbound.
Created by Stian Willums, one of the developers on 2016’s horror adventure Through the Woods, the game tells the story of Amund Vreim, a young man who ends up taking a job as a substitute caretaker at an aging Norwegian church – and then, as you might expect, strange things start happening.
In Deathground, you and potentially a couple of other people are dropped into zones teeming with clever, reactive dinosaurs that can and will hunt you down if you’re not quick on your feet – so get in there, collect some loot, then get out before you end up becoming dino food.
Set in the same universe as the popular Vampire: The Masquerade franchise, the game will focus on the eternal struggle of werewolves as they try to save Gaia – our world – from death and corruption; in Earthblood, you take on the role of a werewolf named Cahal, a former exile who now returns to his old clan to fight the evil corporation of Endron.
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...
So, first things first. WarriOrb is a platformer that has you take on the role of a demon trapped in an orb-like body – and indeed, this is no coincidence at all, as the game’s puzzles and multitude of challenging obstacle courses demand that you jump and hop around the place like a sentient, out-of-control basketball.
Team Ladybug’s project has, at long last, launched via Steam Early Access, affectionately mixing the setting and characters of the famed Lodoss War franchise with stylish Metroidvania action and gorgeous pixel art. Which sounds fantastic on paper, but how does it all work out in practice?
