Welcome to GTOGG’s February 2024 edition of Promising Indie Game Releases, where we highlight indie and non-mainstream titles that we believe deserve your attention – in other words, “look at all this potentially cool stuff you might’ve missed otherwise”. That would’ve been too long for a title, though.
In any case, let’s get right down to it.
The Inquisitor
The Inquisitor is a dark fantasy action-adventure game based on the books of Polish author Jacek Piekara. Taking an alternative approach to religious history, the game states that when Jesus was crucified, the son of God overcame with unbridled rage, came down from the cross and enacted bloody vengeance upon the nonbelievers – his acts then became the foundation of the Church, which now upholds the belief in God with an iron fist, focused on violence and revenge. Dropped into this alternate world, players will take on the role of Mordimer Madderdin, an inquisitor in the service of the Church who travels to the town of Konigstein to solve unholy mysteries and judge sinners as he sees fit. The Inquisitor is described as a non-linear adventure peppered with a variety of moral choices – comprised of numerous cases and missions, the storyline will see Mordimer tracking down and interrogating suspects, collecting necessary clues and making difficult decisions, displaying either mercy or his undying loyalty to the Church.
Pacific Drive
Pacific Drive promises quite a unique experience: set in a reimagined version of the Pacific Northwest, players will venture into the so-called Olympic Exclusion Zone, an area filled with danger, anomalies and secrets just waiting to be uncovered. However, if you think you’ll be making the entire journey on foot, you’re quite wrong: as the title of the game implies, Pacific Drive revolves around you and your car – a trusty vehicle that you can upgrade and fine-tune from the abandoned garage serving as your home base.
Spiritfall
Combining platform fighter combat with traditional roguelite mechanics, Spiritfall originally launched in Early Access last April, introducing interested players to a world where death is hardly permanent – if anything, it just makes you stronger as you tap into the destructive powers offered to you by the divine spirits, and create powerful combos to demolish your opposition with. The project leaves Early Access this February, adding a final region and boss fight, along with an optional boss, the alternate form of the 5th weapon, additional challenges, and a few unnamed surprises as well.
Slave Zero X
Described as a “biopunk” action game inspired by Devil May Cry, Guilty Gear and Strider, Slave Zero X will take players to a dystopian future where humanity is about to unleash an army of deadly biomecha warriors known only as Slaves – in order to stop them, Shou, our protagonist, merges with one such Slave unit and becomes a deadly warrior capable of harnessing untold destruction. The idea, I suppose, is to fight fire with fire. The game promises oodles of action and plenty of visceral combos as you fight your way through grunts and bosses alike, as well as a “Bloody Palace” mode that unlocks after the main campaign is completed and will offer additional challenges.
Alisa: Developer's Cut
This retro-style survival horror game, which pays homage to early genre classics and was originally launched for PC in 2021, will be available on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Switch and Xbox consoles in February. Starring a female agent called Alisa, the game begins as you mysteriously find yourself transported to a strange, Victorian-style mansion filled with mechanized dolls and countless other dangers. Your job? To survive and find a way out, obviously. Alisa promises a visual aesthetic reminiscent of 3D games from the late 90s (with pre-rendered backgrounds, naturally), and is described as having an odd sense of humor, numerous enemies, multiple weapons and outfits, as well as a challenging, Soulsborne-style difficulty level for fans of true survival. So, if you’re looking for a trip down memory lane but haven’t quite given the game a shot until now, this might be a good opportunity to do so.
WRATH: Aeon of Ruin
WRATH: Aeon of Ruin is a first-person shooter very clearly inspired by genre classics such as Quake, Hexen, Unreal and more, and will finally launch its full version this February after having been in Early Access since 2019. Handing you an arsenal of deadly weapons, WRATH will let you experience a classic 90s FPS romp across multiple interconnected areas, and is adding even more content for its 1.0 launch: a fully-implemented story, three extra bosses, as well as a handful of new weapons, enemies, sigils, artifacts and various other improvements, such as better AI, better map layouts, reworked balance, improved performance and much more. There is one piece of sad news to go along with the above, though: despite their initial plans, the developers have since decided to cut multiplayer from the game.
