We’ve reached the midway point of the year’s very first month, which means even more indie games to watch out for – here are some of the most promising releases from the second week of January!
Quarantine Zone: The Last Check
You control a checkpoint during the zombie apocalypse and need to decide who’s infected, and who’s free to go. Make sure you don’t make any wrong decisions, though – one mistake could cause the infection to spread, and you… probably don’t want that. Yeah.
Philna Fantasy
A pixel art fantasy RPG starring an adventurer from an alien planet who happens to crash-land on the continent of Votland, and must embark on a comfy, classics-inspired journey with monsters to slay, dungeons to explore, and puzzles to solve. It’s not earth-shatteringly unique, but it looks cute and does a great job of tickling my nostalgia muscles, which is always a plus.
BrokenLore: UNFOLLOW
A psychological horror game about the impact of social media on mental health, BrokenLore: UNFOLLOW explores the story of Anne, a victim of bullying who must explore a nightmarish world teeming with danger and unspeakable creatures as she untangles its darkest mysteries. The premise alone already pulled me in, but the game’s presentation looks absolutely terrifying as well, so… yeah. Sign me up.
One Turn Kill
A card game where you need to KO your enemies in one turn? Yup. One Turn Kill, as its title very much implies, focuses on one-turn kills – players engage in stylish pixel art battles and assemble the perfect combination of cards and skills in order to defeat their enemies in a single turn… or risk facing their devastating, life-ending counterattacks.
Kotama and Academy Citadel
Do you like cute anime girls? Do you like flashy combat? How about metroidvania-style exploration? Kotama and Academy Citadel has all three – it’s a side-scrolling action game set inside the titular academy, with the mysterious exchange student Kotama (i.e. you) joining the competition for the so-called Carmel Star.
Hank: Drowning On Dry Land
You’re Hank, a time-traveling vigilante superhero who simply wanted a nice sip of beer, but ended up getting poisoned instead – he now has to enter his own subconscious to try and find something in there that might save him. Hank: Drowning On Dry Land seems like a thoroughly wild ride that’s unlike anything I’ve seen in recent years, featuring an absolutely bonkers visual style and the ability to reverse time and re-do events using your knowledge of the future. Be careful, though: your past self is still around, and you probably don’t want to cause a massive paradox by running into him. I think we’ve all seen Back to the Future.
