- By Ash
- in Indie Games
[Update]: Sifu has now arrived, and as expected, it's quite a challenging experience!
Inspired by Kung Fu movies of old, Sifu is an upcoming martial arts action-roguelike about revenge, perseverance, and naturally, beating up scores upon scores of nameless henchmen. Much like Sloclap's previous game Absolver, Sifu offers you a massive array of moves and combos to experiment with, along with the ability to counteract everything your opponents throw at you... provided you're skilled enough to actually pull it off.
Failure is not the end, however, as even death itself is only a mere inconvenience to Sifu. Should you fall in battle you will rise again, older and more haggard than before, but more than capable to bring righteous vengeance to those that felled you. This obviously can't go on forever, so while you do get plenty of chances, you'll still need to do your best to stay alive and young in order to clean out all of the big bad bosses.
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
[Update]: The seemingly final update has now arrived, and with it the much-anticipated co-op mode!
All good things must eventually come to an end, and so the story focused action-roguelike Children of Morta is now preparing for its final update. In order to give it the sendoff it truly deserves, the February 14th update will bring with it one of the most frequently requested features - an online co-op mode!
So instead of having to rely on local split-screen, or various services that emulate that, after this final update you'll be able to just join a friend and venture into the wilds together without any sort of hassle. A remarkably simple concept, but also one that took a fair bit of time and effort to actually implement.
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
[Update]: Achilles: Legends Untold has now arrived, and while it does show promise it's still a bit rough around the edges.
In a bit of an usual combination of genres, the upcoming Achilles: Legends Untold is a Diablo-inspired action-RPG with healthy smattering of Souls-like mechanics. In other words, you'll not only need to slice and dice through large groups of enemies, but also take great care of your positioning and timing as they'll often be the only things keeping you from becoming a colorful stain on the floor.
Since the combat system is the very core of Achilles, and also something that happens to be tricky to describe through words alone, allow me to stop yammering and instead share with you the original reveal trailer. It should clue you in quite quickly on just what Achilles: Legends Untold is trying to do. Have a peek:
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
[Update]: Shovel Knight's dungeon-digging roguelite spin-off Shovel Knight Dig is set to arrive on September 23rd, 2022.
After finally finishing up all of the extra content planned for Shovel Knight, the Yacht Club Games team has now set their sights on their next big action-adventure - Mina the Hollower. According to the already-funded Kickstarter, Mina the Hollower will be an 8-bit trip down memory lane inspired by classics like Castlevania, The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, and apparently even Bloodborne!
What all of this might look like in actual gameplay, that you can find out through the freshly posted announcement trailer. Have a gander, it's just as charming as Shovel Knight:
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
Much like Jagged Alliance from which it draws a great deal of inspiration, the upcoming Project Haven is a turn-based tactics game where you control a squad of highly customizable mercs sent on a variety of nearly suicidal missions. In order to succeed you'll need to utilize an assortment of different tools and weapons, carefully plan your approach, and then solve each problem with a combination of stealth, strategy and vast quantities of explosives.
Where Project Haven differs greatly from Jagged Alliance is in the aiming. All of it is done from a 3rd person view, giving you the option to aim exactly where you want to. Headshots grant bonus damage, shots to an enemy's weapon can potentially disarm them or at least mess up their aim, while hits to the legs will obviously slow them down. You'll still have to rely on good ol' fashioned percentages in order to actually score a hit, but being able to personally choose what you're shooting at is certainly a nifty idea.
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
[Update]: Prepare to die over and over again as the Ashes of Vados expansion has now arrived.
After greatly expanding the world and fixing many of the post-launch complaints with the chunky Afterlife update, the Souls-like Metroidvania Death's Gambit is now getting ready for its very first paid DLC - Ashes of Vados. You can expect to see it launch onto PC this February 10th, while the Switch and PlayStation versions will be arriving at some point in Spring.
In terms of content, Ashes of Vados will bring with it the continuation of the main storyline along with a climactic boss fight against Ash. Should you manage to succeed, you will also unlock a drastically different and much more challenging version of the encounter called "The Eldritch Hand!" Keeping on with the theme, there will also be devious new platforming challenges to overcome in the appropriately named Halls of Cruelty.
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
[Update]: Vampire Survivors will be getting a new engine with greatly enhanced performance this Summer.
Like many things in life, good games come in all shapes and sizes. There are some that are so ridiculously elaborate that you can spend dozens of hours playing them without feeling like you've cracked the surface of what's on offer. And then there are games that do exactly one thing, but they do it so well that you can't help but keep playing them into the wee hours of the morning.
The recently released Vampire Survivors, a game that has been making quite a splash over the past week, belongs in that second category. It's essentially a Castlevania inspired and super-casual roguelike where you get to mow down hundreds upon hundreds of enemies while watching your powers grow to absurd levels.
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
Dread Hunger is one of those survival games where the challenge isn't in staying alive amidst the freezing cold, but rather in trying to actually do anything productive while the entire world descends into utter madness around you. After all, it's not every day you get to see a group of grown men furiously argue aboard a sinking ship about who deserves the last bowl of soup, completely unaware you poisoned the entire batch a while ago!
If that kind of nonsense sounds like something you'd love to sink your teeth into, you'll be happy to hear that after about a year in Early Access Dread Hunger has now been officially released! Here's a brief trailer showing off the whole premise:
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
[Update #2]: Achilles: Legends Untold has launched into Early Access, and while it does show promise it's still a bit rough around the edges.
[Update]: Achilles: Legends Untold has now launched into Open Beta, so if you're interested in giving it a try, make sure to do so before the whole thing closes down on February 10, 2022.
The upcoming Achilles: Legends Untold is bit of an interesting combination of genres. On one hand it is a Diablo inspired action game where you get to slice and dice your way through entire armies, and on the other hand it's a Souls-like RPG where timing and positioning are often the only difference between being victorious or simply splattered across the floor.
In order to spice things up even further, the AI in Achilles: Legends Untold is designed to cooperate rather than simply rush at you. So as long as they have numerical superiority, the enemies will try a variety of different strategies in order to catch you off your guard. A pretty neat idea, provided it doesn't get too predictable anyway.
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
Much like the original, La-Mulana 2 is a deviously challenging puzzle-exploration game that doesn't hold your hand in any way. As such, an average playthrough is going to have you singlehandedly dismantle complex puzzles, solve obscure riddles, and often spend considerable amounts of time trying to figure out if the strange wall in front of you is simply ornamental or some kind of mysterious clue you aren't fully comprehending!
If that kind of difficulty sounds like something you live for, you'll be happy to hear that La-Mulana 2 has just added its very first piece of DLC - The Tower of Oannes. The newly added map stands shoulder to shoulder with the Hell Temple in terms of difficulty, which as you might imagine given the name, means that you're in for quite a ride!