- By Ash
- in Indie Games
[Update]: Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor is a surprisingly challenging roguelite auto-shooter spin-off.
In order to give everyone an excuse to stay at home and avoid the scorching heat, the Deep Rock Galactic team has now launched the Space Beach Party 2023 event. Much like its predecessor the event brings with it a bunch of summer themed decorations (including water balloons!) for the Space Rig, a couple of silly hats to acquire, as well as doubled seasonal experience points to help you speed through the entirely free Battle Pass.
Speaking of hats, you can grab the Great White Delight pictured above by completing a simple seasonal assignment before the whole event goes away on August 17th. And if you missed last year's festivities, worry not as those hats are also up for grabs through the extra "Last Year’s Fashion" assignment. So if you always wanted to run around with a pink flamingo on your head, consider this your lucky day!
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
Following in the footsteps of games like Slay the Spire, Oaken is a turn-based, card-slinging roguelike set in a world inhabited by all sorts of cutesy nature spirits. Each run will have start by choosing your basic loadout and abilities, after which you'll be let loose to explore the world, fight an assortment of enemies with a combination of spells and spirits, and naturally, upgrade the power level of your cards to the point of absurdity.
What all of this looks like in action, as well as how adorable the art style really is, that you can check out through the recently posted trailer. Have a little peek:
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
[Update]: Turbo Overkill's Version 1.0 has now arrived, and as I've detailed throughout my review, it's a ton of fun!
If you're like me and you were looking forward to blasting all sorts of fleshy abominations in Turbo Overkill's long-awaited final chapter, I'm afraid I have some bad news to deliver. According to the latest developer update, Turbo Overkill's full release has been postponed for a couple of weeks in order to polish things up just a bit more. The new launch date has now been set for August 11th.
“In short, the game is complete from start to finish,” reads the brief announcement. “We technically could release now, but we felt we need a little more time to resolve a lot of other things. We are not 100% there with some of the optimization and level flow. The multiplayer suite is still a little rusty (needs more options) and the amount of bugs I've encountered in the campaign I feel are a little much.”
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
[Update]: Right on cue, Oaken has now been unleashed from Early Access!
Oaken is a card-slinging, turn-based roguelike set in a randomly generated world inhabited by all sorts of nature spirits, both friendly and otherwise. True to its genre, Oaken's gameplay is all about navigating the world Slay the Spire style and weighing the possible risks and rewards of each branching path, fighting tricksy enemies with a combination of spells and spirits, and naturally, managing your deck and making your spirits as obscenely powerful as possible.
After spending about a year in Early Access, Oaken is now just about ready to be released in full. To be more specific, you can expect to see it leave Early Access and land onto PC, PlayStation, Xbox and Switch this July 20th.
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
[Update #2]: Vampire Survivors is soon getting a sizable, Among Us inspired DLC - Emergency Meeting.
[Update]: Update 1.6 has now arrived with local co-op and a brand new engine, as well as a couple of little teasers for upcoming content!
Despite it being nearly two years since Vampire Survivors first landed onto Steam, the quality of its updates doesn't appear to be dropping. If anything, each new one is even more impressive than the last!
This goes doubly so for the upcoming August 17th update as not only will it be adding a local co-op mode, but it'll also fully transition Vampire Survivors to a brand new engine. Best of all, the co-op update and all of its contents will be entirely free for everyone to mess around with.
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
[Update #2]: It took a while, but Dredge has now launched its very first expansion - The Pale Reach!
[Update]: Dredge's third update has added the often requested boat customization and 'craberrations'.
In order to help tide players over before the first DLC arrives at some point later this year, the Black Salt Games team has just unleashed the second update for their Lovecraftian fishing game Dredge. First and foremost, Update 2 has brought with it the ability to photograph the wildlife and the various Eldritch horrors that lurk in the depths, along with a brand new NPC to help you along on your journey of cataloging the local fauna.
If you don't feel like dealing with all of the spooky things trying to nibble on your boat, Update 2 has also added a Passive Mode that works exactly like you would expect. As long as it's turned on, enemies will simply ignore you and swim around you, thus giving you the perfect chance to photograph them.
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
[Update #2]: Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor is a surprisingly challenging roguelite auto-shooter spin-off.
[Update]: Deep Rock Galactic's Space Beach Party event has arrived with festive decorations, silly hats and doubled Battle Pass experience.
After a surprisingly long stretch of teasers and previews, Deep Rock Galactic's much-anticipated Season 4: Critical Corruption has now finally arrived. The free update brings with it a wide assortment of new enemies to shred into tiny little pieces, both variations of existing ones and entirely new creatures. You can also look forward to a gnarly new boss, an arcade cabinet loaded with the classic Jetty Boot game, a whole bunch of improvements and balance tweaks, and most importantly, Jet Boots!
Before you get too excited, it's important to mention that these Jet Boots are only temporary and not a part of anyone's regular equipment. To use them you'll first need to locate a special crate somewhere in a mission, hack it by playing the completely original Jetty Boot mini-game, and then slap them on. Once you've done that you'll be able to fly around to your heart's content throughout that entire mission, and even burn enemies by flying over them!
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
[Update]: I've now reviewed World of Horror's version 1.0 and I'm happy to say that, despite some issues, it's a highly enjoyable roguelike!
After spending a surprising amount of time in Early Access, the Junji Ito inspired horror-adventure World of Horror has now finally received a release date! You can expect to see the full version launch onto PC, Switch and PlayStation on October 19th, 2023. No further details have been shared just yet, but I can only imagine the launch version will come alongside a sizable update, and a price increase.
For now, however, allow me to share with you the recently posted trailer showing off the unique visual style and some of the gameplay. Have a peek:
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
In an effort to shake up the usual formula, Frictional Games have made the freshly released Amnesia: The Bunker a non-linear experience with a focus on emergent gameplay and replayability. In other words, Amnesia: The Bunker brings with it a semi-open world to explore, a fair bit of randomization to keep things interesting, multiple solutions to many puzzles, and most importantly of all, a seemingly Alien: Isolation inspired monster that will actively try to hunt you down!
Since trying to describe a horror game through words alone is a futile effort, allow me to share with you the launch trailer. That one should give you a pretty good idea of what sort of atmosphere Amnesia: The Bunker is going for, as well as what the gameplay's like. Have a little peek:
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
[Update]: PowerWash Simulator has unleashed a Warhammer 40,000 crossover DLC filled with heavy machinery.
It would appear that the success of the Lara Croft and Final Fantasy VII crossovers has really encouraged the PowerWash Simulator team to try to go for bigger and more ambitious additions. As such, not only is PowerWash Simulator getting the previously announced SpongeBob SquarePants crossover at some point this year, but also a Warhammer 40,000 themed update!
Whether this is going to be a free update like the first two crossovers or a paid DLC like SpongeBob, I'm afraid nobody outside of FuturLab currently knows. That said, since the crossover was announced during the Skulls 2023 event celebrating 40 years of Warhammer, I'm definitely expecting the whole thing to be a bit more bombastic than the usual update, so it's quite likely it'll be a piece of paid content. That is purely speculation on my part, however, so it's still entirely possible we'll be able to spray down an Imperial Knight without reaching for our wallets.