- By Ash
- in Indie Games
[Update #2]: Helldivers 2 will soon be getting the EXO-45 Patriot Exosuits teased all the way back at launch.
[Update]: My 70+ hour review of Helldivers 2 is now out, and I'm delighted to say that the game is phenomenal!
Following in the footsteps of games like Risk of Rain 2, Arrowhead Game Studios have decided to really shake things up for the sequel to their 2015 co-op shooter Helldivers. As such, not only is Helldivers 2 going to be bigger, better and more polished than its predecessor, but it'll also forgo the restricting top-down view in favor of a more personal and higher fidelity third-person one.
When it comes to the actual gameplay, it should come as little surprise to hear that Helldivers 2 will equip you with an assortment of absurdly overpowered weaponry and throw you into the meatgrinder against equally absurd numbers of enemies. Add to that a plethora of toys that all cause copious amounts of friendly fire, a constant stream of chaos and nonsense, as well as overly patriotic, Starship Troopers flavored dialogue, and you've got yourself the building blocks of a (hopefully) highly entertaining co-op game.
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
A fair bit of time has gone by since Hades 2 was first announced, but I'm happy to say that we now have at least a bit more information about it. First and foremost, Hades 2 will be heading into Early Access (both on Steam and the Epic Games Store) in Q2, 2024, though no exact release date has been announced just yet.
Much like its predecessor, the initial version of Hades 2 will come with a sizable amount of content, which will then be expanded through a variety of updates guided by player feedback. These types of updates will bring with them additional characters (likely meaning non-playable ones), new and expanded storylines, deeper interactions, and naturally, more areas to explore and enemies to clobber.
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
If you're in the mood for something a little bit unusual, you might want to check out the somewhat recently released Slay the Princess. To put it quite simply, it's a narrative-driven horror game where all you have to do is slay the princess in order to save the world. Naturally, things don't stay that simple for very long as the story quickly spirals into a myriad of different directions, time loops and other bizarre scenarios, all of which will slowly lead you to the truth behind it all.
Since trying to explain all of this through words alone is a bit of a futile endeavor, allow me to instead share with you the freshly posted launch trailer. Have a gander, it should hopefully clarify a couple of things... hopefully:
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
Despite its numerous advances over the years, some of Project Zomboid's systems and features are currently still in a placeholder state - they work, but only just. The best example of this is the entire Electrical skill as not only is there very little to do with it, but actually increasing your skill level is such a monumentally grindy task that most people probably haven't even explored what little content there is.
Thankfully, it looks like the upcoming Update 42 will be changing all of this for the better. First and foremost, the entire crafting system will be getting overhauled in an effort to make a unified and expansive system that will be able to work with anything from simple crafting stations to complex machines and appliances. This will also bring with it a rework of every single crafting skill as the new system will allow for more customizable recipes and a greater degree of complexity, both of which will be needed if you're planning to make a functioning post-apocalyptic society.
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
While Vampire Survivors has plenty of references to other games and media, the freshly released Emergency Meeting DLC is its very first actual crossover. So instead of simply having a bean-like character run around acting all 'sus' or whatever the youngins shout these days, the Emergency Meeting DLC has brought with it a whole host of characters and weapons directly based on Among Us.
In gameplay terms this means there's nine new characters to mess around with, fifteen new weapons of which seven are evolutions, as well as a thematic new stage to explore. There's also a brand new Adventure, a couple of new music tracks, and most importantly of all for Vampire Survivors veterans, a good chunk of new achievements to hunt down!
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
In announcement that I don't think anyone could've ever predicted, the Poncle team have revealed that Vampire Survivors will soon be getting an Among Us inspired DLC! And when I say soon, I really do mean that as Vampire Survivors: Emergency Meeting will be launching on December 18th, 2023 for PC and Xbox, while the Switch and mobile versions will be coming at a later date.
As is tradition, this announcement was followed by a somewhat insane, albeit still awesome animated trailer. Have a gander, it's quite a fun one:
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
The Trine 5: A Clockwork Conspiracy team has recently launched Update #2 with it a whole bunch of bug fixes and quality-of-life improvements. While its name and contents might seem quite unassuming, Update #2 is actually rather significant as it also brings with it a highly important and often requested feature - crossplay!
Thanks to Update #2 you're now able to join games and play together with your friends regardless of which PC storefront or console they might have the game on. And in order to make sure private games can function under the new system, consoles have also been given a virtual keyboard to facilitate password input. It's a little bit clunky, but it sure beats having random people barge in!
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
After a couple of quality-of-life focused updates, the Lovecraftian fishing game Dredge has now finally released some new content to explore. The freshly launched The Pale Reach expansion brings with it a bite-sized story about a monster lurking deep beneath the ice, a chilly new biome filled with all sorts of new fish, a variety of new equipment to help you catch said fish, as well as a few other bits and bobs to spice up your playthrough.
What all of this looks like in action, that you can check out through the launch trailer below. Have a gander, it's quite a pretty one:
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
In celebration of Risk of Rain's tenth anniversary, Hopoo Games have now unleashed Risk of Rain Returns. This comprehensive remaster brings with it greatly improved visuals, three new Survivors, dozens of new stage variants, a brand new challenge mode, as well as a whole bunch of new items and enemies to mess around with.
Besides all of the new content, Risk of Rain Returns has also freshened up a bunch of the old stuff. You can look forward to a revamped multiplayer mode, alternate abilities for all of the original Survivors, extra lore to uncover, and perhaps most importantly of all, a large array of quality of life changes to make everything just a bit smoother.
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
If you were looking forward to diving into the narrative driven and Fallout inspired CRPG Broken Roads this November 14th, I'm afraid I have some good and bad news to share. Well, it's the same news really. In order to ensure everything is polished up and ready to go, the Drop Bear Bytes team has just pushed the release date back to early 2024.
“Since 2019 the Drop Bear Bytes team has been pouring their hearts & souls into Broken Roads, spending countless hours designing, troubleshooting, and adjusting to player feedback”, reads the brief update. “While Broken Roads is still coming, we've made the decision to delay the release to allow for additional polish time and QA manpower plus resources to ensure a higher quality bar for the thousands of permutations that can arise.”