- By Ash
- in Indie Games
If you're in the mood for roaming the world in search of monsters to catch, and perhaps even creating a couple of your own, you might want to give the freshly launched Cassette Beasts a look. To put it quite simply, Cassette Beasts is a Pokemon inspired turn-based tactics game where you can fuse literally any two monsters together to amplify their abilities and hopefully get an upper hand over your opponents. Best of all, each one is fully animated, so discovering all of the combinations should be a nice bit of fun!
Besides smashing monsters together, Cassette Beasts will also task you with exploring an open world, solving puzzles, and delving trough dungeons. In true Pokemon fashion, certain monster abilities can also be used outside of combat in order to aid with exploration, so you'll definitely want to revisit old areas every once in a while in order to see what new secrets or shortcuts you can uncover.
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
[Update #2]: Dredge's Patch 1.1 has now made navigation smoother and added quality-of-life improvements,
[Update]: Good news! Dredge is getting an expansion alongside a couple of quality-of-life focused updates!
Whether we're talking about real life or video games, I must admit I don't like fishing. It's a slow, boring activity that mostly seems like an excuse to crack open a few beers and kick up your feet. Yet despite this, I found myself really enamored with Dredge - a Lovecraftian exploration game that's almost entirely about roaming the isles looking for strange new fish to annoy.
The main reason Dredge got its hooks into me is the simple yet compelling gameplay loop. You need to catch fish and collect various materials in order to upgrade your ship, which then allows you to explore further and catch even bigger fish, which then lets you upgrade your ship with even more fancy toys, and so it goes. Most things take a bit of effort to unlock which makes acquiring new items feel satisfying, yet the process is never too grindy so you get to constantly enjoy a stream of new abilities and enhancements.
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
[Update #2]: Vampire Survivors will be adding local co-op and fully switching to a new engine on August 17th.
[Update]: Vampire Survivors is getting an animated show, along with even more free updates throughout the Summer!
If you're just looking for an excuse to dive back into Vampire Survivors and lose another dozen hours or so demolishing absurd numbers of enemies, you'll be happy to hear that a brand new expansion has just arrived. Tides of the Foscari brings with it a huge new map to explore, 7 new music tracks, 8 new "extremely original and not remotely derivative" characters, 13 new weapons to experiment with, and naturally, a whole host of new secrets to uncover!
Best of all, the whole thing costs barely anything. Much like the first expansion Tides of the Foscari will set you back 2€, or 1,8€ during the currently ongoing launch week discount. By Grabthar’s Hammer... what a savings!
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
[Update]: After two years in Early Access, Darkest Dungeon 2 has now been unleashed in all of its 3D glory!
After spending a bit over a year in Early Access, the roguelike turn-based tactics game Darkest Dungeon 2 is now slowly getting ready to release in full. So if you're in the mood for watching all of your favorite characters get sliced up by eldritch abominations, make sure to mark May 8th on your calendar as that's when Darkest Dungeon 2 will be launching onto both Steam and the Epic Games Store.
In terms of gameplay, Darkest Dungeon 2 follows a very similar formula as its predecessor, though it's by no means a simple copy. The visuals have been improved and are now 3D, there is a much greater focus on lengthier expeditions that will have you make a variety of difficult choices along the way, your characters can now form friendships or rivalries, and there's been all sorts of tweaks to the underlying gameplay mechanics in order to make things flow a bit better.
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
[Update]: Deep Rock Galactic's Season 4 has arrived with new enemies, boss, jet boots, and an arcade cabinet.
In celebration of their fifth anniversary, the Deep Rock Galactic team has now unleashed a festive update for everyone to enjoy. The Space Rig has been decorated with balloons, confetti and all sorts of plastic nonsense, the missions now come with an optional objective to double the amount of Performance Points you can earn, and as is tradition, there's also a snazzy new hat to acquire by completing the special anniversary assignment.
However, that's not all! In order to make this an anniversary worth remembering, the Deep Rock Galactic crew has now also re-released the classic 2018 version of the game as a limited time event! It's a bit dated and rough around the edges, but also a nice bit of fun, as well as an excellent showcase of just how far Deep Rock Galactic has managed to come since the early days.
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
[Update #2]: It gets stranger! PowerWash Simulator is getting a VR version and Warhammer 40k crossover in 2023.
[Update]: PowerWash Simulator's first actual DLC will be a SpongeBob crossover, of all things.
After launching a Lara Croft themed crossover back in January, the PowerWash Simulator team has now returned with another bizarre yet amusing update. This time around you'll be cleaning, or just making a sloppy mess out of, five small Final Fantasy VII themed levels: Hardy Daytona and Shinra Hauler(1 job), Scorpion Sentinel, Seventh Heaven, Mako Energy Exhibit and Airbuster.
Rather than babble on, allow me to share with you the brief launch trailer. It should give you a pretty good idea of what exactly these locations look like and what sort of doodads you'll be able to mess around with. Have a peek:
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
[Update #2]: After five years of quality updates, Dead Cells is soon getting its final one with Patch 35.
[Update]: The Castlevania expansion has now gone live, and as you might expect, it's quite a fun one!
After a couple of crossover updates that have added items from games like Terraria, Guacamelee or Slay the Spire, the Dead Cells team has now decided to go for something a bit more ambitious. As such, the next big influx of new content will be the rather chunky Return to Castlevania expansion!
True to its name, Return to Castlevania will bring with it Dracula's crazy castle represented through two new biomes, along with a population of murderous monsters lifted straight from the classic Castlevania games. You can also look forward to seeing fourteen iconic Castlevania weapons like the throwing axe and holy water, three boss fights against big baddies like Dracula or Death, and just to spice things up a bit, a brand new storyline that will have you team up with Richter Belmont and Alucard!
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
[Update]: After exactly a year in Early Access, Sons Of The Forest's Version 1.0 has now been unleashed!
In a bit of an unexpected, though certainly not unwelcome twist, the Survival-focused horror game Sons of the Forest has suddenly chosen to release as an Early Access title instead of going with a 'proper' launch. A good thing too, because even though Sons of the Forest is a nice bit of fun, it's very obviously still unfinished and needs some more time in the oven before it can truly surpass its predecessor.
As of right now the plan is for Sons of the Forest to spend about six to eight months in Early Access, during which the Endnight team will be working on adding everything from new items to gameplay mechanics and lore. It's also important to mention that the price won't be changing between now and the eventual launch, so don't feel pressured to get in on the action early if you're not in the mood for essentially beta testing the game and helping the developers out.
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
[Update #2]: PowerWash Simulator's first actual DLC will be a SpongeBob crossover, of all things.
[Update]: It took a short while, but PowerWash Simulator has now launched a free crossover with Final Fantasy VII.
In a bit of an unusual update, the self-explanatory PowerWash Simulator has just recently launched a crossover with none other than Lara Croft! The free update brings with it five new levels focused around the iconic Croft Manor that will have you have you inflict horrific water damage to everything from Lara's obstacle course to her treasure room.
What all of this nonsense looks like in actual gameplay, that you can check out through the freshly posted trailer. Have a gander:
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
Instead of going with the usual dark fantasy setting that seems to mark most ARPGs, the recently released Superfuse is a comic book and superhero themed hack'n'slash set in the distant future. As you would expect from any game inspired by Diablo 2, Superfuse's gameplay is all about carving a path through untold numbers of aliens and monstrosities with unique classes and abilities, all the while vacuuming up more loot than any human could ever possibly hope to carry.
How all of this looks like in action, however, that you can get a pretty good idea of through the launch trailer below. Have a gander: