Title: Creeper World 3 Developer: Knuckle Cracker Platforms: PC, Mac Price: $14.99 --- Tower defense is a genre that has spread and thrived on every platform, from Fieldrunners and Sentinel on IOS to Toy Soldiers on XBLA. The strategy of tower placement and holding back the enemy hordes has proven to be an addictive thrill and Creeper World 3 takes tower defense to new heights with a massive amount of content and imbuing the genre with aggressive offensive tactics.
Set eons into a future where the universe has been terrorized and ravaged in a struggle with the titular Creeper, you travel from system to system, clearing planets and unlocking new weapons and equipment. The campaign is massive, divided between three different modes with more to come, and user-generated content with strong community support.
On each map, you face the Creeper threat: a liquid menace that flows across the landscape and destroys everything it touches. The only way to stop this enemy is to disable the emitters peppered across each map; this simple change shifts the whole focus from simple defense to going on the offensive. Set your base in a strategic location and build a network of reactors and energy collectors (but don't go overboard or you'll strain your ammo and power production). You'll need to set up a defensive fortifications, lest the Creeper flows in from an unprotected angle and ruins your plan, and then go on an aggressive offense. Set up beachheads with mortars and cannons, leapfrog your energy relays and guns, take back higher ground or terraform the area to build barriers and gain a height advantage. You can even build anti-Creeper turrets and remote drones for aerial assaults.
With each level, new map formations and dangers will test your strategic planning. Spores, asteroid-shattered worlds, overwhelming Creeper from all directions, and much more will offers a variety of challenge throughout the game's campaigns. Creeper World 3 provides an addictive mix of tactical defense and offensive strategies and hours of content. You can purchase the game now from the developer's site, GamersGate, and ShinyLoot; Creeper World 3 will be available on Desura on November 9th.
Title: Mobiloid Developer: Montrezina Platforms: PC Price: $9.99 --- In Mobiloid, each new area has a simple goal: got your battery to the exit. How to get to the exit is the hard part. Mobiloid combines vehicles, Metroidvania elements, and physics puzzles into a fun game that challenges your creativity. At any time, you have the ability to detatch and attach various "modules" to your battery, from thrusters to wheels to helicopter blades and grapple hooks. In Metroidvania fashion, you'll come across inaccessible areas that become open to you once you gain a new part. The multitude of parts gives you the freedom to craft different vehicles and develop your own method to bypass the world's hazards and obstacles such as lasers, jumps, rotating machinery, and other traps.
Mobiloid will last you a good five or six hours of a vehicular-based physics platforming and an update planned for next year will add a level editor and even more modules. You can purchase Mobiloid for 9.99 here or vote for the game on Steam Greenlight.
Title: One Finger Death Punch Developer: Silver Dollar Games Platforms: XBIG, coming to PC later this year Price: $1 on Xbox Marketplace --- PC and IOS are where the bulk of the indies action is, but there are still notable games on XBIG, XBLA, and PSN (and even more to come thanks to Sony's aggressive indie strategy for PS4 and Vita). One such game is One Finger Death Punch, available now on XBIG and soon on PC.
The controls are simple: one button for left attacks, one button for right attacks. But that simple two-button scheme lays for the foundations for one of the most addictive games I've played in a while. OFDP is a game of skill and timing; button mashing will only leave open for damage. The animations, inspired by the well known Xiao Xiao stickman fight videos, are the highlight: incredibly smooth transitions between thousands of moves, all endlessly entertaining and just feel powerful. You feel like a martial arts badass as you survive waves of various enemies types across a 250 level campaign and a survival mode.
For $1, the game is an absolute steal. There is a huge amount of content, from different modes, different difficulties, skills to unlock, and weapons to use. One Finger Death Punch is not the deepest game, but who needs depth when a game is this fun and addicting?
You purchase One Finger Death Punch or try a free trial on the Xbox Marketplace here, download the extended PC demo here, or vote for the game on Steam Greenlight.
Title: Risk of Rain Developer: Hopoo Games Platforms: PC Price: $10 to pre-order, $25 for beta access Releasing Fall 2013 ---
"Risk of Rain is an action platformer with roguelike elements. With permanent death as a primary feature, players will have to play their best to get as far as possible. Fight on a mysterious planet with randomly spawning enemies and bosses. With over 100 items at your disposal, you will find the tools you need to find the teleporter back home. Discover a myriad of randomly chosen stages, from the desolate forest to the frozen tundra."
Stranded on an alien world, your only goal in Risk of Rain is to escape. Somewhere in each expansive, multi-tiered level is a teleporter that will bring you one step closer to getting away from this dangerous place. But explore with caution; the world is full of hostile enemies and beasts and massive bosses. From giant magma worms to jellyfish-esque flying creatures that try to ram and fire bursts of energy to hordes of mechs, every second you take is another chance to die.
You have a choice of several classes, from the agile gun-wielding commando to the melee-focued miner, each with their own abilities. Balancing their limited skills, utilizing the different picks-up and stat boosting gears you find, is criticial to your survival. Having playing the demo, I can say without a doubt that Risk of Rain is a challenge. Tight controls allow you to evade enemies and smart tactical use of all your skills and gear is essential. Enemies swarm from all angles and more often than not, you're on the defensive.
Risk of Rain was recently Greenlit and is set for a Fall 2013 release. You can download the demo here or preorder the game, as well as gain access to the beta here.
Title: Assault Android Cactus Developer: Witch Beam Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux, PS4, Vita, Wii U Price: 14.99 --- Dual stick shooters and bullet hell mechanics come together in Assault Android Cactus, recently released on Steam. Look beyond Assault's colorful veneer and you'll find a frantic shooter with style to spare. You can tackle Assault Android Cactus' mechanic hordes alone or with three others and while the extra firepower is helpful and adds to the onscreen chaos, it's not necessary to succeed. Assault plays just fine as a single player game, allowing you to choose from several different characters, each with their own unique weapons. From common firearms like assault rifles to shotguns to more exotic weaponry such as plasma field generator and a cannonball launcher, weapons are varied and feel powerful.
Besides weaponry, power ups and battery energy pick-ups spawn throughout the arena, granting you drone helpers or increased maneuverability. And you'll need all the help you can get, as enemies and bullets flood the screen from every angle. But Assault Android Cactus's standout features - besides the intense action - are its visuals and animations. Levels shift and change at moment's notice, enemies skitter towards you, turrets emerge as bullets and missiles fly everywhere...all with zero performance issues even on older computers
You can buy Assasult Android Cactucs now on Steam Early Access. The game is also set to release on PS4, PS Vita, and Wii U.
Title: Against The Wall Developer: Cartwheel Games Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux Price: Preorder for $10, free alpha available Releasing late 2013 ---
"Against the Wall is a first-person puzzle-platformer set on the side of an infinite wall. Entire civilizations and ecosystems cling for survival on the side of the wall, everyone and everything existing under the constant threat of tumbling into an endless sky. The wall is made up of square white bricks of varying sizes. You can pull these bricks out of the wall to form platforms, stairs, and paths. Along the way, you'll encounter cities, forests, volcanoes, castles, and other environments in your journey through this strange world."
Against The Wall is an platformer focused on exploration. You're presented with an immense wall that stretches in every direction and a staff that allows you to extend blocks from the wall. As you ascend, you discover new structures and landscapes, all in built from the wall in a surreal fashion. The joy of discovery and exploration is the game's biggest draw; reaching the sideways forests where trees jut from the wall is a beautiful sight.
Different block types provide added challenge to your climb. Some can't be extended, forcing the player to make desperate jumps while others begin retracting into the wall on contact. Luckily there's no fall damage, only the need to climb again and falling past the endless wall at incredible speeds is up there with Mirror's Edge in regards to the sense of momentum and verticality.
Against The Wall was recently Greenlit on Steam. You can play the free alpha here or preorder Against The Wall here.
Title: Broforce Developer: Free Lives Platforms: PC (Mac, Linux at full release) Price: free public alpha, $10 (lowest pre-order tier) --- Broforce is not the most sophisticated game. A story is non-existent and there's not much motivation beyond rescue the hostages and kill the bad guys. But that's not much of a negative at all, because the gameplay blows away any wishes for a story or deeper motives. Broforce set out to be an ode to 80's and 90's action movies, the Expendables in video game form, and it succeeds on every possible level. The biggest selling point is the characters, all pixel-art parodies of 80's and 90's action movie heroes. Rambo, Commando, Walker Texas Ranger, Snake Plissken, John McClane, The Terminator, Judge Dredd, and more are available to play as and each with their own unique weapon and secondary explosive. You start each level off as a random hero and can switch to another by rescuing hostages, similar to the weapon swapping mechanic in IOS/PC game Super Crate Box.
Concept art
Each level is a fully destructible playground filled with explosive barrels, propane canisters, and many many enemies ranging from simple goons to suicide bombers to guard dogs and mini-gun wielding mini-bosses. The stylized graphics are nicely detailed, with blood, dirt, smoke, and fire flying with every explosion. The destructible environments adds an layer of depth, allowing you to tunnel beneath enemies to flank them or collapse the ground under their feet or crush them beneath trucks and heavy debris. All those tricks and fast reflexes will be needed because the game is not easy. You die in one hit.
Broforce supports four player local co-op, allowing for quadruple the chaos onscreen. Right now, only a free "Brototype" is available here, playable in a browser or as a download; this isn't a short demo but a fully featured version of the game with the latest updates. The lowest pre-order tier is $10. With even more characters (Hell Boy, Conan, Indiana Jones), more environments (space, steampunk, city), a level editor, a fort creator mode, online multiplayer, and more coming in later updates, Broforce is shaping up to be an action arcade shooter to be remembered.
"Neverending Nightmares is a psychological horror game inspired by the real horror of my battle with obsessive-compulsive disorder and depression. It features a truly interactive narrative structure allowing you to shape the outcome of the game."
I first learned of the upcoming Neverending Nightmares from a compelling Polygon article about its developer Matt Gilgenbach and his struggles as an indie developer and with obsessive-compulsive disorder. His life-long struggle lead him to pursue the deeply personal, disturbing psychological horror game Neverending Nightmares.
Inspired by games like Silent Hill and Amnesia, Neverending Nightmares revolves around a protagonist trapped in a cycle of nightmares where grotesque hallucinations and creatures terrorize the player. The story is built around branching narratives and multiple plauthroughs; your actions result in different nightmares and different endings.
Stealth and exploration are key game mechanics. Your character is weak and enemies are unable to be hurt. Hiding and fleeing are your only options. Neverending Nightmares also sports a striking 2D art style, in which dynamic lighting, shading effects, and the contrasting use of color give the game an eerie unsettling look.
The demo. which has you exploring a mansion's halls at night, shows great promise; a sense of dread and tension is quickly established and maintained throughout and the slow pace only adds to that tension. The art style is particularly effective at setting an unsettling and disorienting tone.
If you're interested in Neverending Nightmares, download the demo, vote for it on Steam Greenlight, or back the game on Kickstarter.
So right off the bat, a name like The Tank Game doesn't inspire much confidence. But behind that unassuming name (which is still being worked on, according to the developers) is a fast paced arena shooter that's incredibly fun to play.
In The Tank Game, you control...tanks in a various arenas filled with power ups and environmental features like forcefields, either alone against bots or against other in local/online co-operative or competitive modes. But what makes TTG so much fun is the wide variety of offensive and defensive abilities you gain by driving over the pick-ups. The powerful railgun rock your tank back with the force of its recoil and leaves a streak of burnt dirt in its wake. Rockets home in on your targets. Gatling guns, dual beam turrets, EMPs, and more round out your weapons.
The defensive powers are even more fun to use. Shields protect you from fire. Ram boosts you forward, damaging anything in your path. Teleport lets you flank enemies and teleport through barriers. In addition to those abilities, you can utilize equipment like recall beacons which give you a quick escape option (as well as possibly crushing enemies upon landing on the arena).
All together, these elements make every match in The Tank Game a frenetic chaotic affair as rockets and railguns rip through the arena, respawning opponents fall from the sky in drop pods, and others teleport through walls and behind forcefields to outflank and escape. A level editor is also planned.
The Tank Game alpha is available on Desura for $2.99 (as well as a demo). If you'd like to see The Tank Game on Steam, vote on its Steam Greenlight page here.
Title: Teslagrad Developer: Rain Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux Releasing in 2013, Demo available here ---
"Teslagrade is a 2D puzzle-platformer, where you play as a young lad who suddenly finds himself embroiled in an ancient conflict that will shake the foundations of his enture existence, and bring a gruesome truth to light."
Teslagrad first caught my eye while browsing Steam Greenlight and the recent demo affirmed those initial impressions. Teslagrad is shaping up to be something special. Set in an alternate steampunk Europe, you find yourself in the mysterious Tesla Tower and must solve platforming based puzzles using an array of electromagnetic powers. The lengthy demo offers two: a gauntlet that allows you to switch an object's polarity and boots that allow you to teleport short distances.
These two abilities alone allow for a wide variety of puzzling and platforming challenges and I had a lot of fun with the demo. But what stood out the most in my opinion is the atmospheric art style and the fluid animations. Those two elements make Teslagrad not only a joy to play, but also a wonderful visual experience.
Except for a frustrating boss that killed me more than I'd care to admit, the Teslagrad demo is very promising and I can't wait to see what fiendish challenges and cool powers will be available in the full game. You can find the demo on Desura or vote for Teslagrad on its Steam Greenlight page here.
Title: Inverto Developer: Gravity Box Studio Platforms: Windows, Mac, Linux Price: $3.99 (Desura) --- In their own words, Gravity Box's Studio's Inverto is a "first person shooter-puzzler with gravity manipulation." There are no enemies, it's just you, your gravity-switching gun, and levels where up, down, left, right mean nothing. If you're up for some challenging spatial puzzles, then you'll be interested in Inverto.
The game was recently updated to alpha 0.6, so a purchase will provide you with eight large level with more to come, each divided into self contained puzzle areas. Shooting special areas in the level re-orient your gravity, turning a hallway into a long drop or wall to floor. Laser grids, teleporters, force fields, gyroscopic switches, moving areas, momentum...all factor into the increasing complex puzzles.
The graphics has a stylized almost cel-shaded look to it and the environments, while not the most atmospheric, definitely suit the gameplay and offer opportunities to find hidden areas and secrets. Replay value consists of improving your time on each level and attempting to collect special picks ups, which require extra gravity-shifting puzzle solving. The controls are simple but tight and allow for the precision needed to switch gravity mid air while flying between two laser grids.
More content is on the way and even more gameplay elements are planned. In a recent article, the developer discussed what will be coming in future updates, including more guns, more exploration, elements like timed gravity fields and gravity zones, and more. I've greatly enjoyed my time with Inverto and look forward to seeing how it expands and evolves. If you're interested, there is an early alpha demo available on the game's site and if you'd like to see the game on Steam, Inverto is also on Greenlight.
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