A balanced mix between Hitman, Gunpoint, Payday, Monaco and Subversion.
Just A Pixel's upcoming Light instantly stands out due to its blend of simple geographic figures and high-tech blueprint-esque environments. The game promises to combine varied stealth mechanics with hacking abilities that open up a wide range of tactics and scenarios from bank robberies and disguised infiltrations to "hijacking the communication points to distract/mislead the guards" and stealing corporate secrets. Your character is fragile, but fast and resourceful, able to locate enemies by their footsteps, stealthily eliminate sentries, drag bodies out of sight (or leave them as a distraction for others). A line of sight system promotes cautious and planning and adds tension to the gameplay
The developers released an short demo of the game on their Kickstarter campaign to give potential backers of sense of Light's mechanics and gameplay. I found the demo to be fun and very promising and the hacking ability - now used to remote control doors and disable cameras - has the potential for myriad tactics and strategies in the full game. Light has only four days left to be funded so if you're intrigued by the game's high tech strategic stealth, you can back it on Kickstarter here.
Title: Nax of the Universe Developer: Raonak Games Platforms: PC Release planned for 2014 ---
Nax of the Universe. It's an Action RPG, taking heavy inspiration from the Devil May Cry games. The combat is fast, fluid and deep, but it'll also be backed up by RPG mechanics. Stats, leveling up, loot drops, elements, magic, status conditions.
Following the surreal journey of the titular Nax on his quest to save the universe from a coming apocalypse, Nax of the Universe promises colorful pixel graphics with the fast-paced stylish combat of games like Devil May Cry and the depth and loot of an action RPG. Players will have bevy of moves, special attacks, primary weapons, and sub weapons at their disposal as well as magical abilities, upgrades, and stats. A style meter rewards mixing up attacks and big combos with bonus experience and more loot.
I was able to play an early alpha demo and even at this early stage, Nax's combat feels incredibly polished and fun. You can swap weapons on the fly, activate special moves and block with ease, and you just feel powerful after executing a stylish combo. The pixel graphics and animations are charming and just as impressive, with great little details such as how Nax draws his energy blade from its sheath when attacking.
Nax of the Universe is planned to be released sometime in 2014 and you can follow the game's progress on Raonak Games' Twitter page.
Title: Shadow Vamp Developer: Gamesmold Platforms: IOS Universal Price: $0.99 --- As an IOS gamer, it can be disheartening to see the ubiquitous nature of endless runners, 2D physics games, and other common genres. So that's why it's so very exciting when a developer releases a game as unique and innovative as Shadow Vamp. Your search for blood has left you exposed in the daytime's harsh glare and to reach the safety of your coffin, you must navigate the sunlit hazards of each floating island. Luckily, you can use your mystical amulet to turn the sun into your ally by rotating the islands and manipulating the shadows., allowing you to safely navigate through the shade. The tactile nature of the touch controls with the cool visuals of rotating islands and shadows moving in sync just never ceases to satisfy.
At its core, Shadow Vamp is a physics puzzle game and each of its four worlds offer a wide variety of obstacles and new elements: movable objects to help you move through sunny areas, moving environmental structures like windmills, seeds that sprout flowers in the sunlight and even act as bridges, and even more hazards and special power-ups. While the movement controls are not the most precise, they work well enough and never feel detrimental to enjoying the game.
The game's IAP consists of character unlocks and coins; however these characters are not needed to complete the game and only add some replay value due to different stats. Overall Shadow Vamp is a fun, challenging, visually interesting game that deserves a spot on your device.
Title: Strata Developer: Graveck Platforms: IOS Universal, PC, Mac Price: $0.99 --- While Strata was released for PC and Mac (buy on Desura, vote on Greenlight) earlier this year, the game was always designed with mobile platforms in mind and now you can play this brain-teasing abstract puzzle game on IOS. Your objective is simple: presented with a grid, you must fill each channel with a colored ribbon to match a pattern. The catch is that the color ribbon represented on the pattern must always be the top weave. You earn a rating of Perfect for achieving this feat on one try and while some may disagree, I don't think earning these ratings is trial and error. Strata is the best kind of puzzle game, the type where you can achieve perfection if you think about the mechanics. You can study the grid and envision how the ribbons will interact, how one move will affect the outcome three or five moves later, and once you place the first ribbon, the solution falls into place with some thought and analysis. The logical approach to the puzzles is incredibly rewarding and excels at making the player feel smart, especially when the grids grow in size and amount of colors.
On top of the brilliant puzzle mechanics, Strata is a masterful blend of minimalist audio and visuals. The design is such a natural fit for touchscreens in terms of its simplicity and the interplay between music and weaving creates a soothing relaxing atmosphere. For 0.99, Strata offers over 150 levels with another 150 available as IAP level packs. You can purchase Strata for IOS here.
Title: Fancy Skulls Developer: Tequibo Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux Price: $6.99 ($4.99 for a limited time) --- Between Paranautical Activity, Tower of Guns, and Fancy Skulls, it seems like the roguelike first person shooter is in vogue right now. While Paranautical Activity and Tower of Guns embrace over-the-top white-knuckle mayhem, Fancy Skulls stands out due to its abstract style and measured, more strategic gameplay.
The first aspect that stands out is the game's surreal visuals. Activate one of its randomized rooms and deformed multi-eyed...things emerge from their spawn points to attack: flying projectile-firing skulls, red-clawed melee chargers, bomb-spewing white stalks that aimlessly lurch around, spindly cyclopean turrets, and more. Every new enemy adds a new learning curve: what does it do, how doe it move, does it move or is it stationary, and most importantly, where is its weak point. Every enemy has a weak point somewhere on its body, some obvious, some more concealed or only visible at certain intervals; one or shots in this vulnerable area will kill an enemy and this element, combined with your limited ammo, totally alters the pacing compared to other FPS roguelikes. While in other games, you can fire wildly at enemies, here you'll survive longer by making your shots count and taking the time to aim carefully.
Further adding to Fancy Skull's strategic gameplay are the items and upgrades you can acquire. Like the enemies, you won't know what an item will do until you use it. From allowing you to hover and double jump to performing a fiery melee slam to slowing time, items are varied and completely change your strategy. Items require mana to use, so you can't spam these special abilities. Weapon upgrades can be bought from vendors found on each floor and imbue your guns with game changing abilities such as fire or explosive rounds to making ammo not count while airborne. The game's seven weapons range from your starting revolver to a shotgun and raygun to a rocket launcher and each feels different. (And yes you can rocket-jump.) You can only carry four guns at a time so choose wisely.
Fancy Skulls combines the FPS roguelike genre with mystery, strategy, and minimalist visuals. You can buy Fancy Skulls here (on sale for a limited time) or vote for the game on Steam Greenlight.
In Shiftlings you wobble your way alone or with a friend through the depths of space while your goal is to get both our alien friends to the end of each level without any casualties. The two alien twins are attached to each other through a cable at all times which enables the two aliens to switch sizes from super puffy to tiny.
Browsing the various indie sites across the internet, it takes something special for a game to stand out and Shiftlings caught my eye thanks to its vibrant colorful visuals. The game is a physic based puzzle platformer with a focus on local co-operative play. You play as an alien duo linked by an air hose; with a single button, the player is able to transfer the air supply between them and shift their size. This mechanic opens the door for a variety of inventive puzzle and platforming possibilities, from seesaws to weight activated switches and much more.
I was fortunate enough to play an early demo of Shiftlings and test the mechanics myself. While the game can be played with a keyboard, a gamepad is by far the more comfortable way to play. Shiftlings is geared towards co-op, but playing solo with a pad was actually quite natural. The game is still a work in progress, with jumping and physics being tuned and more levels are in development, but even at this early stage, the demo showed great promise. From using your partner as a trampoline to synchronizing your jumps on the seesaw, the platforming and cooperative puzzles were just a lot of fun. The levels weren't all that difficult but elements like gravity beams and hazardous barriers definitely add to the complexity and hint at greater challenges to come.
Shiftlings is set to release in early 2014, on PC, Mac, Linux and possibly to consoles, IOS, and Ouya. You can vote for the game on Steam Greenlight.
Title: Nitronic Rush Developer: Team Nitronic/the talented students at Digipen Platforms: PC Free --- I'm sure anyone who's reading this blog has at least heard of Nitronic Rush, but even after almost two years, it still deserves to be praised. Nitronic Rush is special, at least to me, for being the game that cemented my passion for indies and introducing me to the wonderful world of freeware games. Nitronic Rush revolves around two core elements and excels at both: going really fast and avoiding obstacles while going really fast. Set in a Tron-esque world across its various modes, the laws of physics can't contain Nitronic's wild twisting track design. Glide across massive gaps and between towering structures, speed up walls, jump and flip from floor to ceilings at high speeds, all in your effort to reach the end of the level, improve your times, and move up the leaderboards. But Nitronic Rush isn't simply racing. It's survival racing and reaching the end of a track is always easier said than done, especially when it's actively trying to destroy you. Massive sawblades sweep across the road, towering fans block your path, barriers burst from the ground or fall from above, mines, crushing walls, narrow gaps, and more all await to test you reflexes and skills. Make no mistake, Nitronic Rush is a challenging game, but that only makes every close call and near miss even more satisfying.
Nitronic Rush offers hours upon hours of content, from story and hardcore mode to challenges and a level editor. It's a game that never ceases to entertain and in my honest opinion, if you said Nitronic Rush was a game on XBLA or PSN, I'd believe you. It's that good and best of all, you can download it for free. (A gamepad is preferred)
