Indie Impressions - Tengami

Tengami

Now Available on Steam (also available for WiiU, iOS)

Developed by Nyamyam

Tucked away within the confines of a treasured pop-up book featuring a vivid far eastern landscape and natural entities of the surrounding wildlife; Tengami is a casual but moving journey with very few, if any, words yet still manages a majestic story told merely through imagery.

The experience is described by the developers as something they envisioned being played "in bed before going to sleep or in the afternoon on the sofa with a hot beverage", and I felt that description was very apt. As I played from my shabby studio apartment on a cold and rainy day with some hot tea completing each relaxing chapter I felt a particular sense of warmth, a certain kind of satisfying radiance. I almost forgot about the cold, grey city surrounding me that I call home.

As you move through each beautifully vibrant page of an old Japanese pop-up book that act as chapters to the story, you are faced with earthly obstacles that stand in your path. Finding the solution to uncovering the brighter path ahead of your wintery beginnings involves puzzle-solving of a very organic kind, puzzles that feel less like interacting with a game and more like interacting with nature itself.

All around you rivers, temples and old wooden bridges pull out from tabs in pop-up book fashion, revealing the beaten path ahead which beckons our unknown hero on his mysterious adventure. In a snowy forest a wild pack of wolves howls in unison to the sound of wind chimes you control in a game of 'Simon Says', a strange and ancient bell changes the seasons at your will altering the land to reveal new key items to collect, and an old broken wooden boat must be reconstructed with fragmented pieces pulled from the ocean waters among swimming fish.

The wonderfully natural atmosphere of the game is complimented by the twanging of Shamisen or Koto and calming sounds of wooden flute, all drawing you into a zen-like state of deep calmness. The usage of colors makes everything incredibly pleasing to look at and each visual theme is very evocative of its respective season.

Spring environments have a lush green with blue flowing rivers, and Fall stands out with its vibrant pinkish-orange hues much like a sunset, with Winter bearing a harsh mixture of white and greys with frozen rivers that no longer flow. The settings all glow with a distinct array of colors that evoke the same shifting of emotions our real-world seasons stir in us.

Tengami exists outside of the boundaries of any particular demographic, being something that is just as enjoyable to the youngest audiences as it is to the oldest. If you aren't too caught up on games needing to be difficult or long, or "hardcore", then this is by far the most memorable and comforting trip into a Far Eastern world of mystique.

Enter and witness nature and the changing of seasons conveyed through a colorful world of picture book pages, flip through the dusty old pages of Tengami.

Early Access Preview - Malebolgia

Malebolgia

Now Available on Steam Early Access

Developed by Jochen Mistiaen

 

Soft sprinklings of piano overwhelmed by the haziness of a roaring snowstorm, a melancholy scene of blurry white as our protagonist sits listening under the dome of an ancient structure. As we enter into this hellish palace however, the player realizes something is different; something ominous and evil.

You awake in a familiar and darkened library of a palace, the demonic statues peering down from before you as the crackling of a fireplace is heard. At first little is known of the surroundings we've become enshrouded by other than the need to explore and escape it. As you scour the dark hallways portraits and statues of former inhuman residents sit proudly on shelves and grotesque, surreal paintings line the walls. One thing is being made clear to the player; this palace is not of any realm within human knowledge.

Venturing deeper into the heart of this ghastly mansion of antique oddities you come across various personalities who seem to be old acquaintances that have anticipated your arrival. They speak to you in cryptic messages bearing skeletal faces with no skin, claiming to wear their "masks of flesh" no longer. According to these dark personalities, this hellish realm is your home and where you belong.

Will you succumb to their wishes and remain a piece of the palace enshrouded by snow and demonic mysteries, or will you escape the overshadowing blizzard with your life and defeat the chaotic souls that rule the pits of this Dante Alighieri's "Inferno" inspired Hell?

For a combat system that seems so simple, it offers a lot of variety in how you strategically approach each foul demon of Hell encountered in this strange palace. Tapping attack gives you quick but weak swings with your metal spear in rapid succession, whereas pressing forward in time with a swing performs a heavy lunge attack. As useful and strong as the lunge attacks are they leave you wide open to counters and should be saved for a final blow. Pressing back in time with a swing creates a quick back-step maneuver that the player will be forced to rely on to time and escape deadly blows and create the perfect opportunity for a counter attack.

While it may not be as deep or flashy as the Dark Souls series, Malebolgia is clearly striving for the same kind of slow and calculated approach to long and brutal encounters with single diabolical creatures ranging from slow, lurching ghouls to terrifying and majestic chimeras. Endurance is the key to your survival as you go toe-to-toe with your enemy blocking, bashing, and taking only the most ample of opportunities to lunge and make your final strike.

Malebolgia has a striking visual style and while many will find the minimalistic, archaic design of the palace to be drab it provides a deliberately moody and heavy atmosphere all around you. The muted and dull colors with black and white checkered floors bring out the distinct red found in various books or curtains, all looking like something out of Twin Peak's dreamlike "Red Room" scenes.

The chilling ambiance of the background music fits the harsh imagery, sounding like something straight out of the torture chambers of a medieval castle. The monsters are brought to life with ghastly grunts and haunting chants from later magical enemies that ring in your ears as you attempt to focus your energy into dodging beams of their evil energy.

Malebolgia is a game that clearly puts an emphasis on atmosphere in the end, and it succeeds in providing a genuinely strange and creepy encounter many times over. The combat provides just enough engagement through your exploration of the surreal surroundings to keep you on your toes and wondering in fear which frightening creature will be around the corner to greet you next.

With an already considerable amount of love and care put into patches and overall polish to the look and feel of the game, this is proving to be another one of the finer examples of exciting Early Access experiences to be a part of. Malebolgia's halls are already a deranged pleasure to explore and clearly hold even more potential for odd secrets and other cryptic strangeness, I'm eagerly anticipating what other surprises Jochen has in store.

Early Access Preview - Onikira: Demon Killer

Onikira: Demon Killer

Now Available on Steam Early Access

Developed by Digital Furnace Games

 

In the blood-steeped lands of feudal Japan exists a history rich with gruesome folklore of oni and yokai, creatures of our minds creation that lurk in the darkness and haunt mortals from beyond. Onikira: Demon Killer takes a bold step into the darker side of Japanese tradition and mythology, pitting you against the dark energies of hellish realms that threaten to creep into the world of the living and feast upon the souls of the unsuspecting.

The gritty, heavy visual style of the game and its usage of dark demonic imagery and lots of blood red hues gave me strong vibes of the PS2 era Shinobi and evokes that same kind of obscure attraction to the Japanese underworld felt from that series. The gameplay itself takes cues from only the greatest of action games with an addictive grading system strongly resembling Devil May Cry's, insane almost endless aerial combos reminiscent of Bayonetta, and brightly colored red and blue orbs for replenishing your health or energy that fans of the Onimusha series will be familiar with. In the end, this is a developer who wears their influences on their sleeve, and some mighty fine influences these are.

The music is dark, heavy, and fitting. The percussions beat with the strength and power of a taiko drummer, the eerie and almost gothic sounding riffs of the interspersed guitar tearing in and out. When I hear the evil and ominous melodies in Onikira with their Eastern overtones I am instantly reminded of some of the best music from Mortal Kombat, particularly of the 3 and 4 era, and this is a very good thing when it comes to the subject matter dealt with in such a game.

Currently Onikira features two very lengthy, sufficiently challenging (though a hard mode would be nice for the old schoolers!), and detailed levels and one outstanding boss battle. If the boss fight we're shown here is any indication, the game has some huge ambitions when it comes to monster designs and the bosses will hopefully continue in this giant titan-like structure that gives the current encounters such an epic feel.

Aside from hacking and slashing your way through the first story based levels available currently there's a combat arena facing you against waves of increasingly difficult enemies, and is the perfect place to hone and perfect your skills while testing your ability against the rest of the world with the included Leaderboards.

Just like these great hacknslash titles of the past, Onikira: Demon Killer has some of the sharpest and most responsive action around. You can slice your enemies with a barrage of normal attacks, toss them in the air with a heavy attack and continue your onslaught with a follow-up air combo. Freakish oni heads float above shooting lazers at you while you use the dash ability to dodge the beam and keep the combo meter going. Boss battles are already beyond epic in scope and show huge ambition in size, and the weapons you're given to slay these grotesque creatures with are already a serious blast to experiment with.

So far this is an already satisfying action slash 'em up with some incredible influences and only a few non-gamebreaking rough spots, and if you're as optimistic as I am about its future there's no better time to get involved than now. Digital Furnace have nailed the feel of a dark and demonic feudal Japan, and I'm excited to see what content is in store for the future.

Retro Revisits - Strife: Veteran Edition

Strife: Veteran Edition

Now Available on Steam 

Published by Night Dive Studios

Back in the 90's when First Person Shooters were gaining the most momentum there was an abundance of ingenious and ambitious usages of the legendary Doom engine, and while titles like Quake and Duke Nukem were the most talked about at the time there was one debut title from the great Rogue Entertainment whose mechanics influenced an emergence of now familiar and relied on mechanics. Strife finally marks its comeback in a more modern and accessible package for both fans old and new.

Most importantly, this is an incredibly solid port that is consistent with the quality you'd expect from Night Dive and then some. All modern resolutions are included here as well as graphical improvements in the form of dynamic lighting, bloom, and customizable motion blur. Controls have been tweaked to fit the playstyle of modern shooters, and objectives now glow with a circle on the minimap creating a much smoother and seamless quest hunt. Night Dive Studios has given Strife all of the needed customization to allow players of any background enjoy the game however they please, be it in its original intended form or with all the new bells and whistles.

An extraterrestrial meteorite strikes your planet, unleashing a mysterious virus ravaging the brains of those it infects. Society has been split into two, the infected who have become cruel and barbaric rulers over the uninfected and powerless civilians. You are one of the uninfected who have banded together to create their own rebel community and fight this infected authority that reigns over your lives known only as The Order.

Strife features a large and detailed town hub unlike any FPS before it due to its population of many colorful, grizzled citizens and their connected questlines with fully voiced dialogue trees, the exploration within this community feeling fluid and engaging even after all these years. Here you've got all the staple establishments used throughout the RPG medium. The tavern provides you with side quests to perform for cash as well as tidbits of valuable info that comes at a price, the hospital sells valuable potions to heal during combat, and the weapon and armor shop sell the valuable equipment needed to advance through the harder levels found throughout the world.

Once you've met up with your underground resistance group of rebels the game opens up, as you take quests and carry out important mission from the various NPCs you'll find scattered around the sprawling town. Different strongholds and hidden corridors throughout the outskirts of the town play host to these missions following classic FPS action, and will reward you with scavenged loot and money in the form of quest rewards to purchase new equipment or much needed medical kits before delving into newer, harder territory.

While it certainly isn't the first FPS/RPG hybrid to ever be created, I feel it was the best original attempt to really get it right with a user friendly combination of addictive role playing progression within a fast and furious world of Doom-like violence. Fans of the engine and of the era in general will be drawn to the reminiscent visuals and their application to a unique fantasy world, an extremely pleasant departure from the usual bleak and gray environments we're used to from shooters of that period. The nostalgic Roland powered music is especially delightful here, and takes an extremely adventurous turn in composition.

If you've never played Strife there is no better time to discover and enjoy a legend, and if you're an old fan of Strife this is the perfect excuse to go back and experience it again in its most polished form to date.

Indie Impressions - Metrocide

Metrocide

Now Available on Steam

Developed by Flat Earth Games

The streets are brutal and lives seem disposable in a bleak metropolis of the future, and the only ticket out of this town is a high commodity with an even higher price. Armed at first with only a slow blaster only slightly more useful than a toaster and your wits, you'll seek out each contracted kill amongst the likes of paranoid vigilantes, loose cannon gangsters, and the buzzing drones of a totalitarian police state from above.

Metrocide is a gritty top-down trip into the dystopic streets of an open cyberpunk world of stylish minimal visuals with pulp noir flair, the city around you living and breathing with its own unique population. All of the residents of this drab environment have their own personality, their owns faults, and their own routines they carry out and you never know which of these unsuspecting people will be your next paid hit.

Contractors can be found throughout the open map each offering different hits on personalities of the city in exchange for cash, with armed and timed targets earning you more money. Money earned can then either be saved for your ticket into the next area or used on arsenal and tools that will make or break your attempted assassinations. Weapons come in a variety of shotguns, SMGs, and pistols with tools ranging from lures to distract pedestrians, jammers to disrupt police drones, and explosives to remotely cause havoc.

The action of Metrocide is steady paced and calculated, requiring a keen eye and a bit of patience. You'll watch your target carefully, following stealthily and strike at only the most opportune moments, and when you take your shot you have to take it quick. The frantic action and split-second tactical decision making here is often compared to Hotline Miami, but I feel this is done in a much more deliberately drawn out and subtle manner of stalking your prey from the undetected shadows of city alleys.

Death comes swiftly and without warning, and once you're gone you're gone for good being forced to restart as a broke hitman yet again. Jumpy vigilantes and gangsters won't hesitate to blow you away at the first sign of aggression and civilians will be quick to report you to deadly authorities who'll quickly have you on the run. This is not an easy game whatsoever, the eyes of the city constantly have the upper hand on you and through a rigorous routine of learning the streets as well as the arsenal available to you will you survive long enough to earn your blood money.

My first hit/victim in this cruel retro/future dystopia is a 30 year old male, a smoker by the name of Dudley Rossman. He's unarmed and tracked making this what should be an easy to find and kill target. I'm not sure why I'm ordered to hunt this civilian but it's a job and anyone living in the harsh reality of this underworld knows money comes before morals, so I take it. Armed with only my slow loading starter pistol I sneak out into the streets attempting to blend in with the crowds as police drones pass overhead. I locate my target and follow from the other side of the street at a slow and steady pace, there are far too many civilians here and merely whipping my gun out would spell my doom via a bullet in the head.

Our silent and hip trenchcoat sporting protagonist calmly takes a puff of his cigarette as I wait for our assassination target, Dudley, to pass by the opening of an alley I've ducked into. As he passes I take aim with my starting blaster and fire, my target is hit and I can almost feel the cash in my hand. Just as I'm stuffing my targets body into a sewage drain to avoid detection, a passerby spots my actions and takes off to notify authorities. Within seconds I'm surrounded, and my fleeting victory is quickly vanquished via the bullet of a cop drone.

After what feels like hours of repeated deaths and failed hits on my well prepared targets I've finally survived a run long enough to scrounge up the cash to get myself a ticket out of the Downtown area. Before even meeting my first quota and leaving this first area I had earned 10 achievements, all of them related to myself dying in some horrific and unique way.

It's an extremely tough and failure ridden road getting there with loads of patience required, but in the end an incredibly satisfying feeling and an experience you'll take new skills away from for your future endeavors on the mean streets of MetroCity. Metrocide is top-down stealth action at its hardest and finest.

Early Access Preview - The Deer God

The Deer God

Now Available on Steam Early Access

Developed by Crescent Moon Games

The Deer God is a relaxing and sometimes puzzling survival platformer with an emphasis on exploring bountiful natural landscapes presented in a most beautiful and crisp pixel style, a combination reminiscent of beloved indie gems like Fez or Sword and Sworcery. Guiding you through each of the different seasons and themed areas is the warm synth, moody piano and nostalgic blips of their respective soundscapes shifting and evolving with each subtle change of the environment around you.

It's an already a gorgeous game by the time the title screen appears, the serene and peaceful imagery eases your vision yet the ominous teetering of the strange hymn that plays tells you not everything is as peaceful as it seems. It is a story of the hunter and the hunted of natural order and balance of life, but who is there to put mankind in our place when we attempt to throw that balance off and cause unnecessary death?

The game starts you off assuming the role of a small and feeble baby deer in a lush world of natural wonder and danger, your health and attack power in this infantile state are minimum so you begin your survival by scouring the land ahead for food and nourishment while avoiding the dangers of the wild.

On top of the elements of survival and growing your deer through the gathering of resources, the game plays like a roguelite. This means the level layout is randomized with each playthrough and when you die, you die for good. Fortunately in a continued effort to emulate life in the wild you can mate with does to produce offspring, which act as very crucial checkpoints becoming the new host for your soul if you perish.

The wilderness around you is shrouded in mystery, the deeper you travel into this meditative setting of seasonal meadows and swamps the stranger the entities you'll come across; An old hermit greets me in an isolated hut giving a small task. Groups of brutish hunters hang around cabins awaiting their prize shot and threatening the surrounding wildlife.

Various wise and elder deer appear before me periodically throughout the journey to bestow knowledge and sometimes new powers to help clear the path ahead as well as hidden paths that were previously untraversable in an almost metroidvania-like fashion. Ancient statues appear after tasks have been completed and task you with a block puzzle. Fitting the relics to their correct places grants you with the story advancing skills you need.

Players must use the scavenged items of your surroundings wisely in order to help the various struggling souls of the wild and repay their debt to mother nature. In the end traveling far and wide becomes more than rewarding when you're dashing through the deepest of caves crushing rocks with your hooves and hurling balls of fire from your antlers.

A whole lot of heart and soul have clearly been put into The Deer God, it's a game for people who love and respect the animal kingdom and even if you don't it could be the game that makes you care. It's a story about honoring all life around you, and seeking to mend the hardship-filled lives of other creatures we share the planet with.

This is an experience of many sights, sounds, and colorful characters and one I feel should be experienced by all, even if just for the message. With fantastically detailed pixel art and a challenging permadeath adventure of heavy natural exploration, The Deer God is one of those rare breeds in the indie scene that stands not only a work of art but a really damn fun and addictive game.

Indie Impressions - Magnetic by Nature

Magnetic by Nature

Now Available on Steam

Developed by Team Tripleslash

 

 

A lone robot in a dead and unmoving future world, you find yourself amidst the rusted ruins of your robotic peers with only the power of magnetic energy to help you revive these elders to their former glory. Magnetic by Nature is a sidescrolling platformer with a magnetic driven twist, facing the player against complex chains of positive and negative reactions they must properly attract to and repel against in order to reach the end of each thoughtfully crafted stage.

Each of the large robot idols you must revive and unlock play host to a series of refreshingly difficult levels of their own colorful and entrancing environment. Guided by the shimmering melodies echoing with cave-like and natural qualities, droplets of water heard lightly dripping from hanging stalactites in the background. The game has beautiful and engaging surroundings that seem to live and breathe around you, with the glistening surfaces of twisting rock formations with occasional flocks of birds flying by all drawing you into the wonderfully relaxing mood of each differently themed setting.

Mere movement in Magnetic by Nature requires the sharpest wit and the quickest reactions, propelling yourself across wide cavernous gaps and attempting to quickly reverse polarity to catch yourself on another magnet and swing even further. As you learn the ropes of using your magnetic charge to slingshot yourself around each stage with ease, the momentum speeds up and swinging yourself across stages becomes an exhilarating trapeze act.

Often times the game moves far beyond mere platforming and into ingenious and accessible puzzle mechanics, having you push and pull magnetic orbs into proper slots or even through complicated stone mazes. Throughout the entirety of the game I was surprised with how fresh and engaging the new mechanics brought by each level were, never feeling same-y or overstaying its welcome.

The game quickly becomes intensely difficult, but in the best ways possible that offer an accessible challenge which always feels within your grasp.  What starts out as quick and clever manipulations of magnetic force in order to reach a nearby platform soon turns into long and complicated series of chained magnets strung above dangerous obstacles and deadly contraptions.

The retries will come swiftly, as you practice on perfecting the aim and arc of your propelled movements from each magnet to the next, timing your swings between them just right. It doesn't take long to figure out how to wield this unique mechanic, and completing the most puzzling labyrinth of magnets is always an incredibly rewarding feeling.

Magnetic by Nature is a game that deserves to discovered and played by a much wider audience. I'm ashamed I hadn't played it earlier myself, as it has proved to be one of the most pleasantly original platformers of the year. The consistently challenging and unusual mechanic of harnessing magnetic power to slingshot yourself to victory combined with an earthly atmosphere unsurpassed in its natural charm make this absolutely worth the admission.