Into the Dead: Our Darkest Days – Early Access Impressions

It’s time to survive the zombie apocalypse in Into the Dead: Our Darkest Days—or at least try to before being turned into a human shish kebab. Into the Dead is a 2.5D platformer in the style of This War of Mine where the war has been traded for an extremely hostile undead world—so good luck, meatbag! While I think the mechanics work fine, I unfortunately do think the game becomes a little boring and grindy, just like This War of Mine after a while. Let’s get into it!

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DERELIKT – Playtest Impressions

I’m not sure this can be called a true impressions article, as I dipped out of DERELIKT very early—long before any real testing could be done. The reason for this is that the game is currently segmented in a way that drops late‑game areas right after level one, which spoils a lot of things I want to keep secret until my full playthrough. Apparently, it goes something like this: Level 1, then level 4, and finally level 5. However, what I did get to test felt and looked damn good!

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Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival – Demo Impressions

Now, this demo was a surprise. I was expecting a linear moody walking-simulator, but Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival is an actual game with stealth, machete-combat London-style and the blasting of foes with guns. It was also incredibly bloody, with breasts and genitalia on full display—so very Hellraiser and Clive Barker. I found the lady with the massive flesh-constructed tongue upsetting, but not in the pearl clutching way—it was more like: It’s time to get the hell out of here!

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Tenebris: Terra Incognita – 1.0 is Out!

Tenebris: Terra Incognita is almost a game I have forgotten about, since I wrote my very positive Early Access impressions article two long years ago—landing the game on a four-out-of-five in pure entertainment. Now finally—a year late—it’s out in a 1.0 version and it looks pretty damn good, like a deep turn-based RPG similar to Darkest Dungeon but in space (where nobody will hear you scream, except mom, of course). Let’s hope the grind has been adjusted to more tolerable levels. Anyhow, be sure to check out my Early Access article if curious, and the game on Steam—because I’m almost 100% certain this release won’t disappoint!

Critical Shift – Playtest Impressions

One thing that’s common now is to base your game on SCP, especially if you want mystery, and instantly want to set the tone of what’s to come. Critical Shift leans into SCP something fierce, being the game that feels the most similar—without actually being set in that universe. At least, that’s the impression I’m getting from the three missions in the playtest.

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Urban Strife – 1.0 Release is Imminent!

After ten years of development and a few years in Early Access, it’s finally time for Urban Strife to hit the 1.0 release on the 14th. Now, while I was pretty harsh toward the game in my Early Access Impressions article, I saw great potential in the title. So it’s with some excitement I await the release tomorrow. Have things been improved?

One of the big reasons for my scathing review was the weak writing, but I might be in luck, as it seems they hired an English-speaking veteran narrative designer to go over the dialogue. Check the release video after the jump, and a quote from one of the devs I picked up on RPG Codex. It comes with curious insight about the development and somewhat somber expectations.

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