Hollowbody – Demo Impressions

Hollowbody is a futuristic dystopian take on the survival horror genre that takes place in England (I think). While the atmosphere sure is there with everything being gray and decayed, it hit me that some parts of the poorer areas of the British Isles already look like that. If it wasn’t for the shambling undead, it could have been set in our times! Jokes aside, the atmosphere is tight, and can probably be best compared to Silent Hill 4: The Room. It has the same kind of depressive aesthetics of a rotting urban sprawl of concrete and crushed dreams. A similar area that I myself have lived in once, so certain stuff hits close to home and makes things just a little more unsettling. I like.

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Deep State – Demo Impressions

I discovered this little gem while browsing the indie dev hashtag over at Twitter (X). Deep State is a two-man developer operation that takes heavy inspiration from Goldeneye 007, Deus Ex, and Resident Evil, according to their site. All games I enjoy, and going by the demo, I can clearly feel the Goldeneye and Deus Ex influences since those things are part of the gameplay. Resident Evil, not so much just yet, as you only fight humans in the demo. However, through the cutscenes, you can tell there are major supernatural government/corpo shenanigans going on, which sets a somewhat unsettling atmosphere.

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SKALD: Against the Black Priory – Tentacle Island

Polish your sword, and stock up on the travel weed, because it’s time to explore the cursed islands of SKALD: Against the Black Priory. While I don’t have much of a personal nostalgia connected to the Commodore 64, the graphics still manage to warm me in its low-pixelated glory of the past. However, it’s not without issues, as the amount of detail can actually be a detriment on this somewhat humble scale. At times it’s hard to distinguish the environment, seeing where you can or can’t go. It means when playing with a keyboard, you will have to prepare yourself to slam into objects like a bumper car trapped inside a tiny arena with randomly placed walls all over. Outside of that, it’s a pretty fine party-based adventure in the style of classic Dungeons and Dragons fantasy.

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The Drifter – Demo Impressions

It was a long time since I was so thoroughly impressed with a point-and-click adventure game. And not only from a visual, auditory, and technical perspective – the atmosphere and general writing are top notch too. The demo was rather short, but it sure as hell left me yearning for more. Unfortunately, I don’t see a set date for release on Steam. So, who knows when it will be released? It sucks as I want more of The Drifter, and to be able to dig deeper into the captivating story of the wandering vagabond.

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Subterrain: Mines of Titan – DIY, the game

Subterrain: Mines of Titan is a captivating sci-fi game with plenty of different gameplay mechanics that somehow end up mashing well together, both in gameplay and in a narrative sense. It also makes the game what it is – a tactical combat survival horror RPG in space with light colony management. A mouthful, I know. All this might sound cool on paper, however, it’s not without issues. The heavy emphasis on crafting might break the game for some, even if the combat simulation and general dungeon crawling are excellent. The main reason for this is that you can’t do anything if you don’t learn and make heavy use of the crafting and research mechanics since everything from armor to weapons will be forged by you. There are tons of loot to pick up, but the majority of the stuff will only be there to be dismantled to create better items or to be researched. So, don’t go expecting a casual time spent when you start Subterrain: Mines of Titan!

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