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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Expeditions: Rome – Quick Impressions (& rant)

Another game, another uncertainty, hence the “quick impressions”. This impression so far has lasted me about ten hours with the game, and while certain parts show great potential for Expeditions: Rome, it also has incredibly boring mechanics that are part of the core gameplay. While I loved Logic Artists‘ first game Expeditions: Conquistador, which felt like a true expedition into the unknown, filled with danger and the lure of treasure, Expeditions: Viking fell way short for me. When I played it, it was buggy as hell, and in general, I found the game tedious and uninspired, missing what made their first game so good in the first place. All that barrel-smashing for random loot didn’t feel like the epitome of gameplay.

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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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Archrebel Tactics – Demo Impressions [Round 2]

I decided to give the Archrebel Tactics demo another go since no ironman nor demo length or difficulty should stop me! And I’m glad I did because my second go at the demo showed me even greater potential when it comes to the tactical aspect. I especially liked the indoor base fighting, particularly the moment when I blasted the behemoth alien with a well-aimed explosive rocket down a dimly lit corridor.

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Archrebel Tactics – Demo Impressions

The demo for Archrebel Tactics is out! While I did like it, as I see massive potential from a tactical viewpoint for the full release, I did find the demo a bit on the difficult and sadly annoying side. Now, my issues stem mostly from it being a demo, with heavy tutorials – that to be fair are excellent, but get a bit vexing on repeat playthroughs. The reason the demo gets to me is that it’s ironman, with a score being given to you if you finish the mission. The scoring is pretty cool, but man, no reloading in combination with the relentless difficulty does put a hamper on things when you just want to try things out and learn how the game works.

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