As typically when it comes to demos, I stumbled over Abathor by pure chance, and once again, I’m glad that I did. Abathor is a cooperative action side-scroller, where you must slaughter strange foes in the masses. It has the typical tropes of these kinds of games that they are expected to contain, and overall, executes them well. Everything from the combat, finding secrets, big bosses, to the platforming.
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Another day, another random game recommended to me through Twitter (X). More often than not you strike rock mining for gold, but from time to time, you don’t only strike gold, you strike diamond! Tenebris: Terra Incognita is one of these rare diamonds. It’s a turn-based tactical combat RPG that can be best compared to Darkest Dungeon, a tough and long game I very much enjoyed. Like Darkest Dungeon this is a side scrolling adventure with tactical combat interspersed, unlike DD however, this takes place in space, far into the future where bulky futuristic armor, nasty aliens and nano-machines reign supreme.
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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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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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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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