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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King Arthur: Legion IX – Pax Romana

It’s time to once again adventure in Avalon. However, this time around we are ditching the knights of the Round Table in favor of a long-lost Roman legion. Seeing as King Arthur: Legion IX is an expansion for King Arthur: Knight’s Tale made stand-alone, you will not be getting the same amount of game as the original. That is all fine and dandy considering it being a DLC with a lower price point, but what I didn’t expect going in, was the much more streamlined experience. Many of the cool “Xcom” aspects of King Arthur: Knight’s Tale have been cut, like for example tending to wounds, building up your colony, and maintaining a team in the form of picking and choosing whom to take on missions.

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Swordhaven: Iron Conspiracy is a go!

Oh yeah, baby! I’m a bit late to the party, but it seems the AtomTeam made it. Swordhaven is fully financed through Kickstarter with about 67 hours to go from the posting of this article. I noticed that they already managed to hit one stretch goal – a player base. Not sure how excited I am about that particular addition since most RPGs that have some kind of home usually feel a bit undercooked. However, I’m glad to see they are making a few more bucks on top of what they wanted. Now to see if they can reach the next stretch goal – Cursed City. Which I have to admit sounds much more enticing, maybe because I live in one in real life. Who knows? Anyway, I’m happy to see they made it. Now the eternal wait begins.

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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The Thaumaturge – Rasputin Forever

It’s time to travel back to early nineteenth-century occupied Warsaw – specifically to a weird alternative version of our timeline where demonology is an actual thing. An interesting thing about The Thaumaturge is that it’s listed as an RPG. After playing it, a more apt genre description would be an ambitious point-and-click adventure, or maybe an avant-garde walking simulator if I’m going to be mean.

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