- By Ash
- in Indie Games
[Update #2]: Dead Cells' first 2023 expansion will be a rather ambitious crossover with Castlevania.
[Update]: As a small token of gratitude, Terraria will be adding Dead Cells crossover content at some point in 2023!
Continuing with the seemingly endless wave of new content, the Dead Cells team has now released the second and rather chunky indie crossover update. This one brings with it a variety of weapons, skills and cosmetic outfits themed after Terraria, Shovel Knight, Hotline Miami, Katana ZERO, Risk of Rain and Slay the Spire.
Out of the bunch, the Slay the Spire item is by far the most unique as it's essentially four skills in one. Each of the 'cards' comes with passive bonuses and a powerful active ability that will then switch you over to a new combination inspired by a different Slay the Spire class. It takes a little bit of time to get used to the idea of constantly switching your skillset around, but it's definitely a nice bit of fun and a solid new addition for Dead Cells!
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
Horror games frequently subject our characters to gruesome fates in order to amplify the tension and make the monsters feel more menacing, but the recently released Endoparasitic takes this concept to a whole new level. I say this because the very first thing that happens in Endoparasitic is that shadowy monsters rip off three of your limbs, thus leaving you with only one arm with which you have to do everything!
And when I say everything, I really do mean that as you'll need to use your singular appendage to push yourself along the ground, manipulate objects, and even painstakingly mess around with your own inventory. Things get especially messy in combat as you not only need to stand still in order to shoot, but you also need to manually reload your bullets one by one while the mangled monstrosities shamble towards your defenseless body. Needless to say, this makes Endoparasitic's gameplay incredibly stressful, yet also quite effective at conveying a real sense of dread since you are so frequently helpless.
Warhammer 40,000: Shootas, Blood & Teef is an over-the-top, Metal Slug inspired run & gun platformer
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
There are tons of Warhammer 40k games out there these days, though for whatever reason the vast majority of them are centered around the Imperium and feature some flavor of strategy gameplay. However, the recently released Warhammer 40,000: Shootas, Blood & Teef is a major exception as it not only forgoes strategy in favor of over-the-top action, but it also ignores the usual Space Marine nonsense in favor of giving the Orks a bit of a spotlight!
As you might imagine from a game starring Orks, Shootas, Blood & Teef is all about blasting your way through a bunch of colorful levels while shouting mostly complete and utter nonsense all throughout the process. What this sort of insanity looks like in action, that you can find out through the launch trailer below. Have a peek:
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
[Update]: Dwarf Fortress' new and improved version has now landed onto Steam, and I'm happy to say that it has done so alongside overwhelmingly positive reviews!.
After a fair bit of time in development, Dwarf Fortress' much-anticipated Steam port has now finally been pinned for a December 6th launch. Rather than be a simple copy of the free version, the Steam port will bring with it an assortment of quality-of-life features and improvements to make the process of learning and playing Dwarf Fortress a lot less overwhelming, especially for new players.
These features include a set of stylish visuals to better help represent what's happening in the world, an overhauled UI focused around usability and readability, Steam Workshop support to make modding easier, as well as a bunch of quality-of-life improvements and additions to help smooth out any rough edges. Most importantly, at least as far as pure beginners are concerned, the Steam version of Dwarf Fortress will also come with a comprehensive tutorial that will (hopefully) instill you with all the knowledge you need to set off on your own.
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
[Update]: Rain World's Downpour expansion has now arrived, and so far it's looking quite good!
We've had to wait quite a few months since the original announcement, but the Videocult team has now finally revealed that Rain World's very first expansion will be launching onto PC on January 19th, 2023 - nearly six years after its first appearance! Consoles will also be getting the Downpour expansion, though sadly no exact release date has been announced for them just yet.
In terms of content, Downpour will bring with it ten expansive new regions to explore, over a thousand new rooms to carefully navigate, as well as five unique slugcats with their own storylines, abilities and gameplay styles. And just in case you're in the mood for something a bit trickier, Downpour will also add a Challenge Mode where you can test your slugcatting skills in a variety of different and undoubtedly devious scenarios.
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
If you're looking to play something a bit out of the ordinary this Halloween season, you might want to give the freshly released Faith: The Unholy Trinity a try. As you might expect from the name alone, Faith will have you rummage through haunted forests, abandoned churches and Satanic cults in order to figure out what exactly is going on, how to stop it, and ideally how to go through all of that while retaining at least some semblance of sanity.
What this sort of madness looks like in action, as well as just how spooky 8-bit pixel art can truly be, that you can find out through the launch trailer below:
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
If you're looking for even more toys and systems to play around with in RimWorld, you might be interested to hear that the Biotech expansion has now arrived. True to its name, Biotech brings with it gene editing technology that allows you collect and implant a variety of alien genes in order to create super-human (or perhaps super-monstrous) colonists.
Thanks to the new expansion, colonists are now also able to become pregnant and give birth - both naturally and through technological means. From there you can invest a considerable amount of time and effort into training and educating your progeny to mold them into valuable members of the colony, or if you're going for a bit of a... different strategy, pump out cheap and disposable soldiers from the new growth vats.
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
[Update #2]: Vampire Survivors devs have revealed their plans for 2023, including new content and an engine upgrade.
[Update]: Vampire Survivors' Legacy of the Moonspell expansion has now arrived with a massive new map, 8 characters and 13 weapons.
After an absurd amount of updates that have brought in everything from new characters to new enemies, maps, weapons and gameplay mechanics, Vampire Survivors has now finally been unleashed from Early Access. Unsurprisingly, it has done so alongside yet another chunky batch of new content!
You can expect to see new skins for a variety of characters, an Inverse Mode that flips the stages upside down while beefing up the enemies, as well as an Endless Mode that removes the run-ending Reaper in favor of swarming you with an ever-increasing barrage of enemies. Oh, and appropriately enough, there's also a new weapon called the Greatest Jubilee that shoots out fireworks!
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
If you were hoping to get your hands onto Oxenfree 2: Lost Signals later this year, I'm afraid I'll have to disappoint you. According to the latest update, the Oxenfree 2 team has decided to postpone the big launch until 2023 in an effort to ensure the game arrives as finished and polished as possible.
“We owe it to our amazing community to make Oxenfree 2: Lost Signals the best game it can possibly be,” explains the brief announcement. “Seeing your fan art, reading your excited comments, and connecting with you fuels our ambition to make this our best game yet. To make Oxenfree 2 truly special and add more localizations, we're moving our release window to 2023.”
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
If you ever wanted to be a cat, by which I mean a fuzzy and adorable menace to society, the upcoming Stars in the Trash might just be what you're looking for. To put it simply, Stars in the Trash is a story-driven adventure about a spoiled cat that decided to run away from home in order to see what kind of mischief it could get itself into. And since this is a cat we're talking about, the answer is unsurprisingly quite varied!
However, the thing that really sets Stars in the Trash apart is the presentation, as everything has been hand-drawn to look like it came straight out of a classic Disney animation. What I mean by this, as well as what the gameplay in Stars in the Trash is like, that you can find out through the trailer below. Have a gander:
