It’s that time of year when we collectively look back at the flaming wreckage that we somehow managed to live through. It’s been a tough one, but at least the indie market has continued to flourish with the release of all kinds of experimental and artistic titles.

As with every year, the window for eligibility in our awards are December to December, so games released in December 2023 are valid, but not games in December 2024 (Sorry, The Thing: Remastered). We also have a rule that each game can only be nominated for one category, so if you don’t see something here, we may have stuck it in with a console-specific one if it feels like a better fit.

If you felt like you had nothing to play this year, you need to think smaller budget, my friend. Indie games kept me busy this year. Very busy. Too busy. Portions of my year are just blurs of unique art styles, narrative depths, and casual experiments. But there are some amazing standouts, and myself and the Destructoid team have been able to narrow them down to just a handful.

Here are the runners for Destructoid’s Best Indie Game of 2024.

Mullet Mad Jack

With only 10 seconds to live, you have to kill robot billionaires (robillionaires) on livestream to get the sweet, sweet endorphins that come with amassing likes on social media in order to add precious seconds onto the clock. After all, internet adulation is the only reason to keep living. Mullet Mad Jack is a never-stop-moving murder-sprint of a roguelite laced with a ridiculous but strangely believable depiction of the future as interpreted by the 1990s. Fast and furious in the back, thought-provoking in front.

Anthology of the Killer

Technically a compilation of short-form indie titles going back to 2020, Anthology of the Killer rolls up several tales, presents them in one complete package, and puts on a bow. Following the exploits of BB, a young woman trapped in a surreal city so packed with serial killers that they’ve just become a fact of life. Its dreamlike horror is so effective because it’s impossible to really get hold of anything resembling reality, with only its effective sense of humor keeping panic at bay.

Crow Country

It’s not uncommon for horror games in the indie sphere to invoke a PS1 aesthetic to take us back to the youthful days of survival horror. But despite the well-trodden territory, Crow Country presents something fresh. Featuring an effective art style that allows its environments to look pre-rendered while actually being real-time and a surprisingly unconventional and haunting narrative, Crow Country is among the best games the genre has seen in years.

1000xRESIST

Clearly, we here at Destructoid have an inappropriate level of affection for unconventional narratives, because that’s exactly what Steven “Cinderblock” Mills feverishly rants about in his review for 1000xRESIST, going as far as calling it a “narrative masterpiece.” Beyond that, it finds gameplay hooks beyond its adventure roots to keep you engaged, as if you needed more reason to lock in.

Animal Well

While Animal Well can be pinned as a metroidvania title, at every turn, it seems to try and subvert and surprise in a way that is rarely seen in the genre. Both minimalistic and detailed, Animal Well uses its focus on secrets and exploration to drive hooks into your innate curiosity to keep you fixated.

Balatro

Perhaps the only game on this list to reach indie-game escape velocity and find a mainstream audience. It’s easy to see why. Balatro boils down the deckbuilding roguelite genre into its base elements to provide an absorbing perversion of Poker. It could easily be a perfect snack game, but good luck just playing a few short rounds.

Buckshot Roulette

All the fun of the classic party game with less chance of removing your frontal lobe with a slug. Buckshot Roulette is a deceptively simple game of shooting yourself in the face with a shotgun. You face off with a creepy stranger, using whatever tricks you can to keep yourself from eating lead breakfast. Short, but disturbingly engrossing.

The post Nominees for Destructoid’s Best Indie Game of 2024 appeared first on Destructoid.

One of the worst things about the industry today is that there are just so damned many games coming out at any one time. One of the best things about it is that there’s no end to the variety between them. A game can be about basically anything, and developers are constantly exploring how far they can push “anything.”

I’m not sure Jake Clover's Cape Hideous is about anything. I’m not even sure it’s about something. It could be! Maybe I’m just too daft to see it. However, from what I can tell, it’s just one really strange slice of life told with an extremely ugly but captivating art style.

You’re dropped with little explanation on a ragged but massive ship on the ocean. You play as a woman who smokes three pipes simultaneously; an impressive feat, to be sure, but you’ll soon meet those who can juggle more. The ship is headed toward a nasty-looking storm, but whether they’re going toward it intentionally or not isn’t really revealed, even by the end. However, the ship is in extremely rough shape, so there’s work to be done if it’s going to weather it.

You aren’t told what you should be doing, but you can only move on a 2D axis. Pick a direction and see where it goes. You’ll eventually find a knife, and then you’ll find that you can climb the mast. Along the way, you’re treated to the sights and sounds of the other inhabitants of the ship as they work away. There’s not really any indication that you’re the ship’s captain or anyone important, or even if there is a captain at all. You’re just left to explore.

The most striking thing about Cape Hideous is that it’s, well, hideous. The whole production looks like it was created in MS Paint with a trackball mouse. The fill bucket has been worked hard. However, it doesn’t demonstrate a lack of artistic ability. On the contrary, the ship is alive with fine, elaborate detail. There are a lot of moments where it makes great use of perspective to give everything a surreal quality. Its lo-fi, almost childlike art style is no doubt deliberate.

The goal of the game, if you can call it that, is to simply explore. As you do, the protagonist will start pulling down flags from the mast. She’ll also meet characters, and while many of them are ignored, there are some exchanges, as well. There is no dialogue, however, and the surreality is often at its peak during character interactions.

You’re never directed where to go, at least not explicitly. There are only so many places you can go (you’re on a boat, after all), so if it’s not obvious what you’re supposed to do at that point, you’re never far from figuring it out. The fact that you’re never told what to do but never left wandering gives Cape Hideous a much more organic feeling than you’d probably expect from any 2D walking sim.

Which is perfect since Cape Hideous is entirely vibes. The quiet ambient sounds of work, wind, and the sea can be heard beneath an acoustic guitar-heavy soundtrack by magicdweedoo (of Dryft City Kyngs fame). The store page also suggests in all-caps, “BEST EXPERIENCED WITHOUT DISTRACTIONS, WITH NOISE-CANCELLING HEADPHONES.” I didn’t do that, but I can see where that would be beneficial.

But when I say that Cape Hideous is entirely vibes, I mean that it’s entirely vibes. If you haven’t picked up by now, it’s not a game aiming to provide a challenge or some unique gameplay hook. It’s a 2D walking sim without any sort of puzzle element. I hate that, and that’s something I need to warn about, but I understand that even among people who enjoy these sorts of games, there’s generally a mood for it.

It’s also a very weird and art-forward game. As much as it looks thrown together, there’s a substantial amount of depth to its aesthetic. Repeated playthroughs allow you to glean more information from the environments, and the sound design meshes with what’s going on so well that it might as well be a scripted cartoon.

Because it so deftly handles its presentation, it works as more than just an art project. You don’t have to fully grok any sort of message from it or even understand the story that is being told. You can simply immerse yourself in the gelatinous vibes of maybe pirates. There might be substance abuse involved. I’m not sure. I’m not entirely confident that I understand what the hell is going on in Cape Hideous.

Which is fine. It took me just North of a half-hour to get through it, and I have no regrets. It does what it needs to do, provides a unique and memorable experience, and then sets sail again. The best part about the state of game development right now is that games can be about anything. And Cape Hideous is certainly anything.

The post Cape Hideous betrays its name by being strangely captivating appeared first on Destructoid.

If you decide to head to Enigma of Fear’s Crystal Cave from the Perimeter, you’ll soon encounter a new enemy: a sprightly critter with glowing green crystals sprouting from its body. Chances are you’ve died to it a couple of times and are now seeking some assistance. How exactly do you kill the glowy foe in the Crystal Cave?

A crystal monster in Crystal Cave

Unlike the Blood Zombies, which can't see at all, this new enemy in Enigma of Fear seems to have great eyesight. It's also fast and will pursue you out of the room while generating waves of fear that eventually knock you out and spell game over.

To take out the radiant fiend, you need to perform one extra step than when fighting Blood Zombies. Rather than pressing the Flashlight button to toggle between regular and blue light, hold the button to open a wheel menu. At the top is an option to turn off the flashlight entirely, which you may have overlooked.

Flashlight extinguished, crouch, sneak up behind the monster, and whack it from behind. Be wary, though. Turning off the flashlight makes you less detectable, but you're not invisible. Like with the Blood Zombies, you still need to use some strategy when creeping up.

Whatever happened to Oswald?

When close enough, you’ll get an Interact prompt to knock the glowing guy out. He’ll drop an item, which reveals that this poor thing is what remains of the researcher Oswald Magani, whose name you may have already encountered once or twice.

There are a few other interesting tidbits in the room Oswald was guarding: a couple of lore building items, a letter that provides clues about how to take out Goliath, and a medkit, which you'll probably need by now. Then it’s time to delve further into the Crystal Cave, where you might run into more of Enigma of Fear's corrupted researchers.

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How good are you at following instructions? How about while you’re under a timer? What about when your life depends on it? Me? Maybe not so great. Maybe.

Uncle Chop’s Rocket Shop is probably the last game I’ve been anticipating for the year. Well, that’s assuming a couple of them that have been quiet for a while aren’t going to drop. Anyway, playing the demo, it’s hard not to fall in love with its tricky diagnose-replace-repair gameplay laced with dark humor and a severe potty mouth.

So, I voraciously ate into it when I finally had it in my hands for this review, but after all the time I put into it, I still haven’t hit the credits. After, urgh, 25 hours, I still haven’t found the bottom of Uncle Chop’s Rocket Shop, but I’ve seen enough to tell you that you should definitely play this game if you think you can withstand the punishment.

Uncle Chop's Rocket Shop (PC)
Developer: Beard Envy
Publisher: Kasedo Games
Released: December 5, 2024
MSRP: $19.99

Uncle Chop’s Rocket Shop is, on the surface, a game about repair. Folks drop in with their ailing spacecraft, and it’s up to you to diagnose problems and make repairs. Each ship is separated into modules, and each craft has a random variety and number of them. The modules range from fuel, oil, and oxygen to AI, reactors, and just one big lever. You’re told what needs fixing, so you don’t need to figure out which of them is broken, but each of them breaks in different ways, so it’s up to you to figure out what needs to be repaired and what it looks like when everything is working.

This is all handled through a tactile interface where you pull levers and push buttons. Once you find something broken, you have to head to the store (right next to the repair bay) to buy a replacement and slot it in. You can get a welder that will restore shattered parts, but I found it somewhat unnecessary, as parts are relatively cheap. It’s a game that feels similar to Papers, Please, but with less paperwork and more refilling blinker fluid.

To help, you’re provided an all-inclusive instruction manual that goes over everything you need to know… mostly. You usually don’t have context for what is going on until you’ve seen the module itself and have gotten to know the various parts. Even when you do, it’s not difficult to make a mistake. You might get a pancake wrong or forget to close a hatch when you’re finished. Personally, I’ve never gotten to the point where I’m completely confident in front of a reactor. But then, if you get a step wrong, they blow up in your face and take, at the very least, you along with them. Possibly the neighborhood, as well.

You play as Wilbur, a hapless guy with a four-eyed fox head. He’s just the latest in a line of mechanics employed at Uncle Chop’s Rocket Shop. Hints are dropped at what happened to the previous ones, but you can probably guess. You’re given free rein of the shop. Most of the profit you make is yours, but every three days, you need to pay Uncle Chop R.E.N.T. to maintain your employment.

However, before you even really get grease on your hands, some dude shows up and blows your (fox) head off. It’s a good indication of how things will go from here.

You’re saved by a coworker who also happens to be the living personification of death. You’ve made an impression, so he will “zoop” you back to the start of your employment every time you screw up bad enough to die. The purpose of this isn’t completely clear at the start, but it’s nice to have job security. Also, yes, this is technically a roguelite.

There are two modes of play in Uncle Chop’s Rocket Shop. The first has the day passing by in real time, leaving you to try and fit in as many jobs as possible before bedtime. This means there’s a lot of pressure, and you’ll have to flip through that manual of yours pretty quickly whenever you’re faced with something you’re not completely familiar with. It also leaves more room for mistakes.

The second way of playing removes the time limit. You’re given room to complete three jobs and can take as long as you want on them. Making a mistake (or “fucking up,” as the game puts it) results in heftier penalties. However, in my experience, it’s a far easier way to play. When you’re given as much time as you need, it’s easier to complete a job without any mistakes whatsoever.

It doesn't necessarily feel like the intended way to play. However, it also feels like a necessary compromise. Uncle Chop’s Rocket Shop is brutal. It throws new stuff at you all the time, practically smashing you directly into a wall. It can be cruel about it. Just wait until the first time you see a reactor. Yeah, you read that manual in advance. Go ahead. It won’t help. You’re one forgotten switch away from nuking your face off.

Sometimes, after the first R.E.N.T. is taken care of, a dude will land with pipe bombs strapped to his ship. It doesn’t matter whether you’ve got the day timer going, you’ll have one-and-a-half minutes to deduce what wires you should snip using the Venn diagram from hell. I got really good at bomb defusal. I’m a wiz at reading Venn diagrams.

Even when you’ve got all the time in the world, one fuckup can be all it takes to gutter a run. Some customers have the “Perfectionist” trait, which means that if you make a single mistake, it will completely negate everything you got correct and leave you out of pocket. It’s a gamble since you only need to leave one too few shots left in their identification module to lose all your hard work. If you miss R.E.N.T., your job being terminated is the least of your concerns.

There’s also the chance that a customer will show up requiring a fix you can’t provide. This sometimes happens before you have the “Pancake” machine required for building specialized parts, but I also had one that needed a fuse that wasn’t available for me to purchase yet. I’m not sure this is intentional design. The game will sometimes let you know when you don’t have the machines needed to fix a ship before you take a job, but it doesn’t work every time. I’ve learned to just buy the Pancake and Encoder machines immediately at the start of the first run and avoid rebreathers on the first day.

But even still, my last run was ended because I took a job from an armed customer. He tried to rob me, but when I refused to empty my pockets, he shot my brain off. This is Fuck Around and Find Out: The Game.

It’s okay, though. Every time I got my run nuked, I’d just slump my shoulders and decide if I had time for another run. The only aggravating part about it was that my deadline was coming up and I like to have a game beaten before writing the review since you never know when something will shake apart at the last minute. However, I think I’ve gotten to what is essentially an end (there appears to be multiple). I just know that there’s a tonne left hidden because the places you can stick your fingers to find secrets are on display at all times.

What made it so hard to stay mad at it was that, even after restarting dozens of times, I was still being presented with new stuff. Not necessarily modules; I know how to fix a rebreather in my sleep. It’s the interactions with customers and coworkers. Every time one gets out of their ship, you never know if they’re going to give you a hug or complain about how you smell like wet dog. Visiting the speakeasy before or after work also gives you the opportunity to see more of the station’s denizens and pick up side quests.

But it’s maybe the fact that Uncle Chop’s Rocket Shop doesn’t lean entirely on cruelty to Wilbur that makes it more tolerable. As much fun as it is to see a hapless protagonist suffer, and it feels appropriate in a workplace environment, it can get tiresome. Instead, most of the characters have a softer side. Droose, especially, outwardly seems to care about Wilbur, and some moments with him are endearing. He and some of the customers will offer frequent words of encouragement, even if others are deliberately trying to blow you up.

Uncle Chop’s Rocket Shop is a lot. It’s a lot more than it has to be. While its design is tight and well-executed, it offers an obscene amount of variety and seemingly endless things to see. Which is good, especially if you’re like me and you find yourself in a hellcircle of 11th-hour fuckups that prevent you from witnessing the final clock out. And I think it says a lot when, despite how badly I’ve been savaged by its unforgiving nature, I’m happy to start up a new run and try again.

It’s pretty clear that not everyone will think that way. A game about throwing levers and getting blown up repeatedly isn’t going to gel with some. And while there is some permanent progression, the only thing you carry over between runs that will help you is what you were able to learn. A fondness for troubleshooting will get you far.

But regardless of whether or not this is the type of game you think you’d enjoy, it’s clear that Uncle Chop’s Rocket Shop is exactly what it wants to be. It’s an expert mix of cruel work-a-day tinkering and dark, vulgar humor. A bottomless well of savagely comedic moments, beckoning secrets, and puzzles that require Ikea furniture-level manual comprehension skills. If you’ve got room in your skull for some truly useless knowledge and can tolerate having your face stomped on a few times, you’ve got a friend in Uncle Chop.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

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Calisto Besatt is a boss in Enigma of Fear, and he might take a few attempts to beat. Once he’s taken down, however, the challenge won’t necessarily end. You may wind up stuck in a loop, fighting him over and over until you give up in frustration. That’s where this guide comes in. Just what are you supposed to do after defeating Calisto?

Caught in a loop after beating Calisto Besatt?

After bringing Calisto Besatt to his knees in Enigma of Fear, a short cutscene plays that provides the clue about what you need to do next. A mysterious figure opens a hidden door in a nearby wall and presumably makes off with Verity’s unconscious body.

When he awakens, you’ll realize that he’s been chained to some kind of altar. You can interact with each chain, but there’s not much else to do. Interact with his torso to return to what looks like the main menu. Don’t worry; it's not a glitch. Enter the blue three-symbol code that you used at the very beginning of the game, and you’ll wind up back in Mia’s story.

Don’t interact with the paper

Here’s where you might mess up. The note that started all of this is still lying tantalizingly on the floor in the center of the room, but interacting with it again will just take you back to Verity’s timeline. You’ll have to fight Calisto again, wake up on the altar, enter the code... This can happen endlessly in a loop.

Instead, turn around, equip the crowbar, and whack at the wall directly behind Mia. She’ll bust through the stone and uncover the hidden door from the cutscene. This will take you to an intermediate zone dubbed simply the Underground/Underworld. You’ll wind up in the Perimeter, the hub area of Enigma of Fear, fighting more Blood Zombies.

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There’s always been some debate around whether or not games are art, but in the late aughts and early ‘10s, some decided to really push for it. Sometimes, this resulted in kind of mostly successful experiments like Citizen Abel: Gravity Bone or Limbo, while other times we got more unfortunate, pretentious attempts like The Path.

It was a really insecure time for video games. We seemed to want some sort of permission to take this hobby seriously, so it’s like, collectively, as players and developers, we tried to prove video games were something they weren’t. Oh, they’re totally art. You can see that in games about flipping eggs and trimming hedges. But it’s more about harnessing the interactive element to get that piece of yourself across. A developer might try to capture how they think or see the world by asking you to live it. I’m not sure what The Path was supposed to say. Don’t do what you’re told?

We’ve largely moved past that, or at the very least, games that are 100% message have more of a purpose. A self-assuredness. It often feels more earnest and less pretentious. Which makes Miniatures something of a blast from the past.

Miniatures (PC [Reviewed], Switch, Mobile)
Developer: Other Tales Interactive
Publisher: Other Tales Interactive
Released: November 14th, 2024
MSRP: $5.99

Now, I’m not actually saying Miniatures is pretentious. No, I'm the pretentious one today. But, it’s at least making no mystery of the fact that it’s a digital art exhibit. What I mean is that it is only interactive-adjacent, and it is very art. I wouldn’t even call it narratively focused because the stories are pretty abstract. You’ll either connect with them, maybe just find them amusing, or maybe you won’t.

For me, it reminds me of extremely late nights of being bored in front of Teletoon. Nights when my parents were out, so I had free reign of the TV and could watch whatever bizarre concoction was on the station in the later hours.

Teletoon would often air things from The National Film Board of Canada, which was actually the butt of a Simpsons joke back in the day (not while they were still good). Very cultural stuff, but a lot of it was extremely strange. Sometimes, it would be something relaxingly amusing. Other times, it would be a piece of Canadiana, with the deepest of it being something from our aboriginal cultures. When you’re a pre-teen at 11 pm, it doesn’t matter what it was. Any attempt by an animation student to stretch their legs would hit like some sort of forbidden fever dream.

That’s what Miniatures took me back to; a decaffeinated Saturday night in my father’s La-Z-Boy. It’s four short chapters that sometimes make you poke the screen. On Switch and mobile, you can literally poke the screen, but here I was just poking it with my mouse pointer. Clicking, if you will.

I’m not trying to be dismissive, but the interactivity is very basic in Miniatures. One of the chapters has you trying to arrange a band of small sand-critters in a little sand-critter town in an extremely roundabout way. This was by far the most amusing one for me, as you largely press on places you think something should happen and then watch while that something happens. It’s well-animated and amusing, so that’s something.

There’s one where you pan the screen around to follow a story, and every so often, you need to click on something in the environment to uncover a trigger that allows you to move on. This one was my least favorite, not because of the lack of interactivity but because I didn’t connect with it. As far as I could see, it was a directionless story that wanted to look like it had something to say but didn’t say anything at all. Or maybe I just didn’t see the message.

As for the other two, I can at least understand what they’re trying to communicate, but I think a lot of Miniatures fails because it will elicit a feeling and then not do anything with it. They don't use that feeling to deliver any sort of message. These are short, short little chapters – miniature, if you will – so if they want you to just soak in the feeling, then there isn’t much time to do so. One strength in the artistic side of video games is that by having the player take part in something, you can hold their head beneath whatever you’re trying to convey, and when they're good and soaked, hit them with what you want to say. Miniatures neither has a point nor does it drown you for very long.

But, with those last two, I at least got the vibe they were putting down. One seemed to focus on childhood loneliness and discovery, while another gave a sense of tension and dread. I’ve found I’m typically able to pick up on subtext, even in games that aren’t taking an art-first approach, so I’m not deaf to what’s going on in Miniatures. I mostly have two problems. Number one: I don’t think it leverages the advantages of an interactive medium for conveying ideas. Number two: I don’t connect with the ideas that are here.

This makes it kind of hard to review a game like this because its effectiveness will vary from person to person, and I can’t speak to what you’ll feel. Maybe you’ll see yourself reflected in one or all of the games here. What I can say is that from an interactive standpoint, as well as a narrative one, I find Miniatures lacking. In comparison to other games that I would applaud for their contributions and approach to the art form, this wouldn’t be high on the list, but I wouldn’t throw it away wholesale, either.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

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Words have weight, which is why I swing them around with reckless abandon. I’m not sure that’s what Great God Grove is about unless you only take it literally. It’s more about identity, authority, communication, and misunderstanding.

It’s the follow-up to Smile For Me by Limbolane. But while the two games have similarities, you might miss the relation just by looking at it. One game has you interred in an asylum, while the other has you fixing the relationships of the gods. However, what they have in common is head nods and fixing people.

Great God Grove (Switch, Xbox Series X|S, PC [Reviewed])
Developer: Limbolane
Publisher: LimboLane, Fellow Traveller
Released: November 15th, 2024
MSRP: $19.99

Great God Grove puts you in the boots of a Godpoke, which is, as far as I can tell, a sort of courier. To be honest, I’m not clear on a few concepts here. For all I know, a Godpoke might just be someone who wears a poncho. You arrive at the eponymous grove just in time to see the gods close a giant rift in the sky that threatens to end the world. The problem is that the gods aren’t entirely interested in saving the world. They’re far too wrapped up in their own problems.

Previous to your arrival, the last messenger of the gods, the mysterious King, sent letters out to all the gods. The letters are obvious attempts to drive wedges between them, but as King had always been a trusted friend and reliable enough to be elected to become the next god, they took those words at face value. Now, nothing is right in the grove despite being a crucial time for the whole world.

Before you even get to the grove, King’s trusty mail cannon, the Megapon, lands directly in your lap. With this device, you can suck the words out of one person’s mouth and slap them in the face of another. Or just right back at them. That happens sometimes.

Being the wise person you are (or maybe just because it’s a linear narrative), you set to work righting King’s wrong. Immediately, you’re deputized by Inspekta, the God of Leadership, to help their lackeys, the Bizzyboys, figure out what happened to King and why they decided to hurt everyone’s feelings. However, the leader of the Bizzyboys, Capochin, is only out to please his boss, while the rest of the members are completely incompetent and hapless. So, it all comes down to you.

Largely, Great God Grove resembles a point-and-click adventure game. You can’t suck up any sentence or grouping of words you want; only specific, highlighted things that characters say can go in your Megapon. In this way, they work like any item in something like Secret of Monkey Island. You find hints in the words of the people you’re talking to and deliver something that will get them to perform some task for you, even if that’s just moving out of the way.

There’s a bit of a learning curve. For the first area, I wasn’t picking up on the cues, but after the second, I was able to proceed with some expedience. I didn’t get hung up very often, but I have to wonder if that’s going to be everyone’s experience. Great God Grove has an unusual design language built around its central hook, and I’m not sure if gaming literacy will be as important here as actual literacy. I’m not sure if every player can adjust, or maybe I’m the odd one because I had some issues in the first area. I can only speak to my own experience, though, and in my experience, I didn’t have much of a problem for most of the game.

Each area of the grove is home to one or two gods. In each one, King has spread some sort of misinformation to throw things into chaos, and your overall goal is to sort things out to restore the status quo. Sounds easy, but being an adventure game, it takes more than an apology to work things out.

What really elevates Great God Grove above a typical adventure game is an abundance of style. It mixes 2D characters and objects with a 3D world Paper Mario-style. It’s based around Day Lane’s distinctive, sketchy, expressive style. While animation is sparse, each character has a massive range of poses and emotions that they transition to each new window of dialogue. It can be quite captivating.

Many of the gods are rendered in full 3D, but they’re styled in such a way that it can be hard to tell. Like the 2D folks, the gods spring from pose to pose, with more traditional animation thrown in occasionally to spice things up.

There are also live-action puppet vignettes that you can watch for not much reason aside from enrichment. They generally just involve the Bizzyboys giving advice and some background information about what’s going on in the world. As it turns out, I’m really into puppets eating sandwiches. 

There isn’t much out that that looks quite like Great God Grove. The style is executed so consistently and with so much blunt-force pizzazz that it’s incredible that just a handful of people put the whole thing together. There are so many facets of its visual style that look as though they would be very difficult to execute, so the fact that they didn’t choose an easier, more conventional route is impressive. It pays off because, if absolutely nothing else, the way this game looks will be seared into your eyeholes.

Great God Grove has a lot to say about identity and the way people will stomp on others just for recognition. The gods themselves aren’t much different than ordinary people. They just exist on a less accessible plane of existence. As such, even though you can walk up and talk to them, their followers seem to just believe what they hear and speculate on what they might be thinking, which often is what leads to miscommunication. Misinformation is rife, and people take advantage of that.

Humans seem hardwired to climb. There’s a fear that our lives will be meaningless or forgotten, so we strive for recognition. And to secure our recognition, we’ll often stomp down the people beneath us. We yearn to wear the stomping boots, and a decent person can turn awful the moment they put them on. You face a lot of that in Great God Grove.

At the same time, it’s a very optimistic game. With your intervention, the troublemakers you meet see the error in their ways and express a desire to atone for their actions. Call me cynical, but I find most people are more likely to become defensive when faced with the consequences of their actions. People dig their stomping boots in and seek justification for what they’ve done. Maybe I just need a stronger word cannon.

In terms of gameplay, I could honestly take or leave Great God Grove. It has great pacing and a unique approach to the adventure genre, but I find the situations in which it’s applied generally unexciting. Not overly mundane, but I think with urgent focus on the threat and more dangerous situations, the dialogue would have more of a chance to shine. But it already shines pretty brightly.

Great God Grove is an immensely polished and precisely executed game, and that’s the most impressive part about it. Its pacing and aesthetic are finely honed and there’s nary a loose thread to be found. A bit more punch and the narrative would be perfect, but it presents a good amount of depth to sink into. It also features puppets gnawing on a gigantic hoagie, and really, what more can you ask for?

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

The post Review: Great God Grove appeared first on Destructoid.

On-rails missions have been a staple of Call of Duty basically from COD2 onwards, but few of them felt quite so unexpected and impressive as COD4: Modern Warfare's awesome AC-130 sequence. What if you took that and made it into a standalone game, though? That's exactly what Metal Thunder does.

Metal Thunder is an indie project kickstarted by Dumbbell Games, a fresh indie developer with no prior projects under its belt. A potential cause for concern, to be sure, but the good news is that Metal Thunder is already out and about. Sure, it's an Early Access title, but it's priced at a fairly humble 10,79 EUR (with 15% off to celebrate the release), and it's already got an assortment of positive reviews to prop it up. So, is it any good, or is it just trying to nostalgia-bait those of us who remember how mind-blowing Modern Warfare was back in the day?

Metal Thunder takes an iconic Call of Duty mission and runs with the concept

Metal Thunder is admittedly not the first game to have attempted to expound upon this concept, but it sure as heck seems to be the best one yet. Even in Early Access, Metal Thunder runs great and feels great. Heck, it's a perfect fit for the Steam Deck, as some reviewers have been happy to point out.

As Metal Thunder only just released in Early Access, there's not a huge amount of content. More than enough to keep you busy for a few hours' worth of time, but still. The good news is that Dumbbell Games has a pretty extensive roadmap in place that's going to begin rolling out in very short order. Players can expect:

• New Campaign missions every two weeks.
• Time Trial, Stealth Ops, and various other game modes that build upon Campaign missions.
• Survival Mode.
• Ground unit control, adding real-time strategy elements to the game.
• Endless Mode and Leaderboards.

And, after the 1.0 version of Metal Thunder releases, there's going to be a dedicated Zombies Mode to fiddle about with. Metal Thunder was released on November 1, and the plan is for the game to launch its 1.0 build in the next 6-12 months. Pretty darn quick, all things considered. We do all know how Early Access tends to drag on, however, so I wouldn't put too much stock in this.

Yet, Metal Thunder is already quite fun and quite cheap, so why not give it a shot, if you're into the concept?

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One of Steam's best, and most impenetrable, indie roguelikes (read: "like," not "lite") is slated for a 1.0 release on December 5, with a tutorial aimed at onboarding beginners originally planned to release at the same time. Luckily for those of us who want to jump in a bit early, that tutorial was recently added in a regular patch, well ahead of its scheduled release.

Caves of Qud is a fantastic, weird, extremely breakable game that sports worldbuilding to rival Dune and player freedom to rival Dwarf Fortress. Unlike Dwarf Fortress, though, you play as a single adventurer, customized to your liking with a smattering of mutations or cybernetics (depending on your faction) before being sent to die horribly at the whims of the world. A recent 4-hour-long run of mind ended because my head was exploded by a psychic enemy lurking outside a civilization of tech-savvy bear people.

The only problem with actually enjoying Caves of Qud is learning to play Caves of Qud. This was once relegated to forums, YouTube videos, or one of several excellent fan-made resources. Beyond the graphics, which are only about half a notch away from being pure ASCII, you'll need to learn to grapple with a myriad of keybinds, economics, turn rules, and enemy abilities. You'll only be trading, for instance, in drams of precious water. But, thanks to the beginner tutorial, a high barrier to entry just got a lot more surmountable.

Of course, a brief tutorial to learn the basics is only going to get your foot in the door. It's up to you to learn, for instance, that you can spray brain-juice on inanimate objects and dominate their feeble minds to turn them into allies.

I think Caves of Qud has the potential to make a bit of a splash when it launches, and I would've had a hard time believing that if there weren't something like the tutorial present in game. It's sure to remain niche, but I'm glad more adventurers may be beckoned by the siren song of its enthralling world and systems. Live and drink, water sibs.

The post Fan-favorite roguelike Caves of Qud mercifully receives tutorial ahead of December release appeared first on Destructoid.

Breakout indie hit Webfishing - the game that simultaneously simulates Animal Crossing and an AOL chatroom from 2006 - received a major patch on November 6 that aimed to smooth out performance, add content, and address a burning community concern: the lack of a "Straight" player title.

I'm being facetious, of course. Although it's a given that some folks complained about the lack of a "Straight" player title, the game's community is, in my experience, a positive and inclusive one. The title itself is also obviously a gag, costing a whopping $9999 (a princely sum even for the most veteran of fishermen).

Also, if you think I'm putting parenthesis around the title as some kind of editorial bit, you're wrong. The title is, in game, flanked by parenthesis, which is the funniest possible bit besides it costing a houseboat mortgage.

The patch also brings tons of additions and quality of life, including new bobbers, clothing, rods, and music tracks. I'm personally most excited about the new bobber that occasionally spawns a raincloud above players while they fish. A new way to catch fish in the rain without being beholden to the weather is going to be huge for completing quests and filling out the fishing journal.

The game's biggest patch yet, it also focuses partly on some performance and bug concerns. Not having predicted their own breakout success, the developer bemoaned their lack of satisfaction with the game's release state, stating "Hopefully this patch addresses most of the major issues with the game (and I can finally sleep a bit :) )."

Of course, no one can predict the whims of the indie audience, least of all the people making the games. Webfishing comes with my full-throated recommendation to anyone who enjoys Animal Crossing's progression, fishing games, or chat rooms full of nice folks trying and failing to play virtual acoustic guitar.

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It's no trick! After more than four years as a PC exclusive, Kinetic Games' Phasmophobia is haunting consoles for the first time.

Released on October 29, the cooperative horror title is now available for Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5. Kinetic Games also released a launch trailer showcasing the games intense ghost-hunting gameplay.

Phasmophobia allows one to four players to kit up and tackle the paranormal with specialized gear akin to reality shows such as Ghost Hunters. It sports more than 10 unique locations to explore and over 20 different ghosts with individual characteristics to encounter and survive. The game also features the ability to create custom games, giving hunters the choice to make their own entirely original experience.

Phasmophobia's unique gameplay catapulted it to immense popularity on Steam, where it reached a peak of 112,241 players and still boasts an audience of over 40,000 concurrent players daily. It also holds a spot within the top 20 best-selling titles on Steam.

Phasmophobia's cooperative element, open-ended gameplay, and white-knuckle scares make it quite popular with the streaming community on Twitch as well. Many streamers with large viewership numbers featured the title on stream, including Markiplier, Jacksepticeye, and RDCWorld. Overall, the game ranks in the top 150 Twitch all-time peak viewership and has nearly 223 million total hours watched.

It's a treat for console gamers to finally getting their chance to get in on the fun, and just before the spookiest day of the year too. Phasmophobia is available for purchase in the Microsoft and PlayStation Stores for $19.99.

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Shared fear is one heck of a drug. There's something comfortable about being part of a group of scared people, especially when everyone knows they aren't in genuine danger. Every October, I feed my addiction to collective dread by playing my favorite spooky video games with my nearest and dearest.

We're examining spine-chilling games that reach their peak performance when played by a group of players. Some games we'll discuss are multiplayer, while others are single-player games that benefit from the audience experience. Despite their differences, every game on this list will love you with Halloween memories that'll stay with you for years.

10. DOORS

Inspired by Spooky's Jumpscare Mansion, DOORS is one of the most impressive Roblox games ever crafted. The goal is simple on paper: you and up to three other players must make your way to the one-hundredth room of a sprawling, eerie hotel. Unfortunately, each room between you and your destination is the hunting grounds of a horrifying host of "Entities," each more terrifying and competent than the last.

DOORS' strength lies in its deceptive complexity. Initially, the game may seem straightforward, but as more Entities and items are randomly dropped into the mix, things escalate quickly. Luckily, while the exact location of the game's enemies and artifacts change, their behavior and function never do. This consistency allows players to learn from mistakes and improve their subsequent runs, creating an addictive gameplay loop that doesn't dampen the game's scares.

9. Resident Evil 4

Resident Evil has never settled into a constant formula, and Resident Evil 4 proves why that's a good thing. Leon Kennedy's second run-in with runaway bio-weaponry exchanges a significant chunk of the raw survival horror that defined previous installments for a more action-oriented gameplay structure. Ironically, this restraint allows RE4 to instill a different terror in you.

There are more toys to play with here than in most Resident Evil games, but it also throws more enemies at you. Environments are brightly lit and open-ended, which gives monsters more opportunities to ambush you from corners you can't see. Resource management, situational awareness, and improvisation are the name of the game here, and RE4 will quickly become a terrifying game if you don't learn to balance these skills.

Whether you're playing the 2005 original or the 2023 remake, RE4 is excellent fun, especially with friends. The game's linear, chapter-based progression gives you plenty of opportunities to pass the controller to another player, who's probably learned a few tricks from watching you play.

8. Luigi's Mansion

Mario’s green-capped younger brother was barely a character until Luigi’s Mansion turned him into the goofy coward Nintendo fans know and love. In the GameCube’s launch title, Luigi discovers the mansion he supposedly won in a contest is full of ghosts. Armed with a special vacuum, the younger Mario brother sets off to capture every ghost in the mansion and rescue his kidnapped older brother.

Luigi’s Mansion operates like a score-based arcade game, challenging you to rack up the highest point total possible as you navigate the titular abode. Competing with your friends to see who can catch the most ghosts never gets old, and it’s a fantastic way to spend a Halloween night if you have a GameCube.

7. Five Nights at Freddy's

There are a lot of Five Nights at Freddy's games these days, and all of them are fantastic picks for this list. With that said, there's something about the simplicity of the franchise's first game that keeps players like me coming back whenever October rolls around. If you can talk some of your friends into revisiting it with you, that's all the better.

The original Five Nights at Freddy's didn't become the viral phenomenon it did by accident. The light-flickering, door-slamming gameplay loop has just enough moving pieces to keep things exciting but uncomplicated, and the grungy art design gives its four murderous mascots an air of menace their later incarnations lack. I was in high school when the first FNaF dropped, and I still remember the times my friends and I jumped whenever one of us closed a door a bit too late or too soon.

6. Until Dawn

Interactive graphic horror titles have been bringing players together for a good, scary time since the heydays of Telltale's The Walking Dead, but Until Dawn firmly cemented these games as prime Halloween party material. One year after the deaths of their friends, sisters Beth and Hannah, eight college-age young adults face their demons, and something much worse, on the snowy slopes of a creepy mountain.

Until Dawn is, at its core, an interactive horror movie. You decide how this teen horror story ends through timed button inputs, exploration, and choices that determine who lives, who dies, and how everyone feels about each other. So imagine how exciting things get when you arrive at a significant story branch and hand your controller over to a friend you know will make very different choices than you would.

5. Lethal Company

Lethal Company's only been out for about a year in early access, but it's become one of the most popular co-op horror games out there right now. You and your friends are workers employed by “The Company,” tasked with retrieving valuable scrap from abandoned space colonies. Alien threats and dangerous environments jampack these colonies, but the real enemy is the ever-increasing scrap quota your employers expect you to fill, no matter the cost.

Besides your in-game salary, there’s a lot to love about Lethal Company. Despite the simplistic graphics (or maybe because of them), the monsters are surprisingly terrifying, and no one will hear you scream if you wander too far from your teammates. However, if you want to amp up your Lethal Company experience, I’d recommend looking into the game’s mod scene. Seriously, the Rolling Giant has never been more terrifying.

4. Buckshot Roulette

Russian Roulette is a dangerous game of chance smeared in glossy paint that gets people killed. Buckshot Roulette is one of the most addictive and creepy games I've played. The rules are simple: you and a grotesque grinning ghoul known as “The Dealer” take turns shooting at yourselves or each other, praying to whoever or whatever you believe in that the round in the chamber’s a bullet or a blank, depending on who the gun is pointing at.

Buckshot Roulette combines the dirty, industrial aesthetic of its developer’s other projects with the pixelated tabletop charm of Inscryption. An in-depth item system turns a glorified lottery into a complex game of strategy that will make you sweat. Right now, the only way to play the game with friends is to pass the keyboard around, but that will change once the game’s multiplayer update drops this Halloween.

3. Left 4 Dead 2

Valve can’t count to three, but their sequel game is second to none. Left 4 Dead 2 is every bit the strategic four-player zombie shooting experience the original game was and more. This game is still getting updates, and it’s still fun to play a decade after its original release.

Left 4 Dead 2 thoroughly sells the message behind almost every scrap of zombie media: cooperation is the key to survival. The levels encourage multitasking; a lone player can’t kill most enemies, and you can’t move on until every living player makes it to the end. The only thing holding L4D2 back is that every player needs a copy of the game and a working computer, so it’s not ideal for gamers working on a budget.

2. Dead by Daylight

Dead by Daylight is what you get when you take a game of hide-and-seek and give it the most horrifying digital glow-up imaginable. Four players step into the shoes of survivors trying to escape a bleak hellscape before a killer, controlled by a fifth player, sacrifices them to an evil god. Both character groups have tools the other doesn’t, and it’s a race to see who can complete their goal first.

The massive cast of survivors and killers and an ever-expanding list of perks means you’re never short on ways to customize your play style. On top of that, Dead by Daylight nails the horror aesthetic. Everything in the game thrums with Halloween vibes, even the HUD. Whether you’re the hunted or the hunter, DbD is a fun time.

1. Phasmophobia

What’s more Halloween than a good old-fashioned ghost hunt? Phasmophobia has reigned as the unchallenged sovereign of horror multiplier for the past four years, and I don't see that changing soon. You step into the shoes of a ghost hunter, and it’s up to you and up to three other players to find out what species of haunt is menacing a specific residence, then make it out alive before the ghost ensures you take its secrets to your grave.

Phasmophobia makes you feel like a genuine paranormal investigator. The tools at your disposal are straight out of an episode of Ghost Hunters, and you’ll need to learn how to use them to identify each of the game’s twenty-four ghost types. If you’re ready for the ultimate Halloween gaming experience, suit up with three of your friends and get hunting.

The post 10 Spookiest co-op games to play with your friends this Halloween appeared first on Destructoid.

As part of the Dread XP stream, Disordered Media has announced that their demo for the upcoming OS Sim horror game, Oneway.exe is releasing today. It’s available for PC.

I got early access to the demo, and I’m going to be honest: it’s not for me. That’s not a gentle way of saying it sucks; it’s just not my kind of game. It doesn’t gel with me. It’s not the sort of thing I find appealing. That’s it. I’m not referring to its quality.

On the surface, it kind of looks like my thing. It’s an OS Sim, sort of like Hypnospace Outlaw or The Operator. It revolves around this unfinished piece of software known only as untitled.exe. When you start this program up, you find yourself in a hallway with various doors marked by characters. 7 in all, apparently. You click on one of them, and it takes you to a room themed around the character, and you gather hints of their past and why they’re in this haunted program.

I checked out two before I decided I wasn’t going to proceed. The first was Anita, who is presented as this cutesy cartoon cheerleading. Through the process of solving a few simple puzzles (some of which required jumping into the source files), she screamed in my face. I think that kind of jumpscare is more for the streaming crowd.

I then went to another character and fed cake to a pig. I didn’t finish that one, because it was at that point that I realized that this was an ARG sort of game for fans of Creepypasta stories. Which, again, it may sound like I’m being dismissive, but I don’t have anything against it. Telling you why I don’t enjoy it would sound disparaging; there’s no way around it. I think the root of it is that I can’t assimilate into that community. I don’t like the speculation. But I understand why people do, and that’s fine.

In terms of the demo itself, it’s the sort of narrative that tells you the bare minimum upfront and leaves you to dig for the rest. I mentioned an ARG, and there is a related ARG that you can also check out. I found myself kind of getting stuck occasionally and had to wander around until something happened. I’m just… It’s not my thing, chum.

It does have some great things going for it. This is from the press release in regards to the first chapter that’s launching in 2025: “featuring fully voiced dialogue, frame-by-frame animated cutscenes, and original music by Marcy Nabors (DELTARUNE).” So, that’s cool, if this is the sort of experience you’re into.

If you dig stuff like Oneway.exe, then you can try out the demo for free today. The plan is for the first chapter to launch sometime in 2025.

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The Game Boy Color wasn’t exactly the best platform for horror unless you count, like, Resident Evil Gaiden and Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare. Anyway, now’s a good time to get into some indie Game Boy Color horror, like what’s packed into the Metamorphosis Collection. You can even get a physical cartridge if you’re into that sort of thing (I am).

The three games included are Opossum Country, Decline, and Specimen 134, all by Ben Jelter. Two of these games, Opossum Country and Decline are available already on itch.io, so you can play them right now for free. They were created for game jams. Specimen 134, on the other hand, is a completely new game. It’s also supposedly a lot longer than the other two. However, there is a demo of it that you can try.

I’ve played Decline and Opossum Country. They’re creepy short-form adventure titles. Decline is about a police detective on the verge of retirement solving a supernatural mystery. Opossum Country, on the other hand, is about a gig food delivery person riding up to a creepy trailer park full of evasive people.

A lot of development for Nintendo’s old handheld platform has been spurred by GB Studio, a development suite that makes creating games on the platform a lot more accessible. It’s pretty neat. I’ve only done a bit of dabbling in it, but it seems pretty intuitive and simple to use. It’s resulted in some interestingly designed games that wouldn’t have been marketable during the handheld’s life, giving the platform new life.

For Metamorphosis Collection. You can get the digital version for $13.99. But the real fun is with the physical cartridge, which comes with a box, instructions, and a sticker sheet for $59.99. If you order before Hallowe’en, you’ll get a translucent blood-red cartridge instead of the usual smokey black. Either way, it’s pretty neat. I’m on the verge of pulling the trigger on a purchase.

Preorders for Metamorphosis Collection are open now, and physical editions will ship later in November.

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Tiny Glade has been a phenomenon in the cozy gaming sphere. After the demo was released as part of Steam Next Fest back in June, developers PounceLight were overwhelmed as they reached a staggering one million wishlists. 

The cozy building game got its full release on September 23, and players have been sharing some incredible builds in the time since. As an avid player myself, I’ve had the joy of seeing builds inspired by the daily theme, as well as other, more extravagant or technically challenging designs. 

I’d consider myself very much a part of the Tiny Glade community, and while I can’t show off my own builds here (they’ve got nothing on the designs you’re about to see, anyway), I can show you 10 of the best builds I’ve seen since Tiny Glade was released. You might even recognize some of them.

Spirited Away bathhouse

Let’s kick things off with this incredible rendition of the bathhouse from Spirited Away, made by Stan616_. Every layer seen on this beautiful replication is an individual building block, and the colors and design are so spot on to the source material. The use of windows to cause a sense of size is inspired, and I can imagine the spirits wandering in and out of the doors. 

Laputa from Castle in the Sky

Sticking with the Studio Ghibli theme, as there are a lot of truly incredible Ghibli-esque builds floating around, this rendition of Laputa is truly mind boggling. I’d like to point out how difficult it is to create floating platforms in Tiny Glade, with even the smallest movement of a platform causing stilts to pop out of the bottom. The fact that Thelkana managed to create such an intricately layered platform is testament to their in-game design skills. 

Castle town with train tracks

As far as I can tell, this build takes inspiration from nothing except the mind of its creator, and it’s truly beautiful. Pay attention to the train tracks in the bottom left, which are very difficult to create and are a true display of out-of-the-box thinking. The towering Japanese style temple to the right is also impressive, with each layer consisting of far more pieces than they first appear to be. 

Port Merrick

I’ve seen a few different recreations of Sea of Thieves’ Port Merrick, but this one definitely stands out as the best of them. Despite the limitations of Tiny Glade, this depiction is true to the source material and the flags are perfectly placed. Although there are no people in Tiny Glade, I can imagine pirates sauntering around this build with very little effort. 

Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom

I’d like to preface this entry by pointing out that Tiny Glade is absolutely not designed for the construction of interior spaces. It’s meant for building buildings, not decorating the individual rooms. With that in mind, this recreation of the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom from Harry Potter becomes even more impressive. Each of the tables is actually a series of perfectly sized gates, but the floor is also made of those same gates. This build is a technical marvel, and it never fails to impress me. 

Flying Ship

I mentioned before that floating platforms are incredibly difficult to achieve in Tiny Glade, but noxlotl has absolutely perfected the art of making them. They have created hot air balloons, pirate ships, and a long list of other technically brilliant builds, but this is my favorite of all their creations. With roofs as sails, countless blocks used to create the ship itself, and a flag-line anchor, this ship is truly inspirational. 

Train crossing from Howl’s Moving Castle

Although it lacks the black smoke that can be seen in the Ghibli movie, this faithful recreation of the train crossing from Howl’s Moving Castle by Berry Shortcake is a marvel. Why? Because not only have they managed to capture the feeling of the town around the tracks, but they’ve also built a train, which is one hell of an achievement in itself. The angle of this image is spot on, as well, which adds to the magic. 

The Wizard’s Tower from Stardew Valley

Most of the builds I’ve included on this list have been extravagant and technically challenging, so this one may stand out due to its simplicity. However, what stands out about this Wizard’s Tower by Jessicat is how utterly recognizable it is. You don’t need to be told what inspired this to tell where it came from, and it’s so true to the source that it stands out from the crowd without being overly complicated. 

Town with a crosswalk and traffic lights

Tiny Glade isn’t designed to build modern settings. All of the building styles are very traditional, almost bordering on medieval, and that makes modern style builds very challenging. This builder took this challenge and completely flipped it on itself, designing this very modern town complete with not only a crosswalk (made using differently colored walls that are barely visible), but also traffic lights. There’s even a car in the back, which is staggering on its own. 

Dolorian Church of Humanity in Martinaise from Disco Elysium

Despite being a small build, this recreation of the Dolorian Church of Humanity in Martinaise is something that brought something to the attention of a lot of players. The use of small windows and arrow slits on the back wall to recreate the stained glass design is absolutely inspired, and although it may not be perfect, the beauty of this build lays in the creativity used to create it.

The post 10 Best Tiny Glade builds shared by players of the hit cozy game appeared first on Destructoid.

Bernband is a simple game, but its effectiveness cannot be overstated. It is, essentially, just a game about walking around. A walking simulator that is actually just walking. No puzzles, no objectives, just walking.

What makes it meaningful is its atmosphere. It takes place in a small chunk of a futuristic city. A commercial center of bars and shops and narrow corridors and walkways. You can't talk to anyone or interact with anything; you just wander aimlessly. You might discover a raucous bar, then wander lonely, empty corridors looking for whatever else might be happening. Many of the rooms and hallways are empty, simple, and grey. But, through the use of vivid lighting and surreal atmospheric sound, it made the alien seem familiar and weird. It tangibly conveyed a hot summer night after leaving a venue.

I had never heard of Grunn until it released. Somehow, after watching the initial trailer, I saw Bernband in it. Maybe it was the protagonists' strangely placed hands or the gaze of random strangers, but I somehow knew it was from the same creator. And while it’s an entirely different beast than Bernband with a totally different focus, you can see where the lessons have been applied.

Grunn (PC [Reviewed])
Developer: Sokpop Collective, Tom van den Boogaart
Publisher: Sokpop Collective
Released: October 4, 2024
MSRP: $12.99

In Grunn, you wake up on a bus in the countryside. After following the only route out, you find out that you’re a gardener. You’ve been hired to maintain the yard around a house, but suspiciously, you’re told that you’re not allowed to actually go into the house.

You quickly find that the only tool you have available is a pair of hedge trimmers. Clearly, the yard needs more work than that. Your only choice is to go out looking for more tools, but first, you need to get out of the yard, as a waist-high fence blocks your egress. It won’t take long before you notice that you’re being watched. You only catch glimpses, but you’re definitely being followed. And while there are townsfolk around to talk to, you can’t understand a word that any of them are saying.

The town is a dangerous place. If you stay outside too long after midnight, the darkness will swallow you up. Touch something you’re not supposed to, and things might end poorly for you. And death is death; you’re sent back to the start of the game to try again, though each one counts as an “ending.” Grunn keeps track of all the endings you’ve found, so collecting them all is a goal if you think repeated failure is something to shoot for. Otherwise, there is a good ending.

Permadeath may sound pretty harsh, especially when it means you’ll be re-cutting the grass every time it happens, but Grunn only takes place across three-ish days. It is, to be honest, somewhat annoying to have to trim the same hedges every time the game kills me for my curiosity, but not enough to really ruin the experience. A loop takes about 45 minutes, and it took me around 6 hours to hit the good ending. I just became rather proficient at speedrunning my chores. Reminds me of when I was a teenager.

The multi-day loop works in Grunn’s favor, as it forces you to look at the cause and effect of your actions. There isn’t a whole lot of branching, but you may not recognize exactly what caused a mysterious portal to open in the garden and give you a quick way to the park. After a few laps through the game, you will.

The overall goal of the game is unclear. It isn’t actually just to ensure the yard is in top shape for when the owners get back. You’re not trying to escape the town. The only way to discover what you should be doing is by just poking at things until something happens. You eventually learn to quiet the ghosts of the dead, and you may learn what the hell is up with those kids on the ferry. Many of the items you pick up don’t have an immediately discernable purpose, so much of the discovery is rubbing things on other things.

To help you figure out what can and should be done, you come across a number of polaroids scattered across the world. They don’t reveal what you should be doing with the subject depicted, but they at least let you know to take a closer look.

It’s an odd formula that may sound mundane, and that’s because it is. You’re essentially a stranger to a quiet town. There’s weird stuff happening, but nobody else seems to really notice or care. Not that you can ask them. There’s obviously something dark going down, but rarely does it attack you directly. Most of the scares come from catching brief glimpses of someone watching from out of sight.

You’re sort of just existing in the snapshot of a world, attempting to preserve it as it is and exorcise the evil from it. You know, while also keeping the flowers watered and the hedges trimmed. It isn’t exciting. It doesn’t have to be.

I’m not sure that Grunn is going to remain cemented in my mind the same way Bernband is. The goals here are a lot more modest and less bold. On the other hand, it is an enjoyable experience. No matter how many times I woke up in that seat on the bus, I was always ready to take on the game again. Gradually unraveling its mysteries while keeping the hedges trimmed kept me engaged. Without thinking too hard about it, Grunn is probably the most relaxing horror game I’ve ever played.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game purchased by the reviewer.]}

The post Review: Grunn appeared first on Destructoid.

The NES version of Maniac Mansion was censored in North America. One of the few Game Over screens you could get required you to microwave a guy’s hamster and then show him the results. The ability to microwave a hamster was taken out. Had I not been told that, I would never have found out. Why? Because I’m not a fucking monster.

Anyway, Creature Packets is a game about microwaving small creatures. Not only that, you also put them in a blender together. It was developed in three days by KenForest as part of the Ludum Dare 56 game jam. The prompt was “tiny creatures,” so I’m not entirely sure how we wound up locked in a dirty room with small appliances and a vending machine.

Creature Packets is available on Itch for the price of “name your own price.” It took me less than 20 minutes to complete. You may wonder what you can do in such a short time, and the answer is not a whole lot.

You play as someone arriving for their first day on a creepy job. You’re given a list of tiny creatures (insects to start out with), and that’s about it in terms of instruction. However, there’s a vending machine in the corner that dispenses packets marked “Microworm,” which sounds delicious. If you look around, you will find various memos telling you that if you combine some of these creatures, you wind up with different creatures. Two worms make a scutigera. Ew! Ew!

Scutigera are house centipedes, and they give me the willies. Weird-ass monsters. Few insects can get such a visceral response from me. Gosh, I feel twitchy just thinking about them. Thankfully, you don’t have to touch them. Creating a new creature magically adds them to the vending machine, so you don’t need to concoct new ones each time. The packets are simply full of some sort of fluid, and they don’t actually come to life until you microwave them. It’s like a digital Creepy Crawlers oven. Those were so cool.

Wait, there is one moment where you need to touch house centipedes. Fulfilling an order requires you to microwave each of the listed creatures, which then dumps the living thing into a terrarium. Once you have them all, you press a button, and the terrarium gets sucked out to be delivered. A new one comes back, and it often has errant creatures still in it, which you need to squash before continuing. Screw the sanctity of life, it comes in packets now.

You might expect that Creature Packets would require a lot of experimentation, but it doesn’t. Each recipe required for the jobs can be found on post-its around the room. This is probably a good thing since there are only so many possible recipes and far more possible combinations.

However, it does make Creature Packets seem rather sparse. It was created in three days, so it’s hard to expect much more. It has a horror vibe but never really tries to scare. It is very literally about the job put in front of you. Once you’ve made every creature and completed every job, it just ends.

I know that is entirely a limitation created by its brief development deadline, but I’m somewhat grateful for it. I generally like working a job while scary stuff happens around me, but it can get predictable. Just once, I’d like to do a creepy job where I clock in and then clock out, and here it is. There are no sudden sounds of doors slamming. No one is staring at me through the window. There aren’t any windows. It’s that kind of establishment.

But while it’s brief and not a whole lot happens, Creature Packets is worth experiencing, if only because the job is really satisfying. The environment is pleasingly cluttered, and the experience of punching a series of two-digit codes into the vending machine and then stuffing the results into the microwave one by one has a great feel to it. It’s not exciting, but it is enjoyable, and there’s nothing to get in the way of that.

More importantly, it’s a unique approach. Tiny creatures coming disassembled in packets? Blending them together to make new ones? It’s an interesting way to wear God’s dress. It could conceivably be extrapolated into a longer experience like Happy’s Humble Burger Farm did, but for now, it’s a nice tactile experience. It’s a lot more sanitary than that sick filth Maniac Mansion.

The post Creature Packets makes putting small creatures in small appliances comparatively wholesome appeared first on Destructoid.

Europa is a beautiful indie gem with its illustrious visuals and environmental storytelling. While the gameplay might be lacking in some parts, the narrative journey certainly makes up for this aspect.

This game tells an emotional story with stellar voice acting from the narrator Earl Fisher, who plays the kid protagonist's father. As we continue through the game, we get more information about the lore by picking up notes, and the plot has a great flow with twists and turns towards the end. It also tells an environmental message but it doesn't strike at the heart enough to be effective.

Europa (PC [Reviewed], Switch)
Developer: Helder Pinto, Chozabu (Alex PB), Novadust Entertainment
Publisher: Future Friends Games
Released: October 11, 2024
MSRP: $14.99

Flying through the air is bliss in Europa. You get a real thrust of power from the jetpack, letting you leap high distances. It controls very well too. You'll be able to get collectible crystals from the top of wrecked buildings in the environment and find other secrets around each level with the jetpack.

Most of the game involves you collecting objects like a flicker of light energy or interacting with mechanisms in each area to move forward. They're fairly easy to spot most of the time, but it still feels rewarding to spot everything you require, especially with the exhilarating flying mechanic.

Fun, yet easy puzzles in Europa

There are some puzzles here and there. There's a fun, albeit easy, puzzle, which has you rotate blocks in a clockwise manner to reach three areas of the map. Additionally, there are platforming challenges that involve blocks disappearing after each second jump. Europa won't challenge you, but they're rewarding to complete just like finding each object in the levels. I'm not usually a fan of puzzles in games, but even I have to admit, it would have been great to have more difficulty in Europa.

One of the weakest parts of Europa is its enemies. They seem thrown in as the main character only gets dazed, not knocked out by his foes. There are turrets that fire projectiles at you but they're fairly easy to dodge. Whenever they do occasionally land a shot, it feels so weird when a huge projectile hits the child and it barely phases him. Some stingrays shock you and do nothing else other than being a mild inconvenience. The enemies are just annoying and ruin the flow of the gameplay. It gets repetitive too and can be quite annoying to get interrupted when you're trying to push an object into the correct place.

While the enemies do get repetitive, the game's environments do manage to change up the formula when you head into a new biome. There's enough added to the mechanics to keep Europa fresh for its 3-4 hour playtime.

A stunning game through and through

The game runs surprisingly smooth, and throughout its 3-4 hour length, Europa didn't have any noticeable bugs, framerate drops, or any other graphical issues. There are big environments with little pop in here and there, and some particle effects hang around the character's jetpack that pop on screen. Europa does something very similar to Journey, in which you can see the end goal, the human civilization on a floating island, on almost every level. As you proceed through the story, it gets closer and closer, leading you up to the wintry top of the mountain.

Europa is gorgeous. The visuals are bright, the torn architecture and robots that remain from a war years ago stand out, and the artistry of the game's skylines like the Northern Lights-esque night are breathtaking. There are some wonderful set pieces as well like seeing the island of Europa in the distance, flying sections with a colossal robotic creature, and visages of a war gone by. It certainly gives the fantastical vibes to Studio Ghibli's work, especially Castle in the Sky.

While not as compelling as Austin Wintory's Journey soundtrack, Europa has a stirring score to complement the beautiful visuals. The piano-led music leads to how you're supposed to feel in the moment, and towards the end, it genuinely gave me goosebumps in my arms.

Europa is a delightful work

Overall, Europa is a wonderful indie title that is a breath of fresh air from the triple-A fare of this busy season. The art style is striking, the storyline is intriguing, and moving around in the sky is satisfying. While the game can be repetitive at times with its annoying enemies (that only stun your character), Europa is worth your time if you want to take your gaming slow for a few hours. It is fairly short at 3-4 hours, but there are collectibles you can try to find that can extend your playtime.

[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]

The post Review: Europa appeared first on Destructoid.

PowerWash Simulator lives in a niche all of its own, and it sure manages to dominate regardless. Over the past couple of years, FuturLab's surprisingly engaging wash 'em up has played host to all manner of wild DLC, but the new Shrek DLC may well top it all.

"Playtime is ogre," says FuturLab's latest Steam announcement. Featuring pixie-dust cleaners, faerie soap, and the good old-fashioned mops, PowerWash Simulator's new Shrek Special DLC pack takes players on a romp through a classic fantasy franchise. The gist of it all is still much the same, of course, but who could say no to an opportunity to power-wash Shrek's Swamp?

Clean up Shrek's swamp in PowerWash Simulator... for $7,99

Priced at $7,99, Shrek Special is actually seemingly quite loaded with content. There are five maps to clean up in total:

• Duloc
• Hansel's Honeymoon Hideaway
• Shrek's Swamp
• Fairy Godmother's Potion Factory
• Dragon's Lair

Of course, included is the aforementioned roster of magical cleaning tools and supplies, which puts this DLC at roughly the same ratio of content-per-dollar as all the other PowerWash Simulator DLCs. Content-wise, it seems pretty solid, but there are some problems to keep in mind for the time being.

As of October 10, the current build of the game will apparently lock up and make it impossible to do much of anything in-game if you try to actually clean up any of Shrek's unlikely mud palaces. Even entering menus becomes impossible, so it may pay off to wait until the developer can patch things up. FuturLab has historically been quite good with these matters, so it won't take long before the problems are properly sorted out.

Once that's all been sorted out, though, I've no doubt that Shrek Special will take its rightful place as a worthy alternative to the prior Warhammer 40K, SpongeBob SquarePants, and Tomb Raider DLCs, just to list a few.

The post De-Shrekify Shrek’s legendary swamp and cabin in new PowerWash Simulator DLC appeared first on Destructoid.

Whereas Anger Foot might've cornered one sub-sub-sub-genre of door-kicking games, the venerable Early Access hit Door Kickers 2: Task Force North is going in a wholly different direction. While the developer KillHouse Games might not have had an update in a year, a new blog claims 1.0 is coming still.

Door Kickers 2 is a known quantity in the turn-based/timeline-based tactical gaming circles. Already enjoying some stellar reviews even in its Early Access form, Task Force North hadn't received any meaningful content updates in about a year now, which might've eaten away at some fans' goodwill. Thankfully, KillHouse Games' delightful new blog post on Steam claims not only that the development is progressing well, but also that Door Kickers 2 will "feel like a new game once released."

Door Kickers 2 1.0 is going to be loaded with content, Steam Deck support confirmed

According to KillHouse Games, Door Kickers 2 is due to launch from Early Access in the relatively near future: "We can't commit in advance to a certain release date - quality is paramount so it will be done when it will be done," says the studio's latest blog post, adding that "we're definitely not far now!" The reason why we haven't had a meaningful content update in so long makes sense, too: "We [reckoned] it would be more efficient to have one release instead of countless cycles of building, testing, announcements, bug fixing, and so on."

While I'm not all that good at Door Kickers, I have spent a whole lot of time playing the original title and the Early Access sequel already. I can personally vouch for the game's quality, and even if you somehow manage to burn through Door Kickers 2's content in a short time, there's over 7,500 maps available on the Steam Workshop. To say nothing of other similar titles, such as No Plan B.

I'm bringing this up because we're still almost certainly months away from the 1.0 release: KillHouse Games hasn't mentioned that the game is coming out in 2024, so early 2025 at the earliest is a safe bet. If you're intrigued by the prospect of Task Force North, it's still worth jumping in while Early Access is up.

On the flip side, the 1.0 build of the game is bringing with it a truly impressive roster of goodness:

• 6 total Campaigns

  • 2 Tours of Duty: procedurally-generated campaigns
  • 4 Operations: hand-crafted narrative campaigns

• Doctrine progression system
• Unique Battle Honor gear unlocks (exotic firearms, etc.)
• At least 90 one-off Single Missions
• 5 different enemy Factions
• Full modding support (no longer limited to maps only, will support weapons, units, etc.)
• Native Mac support
• Custom Steam Deck control scheme, touchscreen support, and more
• Over 80 Steam achievements
• New music
• New gear, weapons, tweaks, etc.

KillHouse Games claims that "the new content is mostly finished, what remains is mostly tweaks, recording new voices and translating the game to other languages," which certainly tracks with the studio's belief that the 1.0 release isn't too far in the future.

The post Door Kickers 2 dev issues a new update on 1.0 progress, and it’s good news appeared first on Destructoid.

Have you heard of Grunn? It’s the gardening game from Sokpop Collective and Tom van den Boogaart, where you do some light gardening and try not to succumb to the lurking horrors beneath. I hadn’t heard of it either, but it looks cool, and it’s out now.

With the exception of – or perhaps illustrated by – the upcoming Silent Hill 2 remake, big-budget horror games are in a rough place. Not completely gone, mind you, but a lot of what we get these days are remakes from better eras of horror titles. And yet, horror in video games is the best it’s ever been, and that’s because of the indie and alternative markets. A lot of small or solo developers are dipping their toes into the horror pie, and they have some unique and daring ideas for how to do it right.

Grunn fits into a few specific niches. First, it’s lo-fi, employing a low-poly art style with bright colors and analog effects. Second, it has the grounded, cozy element of working in a garden. Then it twists things… oh, my gosh.

While I was typing out the description, a game crossed my mind: Bernband, an older (2014) shortform indie title that was entirely about drinking in the atmosphere of its world. It left an impact on me and the way I think about world design in video games. With the thought crossing my mind, I quickly opened a tab to find it and see if the developer had ever released the follow-up they were working on. Didn’t see much on Gamejolt, so I clicked through to their YouTube channel and into their recent videos. Right on the top is Grunn. Tom van den Boogaart is Tum, the creator of Bernband.

It’s not just a coincidence. This is the benefit of following small publishers; their specific fingerprints get all over their creation. Bernband and Grunn are entirely different games, but something about their art style, their philosophy, and their approach linked them together in their mind. Now I understand why Grunn outwardly appealed to me.

Now I’m more curious. Because it’s not just gardening and lurking horrors, you also get to explore the town around the house that you’re gardening at and can talk to the locals. You’re encouraged to do so in order to find tools and, I’m guessing, the horrible truths start leaking in from there.

So, I’m guessing that town is pretty atmospheric, right? Weirdly so? Payday is coming up. It’s apparently 4-6 hours, and my schedule is tight, but I will make it happen.

Grunn is available for PC today via Steam and Itch.

The post Try not to die while gardening in Grunn, which I’m just hearing is out now appeared first on Destructoid.

My dream game would be one that captures the feeling of a road trip. It’s more than just driving a car somewhere; there’s a vibe to it. It comes through in being connected between a familiar car on an unfamiliar road, the signs of a distant gas station, the buzzing fluorescent lights of some 24/7 diner, moments of contemplation, or waking up in a new place every morning.

There have been a few games I can point to that have somewhat succeeded, sometimes without trying. Jalopy, for example, even if the final product was not quite what was envisioned. Sitting at the pub My Summer Car captured part of the feeling, watching the drunks have a spirited conversation over a beer and a greasy meal. But nothing that fully landed directly on target. Heck, Final Fantasy XV might have been perfect if it didn't dump the car halfway through the game.

Keep Driving is an unexpected attempt from the developers behind Post Void and The Aquatic Adventure of the Last Human. I maybe didn’t expect my envisioned road trip game to be in the form of a 2D game, and that’s probably because it’s not, but it’s pretty close nonetheless.

Keep Driving has more in common with Oregon Trail than it does with any driving game. It’s depicted from a side-on perspective. You don’t actually drive the car; you just stare at the passenger door while it travels the roads. While it drives itself, you can fiddle with the radio or just watch the scenery go by. Then, every so often, you’ll find a hitchhiker or reach a road event.

Road events are where the meat of the game is. Each one presents a different problem, ranging from potholes to a slow-moving tractor. You then have to use your skills and tools in your car to mitigate the harm caused by these hazards, whether they threaten to damage your car, exhaust you, or drain your fuel. This is done using cards that can eliminate these dangers before they can affect you (or your car). It’s not the deepest system, but it’s relatively quick, allows for variety in challenges, and works for its purpose.

After completing a stretch of road, you arrive in a town with various services. Sometimes, it’s gas. Other times, you can pick up an odd job for money. Occasionally, you’ll find a forested path that allows you to plumb a dungeon-like 3D environment for items, and if you’re lucky, there’s an inn if you need it. You’ll come across stores and garages where you can buy upgrades for your car or supplies for your trip. Once you’re prepared, you check the map, choose your next destination, and head out.

The goal is to reach your friend’s house to play your favorite video game together. Apparently, you just graduated high school and you can feel your youth reaching its end, and you want to go out in the phosphor glow of a turn-of-the-millenium TV and the company of a distant friend. I can relate. This was clearly in the days before the internet poisoned everything meaningful in the world.

There’s a character creator where you choose your face, your relationship with your parents, and your occupation. This isn’t far off from Oregon Trail’s character setup, where your occupation would define your readiness for the trip. A difficulty setting of sorts, or maybe more of a modifier. In any case, once you’ve found yourself, you can set off to the tune of some Swedish rock, which helps set the tone beyond what I could possibly believe.

That’s largely all there is to it. Your job is to prevent yourself and the car around you from falling to pieces. That may sound simple, and that’s because it is. This early demo of Keep Driving is easy as pie. I mean, I’m playing the pre-release version of a demo right now, so it’s hard to really judge where it will end up, but right now, its biggest problem is that there’s nothing to it.

I’m making a pretty big assumption that I’m not just really skilled at Keep Driving, which I think is a safe thing to assume because I’m not skilled at anything. Finding myself prodigious at this would be really disappointing because I’m not sure where I’d apply it elsewhere in life.

I didn’t come close to losing my run. There aren’t many needs that require constant attention. As long as you spend your skill points and buy extra supplies for your glove box, it’s easy to get through the various road encounters. Fuel isn’t that expensive, and for being a poor high school graduate, I was strangely loaded with cash most of the time. It got to the point where I was trying to get rid of it, buying car upgrades I didn’t need. I just picked my route based on what I needed at the time and still made it to my friend’s place with time to spare.

Maybe that’s something that is also inspired by Oregon Trail. In most versions of that game, you could just do the hunting minigame and lay waste to the animal population to store up embarrassing amounts of food. That makes the game really simple, and I have to wonder why so many children died of dysentery. Were they unable to shoot the virtual bears? Is this another thing I’m inexplicably prodigious at? Are my talents all related to Oregon Trail derivatives?

I only picked up one hitchhiker the whole way. He was pretty depressing. He recently lost his job and is feeling pretty directionless. Whatever. He didn’t drug me and steal my kidneys. Maybe that’s where the challenge is supposed to be. I’m just really good at keeping my kidneys in my body. Very well practiced. I doubt it, though. I’m pretty sure this is supposed to be a chill game, and not chill in the way that you’d feel after waking up in a bathtub full of ice.

I had problems with bugs, as well, but between when I first started playing and today there was already a patch that fixed some of the weirder ones. As I said, this is an early demo. It even warns you when you start it up that some elements are just placeholders. I didn’t see anything that makes me truly concerned about where the quality will be on the final product.

Balancing happens over time. A game might be too hard to begin with, so advantages are added to make things a bit more friendly, and the same can happen the opposite way. If the game is too friendly, certain aspects can be changed to make it stiffer. The release version will have multiple endings, maybe arriving at a friend’s house and playing Halo on Legendary difficulty is actually the worst one.

There are many places where Keep Driving finds success. While the fact that you aren’t truly behind the wheel takes some of the road trip feeling away, it gives you a chance to just sit back, listen to the radio, sip your tea, and plunge your hand into a box of Frankenberry. There’s still a feeling of directionless freedom and self-reflection, even while you know there are problems on the road ahead that you’ll need to deal with. There’s clear intent here, and a lot of it gets across. It’s obvious that Y/CJ/Y Games knows what they’re doing, and it’s not too hard to imagine them being able to reach their vision.

The release date for Keep Driving is still TBA, but there will be a demo available this coming Next Fest (October 14).

The post Keep Driving captures the calm of the open road but could use a few more potholes appeared first on Destructoid.

Rangatang and Glowfish Interactive have revealed their first game together: Nubs. Sorry, that should be Nubs!. You have to shout it. It’s a multiplayer brawler coming to PC in 2025.

Rangatang is formed by a crew from the core team at Ronimo, the folks behind Awesomenauts and Swords and Soldiers. Ronimo went bankrupt in 2023, with Atari scooping the rights to their old properties. And that’s how we got to Nubs!.

As I’ve already mentioned, Nubs! is a multiplayer brawler. Not like Smash Bros, mind you. Looking at it, it reminds me of The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords; that awesome four-player coop GBA spin-off that would later get a standalone upgrade on GameCube, The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures. Not that you would typically fight with your friends in Four Swords unless someone refused to share and tempers began to run hot.

It’s a top-down game, but where it really reminds me of Four Swords is its weapons swinging and bouncing physics. There are also wands, boomerangs, and bombs. I’m pretty confident in my comparison. Check out the trailer and tell me I’m wrong.

Also, it’s weird. The whole trailer starts off with a grotesquely swollen head that inhales and then lasers a person. The art style is detailed and fun. Both Rangatang and Glowfish seem to have a very art-forward focus, and it shows.

Nubs! is probably not for me, though. I’m not much of a multiplayer, and when I am, brawlers aren’t usually what I reach for. The people who will actually pick up a controller around me are mostly my family, and regardless of what we’re playing, my beefy gamer thumbs would wipe the floor with them at anything competitive. So, I typically push toward coop. Even if I was making an exception, it being PC only at the start wouldn’t suit my group. It is coming with an online mode, but multiplayer is mostly for being social in my family.

However, there is a roguelite progression mode. The details on it are a little vague right now, but here’s what it says on that: “Stay on your toes with a variety of game modes and a roguelite progression system that ensures no two play sessions are the same. Dive in and see what surprises await!”

Nubs! is planned for release on PC sometime in 2025.

The post Ex-Ronimo devs’ multiplayer brawler Nubs! looks like a feverish Four Swords appeared first on Destructoid.

I’m not sure where to begin with Judero. To quote Marty MacChicken, “It’s so ART, I’m scared to have an opinion.” I was going to take a pass on it entirely after recognizing that it is heavily Scottish, and I know very little of Scotland. But I can, at least, tell you that I didn’t have to know anything at all.

It’s not about Scotland. I’m not even entirely sure what it is about. It might be, quite literally, about reaching the Glass Mountain for some reason, but it’s laid beneath cryptic, ornate dialogue about life and living. But while I’m somewhat embarrassed that I didn’t quite grok Judero’s meaning, I don’t think Judero would care. Judero knows what it’s about, and it’s not afraid to have fun with it.

Judero (PC [Reviewed])
Developer: Talha and Jack Co
Publisher: Talha and Jack Co
Released: September 16, 2024
MSRP: $17.99

Front and center with Judero is its art style. I’ve said before that I hate the sudden trend of games that use a stop-motion style where frames are removed to make it look like the physical animation style. It’s something that cropped up in the wake of Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse, and it doesn’t work well unless the entire game has a diorama aesthetic. But Judero isn’t stop-motion in that style. Judero is literal stop-motion.

Every 2D object in the game has been hand-crafted and animated. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of photographed models in front of a bluescreen and animated a frame at a time. When you walk indoors, this, for some reason, switches to hand-drawn figures. It creates a very surreal and unique look, and I can honestly say I’m not a fan. 

I saw videos of Judero pop up quite a few times while it was in development, and I found the aesthetic off-putting. It has a sloppy, uneven quality to it. It may be intentional, as the lighting isn't even consistent, but that doesn't make it easier to look at. Many of the characters are dolls with visible joints and ugly piles of clay for faces, and others are hastily hand-drawn. They clash against the simple 3D backgrounds and there is no thought given to perspective correction. It looks horrendous, and I really wouldn’t have it any other way.

Judero reminds me of the argument some AI grifters have about generative AI “democratizing” art. That’s idiotic. Art is already "democratized." There are no barriers to expressing yourself. If you wanted to tell a story, you could draw faces on your thumbs and film them acting it out. Don’t have a camera? Then just perform for your friends. Or even just yourself – art has nothing to do with popularity. You don’t even have to be good, and you don't need to learn a thing or practice; you just need that spark of creativity. You need something to say, but if you were tragically born without a personality, then I’m sorry, a robot won’t replace that for you.

Judero is a game made of programming, crafting supplies, and something to say. The developers had an idea, and they ran with it. The fact that the visuals are so repulsive not only gives the game a surface identity but also lays bare the intention beneath. What exactly it’s trying to say, again, I’ll admit that I don’t really know.

There is potentially a lot of Scottish folklore here and maybe some history, but I wouldn’t recognize it. However, as I mentioned, you don’t need to be familiar to get absorbed into the world. It takes place in an undefined time period in a placeless area that can only be defined as “Scotland.” Walk into any house, and you never know what you’re going to get. You might discover three women singing “House of the Rising Sun” while sewing. Maybe there’s a freakish person outside who tells you about microdosing hallucinogenic mushrooms. Other times, you’ll hear a fairytale or just an unprovoked sad story.

Much of the time, it’s poetic, but not always. Much like the art style, the writing is uneven and lackadaisical. It just tarries wherever it feels, fulfilling whatever whim seemed to be on the artist’s mind at the time. It’s unmoored, which makes it difficult to ever feel fully invested.

And don’t look to the gameplay to save you. The world is sparse and full of invisible barriers. Judero can possess creatures to solve puzzles, but you’re often just whacking them with a stick. There’s perhaps less depth in combat as, say, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, but without the interesting world and puzzle design to hold it up. It’s never uncomfortable to play, but it’s hardly a foundation to build a tonal miasma on top of.

At the very least, it’s paced well. Each of its four acts is comprised of a large, open environment, usually with each objective branching off in its own direction. The third is the largest and has you sailing a ship from island to island with an orangutan at your side. The variety and rate at which it changes does a lot to ease getting through the 5-6 hours that it will likely take you to see the end.

That’s rather key since the narrative doesn’t have enough comprehensible depth. There aren’t really any characters that you can get to know, aside from the hyper-competent Judero himself, a practical Scottish Kazuma Kiryu. The world is so bizarre that it’s difficult to really find grounding. The main conflict is someone straight-up telling Judero what he should be doing and him going to do it.

That makes it very difficult to really tell you why Judero is such a successful game and why you should play it. It might be because its anarchic and chaotic design is an antidote to the impersonal and overly polished games that make up the largest sector of the market. There are enough “inspired by” games that try to replicate the successes of others and few that are as nakedly human. Judero says a lot in its tumultuous mix of sadness and whimsy, thoughtfulness and playfulness. What it’s saying is a bit of a mystery to me, but I hear it talking, and I could listen to its voice all day.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

The post Review: Judero appeared first on Destructoid.

Witchfire has come a long way since the day it was first shown off to the general public, though many of us might've missed that. Notably, the game made its way onto Steam only recently, and the developer already has a big content roadmap for us to dissect.

Those who were particularly intrigued by Witchfire have probably already been playing it over on the Epic Games Store, where it made its exclusive debut. The game's production pipeline has recently expanded to include Steam, too, and the full release is now finally on the horizon.

Witchfire's future is bright and bold, with lots more on the horizon

The roadmap above promises five major content updates coming to Witchfire over the course of the next fifteen months, with the final 1.0 launch slated for late 2025. They are as follows:

• October 2024: Fast Response patch, focused mainly on improvements for the prior High Stakes content update.
• December 2024: new areas, supposedly a major step forward in the endgame department.
• Early 2025: new region, new enemies to go along with it.
• Mid-2025: final region, game is feature-complete.
• Late 2025: polishing and 1.0 launch window.

Throughout these updates, The Astronauts aims to implement all of the following features:

• Stats 2.0
• Alchemy system
• Witch Mountain
• Calamities 3.0
• Extraction 2.0
• Research 2.0
• Prophecies 2.0
• Melee Weaponry
• Quests, both repeatable and one-off

The Astronauts have almost certainly deliberately not separated these features and content batches into any specific update, as it seems these systems are somewhat modular and can be worked on more or less independently. Thus, if one of them ends up misbehaving, it could get nudged further down the line. We do know that Witchfire is supposed to be content-complete by mid-2025, so we should have access to all of the above by then.

Since the game makes a big deal of its fantasy-based gunfighting system (and for good reason, too, as it's phenomenal), weapons are a major concern. As it currently stands, we only have 16 armaments in total, though The Astronauts promises that there will be at least twice as many in the game on launch day.

In general, then, The Astronauts still has a long road ahead before Witchfire could be considered a finished product. The good news is that the game already feels and plays remarkably well, and so the lack of content doesn't bother all that much. Within a year, we should be able to assess Witchfire in a more concrete sense, though, for those who are still on the fence about it.

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A gumshoe simulator of the highest order, Shadows of Doubt was slowly making its way through Early Access, only to release in 1.0 a tad too quickly.

Certainly, the developer Fireshine Games has delivered a unique and engaging game where virtually everything is procedurally generated, and the 1.0 build is no worse than any of its prior ones. This detective-based immersive sim presents you with proc-gen cases that you may or may not be able to solve, depending on where the simulation takes you. There's plenty of depth to be found here, and the 1.0 build of the game features body-dragging, some new suspect interactions, and a bunch of other goodies. The thing is, the player base doesn't seem to be too happy about any of this.

Shadows of Doubt releases from Early Access on Steam, but players claim it should have waited

Following its 1.0 release, Shadows of Doubt has received a substantial ingress of 'Mixed' reviews on Steam, many of them citing the idea that the game wasn't ready to make the jump. Even some notable positive reviews recommend the game with the caveat that Shadows of Doubt isn't quite where it needed to be to warrant a full launch.

The problems are serious enough that 54% of the recent reviews have been negative. This sits in stark comparison with the game's previous 'Very Positive' review rating on Steam, which is sourced from over 10,000 reviews in total.

Here's the thing about Shadows of Doubt, though: it's almost entirely unique. Whereas most other ImSim games are perfectly happy with letting players take the violent path forward (even if it is shrouded with the thin veil of non-lethality), Shadows of Doubt veers away from that. Instead, it's all about traversal, exploration, and PI sleuthing.

The game's voxel-based visuals and striking setting ensure that virtually any case you come across is engaging, even if you can't solve it in its entirety. Besides, no other modern title leans quite so heavily into the noir detective fantasy as Shadows of Doubt does.

So, even though Shadows of Doubt might not have reached the incredible heights that it might've reached with a few more years' worth of development, there's something special to be found here. From personal experience, I do recommend it. Besides, the game is priced at $25, with a 20% release discount in place until October 3. All in all, then, it's a pretty darn good deal, however you flip it.

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Most video games are for most players, that's just the state of things and the industry. Some games, though, like Forever Winter, aren't that. Having just released in Early Access, Forever Winter is still in a rough spot, yet there's the faintest glimmer of something special present, even now.

Forever Winter is a co-op extraction shooter with no PvP elements. Set in a world that's literally in a state of perpetual warfare, this game is about as awfully bleak as it gets. Those who are familiar with media such as BLAME! or the works of Mike Mignola and Katsuhiro Otomo will have a pretty good idea of what to expect out of Forever Winter. The big catch is that you, the player, do not take control over one of the super-special cyborg field operatives chewing their way through the trenches (sometimes literally). Instead, you're the poor sod attempting to salvage what you can from their leftovers.

Forever Winter is a terrifyingly brutal vision of a permanent state of war, but it's still a tad rough

In broad strokes, then, Forever War puts you into the rotten shoes of a survivor stuck deep between two extremely militarised nations that have been at each other's throats for 40-odd years. Your job? To make it out alive, slowly upgrade your hideout, and maybe even try to make life a tad less miserable for the people in your hidey-hole. Generally, though, you'll mostly be trying not to get eaten by killbots.

It's all great on paper, and I'm honestly a huge fan of both the concept and the artwork on show in Forever Winter. In practice, this is a prime Early Access release with all the caveats that it brings with it.

Forever Winter is currently stuck with a 'Mixed' review rating on Steam due to how rough it is. Expect oodles of jankiness and some questionable gameplay decisions. Like, for example, one of the things you'll constantly be doing in Forever Winter is sourcing water for your hideout, which is sensible enough. Yet, should your water level drop to zero, your entire stash will be cleared out for good. Combine this with the fact that your water level will continue to drop even when you're not logged into the game, and you get the idea of what's up.

Forever Winter is also beset by other, less specific problems. Enemies will sometimes spawn out of thin air just to grind you down to bits in seconds, for example, and the AI struggles to keep up with the giant battles that are supposed to be happening all around you.

It's great to see Forever Winter in a playable state, as I've been keeping a close eye on it for literal years now. I'm a huge fan of the game's broad concept and would love to play it once it's closer to the full 1.0 release. For the time being, however, the fact that it's toying with FOMO to such an aggressive extent has put me off, and the general grit of being in Early Access will take a while to clear up. Do I still recommend you keep an eye on this one, though? Oh, for sure. There's something genuinely special about Forever Winter, now we just have to see if it'll materialize over the course of its Early Access stint.

The post The most horrific extraction shooter you’ve seen yet, Forever Winter, is now available appeared first on Destructoid.

The Amazing Digital Circus, the indie animated web series that completely took off, is touring through a streaming service near you. This is not a digital hallucination, folks: Glitch Production's unhinged horror dramedy is coming to Netflix this October.

Glitch Productions' indie animated smash-hit will hit Netflix right after the newest episode's YouTube premiere

News of this show-stopping turn of events comes straight from Netflix itself. On an announcement page posted on their Tudum website, Netflix outlined that all three episodes of The Amazing Digital Circus will be available for streaming on October 4, 2024. Glitch Productions confirmed their new partnership with Netflix in a heartfelt post on their official YouTube page and X account, thanking viewers for their support while confirming that new episodes of The Amazing Digital Circus will premiere on YouTube before they become available on Netflix.

October of this year is the perfect month for The Amazing Digital Circus to take such a spectacular, dare-I-say acrobatic leap forward. Not only will this October mark the series' official first anniversary, but The Amazing Digital Circus' horror-themed third episode will hit YouTube on October 4th. 2024. The undercurrent of horror running beneath The Amazing Digital Circus' cutesy aesthetic has always been part of the series' appeal, so why not lean into it by having the show hit streaming weeks before Halloween?

Some of The Amazing Digital Circus' fans aren't happy the show's coming to Netflix

Fans' response to The Amazing Digital Circus' impending Netflix debut has been pretty positive. Fans have filled the comments sections of Glitch's announcement posts with compliments and well wishes for the series animators, writers, and voice actors. However, some onlookers aren't as thrilled by the news.

Less-than-happy responses to The Amazing Digital Circus' jump to streaming are popping up all over social media, but r/TheDigitalCircus on Reddit seems to be their most prominent congregation spot. Many of the show's fans have expressed skepticism and dismay over the announcement. Some take issue with Glitch's decision to keep The Amazing Digital Circus exclusive to YouTube. Others have expressed concern that Netflix will exert creative control over the series or, worse, cancel it like they have other animated series.

Fortunately, Glitch has been pushing back against the idea that their deal with Netflix cost them even an ounce of creative control. Glitch and Gooseworx, The Amazing Digital Circus' showrunner and lead animator, have confirmed that the deal they stuck with Netflix is purely about licensing. If what they're saying is true, the show's still being funded by merchandise sales through Glitch Production's online store, so Netflix has no leverage over it.

Speaking for myself, I'm incredibly excited about this. The Amazing Digital Circus is a prime example of indie animation's potential, and it's fantastic to see a big-name streaming service pick it up. If the series does well, other animated pilots like Lackadaisy or Ramshackle could also find their way onto streaming services. Glitch has said they want to put indie animation on the map, and with this deal, they've made much progress on that front.

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Nothing terrifies me like tight spaces, heights, and never-ending seeming dark holes. Also, there are few games I’ve been wanting more than a serious platformer capable of making older audiences feel the childlike wonder provided by the classics.

I read that Lorn's Lure could be that game. The first video I saw of it showed the main character getting ready to make a deliberate plunge into a hole in the ground; one I feared could be long enough to cross the entirety of the Earth.

Lorn's Lure seemed like a challenge I’d have to go through, to get the platformer I’d been hoping for.

Lorn's Lure (PC [Reviewed])
Developer: Rubeki Games
Publisher: Rubeki Games
Released: September 20, 2024
MSRP: $14.99

Upon first glance, Lorn’s Lure is very simple. You can jump, slide, and climb over platforms until you reach the place the game wants you to get to. From the outset, the only tool at your disposal is climbing gear you'll use to somewhat freely climb many walls in the game.

I say somewhat freely because, like where Portal only lets you portal on white walls, Lorn’s Lure only allows players to climb on vertical walls made of climbable rock. The pickaxes allow you to move up, down, left and right for a limited time while you put yourself in the right spot to safely drop down or jump onto the next platform.

This alone would’ve been good enough to keep me engaged till the end of the game, but I was pleasantly surprised to unlock more more mechanics that enhanced my climbing abilities and the fun I had climbing. There's wall running, wall jumping, and a grappling hook to traverse the areas like Pathfinder from Apex Legends.

The rest works just as you’d expect. Fall into a bottomless pit, or onto the ground from a high enough altitude, and you’ll get the option to restart from the last good position you were in, or from the start of the chapter.

On the graphical front, Lorn’s Lure cold trick you into thinking it’s a PS1 game with upscaled textures. Still, the humongous size of the play areas would likely melt Sony’s OG console in one second. Lorn’s retro look only adds charm and a welcome sense of eeriness, to a game that wants the player to feel like they’re trapped in an infinitely alien, indifferent, and sometimes surprisingly beautiful world.

Lorn’s Lure also takes a cool minimalistic approach to storytelling. The set-up is done by small cutscenes show the vastness of this world. Then, you can scan areas of interest to learn more about the haunting mega structure where your character – and many others before them – have found themselves trapped for hundreds of years.

The world of Lorn’s Lure will seem familiar to anyone who’s read BLAME. Just like Tsutomi Nihei’s manga, it puts the main character in a high-tech hell-scape vast enough to make any being, living or imaginary, feel tiny. I love that choice for a platformer. It conveys a grandeur never before seen in the likes of Tomb Raider or Uncharted. Those series have shown us a fair amount of large areas, but they have always been just as focused on showing us tiny details. In Lorn’s Lure, you never feel like you’re just exploring a level – you feel like you’re exploring a planet.

Like Chained Together, Lorn’s Lure could probably prove a hit among the speedrunning community. I don’t doubt it will, because this is a better looking and much more mechanically challenging title. Still, I was a bit surprised to learn Lorn's Lure actually feels like a puzzle game of sorts. It starts off as simple as any other platformer. Then, it has players clearing the way of obstacles, or finding ever-more intricate ways of completing the supposedly simple task of getting from point A to B.

Even with its awesome mechanics, what makes Lorn’s Lure truly shine is its level design. Its dauntingly vast spaces make the player feel helpless when thinking of a way to get to the next checkpoint. Then, once they clear their minds, the game makes players feel like a true post-apocalyptic sci-fi raiders once they've finally overcome yet another obstacle.

Lorn’s Lure will need you to be quick on your feet, to be precise in both the spacing and the timing of your jumps. Even if you’re just trying to escape the megastructure, Lorn’s Lure will provide quite the challenge. But, once you’ve already beaten its main challenge, the game is still filled with collectibles placed in even harder-to-access areas.

Fortunately, Lorn’s Lure doesn’t waste your time. The developer knew this would be a very intense trial-and-error affair. Players can, at any point, restart their run to the last time they had secure footing on the platform closest to the objective, with no loading screen involved. I’ve tested the restart option a lot — you guess whether I did so intentionally or not — and it works very well. Too many platformers struggle to record the player's last good position before a fateful misplaced jump, or record a platform where they'd been previously, wrongfully making it the restart position. Lorn's Lure is free from that sin.

As for what I didn’t like, the massive size of the play area makes it sometimes difficult to understand where to head next. The game’s plot conveniently introduces a guiding glitch in our character’s eyesight, but it isn’t visible at all times. Players can toggle a marker at all times to know exactly where they need to go, but I’d rather just have a diegetic cue like the one the game intended.

Still, that’s more of a nitpick than a huge problem. In terms of what I liked but many might not, well, Lorn’s Lure is very challenging. The trial-and-error nature of the entire game might put some off. I totally understand players might not want to die more times to one single jump than they would to a boss in Elden Ring. Even I felt deeply frustrated at some points, but the frustration would vanish as soon as I'd found myself past each of the most demonic jumps. Many players may not re-energize so easily, and I totally get that.

But, if you’re into challenging platformers like the remaster of the original Crash Bandicoot, then you’re very likely to enjoy this one. Alongside with the aforementioned Chained Together and Jusant, Lorn’s Lure proves that the world of platformers still has a lot of mechanics to be tried out. It’s also revealing just how inhospitable and utterly terrifying platformers can be — in the coolest of ways.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

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Have you ever played a game that delivers on its core concept so thoroughly that you don’t think it could possibly be improved? It doesn’t necessarily have to be the most compelling concept; it could be quite mundane, but it convinces you that no matter how much budget could get thrown at the idea, there’s no way to top it. That’s Parking Garage Rally Circuit.

I’m not trying to tell you that this is the best racing game of all time. I rarely speak in such enthusiastic hyperbole. However, I will say, with some confidence, that Parking Garage Rally Circuit is the absolute best Sega Saturn-style parking garage drift racing game ever released.

Parking Garage Rally Circuit (PC [Reviewed])
Developer: Walaber Entertainment LLC
Publisher: Walaber Entertainment LLC
Released: September 20, 2024
MSRP: TBA

Parking Garage Rally Circuit is what I’d describe if you asked me to guess the synopsis of The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift based on what I remember from the trailer I saw back in high school. The only image I have of that movie is cars drifting up a ramp in a parking garage. I’m not even sure if I’m remembering that correctly.

I love drifting. Or, at least, I love arcade-style drifting. I mostly judge racing games entirely by how well the drifting in them feels. But as much as I love drifting, I love retro hardware more. More specifically, I’m passionate about people’s passion for older hardware. I love to hear people talk enthusiastically about old consoles and computers, even the crappiest ones imaginable. I love it more when people try to represent it as authentically as possible.

One of the first things that greet you upon starting up Parking Garage Rally Circuit is a number of graphical preset options presented like different versions of the game, such as the original hardware or PC port. While this essentially just changes options like scanlines, aspect ratio, and draw distance, it puts those things in the context of the time period. If you don’t care for authenticity and want to be boring, you can individually tweak settings to your liking.

However, even if you widen your screen, you’re not going to fully lose the aesthetic of chunky polygons, fake transparency, pixelated textures, and a selection of ridiculous ska tunes. Parking Garage Rally Circuit is really committed to mid-‘90s racing games. It’s not Sega Rally Championship – it’s not trying to be – but it looks the part.

But looking the part is one thing. Racing games need to play well. It’s not really the sort of genre that can get by on artistic intent. Unless it’s Road Trip on PS2. Thankfully, Parking Garage Rally Circuit is like butter.

As I mentioned, I’m a bit of a drift queen. In video games, anyway. I don’t even have my license in reality. However, I was able to get a feel for Parking Garage Rally Circuit very quickly and was drifting up parking garage ramps like that Tokyo Drift trailer in no time at all.

As the name implies, each of its 8 tracks are set inside parking garages. Sort of. I think the last level is technically a ferry, but I digress. You might wonder how much variety you could possibly get from that theme. As it turns out, it’s a lot. Each parking garage is in a different city and range from simple two-story structures to sprawling complexes. Hazards like snowplows and falling boulders mix up the tight cornering, and hazardous jumps across towering structures keep you concentrated on your steering.

You don’t race against live competitors, just their ghosts. That is to say, it’s a time trial, with your goal being to reach the top time. As much as I like running people off the road, I’m not sure a grid would really work in such tight environments. The challenge of carefully drifting through extremely narrow turns is enough to keep you focused. If you’re feeling competitive, there is multiplayer, but, again, it’s all ghosts.

The only real downside I can point to in Parking Garage Rally Circuit is its brevity. There are eight tracks, and after you get a medal on each one of them in a class, you are provided with a new car with different performance and pushed through the tracks again with slight variations. It’s decent on paper, but it only took me a little under two hours to clear. I had a healthy pile of gold under my belt, but still more to clear. Your mileage will vary.

On the other hand, there are also secret cheat codes buried in the game. I’m told there are 10 of them, but I was only provided with two. I was not able to guess any others, but they’re supposed to be discovered and proliferated by the community. These unlock “secret cars, tracks, or gameplay modifiers.”

Despite its brevity, Parking Garage Rally Circuit packs a huge punch. It’s not just its perfectly emulated retro aesthetic or its near-flawless execution of its central concept, either. It’s just so damned happy to be here. You can feel the passion behind it, and that energy is felt in all its facets. It knows what it is, and it’s laser-focused on presenting it in the most finely-tuned way possible. I cannot fathom any game topping it in the niche of racing games contained entirely within parking garages. I’m not really sure what the best way to wrap up this review is, so let’s try this: Parking Garage Rally Circuit is miles more fun than parallel parking.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

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