I’ll admit, when I first saw Nowhere I got a bit excited. Sleuthing out a mystery in a terrifying forest and dealing with matters of old myths and legends? Sign me up for that ASAP. I was genuinely excited by what the trailer had promised and looked forward to checking out the demo. Unfortunately, as
If you’ve been reading my reviews for the past several years, you have probably been able to figure out certain things about me, and one of those things is that I am still pining for a sequel to Final Fantasy Tactics. The two that we technically got were both worse in terms of writing, mechanics,
As a game reviewer, I often have a number of coverage offers in my inbox. I don’t specifically look at or choose them with any expectation that they are going to be good (or bad), but I do notice when a particular game is trying to stand out with a particular feature or concept to
Let me start with an anecdote: Kandria, on both its official website and right as the first thing on its Steam page, proudly boasts that the game has zero ability gating and you can go anywhere you want right from the start of the game. The same blurb expresses glee that finally, you will be
It’s October, and you know what that means! It’s time to splash just a little bit of horror into all of our favorite things. That and pumpkin spice, but that’s not important right now. Today we’re looking at NeverAwake, a nightmarish twin-stick shooter by developer Neotro Inc and published by Phoenixx, where you help a
Let me tell you, one of the best feelings of being a reviewer is when you get your first impressions of a title from screenshots, video, and early release info… and you’re wrong. See, the thing is (and this is a deep secret of being a game reviewer) that when you’ve played a lot of
Everyone likes a good simple party game, you know? Something where explaining the mechanics are super easy to break down and get right to the fun part can really do wonders to liven up a gathering. I’ve probably lost count of how many times I’ve proposed firing up a session of some Jackbox game during
Discovering a new game can be such a gamble sometimes. Sure, you have tags and store page descriptions, but every publisher is putting their best foot forward and emphasizing their strengths while downplaying their weaknesses, stretching the truth just a little bit. Or on occasion, stretching it a lot. Today we’re looking at Demon Skin,
Their massive success over the years has made it difficult to call indie games niche, but they are certainly still playing catch-up to their AAA counterparts. Still, titles like Stardew Valley, Hades, Minecraft, have managed to thrive despite coming from smaller developers. What generally stood out about them was either their vibrant worlds, charming characters,
There’s nothing quite like Fight Crab. Of that, I am certain. But this is a case where both words and emotions, to some degree, fail me. So I’ll just have to muddle through and see if I can arrange words in a way that can describe this game. Are you ready? Let’s go! All right,
Horror really is one of the most popular genres in the indie scene, and it’s easy to see why. Fear is such a visceral reaction that sticks with a player years after they’ve stopped playing. It allows for telling tales a bit more complicated than the usual fight against evil. It relies on the unseen
Touhou is perhaps my favorite series I’ve never played. It’s hard to have even a passing familiarity with the top-down shooter genre without hearing of the beatiful and deadly curtains of bullets the series is known for and the brutal difficulty it can reach. Part of the reason is the creator’s encouragement of fangames, resulting
Tackling the death of youthfulness and mental health through the lens of an eerie physiological narrative might seem like a tall task for any game. But it’s something that the teams at Serenity Forge and Atmos Games decided to tackle head-on with their new title, Neversong, launching on May 20th, 2020 on Steam. This side-scrolling
I love the indie scene, positively adore it. It’s an endless stream of ideas too off the wall for mainstream publication. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t, but more often than not they leave something with you.
If there’s one genre the indie scene loves to cover, it’s psychological horror. The unsettling journey into a deranged psyche allows disquieting and surreal imagery that touches on something deep within us, and as they’re by nature weird and experimental it’s something the AAA industry rarely covers. Today we’re covering The Shattering, brought to us
These days, modern day and retro-styled platformers have seen quite a bit of a comeback. In between modern remakes and reimaginings of established franchises, indie titles that have made a serious impression on me (looking at you Cuphead), and new titles that feel comfortable in their own skin, I was feeling pretty good about the direction this genre is going.
Open the Floodgates How often do you look at games that release in Japan, hoping and praying that they’ll eventually make their way west? Games that look intriguing or exciting, but, for one reason or another, nobody decides to localize it, so you’ll never get to play it?
Break Out of the Mold When it comes to entertainment media, creators are often asked what influenced them in their creations (a question which I’m guilty of asking often during interviews…). Did another person’s works help guide their thoughts, or maybe a specific movie or game struck an idea in their head.
Shiny Loot– a digital distributor that focuses on indie titles for PC, Mac, and Linux has gone into beta today for those with invitations codes. The site features a trait system that allows you to find not just a specific game, but games that contain the components you want. The feature allows for an element
Yet once again Humble Bundle has released another bundle. Well, this one isn’t a bundle. It’s a single game; Frozen Synapse to be specific. Those who donate more than the $4.37 average will also gain access to the previously released Frozenbyte Bundle back from April of this year. So if you missed out, now is the time! [The