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Post by Gendo Ikari on Dec 28, 2013 14:11:29 GMT -5
Erie takes place in 1966 and casts the player in the role of an agent who is investigating mysterious disappearances which have followed the accident at the Fermi Reactor on the shores of Lake Erie; he ends up discovering a secret facility where things have gone really bad. The environments are very detailed, you can run very fast and end with a slide, the atmosphere is convincing, being chased by the creature that roams the facility can be scary – until you see it close: it's quite ridicolous (it moves on oversized arms), has stupid movement patterns and may get stuck even permanently in some places. [Strangely therer are renders and screenshots of a much more convincing model floating around, if it's not a future update, why they didn't use it is beyond me.] The presence of bizzarre ever-meowing cats to collect, with the first at very beginning underwater, is a further immersion-breaker. I liked, however, the ability to spray paint around, to leave markers and not get lost, very useful when you have to be constantly on the run.  
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Post by Gendo Ikari on Dec 28, 2013 14:13:05 GMT -5
One Late Night is set in a company office where some job has forced you to stay overtime, while a colleague has misteriously disappeared (why they never get a clue?). It begins by doing some chores but, predictably, things get scary quickly. It conveys the atmosphere of a familiar-looking yet unsettling place brilliantly (how many times some places seemed different to us when empty?), so it's a shame for some questionable design choices, like a very sluggish walking speed, being forced to always sit down at the computer to use it, or having to look for batteries and other objects like and adventure game pixel hunting.   Among too many 3D horror games, it stands out for the setting, but could have used more polish – which could come with the sequel/upgrade One Late Night: Deadline, currently in development. The play area should be extended to the entire building where the offices are, and hopefully the idea that every strange thing you see may be an hallucination due to overworking will be implemented.
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Post by Bobinator on Dec 28, 2013 14:51:22 GMT -5
Well, it's not free, (But it's only $4, so close enough!) but it is indie, so...
MURI is a DOS-style platformer on Steam from the creator of Iji, Hero Core, and Hyper Princess Pitch. Specifically, it looks and plays a lot like the original Duke Nukem from 1991, but it has a lot of cool features of its own. For the most part, the game generally involves wandering around mostly open levels, sort of like you'd see in Turrican, although they're a lot smaller. There's different weapon types to collect, and a lot of robots and things to blow up. There's also some pretty fun boss fights at the end of each of the four 'episodes'.
Personally, I like this game just for how authentic it is. Nothing in the game uses 16 colors, and even the sound effects come right out of the PC speaker. Not many games at all have ever used this kind of style, compared to how many NES-style games are out there, so I really, really appreciate it. Here's hoping for DLC, or better yet, a sequel.
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Post by Gendo Ikari on Dec 28, 2013 15:17:05 GMT -5
Cool, I was wondering what Daniel Remar was doing lately and the release of this game had slipped past my radar! BTW, the indie games we post here aren't necessarily free, so it's okay.
Bought it, it's incredible how perfectly he recreated the look and feel of an early '90s DOS game, from the floaty jump to the jerky scrolling (there's an option to have it smoother but feels weird). My only doubt is about the lenght: better some tightly designed levels than many bland ones, but I finished the first episode in a matter of minutes.
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Post by Gendo Ikari on Dec 30, 2013 14:57:22 GMT -5
The Bridge is a surreal puzzle game based on very few controls: two keys to move left and right, one to enter doors and activate a few things, and most importantly two to rotate the entire scenario. There's no precise explanation for the character entering these bizarre, contorted structures, with his house acting as a hub. The rotation allows him to walk everywhere while trying to reach one or more keys and unlock the door to the following level. Rolling boulders with creepy faces, referred to as “The Menace”, are introduced early, and among other obstacles there are gravity wells (which can also be used at your own advantage), panels sliding out or back depending on the level's orientation, and switches to a parallel reality plane, with keys that can be taken only there and may even be subjected to opposite gravity. Later levels introduce “veils” that allow to rotate the levels while keeping the character temporarily still. If you are crushed or fall off the level you are prompted to activate a rewind function but you can use it any time you want – and you will. The levels are all hand-drawn, as it is the character, who's literally drawn into the scene at the beginning of every level. The design of the levels, with a definite influence of M.C. Escher, is stunning and makes every one of them a playable illustration. It's completely rendered in black & white, which is fine, although I sometimes wonder if it doesn't make the levels even more difficult to discern. The press kit says it's got 48 levels but in truth, after you finish the 24th, you can replay all of them mirrored, although with new obstacles and puzzles (like more than one key, or keys placed differently). Not that the basic 24 weren't enough, as the beginninga are soft but the difficulty ramps up quickly, with a little too much trial-and-error before you can figure how things work. The final levels are as brain-twisting as their architecture. While beautiful on an artistic standpoint and good on a gameplay level, I can fully recommend The Bridge only to really patient and dedicated players, the only ones that will be able to get the most out of it.    
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Post by Gendo Ikari on Dec 31, 2013 6:16:53 GMT -5
And to end the year on a high note, another great game based on fluids, like Super Splatters. In 2011 I posted about Puddle, which was a student project back then and showed great potential, which has been fully expressed in the retail version. It's incredibly simple to control: just two keys/buttons/triggers to tilt the screen left and right, and move globs of liquids around and get at least a certain quantity of them to the exit. Easier said than done since, obviously, there are a lot of obstacles that can disperse, evaporate, burn or absorb the liquids. The liquids themselves are of different viscosity, adherence and volatility. There are several variations to the simple basic formula: to name a few, some levels put the player in charge of a glob of nitroglycerine, which must be moved prudently to avoid explosions, in another a glass must be filled with equal parts of two liquids to create a juice, and in another one a glass ball will start losing the water it contains if it takes too much hits. The variety and creativity of the levels extend to the visuals, which are pretty while still being clear, with most of the foreground black and dangerous objects standing out. The physics and animation of the fluids obviously got the biggest effort, and little sequences and movies create an illogical albeit fun connection between the scenarios. The set of levels inside a human body, rendered as a radiography, is awesome, but also the level where you have to move ink on the papers of a technical project. A secret 49th level is really fantastic (look for it on Youtube if you don't manage, it's that good). For such a great game, it's astonishing that the official site is no more, just a Facebook page and a small section on the site of developer Neko Entertainment. It's available on a wide variety of platforms. Get it!     |
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Post by Gendo Ikari on Jan 6, 2014 3:46:17 GMT -5
Offspring Fling! is a platform/puzzle game. The cute rabbit-like creature has her numerous children scattered around and wants to recover all of them. She has to bring them to the exit of a level before exiting herself; at first the obstacles are just some chasms and switches , but further through the levels traps and hostile creatures appear. The only weapons to save the children are... themselves: endangered as they may be, the little creatures seem quite hard-skinned and the mother has no qualms about throwing them around so that they can land safely, press switches and stun enemies. With new obstacles introduced gradually, the 100 levels keep the challenge fresh; at times the difficulty is uneven (you may breeze through many and then be stumped on one for a while), and it's not very high overall, at least in regard to finishing the game normally, after a surprise final boss. Getting the best times in any level is another rmatter but this way the game manages to have a fair challenge for everyone and a good one for the “hardcore” players, who also get online leaderboards. The visual style is simple but cute and colorful, with some touches like the rain coming at times, and there's some fantastic upbeat music to accompany the action. Really fun and recommended.    And here's a fun ad that parodies '90s SNES commercials:
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Post by 1983parrothead on Jan 9, 2014 11:34:28 GMT -5
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Post by Gendo Ikari on Jan 17, 2014 11:02:50 GMT -5
You could have written some words of your own instead of just leaving a link. Anyway, interesting piece of Kusoge, and oddly familiar to me – I may have played it many years ago. Since we are at it, while clearing my backlong I tried the games coming from this Japanese page: dream-eel.com/aaa/Dev apparently known as Ksbeef but has also a Youtube account as “Harama Self”. Plenty of hilariously bad stuff to try, often accompanied by trippy and ear-grating music. This game is called Penisizm. It'd deserve to be preserved for its title alone. The recent sequel is no less terribile, due to an incredibly cramped play window. There is however a notable exception in the form of Hopkinson & Hopkinson, a little mix of shooter and Arkanoid: no ball, you destroy the blocks by shooting them, but they release bullets. Of course, you can destroy them slowly to have less bullets on screen, but in doing so you'll ge tless time left and therefore less points.  |
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Post by Gendo Ikari on Jan 17, 2014 13:54:02 GMT -5
SCP Containment Breach is based on the Internet mythos of the SCP foundation, a fictional agency tasked with studying and containing any object or creatures that threaten normality (the name stands for "Secure, Contain, Protect), ranging from bizarre and innocuous to extremely dangerous. The player starts already in a bad position, as the subject of a test involving SCP-173, a murderous creature that moves only when not seen (Weeping Angels, anyone?), and then the worst scenario, a full-scale breach of the creatures, happens. Like being stalked by 173 (you can close doors behind, but sometimes he takes shortcuts through vents) wasn't enough, the player has to find objects like gas masks and keycards to proceed, and has to meet and escape from other creatures, although some other SCPs may prove useful (005 happens to be a literally universal key). A meter signals when the player has to blink, which can also be done manually to reset the meter; this is essential to surviving encounters with 173. Another SCP is an humanoid entity that may send you to a pocket dimension when touched. Despite the simple graphics, it manages to create some good atmosphere. It, however, unravels when you realize that for any minute of tension you esxperience, several more are padding while you try to find some object to proceed; the levels being procedurally generated doesn't help, further diluting the survival horror gameplay. Screenshots and playthroughs show more interesting locales and encounters further on, but boredom and frustration risk taking over before you feel motivated. A pity because the potential is there and the game's constantly updated.  
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Post by Gendo Ikari on Jan 25, 2014 11:42:02 GMT -5
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Post by dweebothegeek on Feb 9, 2014 17:37:33 GMT -5
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Post by Gendo Ikari on Feb 13, 2014 11:38:48 GMT -5
Inkling, a student project from Vancouver Film School, stars two beings created in laboratory, ELI (Experimental Liquid Individual) and ELLI (Experimental Levitating Liquid Individual), dumped by their creator into a dungeon they want to escape from. In fact, it's ELLI the true heroine, since ELI can only run and jump and it's her, controlled with the mouse, that keeps him going by morphing into a platform and throwing him forward or upwards, although the only times it's really needed is to remove some obstacles. While the concept is nice and plays well, and the graphics are decent, the environments are overall drab, and like many of these project it's more of a prototype, closing with a "to be continued" after the third level. It's also doubtful how much the gimmick could have lasted, if further gameplay elements weren't introduced. 
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Post by Gendo Ikari on Feb 13, 2014 11:50:42 GMT -5
Grief Syndrome is a good doujin game based on Puella Magi Madoka Magica (which, for whoever doesn't know it, is not the cute magical girl show it seems), made by Twilight Frontier, makers of several other games like the official Touhou fighting games, MegaMari and Super Marisa Land. The five selectable magical girls battle through levels, enemies and bosses lifted directly from the series. They can double jump, launch a light and fast attack, several types of heavy attacks based on pressing a button alone or with a direction, and a special attack that leaves them more vulnerable for as much time as the attack itself is poweful. The girls are differentiated coherently: two are short-range brawlers while the other three are more long-ranged. Efficient use of the attacks can lead to good combos. The game begins with a pool of “Soul Energy” that slowly depletes over time and is used to heal any damage. In case of heavy damage the entire body is regenerated but with a much higher cost in SE; a character dies when the energy is completely depleted, and another one can be selected (they can also be changed between levels). By killing enemies experience is earned and the selected girls become stronger. It’s quite short, with just five levels, but after finishing, the game can be played with a new and more difficult loop; enemies are stronger but give more experience, which in turn makes levels go up faster, and so on exponentially, with no theoretical limit on the number of loops – the maximum level for the magical girls is 99 however, while enemies don't have such cap. Endings consist of simple static pictures but are numerous because they are based on who is still alive by the end, with many possibile combinations (although some seem to lead to the same ending, there seems to be at least 10 of them). A further incentive to replayability is that it supports two or three players, with all the fun chaos that implies, and a fan-made program for netplay exists. It can be appreciated even by non-fans of PMMM, while fans will like the care in making the game faithful to the source. Among other things, the death of one character unlocks an optional boss related to her; a patch introduced the ability to select Homura in her “moe” version, with a different set of attacks, and if there are more players than girls still alive, Kyubey can be selected, but does nothing and can be beaten up.    
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Post by acidonia on Feb 14, 2014 12:52:40 GMT -5
Dungeon Keeper the original PC version is free on GOG today the sequel is on sale too.
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