Review: Rhell: Warped Worlds & Troubled Times
So, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but a lot of games come out these days. Here at IndieLoupe we’ve set ourselves the achievable task of covering just one of those per week, but this week more than most, that’s presented something of a challenge, because there’ve been a hell of a lot of interesting-looking games released over the last five days. From Pluto to Pizza Slice, from Piece by Piece to, um, Piece by Piece (yes, there were two games released with the same name within three days of one another), there were a lot of options to choose from. I almost decided to take the easy option and just put out an article highlighting all the games that came out this week, but there was one that just – and I mean just – piqued my interest a little more than the others.
Perhaps if I’d been in a slightly different mood when looking at them I could’ve gone another way, and you’d be watching a review of an entirely different game right now, but man am I glad that I gave Rhell: Warped Worlds and Troubled Times the nod ahead of the other possibilities.
Review: Hermit and Pig
Hermit and Pig is the debut title from two-man studio Heavy Lunch, and features a pair of what I don’t think it’s unfair to describe as unlikely protagonists. Video games are – certainly more than any other medium, in my opinion – quite good at getting their audience to just go along with unusual protagonists, but I still have to admit my initial reaction to these two was a sort of: ‘wait, really?’ as opposed to any level of excitement at the prospect of putting myself into the main character’s presumably pretty nasty shoes.
Review: Heroes of the Seven Islands
I have no idea how small the subset of gamers who’ll know what I’m talking about here is, but a huge number of the PC games I played pre-2005 were sold by publishers Sold Out Sales & Marketing through their £4.99 label Sold Out Software. That company, through a journey that I’m fairly sure is only of interest to me, is now Fireshine Games, but the orange and white boxes those games came in are still ingrained deep within my memory…
Review: The Horror at Highrook
Full disclosure: I’m not really a fan of the occult. Be it vampires, ghosts, or Lovecraft, it’s a bit of a hard sell for me, as far as themes go. Which is to say that The Horror at Highrook from Nullpointer Games might already be starting at something of a disadvantage with this review.
My immediate instinct was that Highrook would be a more structured Cultist Simulator: instead of a game that’s trying to melt your brain, one that wants to guide you through a story with some neat, if not similar, card-placing mechanics. The aforementioned theme certainly helps with that parallel, I’m sure I’m not the first or last to draw it, but I’m yet to see anyone comparing The Horror at Highrook with Stacklands. Point is, it’s easy to see where the comparison comes from, but it doesn’t really tell the full story.
Retrospective: Citizen Sleeper
With Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector dropping recently (and, for what it’s worth, IndieLoupe’s review of it coming soon™) we thought we’d take a look at the previous two games from Jump Over the Age (JOTA) - namely In Other Waters and, surprisingly enough, Citizen Sleeper. JOTA is the one-person game studio of developer Gareth Damian Martin, so it’s their brain we have to thank for these worlds and everything in them. Spoilers for both games to follow…
Retrospective: In Other Waters
With Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector dropping recently (and, for what it’s worth, IndieLoupe’s review of it coming soon™) we thought we’d take a look at the previous two games from Jump Over the Age (JOTA) - namely In Other Waters and, surprisingly enough, Citizen Sleeper. JOTA is the one-person game studio of developer Gareth Damian Martin, so it’s their brain we have to thank for these worlds and everything in them. Spoilers for both games to follow…
Review: Few Nights More
My first impressions upon opening Few Nights More were not great. Despite being “released” - and I use the term loosely - this week, the game’s title screen welcomes new players with a Hallowe’en-themed skin, seemingly a three-month-old hangover from its time in early access. That the developers didn’t even put the effort into removing this (nor changing the game’s “You beat the final boss of Early Access " message) speaks volumes about their treatment of Few Nights More. The timing of its release, one day after None Shall Intrude’s, also doesn’t inspire confidence.