PC Review #149: Anarcute

Title: Anarcute

Developer: Anarteam

Platforms: PC, Xbox One

Price: $14.99

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A quick glance at Anarcute, and one might assume it's some kind of RTS or strategy game. How else can you control and direct such a large crowd of rambunctious rioters, especially when the two other games in development about protesting mobs - RIOT and Okhlos - hewn to the tactical design. But Anarcute isn't like that; in fact, it's a breezy arcade-y action game that feels like part puzzle game, part shooter.

The set-up is simple: evil world-dominating corporation, police force in the city streets, take down the bad guys. That last part is where Anarcute shines. Starting as a single animal protestor, moving through each level's streets allows you to gather up others and grow your one-fox/frog/giraffe/etc-protest into a dozens-strong mob. The tight maze-like stages and pre-set enemies gives Anarcute the sense of a fast-paced puzzler; you need to choose the best approach through the streets, deciding which enemy and hazards to tackle in the best order to build your mob while losing the least amount of protestors. There's even a slight stealth aspect, as you avoid enemy line of sight until you have a large enough group to take them on.

Loosing protestors is something you want to avoid, because the size of your mob is more than just a visual effect. Your mob acts essentially as a ship in a shoot-em-up, each individual acting as a point of health and being to able to carry items as ammo. Early levels may just have you facing single cops and lasers, once rooftop snipers, armored foes with area-of-effect attacks, and rockets enter the mix, Anarcute becomes an evasive shooter. Using your mob's dash to dodge attacks, unleashing hailstorms of debris, charging up your shockwave to gain some breathing room. The game's mechanical bosses put those skills to the test.

The size of your mob also enables powerful abilities, from being able to knock buildings like an unsteady jenga tower or blast enemies back with a stomp to temporary invincibility and buffed attacks. These abilities tie into both the puzzle aspect and the action, as building your mob up to defeat well-guarded areas is key, as is keeping your larger mob alive with well-timed dodges and use of your abilities. Tokens earned through the campaign also unlocks perks and upgrades that can add a fiery touch to your stomp or allow thrown objects to bounce into additional enemies, among others.

While Anarcute isn't the most taxing game in terms of difficulty, it has enough moving parts - keeping your mob alive, assimilating more protesters, avoiding enemies until your mob is big enough, using abilities, dodging, attacking, and so on - to make it a reasonable challenge. The aesthetic may be colorful, cartoon-y, and vibrant, but Anarcute is surprisingly involved and briskly-paced beneath its veneer of cute animals.

Anarcute is available on Steam, Humble Bundle, and Xbox One.

The Watchlist: 2Dark

Title: 2Dark
Developer: Gloomywood
Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One
Releasing 2016
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A unique mix of stealth, horror and adventure game conceived by the creative force behind Alone in the Dark

Games have taken us to all manner of terrifying places, filled with every kind of monster. The twisted fusions of human and machine deep under the sea in SOMA, the ravenous undead of Resident Evil and fungal infected of The Last of Us, the psychological scars made flesh in the fog-choked streets of Silent Hill. 2Dark revolves around a very different horror, almost banal in comparison to the creatures and places of other games: serial killers and kidnapped children.

2Dark picks up 17 years after the protagonist Mr. Smith lost his wife and children in a brutal attack. Hardened and devastated by the incident, he's now a broken man driven to hunt down the sadistic killers inhabiting the streets and outskirts of Gloomywood, But these aren't your everyday realistic human monsters, but more akin to the psychos found in an episode Hannibal or Dexter or lurking in the alleys of Gotham. Killers with grimy vermin-infested buildings, murderous clowns in dilapidated carnivals, pig-headed butchers.

Scared children hidden away in cages await in the lairs of those killers, and that's where 2Dark combines its dark disturbing horror with stealth, strategy, and action. Creeping through the shadows, you'll need to avoid attracting the attention of killers, their henchmen, and other dangers, avoiding line of sight, and carefully using lights to find your way through oppressively dark basements and corridors. A gun is your last loud resort, so evading or hacking enemies into bloody voxel pieces with a blade and blunt objects are the best options.

But getting in is the easy part. Getting out leading a group of terrified children is quite another challenge. This is where 2Dark introduces some puzzle and strategy aspects to the stealth horror, as you plan the most efficient exit, trying to avoid gruesome sights or the gory remains of your kills as not to cause the kids to scream and cry in horror.

2Dark is expected to release later this year; you can learn more about the game here.

The Watchlist: Neon Chrome

Title: Neon Chrome
Developer: 10tons Ltd
Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One, iOS, Android
Release 2016
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A ruthless cyberpunk top-down shooter

Two years ago, 10tons surprised me with their blood-soaked dual stick Crimsonland, a furious shooter that throw massive hordes of enemies at you and mixed up the action with weapon unlocks and perks. Neon Chrome follows the same basic structure of dual stick action, unlocks, and sci-fi, but with a new focus on cyberpunk megacorps, stealth, and a more cautious approach before the explosions start.

Waging war against the massive tower of the titular megacorporation and its Overseer, you remotely control augmented "assets", divided between classes like assassin or hacker. As you battle through each procedurally-generated levels, you unlock new cybernetic enhancements, more weapons, and skill buffs, to face survive increasingly dangerous defenses.

I've been playing the beta for the past week or so, and Neon Chrome feels like quite change from the instant non-stop action of Crimsonland. The pacing is easily the biggest difference, as enemies aren't aware of your presence when you first arrive, If you're a hacker, you might be able to disable some lasers or turrets, while an assassin with a cloaking augment could even the odds before going on the offensive. New enhancements, ranging from an armed drone to stronger melee and increased speed, can be chosen as you move between levels, while more offensive power-ups let you unleash area-clearing lasers and missile strikes.

You'll need those tools because the enemies in Neon Chrome are more advanced than the charging hordes of Crimsonland. Rotating turrets, mines, and security drones defend rooms, and heavily-armed soldiers patrol, wielding shotguns, machines, or even riot shields which force you to flank and attack enemies' exposed backs. Alerted foes can call in devastating reinforcements that only give you a couple of seconds to prepare, and powerful bosses will test your shooting prowess.

Neon Chrome is still in beta, and will be releasing later this year. You can learn more about the game here.

The Watchlist: Anew: The Distant Light

Title: Anew: The Distant Light
Developer: Resonator, LLC
Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One
In development
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An open-world, dual-stick action game which showcases a beautifully painted, storybook world

From Limbo to the upcoming Orphan, there's something compelling about a child enduring a harsh and dangerous world. Anew: The Distant Light follows a child on a distant moon, light-years from home and on a critical mission.

Set on a sprawling world, extending from rocky barren surface to subterranean lakes, you'll shoot and leap your way through dangerous beings and deadly hazards. A high-tech suit enhances your mobility, granting you the skills to gracefully dive beneath the water or use jet boosters for augmented jumps.

As you explore farther, new technology will expand your options, letting you solve puzzles and speed across the moon in alien vehicles. But agility alone isn't enough to survive this ruthless landscape, and an arsenal of powerful energy guns, grenades, and more lets you hold your own against hordes of alien creatures, lurking predators. and heavily-armed inhabitants. 

Anew brings this alien moon to life with a vibrant art style and smooth animations. Snow coats the dimly lit surface around your landing site, water sloshes and splashes as you fight under the surface, and lasers fly across the screen in furious neon streaks.

Anew: The Distant Light is still early in development, and is slated to release on PC and consoles. You can learn more about the game and find more screenshots here.

The Watchlist: Consortium: The Tower

Title: Consortium: The Tower
Developer: Interdimensional Games Inc
Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One
Releasing late 2017
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The ultimate single player first-person immersive sim. Explore, talk, fight or sneak through The Churchill Tower in 2042

The immersive sim. It's a small subgenre of games, an eclectic mix of themes and gameplay all bound by a goal of letting you role-play as a character in believable reactive worlds that mold to your choices and actions. Deus Ex, STALKER, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, a few others, but perhaps most recently, Consortium. An ambitious sci-fi game set in the confines of a single plane, yet feeling like an expansive experience thanks to the depth of its narrative, relationships, and gameplay freedom.

Now developer IDGI is back with Consortium: The Tower, an even more ambitious sequel that takes what worked in the first game and evolving those elements on an impressive scale and scope.

Consortium: The Tower takes place in a near-future London, in the massive Churchill Tower, now controlled by a mysterious terrorist faction. You play as Bishop Six, an agent of the titular organization, on a mission to observe, report, and handle the situation. How you accomplish those goals are up to you. The tower is home to a whole array of different groups -  terrorists, police, civilians, Consortium and other more enigmatic individuals - each with their plans and agendas. You can sky-dive to flank enemies from above and unleash devastating firepower, cloak and sneak through unseen, explore the tower for better routes and hack into terminals for useful data and hidden secrets.

But Consortium wouldn't be an immersive sim if it doesn't offer choices beyond the shooting and sneaking. The spoken word here is as powerful as any weapon or piece of technology; in fact, it'll be possible to be complete a playthrough without firing a shot. Find yourself in a tense standoff with an enemy squad and you can press the talk button (that lets you engage in conversation anytime, anywhere), throw down your gun to defuse the tension, and convince the group that you're not a threat or even to fight alongside you.

Going further than that, disobey your orders, go against the Consortium's wishes, and you're be disavowed by the agency. In another game, that would be a game over, but here, The Tower continues along, except now you're a rogue agent. That status may make you very valuable to other factions and individuals in the game.

While the game is already ambitious, the developers have even bigger plans if budget allows. Their vision for The Tower is one of a nearly fully-explorable environment, with areas ranging from malls and apartments to museums and industrial areas, essentially what you'd imagine an actual skyscraper of this magnitude would contain.

Consortium: The Tower is expected to release late next year and is currently seeking funds on Kickstarter. You can learn about the game here.

PC Review #138: Oxenfree

Title: Oxenfree
Developer: Night School Studios
Platforms: PC, Mac, Xbox One
Price: $19.99
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A group of teenagers. A weird crazy adventure. Otherworldly happenings. From E,T, and The Goonies to more recently Super 8, it's a story told quite a few times in film. Oxenfree continues that tradition, telling the story of five friends, a mysterious island, and malevolent forces.

Oxenfree is a narrative-driven adventure game about Alex, a teenager still suffering from a great loss, and a group of other seniors spending the night on Edwards Island: step-brother Jonas, friend Ren, quiet Nona, and "mean-girl" Clarissa. It's a long-honored tradition in the community, hanging out on the beach, by the bonfire, drinking. But emotional turmoil and burgeoning relationships all bubble beneath the fun and small talk, and it's your dialogue choices that can make or break friendships, build or shatter trust, among more life-threatening consequences.

The bonfire drinking and games of truth or slap soon morph into a life-and-death struggle to escape the island when insidious supernatural forces are awakened. The story of Oxenfree is best experienced as blind as possible, so I won't delve into the specifics, but it's a gripping tale of coming-of-age and supernatural horror.

You won't find puzzles in Oxenfree, besides using Alex's radio to tune into different frequencies, nor moments of fast-paced action. Oxenfree is a game about atmospheric exploration and dialogue, and it absolutely excels. The landscape of Edwards Island is one of quaint shops, of colorful forests tinged brown and yellow from the autumn weather, of sheer sea-side cliffs and dank caves, of abandoned buildings holding chilling secrets. The place is as much as character in Oxenfree as Alex and the other teens, and a joy to explore.

And every moment of exploration is accompanied by some of the most natural likable dialogue I've heard in a game. Natural not just in tone and cadence, but in execution. Oxenfree evolves the choice-driven narrative genre popularized by Telltale by adopting a walk-and-talk pacing, letting you choose dialogue while on the move or in the midst of other actions. From trying to rationalize terrifying occurrences to making jokes and revealing hurtful secrets, the choices never feel like the mechanical good/bad/neutral options of other games, but natural responses to the situations.

Those situations are tinged with menace and unnerving horror. Oxenfree never resorts to jump scares or gore to be scary; instead it builds an atmosphere of dread and unease, through weird scenarios, excellent sound design, and visual aberrations that morph and contort the soft inviting aesthetic. Like a Stephen King novel or Poltergeist, the horror comes from seeing these normal characters you're invested in facing cruel ruthless evil.

Oxenfree's story ranges from four to seven hours, varying based on how much you explore the island and its secrets. While I typically play these choice-driven narrative games only once, I'm compelled to play Oxenfree again. It was a story I didn't want to end, with characters I liked, and I'm excited to dive in again and see how the story can change with different choices.

Oxenfree is available on Steam, Humble, and Xbox One. A PS4 version is releasing later this year.

The Watchlist: Song of Horror

Title: Song of Horror
Developer: Protocol Games
Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux, PS4, Xbox One
Releasing 2017
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Story-driven third person survival horror

Developer Protocol Games first revealed Song of Horror earlier this year. Unfortunately, their first attempt on Kickstarter failed, but now the game is back, Greenlit on Steam and slated for consoles, and looking even more terrifying.

Song of Horror is a survival horror game that promises to blend the old-school fixed angle horror of classic Resident Evil and Alone In The Dark with a modern approach. You control the fates of 16 characters, all haunted and stalked by an insidious eldritch Presence, a cast of normal men and women against an ancient cunning evil.

While the characters in Song of Horror are weaponless, they aren't defenseless. You can run, and hide, slow its advance, avoid its shadowy clutches by carefully watching and listening for clues, But if the Presence does kill you, the story isn't over. Similar to games like Heavy Rain and Until Dawn, Song of Horror features a narrative that molds around character deaths.

I was able to try out an early demo of the game, featuring the first chapter set in the Husher Mansion. (Each chapter takes place in a different location.) For a game that still at least two years away, Song of Horror already feels polished and promising. Don't expect many jump scares; the tension and dread here comes from knowing you're not alone; that you're being stalked by a force that can kill you in a moment anywhere anytime; that can't be stopped, only slowed and avoided. The experience is one of measured pacing, cautious careful exploration, and moments of desperate flight as you try to outrun and delay the Presence.

Song of Horror is currently seeking funds on Kickstarter, and is expected to release in mid 2017. You can learn more about the game here; the demo should be releasing publicly soon.

The Watchlist: Indivisible

Title: Indivisible
Developer: Lab Zero Games
Platforms:PC, Mac, Linux, PS4, Xbox One
Releasing 2018
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Indivisible is a side-scrolling RPG in the vein of Valkyrie Profile, spanning a huge fantasy world inspired by our own world’s various cultures and mythologies

Lab Zero's Skullgirls was a gorgeous fighter with incredible hand-drawn animations, and now they're applying that artistic approach and polish to the RPG genre, with their next project Indivisible.

Indivisible follows young Ajna on her journey to learn the truth behind both a devastating attack on her home and a mysterious mystical ability awakened within her. Ajna's quest will take her across the globe, through lands inspired by Japanese, Central American, and other mythologies and architecture.

Indivisible is split between two types of gameplay. Exploration revolves around Metroidvania-esque platforming, as you wall-jump and dash through towns, temples, and other varied locations. As you progress, Ajna will gather new items and skills to traverse the environments in new ways, from clambering up walls with your axe to swinging across gaps with a rope dart.

But you're not the only one roaming these locations; dangerous enemies lurk as well. Running into them or getting attacks seamlessly shifts the gameplay to Valkyrie Profile-inspired combat. Ajna has the ability to absorb special individuals and manifest them as incarnations in battle.

From the master archer Zebei to the sword whip-wielding Tungar, you'll be able to fight alongside three companions, each tied to a face button. Like a fighting game, combat features combos and specials, blending each incarnation's moves to stun, slow, and damage your foes. Lab Zero's signature art style brings those battles and locations to life with beautiful details and fluid animations.

Indivisible is slated for release in 2018 and is currently seeking funds on Indiegogo. You can support the game, and download the surprisingly lengthy and incredibly polished prototype, here.

The Watchlist: Sharp Flint

Title: Sharp Flint
Developer: EATMEAT Games
Platforms: PC, Mac, PS4, Xbox One
In development
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A survival/hunting game where you can chase and hunt mammoths, wolves, and other titans of the ice age

Sharp Flint takes the popular explore/survival/crafting genre and strips out the zombies, the post-apocalyptic settings, the alien worlds, the isolated islands or voxel landscapes in favor of a low-poly experience set in the prehistoric era.

Across sprawling forests and plains, your goal in Sharp Flint is simple: survive and hunt. Inspired by games like Monster Hunter, you'll carefully traverse expansive maps filled with dynamic herds, prey and predators, and both random and scripted events.

Hunting in Sharp Flint will be more complex than simply throwing a spear at a mammoth. Wind and scent will play a role in tracking and stalking herds, and you'll need to use the environment to your advantage to craft new clothing and weapons. Hazards like quicksand and rock slides can hurt you or be used against fierce predators.

But be careful, because your life is not the only one at stake. You need to gather food and resources to support your family and clan. While the game isn't a roguelike, it will feature a lives system based on the number of children you have. Upon death, you'll take control of your oldest child and inherit your father's equipment; when you run out of characters, you'll need to start a new game. This lives/family management adds a persistent element to Sharp Flint's ice age hunting and gathering.

Sharp Flint is still in development, and is aiming for release on PC, Mac, and consoles. You can sign up for a newsletter on the game's site, and follow its progress on Twitter.

The Watchlist: Cobalt

Title: Cobalt
Developer: Oxeye Game Studio
Platforms: PC, Mac, Xbox One, Xbox 360
Releasing October 2015
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Play as a cute cyborg with a passion for 2d multiplayer battles involving extreme slow-mo and combat rolls

Even if you only have passing knowledge of video games, then the name Mojang probably brings a very specific game to mind. And while Minecraft is undoubtedly the company's magnus opus, it's not their own only game. There was the unfortunately cancelled Scrolls, as well as their foray into publishing with Oxeye's Cobalt. Thankfully the latter is slated for release next month, because it's shaping up to be a skillful and fun 2D action game.

Cobalt is a 2D shooter with an emphasis on acrobatic gunplay and deft evasion. The most useful manevuer in your moveset is the combat roll, which not only lets you chain together moves like punch-jumps and slides but also deflect bullets. Combined with the vast array of weapons and gear, combat in Cobalt proves to be hectic, fast-paced, and have a high skill ceiling, with a surprising amount of hidden depth to its seemingly limited moveset.

But while Cobalt has a large multiplayer focus, with co-op survival modes as well as competitive modes such as deathmatch and capture the plug, I was surprised to learn it has an equally extensive single player component. Aside from an expansive Adventure mode that takes your titular robot Cobalt on a journey from abandoned facilities to snow-capped mountain bases. the game has myriad challenge maps, divided between combat, speed, and puzzle scenarios.

I've been playing the challenge maps present in the current alpha, and Cobalt has really impressed me with its very satisfying gameplay and tactical depth. Your loadout is extremely customizable, including an large selection of guns, melee weapons, throwables, skills, upgrades, and equipment. To name some of the gear in the game: a cloaking stealth suit, time-slowing grenades, rocket boots, a scoped rail gun, a riot shield, a passive reflecting shield, hack grenades that let you control enemies, flash-bangs, silencers, and much more.

Take the plan-and-pounce pacing and hectic eruption of chaos seen in games like Hotline Miami or The Swindle and the acrobatic gunplay of a John Woo film, and that would be Cobalt's gameplay in a nutshell. A typical action beat sees you sliding down an embankment, punching a rocket back at a turret, turning mid-slide to shoot a sniper behind you, rolling to deflect bullets, and shooting while rolling to take out enemies above you. Or, given the extensive armory, maybe you'll distract enemies with a decoy, blind them with a flash-bang, then hack a powerful Predator foe to wipe out the stunned robots.

Enemies are quite varied as well, ranging from organic beasts and spear-wielding natives to robotic combat squads. Some might carry shields, forcing you to attack from behind or above, or wield devastating sniper rifles, among other challenging permutations. The deep moveset, extensive array of weapons and gear, and diverse foes gives the gameplay, especially the challenge maps, that one-more-go appeal where you want clear areas in the smoothest slickest way possible.

Cobalt is expected to release in October. You can purchase the game and download the free alpha demo from the developer's website.

SitRep: Twin Souls

Title: Twin Souls
Developer: Lince Works
Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux, PS4, Xbox One
Releasing mid-2016
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Last time I wrote about Twin Souls, back in June 2014, the game was in the midst of a Kickstarter campaign. Unfortunately Lince Works didn't meet their funding goal, but despite that setback, development continued. Now over a year later, Twin Souls is looking better than ever and is even coming to consoles.

While the core concept of a revived assassin who can control the shadows remains the same, Twin Souls has evolved in every other aspect. Aside from creating shadows to aid stealth, your powers are more versatile now, from the ranged Kunai shadow dagger and explosive Shinen trap to creating decoys with your Sakkaku ability, among others. You can devour your foes with shadow dragons and serpents, erasing their bodies from existence, or emerge from ceilings and walls to strike. A cover system and crouching compliments your powerful abilities.

However, your enemies are also better equipped to deal with your shadowy tactics. There are light barriers and runes that can block your path and make it harder to sneak around. Guards can wield light-imbued swords, use light spells to illuminate the darkness, and fire light arrows from a distance.

Twin Souls' gameplay isn't the only element to receive an upgrade. Your protagonist Aragami was given a complete re-design, now sporting a more colorful, form-fitting outfit, and brought to life through motion capture and cloth physics. The cel-shaded visuals are more vibrant and vivid, thanks to new shaders, lighting, and other graphical effects.

Twin Souls is aiming for a mid 2016 release, and is currently playable at Gamescom. You can learn more about the game here and follow development through its TIGSource Devlog and Twitter page.

PC Review #117: Hand of Fate

Title: Hand of Fate
Developer: Defiant Development
Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux, PS4, Xbox One
Price: $24.99 (PC), $19.99 (Consoles)
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I've never been a fan of card games or deck-building; usually the inclusion of the mechanics are a turn-off for me. But Hand of Fate combines card game, dungeon crawler, and action RPG/brawler to deliver a brilliant and incredibly addictive hybrid of an experience.

It all starts with the cards. In Hand of Fate, you have two decks: the equipment deck and the encounter deck. The equipment deck contains all the items you've acquired: weapons, armor, shields, helmets, special abilities, and so on. On the other hand, the encounter deck contains all the potential events and situations you'll face during the game. Deadly trap mazes, ancient alters, rivers to cross and deserts to get lost in, bosses to face, and much more await you in that deck.

When you start out, you only have basic equipment, but you gain more powerful cards to add to your deck. Know you're going up against undead skeletons? Add more holy weapons and armor to your deck. Likewise, you can also choose what cards are in the encounter deck. However, this doesn't mean you can only add easy cards and make the next playthrough a walk in the park. Certain encounters provide tokens when you successfully complete them, and those tokens unlock new cards, thus new equipment and weapons to add to the decks. On top of that, the nefarious Dealer will include unique cards of his own into the game decks, adding more challenges and unpredictable encounters.

Those cards, laid out on the game table, essentially make up the tiles of a dungeon level. With each move, you deplete your limited food supply and if it runs out, you lose health until dying from starvation. This balance of risk and reward is the crux of Hand of Fate's dungeon crawling. Do you explore every card, or take a more straightforward route? You might get lucky, and find a shop or a priest or some new encounter that nets you a better weapon. Or you might find yourself cursed, or making a wager with a tricky Devil, or have goblins steal some gold, or get ambushed. Some encounters play out through choose-your-own adventure-style text; the choices are dictated by the items you might have or the effects of other cards.

Or you might be very unlucky and the Dealer will draw cards from the monster desk. Combat in Hand of Fate is modeled after the popular system seen in the Arkham games, down to counter icons over enemy heads and a shield bash that acts the same as Batman's cape. While the fighting can't live up to its inspiration in terms of animations or fluidity, it excels in other areas. Your early-game rusty axes and swords and light armor are soon replaced by more exotic equipment. Hammers that unleash lighting blasts, swords that set the undead aflame, armor that slows surrounding enemies, helmets that increase your movement speed. Magic abilities let you imbue your attacks with fire or send out magic blades in all directions or freeze enemies in the vicinity. All buffs and abilities stack, allowing you to tailor your play style as a damage-dealing powerhouse or a magic-enhanced tank. And at its core, combat is just fun, as you deflect fireballs from lizardmen, evade bandits, and face powerful Lava Golems and Mages.

All in all, that's the word that best describes Hand of Fate: fun. Other games may have more complex card mechanics or better combat, but combine the addictive nature of the gameplay with the engaging deck-building, the varied locations, and the excellent voice acting from the mysterious Dealer, and you have a compelling experience that you want to dive back into again and again.

Hand of Fate is available on Steam, GOG, Humble, PS4, and Xbox One.

The Watchlist: Transmission

Title: Transmission
Developer: Transmission team
Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux, PS4, Xbox One
In development
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Transmission is an action adventure game set on a mysterious alien world

You awaken, lost, alone, confused, stranded on an unknown world. With nothing but your ship's central computer for guidance, you set out into a landscape teeming with secrets and hostile inhabitants. This is the world of Transmission, an upcoming isometric action-adventure title with a focus on exploration and discovery.

Perhaps the first aspect that stands out is the game's style, an aesthetic with the goal of mirroring hand-painted art and making the world feel like a piece of concept art brought to life. But Transmission will offer more than just a mysterious landscape to explore; armed with suit enhancements, special equipment and defenses, and upgradable weaponry, you'll face dangerous robotic enemies and native lifeforms, as well as solve environmental puzzles and traverse hazardous areas. Similar to a classic Resident Evil or adventure game, you'll need to collect items to activate alien machinery and unlock new sections of Transmission's world

Transmission is still relatively early in development; you can follow its progress on its TIGForum devlog and Twitter page, as well as the game's main site.

The Watchlist: Slain!

Title: Slain!
Developer: Wolf Brew Games
Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux, Xbox One, PS4, PS Vita
Releasing May 2015, consoles planned for September and December
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Prepare to be Slain! Our homage to the gory hack and slash games of the 80's and 90's. We promise stunning visuals with gore galore.

There's something so satisfying about playing a brutally difficult game. Be it Volgarr The Viking or Super Meat Boy, succeeding where you failed myriad times before, mastering a game's seemingly insurmountable challenge, is always rewarding. Slain! harkens back to the days of brutal games like Shadow of The Beast and Ghosts 'n Goblins, a lone hero against grotesque odds, across Gothic landscapes of blood and death.

At a glance, Slain stands out due to its lavishly detailed pixel art. Clouds drift above and fog rolls across the swamps and underbrush. Torch lights flicker and sway in the breeze. The otherworldly abodes of werewolves and spirits and undead beasts drip with blood, walls choked with vines. Gruesome creatures, from skeletons and witches to more dangerous horrors, are displayed in grisly detail, all decayed flesh and tattered clothes.

But Slain! promises more than just wonderfully-realized Gothic environments. As the reawakened hero Bathoryn, you must traverse these lands and free seven towers from the grip of their monstrous overlords. From the crimson halls of Blood Tower to the lupine effigies of the Wolfwoods, Bathoryn strikes down creatures with his sword and mana abilities, while also dealing with each tower's puzzles and deadly traps. Master your skills, know your enemies, or die.

Slain! is estimated to release on PC, Mac, and Linux in May, with console releases rolling out in the months to follow. You can learn more about Slain! on its official site and TIGSource devlog, as well as support the game on Kickstarter and Steam Greenlight.

The Watchlist: Orphan

Title: Orphan
Developer: Windy Hill Studio
Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One
Releasing late 2015
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It started as any other day. And then they came.
In Orphan, you are a young boy left to fend for himself as an alien race invades the earth to eradicate humankind. There's not much else to do but run, but along the way as you evade enemy forces you may discover the way to halt their attack and save humanity before it's too late!

Inspired by War of the Worlds, Another World, and Blackthorne, Orphan is a game about surviving an alien invasion. Taking place over a single night, you play as a young boy surviving and traversing extraterrestrial-infested wilderness. From the screenshots and GIFs, atmosphere is key here; raging forest fires, foggy swamps, pounding rain, dense woodlands, crawling with alien mechanics, as your child protagnist flees the onslaught. However, these invaders aren't invisible and you won't be defenseless, able to use the machines' weapons against them. While the shadow art style may bring to mind Limbo, the developer has stated there won't be physics puzzles in Oprhan, just a young boy fighting off aliens across the countryside. 

Orphan is still in development, with an estimated release sometime in 2015. You can learn more about Orphan here and follow the game's development on the Windy Hill Twitter page.

The Watchlist: Hover: Revolt of Gamers

Title: Hover: Revolt of Gamers
Developer: Fusty Games
Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux, PS4, Xbox One
Releasing 2015
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Between the crazy Jet Set Radio, the interactivity of Mirror's Edge and inspired by films like "The Fifth Element" or "Star Wars", Hover let you play as a Gamer Team from another world, appalled at the dictatorship in their city.

Take Mirror's Edge, Jet Set Radio, mix with the towering sci-fi cityscapes of The Fifth Element, add multiplayer, and you get Hover: Revolt of Gamers. A first/third-person parkour game set across the bustling districts of a futuristic alien city, Hover combines free-flowing acrobatics with tricks and stunts in an open world.

Set in a video game-hating dystopia, you're the member of the Gamer resistance, helping citizens, tracking down secret warehouses of confiscated consoles, and fleeing police drones. Equipped with a high-tech suit, the sky is the limit as you leap across rooftops, grind along rails, slide along walls, pull off flips and stunts while fluidly racing through the city. Hover can be played from both a Mirror's Edge-inspired first person perspective (complete with Oculus Rift support!) and a third-person view to better admire the animations and stunts. But chaining high-flying combos across the city and through hover traffic is always better with friends, and Hover promises to also offer seamless online multiplayer, allowing you to race and compete in co-operative and competitive modes.

Hover: Revolt of Gamers just oozes potential and promise, from its vibrant colorful visuals and its fluid open-world parkour to its ambitious cities and multiplayer. You can learn more about the game on IndieDB and support it on Kickstarter. The campaign is already more than fifty percent funded in less than two days, and stretch goals include new characters, new game modes, a bigger game world, a full soundtrack from Jet Set Radio's composer Hideki Naganuma, and a Wii U version.

Hover was Greenlit in February.

The Watchlist: Gang Beasts

Title: Gang Beasts
Developer: Boneloaf
Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux, Android, WiiU, PS4, XBox One
In development
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Gang Beasts is a stupidly silly local multiplayer party game with doughy ragdoll physics and horrific environmental hazards.

I'll be honest. I first saw a screenshot of Gang Beasts during Screenshot Saturday. It looked interesting but nothing really jumped out at me as amazing or something to be hyped about. And then I read this great RockPaperShotgun preview and realized that was a mistake. Gang Beasts is awesome.

Even in its extremely early playable alpha, the game is one of the most fun and funniest I've played in a while. RPS was right when they said "every fight turns into a desperate action sequence." Gang Beasts is pushing and prodding your opponent into an industrial grinder. It's having a four-way brawl atop speeding trucks. It's punching your opponent in the face while both of you dangle from a window washing platform. What's more, those exciting fights are incredibly simple to control - keys for movement, for punching and grabbing - and your cute colorful brawlers all have physics-based animations that add some satisfying yet oddly hilarious brutality to every fight.

And that's only the 0.0.1 alpha. Reading through the developer's IndieDB and Greenlight pages, they have even greater ambitions. A shopping mall with glass elevators to fight on top of. A hotel/casino featuring a bar for a good old-fashioned bar brawl. A construction site with destructible walls and floors to smash through. An amusement park with a Ferris wheel and roller coaster to fight on. Levels ranging from fights in the middle of freeway traffic to fights on top of a train. A single player mode with levels and bosses. Various moves like headbutts, elbows, and evasive dodges. It sounds incredibly promising and the alpha is a clear evidence that Boneloaf is well on their way to achieving those goals.

Gang Beasts is still in early development. You can download the alpha here; it's currently multiplayer-only, with up to four players able to brawl locally across several levels, but the developers plan to add AI bots and a Sandbox mode in the next build. You can learn more about Gang Beasts on its IndieDB page and vote for it on Steam Greenlight.