Oh my, just started this an hour ago and from the moment I met the talking mushrooms I was enamoured with it. I stumbled across it several times the last couple days on Steam but it just looked like some colorful bow-shooter… well, RPS helped drawing my interest.
Glad you were able to catch up with it at the right time! I agree, the new one is mostly more of the same, but it goes a little bit deeper.
I was just looking at Blacktail on xbox yesterday. It’s on sale for another week, please keep us updated with your impressions. I did a search and there was really no mention of it here, or even much over at Resetera- just a couple of threads from mo this ago. I’m really curious how it plays- is it an open-ish world? Narrative choices that matter, etc.
KR777
6576
It’s interesting how we’ve got two games with seemingly very similar ideas behind them. Even the titles are similar: Blacktail vs. Blackbook. Has anyone, by any chance, played both and can compare?
Haven’t played either, but from what I have read they are not all that similar. Blacktail has real time combat that I have heard described as a bit limited. Black Book has card based combat, and emphasizes the morality of your choices in difficult situations, with your sins being tracked.
Bobtree
6578
Death Skid Marks became free in August.
Here’s something: Death Trash, an action rpg about Lovecraftian horrors who just want to be friends, but get slaughtered by apocalyptic punks with heavy weaponry (including the protagonist). Looks pretty slick, actually.
It has an early access on itch.io. Claims it’ll launch in 2022, soooooo probably delayed.
Matt_W
6580
I’ve had that on my Steam wishlist for over a year, but it’s not the type of game I buy on early access.
Oh! I didn’t even notice it was on Steam. There’s a demo, too!
Death Trash was part of the summer of demos thing they did, I remember thinking it was interesting but couldn’t totally get my head around the gameplay. Hopefully it’s pretty cool.
whispa
6583
Yeah feeling the same. As much as I want to play it, I’d rather get the full version.
A good top down rougelike
Derek Yu just tweeted out the Steam page for UFO 50, a long-in-development collection of 50 different games from various indie luminaries*. Still simply says “Coming Soon,” but that probably means actually soon.
* I thought this was a thing where lots of different indie devs made separate games to go into the compilation, but it looks like it might be just a single team of six. No wonder it took, like, five years to make!
8 bit? OH YEAH!
The concept is that UFO 50 is a collection of all the games created by a single fictional studio in the 1980s.
Sonoftgb
6588
So Steam is reviving the shovelware market. Yippee!
LockerK
6589
I’ve got some bad news for you…
15 hours in I can say it’s a fine, fine game that deserves some attention. It’s a semi-open-world story driven exploration-game with a nice, big map (you gradually unlock) and combats and boss fights. The core loop and its mechanics are simple: There’s shooting the bow, gathering materials you constantly need (it’s not an annoyance, it’s more like picking up health in a shooter than actually crafting stuff), exploring the map (thereby unlocking new abilities once in a while) and following the story and what it demands. There are side quests and the size of your combat/ability-repertoire depends on how thoroughly you have explored the world.
You will run around, shoot stuff, loot and have strange NPC encounters in a strange, magical world based on Slavic folklore (although not too far from some standard fairy tales). This game is very colorful but it can be bleak as well. There’s is a very light faction system and you have to choose: be ‘good’ or ‘evil’. There are gameplay and story consequences to it but it’s straightforward plus/minus and obviously a system to game with. There’s simple but nice and well written lore and everything is well presented to the detail (UI, etc.)
Sometimes the voice acting is superb and many of the story bits are very enjoyable. And there are highlights: parts of the story are told while playing a 2D-sidecroller. It works. And the second time you’ll enter this mode that’s an highlight. Gorgeous, imaginative artwork and heartfelt voice-acting. Some other aspects of the storytelling and presentation feel more uneven (like the comics and its voice-overs), but all in all this games just works. Big thumbs up.
Dammit! this went off sale over the weekend on Xbox. I’ll keep it on my wishlist, though, so next time it goes on sale I’ll probably bite. Thanks for the write-up!
Matt_W
6592
This game got hidden behind its dumb title:
RPG Time: The Legend of Wright
It’s a pretty incredible experience, sort of similar to Paper Mario in aesthetic, but more an adventure game than an RPG. Every single feature of the game is super charming; it’s presented as if you’re a kid with a friend who has constructed a facsimile of a computer RPG using cardboard, a notebook and various odds and ends. Beautiful, detailed, and fun.
