600Seconds ~The Deep Church~
More than any other, I think the word “odd” describes 600Seconds the best. More compelling than the sum of its parts, 600Seconds combines exploration with a fairly short and straightforward third person shooter adventure through a church. Exploring the empty church in the waking world for items for ten minutes before your siege in the nightmare seemed, at first, an unnecessary and kind of obnoxious feature (ten minutes is a long time!) though it does help set a certain kind of mood, but after dying in the nightmare once or twice the interest was made more clear to me.
– Real player with 11.6 hrs in game
Read More: Best Dark Fantasy Casual Games.
First and foremost, I think it’s best to remember that this is StudioGekko’s first title. So know going in that it’s not very complex, not very long, and may be prone to jankyness. All that in mind, I still had plenty of fun with the game.
Item placements are not random, so learning the layout of the church and location of everything was really fun. I like that there’s no text or story to read and that I can just make my own assumptions about what’s happening, though maybe a little more to see would’ve been nice. After my first couple of unsuccessful runs, I thought I was done with the game but I found myself coming back to it the next few days to learn more and give it another shot.
– Real player with 5.3 hrs in game
Darkest Dungeon®
Darkest Dungeon is a game, no an Experience that stays with those who play it.
It sucks to lose your beloved hero that you spent hours upon hours building to a occultist 0 heal bleed deathblow But yknow what, you can always make another, right?
This game draws you in with its simple yet diverse combat with every enemy bringing its own deck to the table, be it stressing out your heroes or making them close to useless in a prolonged fight, every enemy has its weakness and to see one on the field and immediately say: “Oh Shit time to employ the plan” only for it to fail spectacularly and leave you scrambling and exposed as that swine skiver crit 40s your main healer and they die of a follow up attack, only to come up at the top with 2 HP on most of your dudes or dudettes can only be described as Cathartic.
– Real player with 1042.8 hrs in game
Read More: Best Dark Fantasy Turn-Based Combat Games.
If you’re like me (I pity you) then you’ve tried to play Darkest Dungeon several times only to be rebuffed by its repetitive nature and yet you can’t let it sit because you’ve sunk the cost and want to know what all the fuss is about. After poking around a bit I made a discovery, it’s not really the repetitive nature of the game that’s the problem. It’s the hideously slow speed at which the game plays.
Once you grasp the basics of Darkest Dungeon’s gameplay loop you don’t need —or want— to sit though every camera zoom or every slow hallway creep. And thanks to the power of modding magic you don’t have to. Walking speeds, combat, and even the tallies at the end of each dungeon can be sped up with a mod, thus making the game a far more tolerable experience. There’s also a mod to kill the camera zooms, though it does make combat look a bit silly.
– Real player with 276.8 hrs in game
A Place for the Unwilling
A Place for the Unwilling is an isometric story driven adventure game. I can recommend this game to players who have patience to read many dialogues and texts in a slow-paced world. The story is compelling to track from start to finish, but there are also missing pieces in the story. Depending on how you choose to progress in the game, the city player lives in changes and reacts differently. All characters introduced are vibrant, they all have stories to tell. They have the ability to manipulate player’s perspective in a direction based on your affinity to them. But the game doesn’t deliver its expected ending.
– Real player with 66.2 hrs in game
Read More: Best Dark Fantasy Singleplayer Games.
Solid exploratory adventure with deep, lyrical writing and time constraints.
The game’s aesthetics is absolutely delicious in its dark simplicity of the features, but lots of moving elements. It has the “cartoon Lovecraft” feel to it and the city streets simply beg to explore every nook and cranny. With all that beauty around, the controls are what dampens the overall fantastic first expression. Intuitive they are not. There is a mix of WASD and arrows involved, where every letter is not what you learned it to be from hundreds of previous games played… S acts like an “Enter” for example, and quite frequently you’d have to resort to “W – Arrow down – E” combinations which will result in lost money and/or some frustration. Since interaction of a character starts from him/her being turned to an object or a person in order to highlight them first, it’s also easy to imagine some annoying moments when you trying to angle your character just right. Perhaps, the only thing I’d want to lodge a complaint about.
– Real player with 47.2 hrs in game
Egress
Egress: The Ugly Duckling
Uh. Uhhh… is it really 9 months since i promised i keep this review Updated? Ahum… afterall, i’ve kept my promise, and that’s what counts.
Anyway, you’re here because you’re curious about the current state of Egress, right? You’ve read “Souls-like” and “Battle Royale”, and now you want to know if this is as awsome as it sounds?
– Real player with 52.6 hrs in game
A highly recommended game for a souls players or any gamer who’s interested in trying something new; Me being a dark souls fan and bloodborne fan, I jumped at this opportunity faster than a Gazelle. In fact I was surprised in what I bought, astounded, I am because the games in early baby stage but yet I can see it doing amazing things in all the gaming communities. The games a work of art in itself, it has historical aspects such as that of H.P Lovecrafts visions through his words; The old art style is an indication of that. It’s like something you’d see in the Victorian age or a Van Helsing novel lol. I live in the United States so this game isn’t widely populated but, this game has many aspects that could lure the eyes of souls type communities and fellow RPG communities alike, or even more of a hope would be to bring Battle Royal communities to Egress..oh yes. The visuals are stunning the mechanics are beautiful and fluent for the stage of beta, (though in the future they will improve, no doubt due to bugs) the use of of artifacts are also a great aspect, my favorite one is the big fish. Keep working Egress :) this is a hit and a half for the team size.
– Real player with 42.9 hrs in game
Gruta: Prologue of the Gloomy Whispers
In this narrative-driven platformer game, you play as child that was living on the edge, trying to escape of her family. Running away, the kid wants to fight the monster she thought was causing trouble between her parents. What she found was not what she was expecting.
Using a sword and shield based combat, you have to fight different types of enemies and mechanics through the levels and reach your goal: Find and face the monster to save your family.
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Stylized pixel-art and original artstyle cutscenes;
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50 hand-crafted levels with increasing complexity;
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A action platformer game with a stunning and polished game feel;
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Tight controls - optmized controls for gamepads and keyboards;
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Original Soundtrack;
In the House of Silence
Instructions unclear, shoved antlers in my eye sockets. 10/10
– Real player with 16.7 hrs in game
https://tinyletter.com/Avatar-of-Chaos/letters/in-the-house-of-silence-not-a-re-doubt
@Review:
In the House of Silence is a simple yet challenging Rogue-Like, with hours of content, featuring a tormenting plot of the House of Silence, the most dangerous location in The Night Land. An effort to find its dark secrets.
However, In the House of Silence, its silence feels more lonely. It is the only known video game to be inspired by Hodgson’s famed story. Hopefully, over time, we’ll see more, just like In the House of Silence.
– Real player with 12.1 hrs in game
SKALD: Against the Black Priory
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1609100/Skald_Against_the_Black_Priory__the_Prologue
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1712620/SKALD_Against_the_Black_Priory_Original_Soundtrack_Vol_I/
You drag yourself from the black tides, across the corpses of drowned men, and onto the unwelcoming, craggy shoreline. Gulls cry overhead and the stink of seaweed fills your nose. By some miracle you have made it to Idra. It will take all your skill to survive and unravel the eldritch mysteries of the Black Priory. Pray your sanity holds.
About the Game
‘Skald: Against the Black Priory’ is an old-school roleplaying game that combines modern design and a fully realised narrative with authentic 8-bit looks and charms.
Delve into a dark fantasy world, full of tragic heroes, violent deaths and Lovecraftian, cosmic horror. Explore an engaging, branching story mixed with rich exploration and crunchy, tactical, turn-based combat that will seem familiar yet innovative to RPG fans, old and new.
Do you have what it takes to lead a company of broken heroes from the tainted shores of Idra to the gates of the Black Priory - and beyond?
Features
Lovingly crafted retro-style art:
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Experience a richly illustrated world of authentic pixel art using thousands of hand-drawn tiles and images
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A palette inspired by the legendary Commodore 64 computer.
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Optional CRT filter for that authentic old-school experience.
Deep character creation:
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Build your main character and recruit a party from among a dozen diverse characters, each with their own skill-set, agenda and personality.
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Choose from a dozen classes and backgrounds as well as heaps of feats, spells and equipment as you take your party from level 1 to 20.
Crunchy tactical combat:
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Engage in challenging, fast-paced, turn- and grid-based combat.
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Play it your way, with fully customizable difficulty and feedback settings. Or hit ‘auto-resolve’, lean back, and (hopefully) watch your party cleave a bloody path through their foes.
A richly detailed, living world:
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Explore the vast expanse of Freymark and the Outer Isles and watch your actions spell doom or salvation for the region.
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Focus on the rich, branching narrative… Or live the life of a mercenary and explore varied sidequests and encounters - the plot will wait for you.
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Manage your party as you make camp, recruit hirelings, travel by land and sea, and interact with powerful factions and their visions for the world.
Become part of a fantastic community:
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Skald was made possible by crowdfunding and already has a large, passionate and welcoming community that can’t wait to meet you.
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By joining Skald’s Early Access you’ll have a direct line to the developer, get sneak peaks and give feedback on forthcoming plans and help shape the game into a modern classic.
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We will publish the powerful tools used to create the game in an effort to support and encourage modding and content creation once the game has fully launched.
The Story of Skald: A Dream Come True
Skald is the dream-project of a lone Norwegian developer, AL.
AL missed the thrill of delving into grand, immersive games such as ‘Ultima’, ‘Magic Candle’, ‘Wasteland’ and the Gold Box series. When he noticed the lack of newer roleplaying games that combined the classic (early 90s) charm with more modern game design he decided to take matters into his own hands.
AL set to work crafting the game of his dreams.
A highly successful Kickstarter and Indiegogo campaign with 700 backers, and a fast-growing community of passionate fans proves he made the right call.
Collaborators
Despite being a one-man company, Scape-IT has been able to collaborate with some amazingly talented people in creating SKALD:
Danny Salfield Wadeson is a UK-based writer & narrative designer who has worked on BAFTA and TGA nominated narrative games such as Roki, Backbone and Duelyst
Twitter: @MadQuills
John Henderson is an experienced fine artist and illustrator and is also a teacher of Art. Whether using dip pen, oil paint or pixels, John’s work is easily recognizable as being highly atmospheric as well as lovingly created. Having worked on many publications and indie gaming projects he is also currently busy with his own project, Wild Wood for the C64.
Twitter: @JohnHen65953721
Scott Hartill UK based artist and game designer. More interested in pixels than anything else. Currently busy developing a PS1 style survival horror in his spare time.
Twitter : @cluly
Torgeir Fjereide is a Norwegian artist and illustrator. He loves painting mythological and medieval scenes and he’ll take any excuse to paint a bearded man.
Twitter: @TheBrushOfThor
Post Horn Public Relations is a pro-bono initiative created to support talented developers.
Twitter: @horn_pr
Rachael A Edwards hails from England and spends most of her days writing fantasy novels about morally grey characters in worlds filled with mythology, corruption and magic. An avid gamer, Rachael’s love for storytelling began at a young age. She is currently working on a YA fantasy novel and is represented by Rena Rossner of The Deborah Harris Agency.
Twitter: @RachaelAWrites
MementoMoree (formerly known as Paolo Pomes) has been creating art since his late teenage years. Proficient in most types of art, from pencil & paper to highly detailed 4k textures, he’s found solace and pleasure in the retro pixel art!
Twitter: @MementoMoree
Marco Pedrana is a digital and traditional art vagrant. He started as draftsman in advertising and comics, went on in illustration, then painting, then conceptual art. He doubled back on videogame design with Aeon of Sands, creating its graphic, story, and sfx. Lately he freelances as a 3D generalist for indie game and cinema productions.
He focuses on narrative art, regardless of the medium or scope.
Twitter: @marcopedrana
Romanus Surt is the main guy at Graverobber Foundation, the developer behind Das Geisterschiff and Der Geisterturm. He does music for SKALD.
Twitter: @surt_r
Edwin Montgomery is a composer and sound designer for games, films and performance. A long-time RPG obsessive, he wrote the soundtrack for inXile’s remastered 30th anniversary version of “Wasteland”. He has created music and sounds for a variety of fantasy game worlds, including Warhammer 40,000, Game of Thrones and Neverwinter. Edwin does sound design for SKALD.
Twitter: @edwinmyshkin
Kharon’s Crypt - Even Death May Die
This game is genuinely good and deserves all the attention. Whether you’re an old-school lover or you’re new to the genre and style, this game will surprise you. The team has worked very hard on the game and the result is a good game.
It will be out of early access when the devs are sure there are no catastrophic bugs or crashes. It will also come out on Switch!
The game itself is very inspired in old gameboy dungeon crawler titles and while it might feel difficult at first glance once you get used to the mechanics and controls it’s not that difficult. I believe everyone should give it an honest try!
– Real player with 50.8 hrs in game
The game is really fun and challenging, the music is awesome and it gives og the perfect vibe. The lore is suprisingly detailed and it’s worth reading it all.
! I think it’s a little funny, that you see a cute slime, and then the necronomicon says it’s human pulp.
– Real player with 40.0 hrs in game
Nevermore: The Chamber Door
In the poem The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe, the narrator is faced with a creature that enters his room and remains on the bust of Athena, goddess of wisdom, thus placing himself above reason and logic. The crow speaks only one word, “Nevermore”, which the narrator interprets in different ways to answer his own questions.
In THE CHAMBER DOOR something similar happens, but before Athena a door opens, a portal to another world of creatures and demons of nightmares. While the dark-feathered raven contrasts with the marble of Athena, of light and darkness, life and death, our hero is taken by something above reason, making him enter that door with the certainty of the unknown.
THE CHAMBER DOOR is a game of introduction to the NEVERMORE universe. You will be introduced to fluid combat mechanics and endless possibilities. Aggressiveness and agility is the basis of combat, you will be rewarded in a combos ranking system where your variety of blows is your greatest weapon, but beware, NEVERMORE contains dangerous creatures and any mistake can be your last.
As you progress through the game, you’ll craft exclusive mirror cards to build your character according to your combat style. Each card can bring new abilities, new mechanics or even improve your stats.
When passing through the CHAMBER DOOR you will face hordes of varied enemies in an arena system, at the end of each level you find a passage to proceed to the next one. As you defeat these hordes, you will eventually come across more powerful entities and stronger bosses.
If you fail and get defeated, you will return to the first level, however, in a roguelike system, you keep the souls you captured in your last adventure to evolve your charms through the statue of Athena, thus becoming stronger and more prepared to advance further more on your next try.
Shadowbane
First of all, this game is absolutely worth playing if you are into oldschool PvP MMOs. No other game allows such in-depth character customization. Sandbox elements are present but are not annoying to the end of being “chop trees to gather lumber”. “Sandbox” here is actually building cities and demolishing your enemies' cities in sieges, hiring AI mercenaries to craft items which is another good part of this game, crafting isn’t about gathering 10 dragon scales and 1 mummy dust by repetitively killing monsters, it’s more about having mercenaries of right races placed in your forges and having resources from right zones in general, even city building (if you happen to own / manage one) is as simple as placing the building on the city grid and waiting several hours for it to go up in one click.
– Real player with 1573.7 hrs in game
Overall an exceptionally poor experience.
So why do I have so many hours you ask? 1) nostalgia and 2) I played with friends, but neither of those points are positives to the game in particular. And also do not be mistaken, for an RPG 80% of this playtime was sitting afk while leeching experience from macro-bots which is what everyone uses.
So this game is mislabeled as a PVP title. It isn’t. It’s actually a zerg v zerg title and those battles are decided by sheer numbers. If it was a pvp game, you’d have skills which synergize with each other to allow for good and creative builds. Builds which later you can learn to play and get better as you get more accustomed to playing your toon. Not the case here. At first glance you have SO many races, professions and disciplines to combine that the options eem endless…until you realize that every profession has no more than 2 ways to build it if you want to be in any way viable. Yes, you CAN be a minotaur that uses unarmed fighting, except due to weapon skill restrictions (built into the races) and stat caps you’ll never be more than 20% of the strength of a proper polearm minotaur.
– Real player with 1121.8 hrs in game