Blight
Blight is an extremely challenging and realistic single-player top-down perspective survival game.
The Blight
A mysterious new disease called the Blight has descended upon the land. You have managed to escape its devastating effects as it has consumed your village and left it to ruins - You now find yourself alone in the wilderness, tired and hungry. You’ve bought yourself some time, but for how long? The Blight grows larger every day, consuming everything in sight…
Realism
The game strives on providing a punishingly realistic and immersive experience with a ton of depth. Actions like chopping trees and cooking food take a lot of precious time. You can only carry a few things at a time. You need to boil water to make sure it’s safe to drink. Water and other liquids need to be carried in bowls and other containers, and will spill out if not transported securely. You will need to scavenge numerous raw materials, many of which will need to be processed, combined, treated or hardened to make tools, items and structures.
Challenge
The Blight is just one of many threats to your existence in the unforgiving wilderness. After quickly setting up camp you will constantly need to keep yourself well fed and hydrated, replenish lost energy with sleep and short rests, defend yourself from the wild beasts that still inhabit the woods, heal your wounds, protect yourself from the harsh elements, and figure out a way to somehow end this terrible disease. Almost everything in the procedurally generated world can and will kill you if you aren’t careful.
There are whispers of Druids in a far off land that may know more about the Blight…
Upcoming Features
The demo is currently live! You can download it to try out most of what the game has to offer and the level of realism/depth it’s going for. The next big update for the game in the current alpha testing phase is called The Story Update. It’s coming in the next few months and it will contain all these new things:
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Beginnings of the story around the Blight, where it came from, how to cure it, resources to collect, etc
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Village and road generation, with a compass to aid with navigation in Realistic mode
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More unique locations in the world where various resources are more abundant
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Ranged weapons such as throwing spears
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Armor and other protective items like shields
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Many more unique resources to find
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Panning for random resources in water
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More buildings and items to create
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Sharpening tools to regain some effectiveness
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Other survivors and creatures, hostile and otherwise
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Carts to move things around
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Localization and translations, starting with Russian
Long-term Future
The long term future of the game includes some of these big features:
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Co-op multiplayer
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Fishing
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Farming
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Building system (floors, walls, roof, etc)
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Character customization including gender
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Taming animals
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Injury and wound system
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More localized languages
Read More: Best Dark Early Access Games.
Tales of the Black Death
If you like narrative games with difficult moral choices, then this is the right adventure for you.
Tales of the Black Death follows the troubles of Baldasar, a young boy trying to escape the 1346 plague. His journey will take him from Italy to France, and finally to England.
The story is very engaging and effective in delivering the collective and individual drama, helped by a very inspired art style and soundtrack.
I couldn’t stop playing and found myself torn in front of many troubling decisions, feeling the urgency and the tragedy, hope at times, and worry about the fate of the protagonist.
– Real player with 19.6 hrs in game
Read More: Best Dark Casual Games.
1346 – 1356
A Pandemic reaches europe.
The Black Death.
Over 25 Million Human died.
Hard Times – hard Decissions.
What have you done to survive in such times?
Welcome to TALES OF THE BLACK DEATH!
In first look it seems to be a typical Visual Novel.
It is not.
It is more.
It is a Journey into a dark Time where you not only have to read Text.
You also have to care about yourself, you have to make hard Decissions …… you have to survive!!!
You can be sure that each decision has consequences and you can also be sure that you will disbelief many of your decisions, wishing to have other choices.
– Real player with 4.8 hrs in game
SpinZap
SpinZap is a challenging game in classic arcade style. Use your reflexes, dexterity and boss skills to conquer 81 levels of circle zapping madness.
Your task is to steer the spinning circles using various control methods, such as halting, reversing and skipping forward, in order to find a clear path to fire at the plasma ball hiding at the center of the circles. Hit the plasma ball enough times before the time runs out to win the level. Failure to do so results in your cannon being instantly blown up in retaliation.
Depending on how quickly and cleanly you finished the job, you are awarded one, two or three stars upon completion of each level.
The full version of the game spans nine worlds, each world containing nine levels and its own theme song to set the mood.
SpinZap starts off very easy, but grows harder for every world you conquer. In the end, you will need nerves of steel, perfect control and excellent timing to get the highest possible score.
Single-player vs co-op mode
SpinZap was originally designed as a single-player game, but has turned out to be a lot of fun to play in local co-op mode and in ”Remote Play Together” mode. All controllers are active in parallel, letting each player contribute to the team’s successes (or failures) in the best way for each level. Note that there are no differences between the single-player and co-op modes - in fact, they are the same mode.
Control options
Keyboard and joypad / joystick controls are supported. Only keys or buttons are used to play the game. When playing alone, using the keyboard or an arcade stick is highly recommended. Using a joypad in single player mode is possible, but can be regarded as self-punishment, or the equivalent of a self-chosen difficulty level “insane”. When playing cooperatively, joypads work verk well since each participating player only has to worry about their part.
Resolutions and aspect ratios
The game supports a wide range of aspect ratios, making it suitable for ultra-wide and ultra-tall display setups (provided that the GPU and its drivers support such configurations).
Demo
Remember to try the demo to get a hands-on understanding of what the game is about, and how well it plays on your system and with your controller setup.
Warning
This game contains circular rotating patterns which may make it unsuitable for people with photosensitive epilepsy or other photosensitive conditions. Player discretion is advised.
Read More: Best Dark Casual Games.
Philophobia: The Fear of Love
I’ve been following this game for quite a while now, from Tims original reddit post and man this game has grown quite significantly if that original GIF is anything to go by. I’ve also helped beta test the steam edition of this game and have poured well over 40+ hours into the various different versions of this game, from its itch.io release to the Kartridge port and now it’s current steam debut!
– Real player with 11.0 hrs in game
I can’t give it a blanket recommendation, but having beaten it I enjoyed it well enough. If this one shook out as Positive/Mostly Positive I’d call that a fair assessment but come prepared for tight jumps and minimal hand holding.
The title alternates between a puzzle platformer and a speedrunner. I’m not going to profess that it’s the lovechild of Super Meat Boy and Celeste or anything like that but I think it’s got some interesting ideas. Smoothing out difficulty curve a bit could go a long way (I died 260 times on one level and less than 10 on the next. This is an extreme example but you get the idea). I expect that level to be an exit point for a lot of people.
– Real player with 6.9 hrs in game
Heartless Dark
I can recommend this if you enjoy some atmosphere and an interesting challenge.
If you get over the initial learning curve the game has a lot of that ‘one more game’ feeling.
The dark and restricted vision can make it tough to navigate.
Once you get used to it then the challenge becomes not running out of ammo.
Once you get used to that the challenge becomes figuring out how to fight the monsters in interesting ways using the game systems (maybe kiting them through acid or stunning them with an exploding fire extinguisher).
– Real player with 9.5 hrs in game
A very atmospheric and lethal rogue like. You have to budget your limited ammo and life against enemies that hit hard and fast but I’ve never lost a like a run thinking there was nothing I could do about it. Finding bullets and upgrades is always rewarding.
– Real player with 3.5 hrs in game
REDO!
BULLET POINTS
Pros:
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Gorgeous art
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Immersive, beautifully bleak atmosphere
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Cleverly interconnected world
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Responsive, satisfyingly hefty controls
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Meaty combat with an interesting touch of strategy
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Maybe the best NG+ ever
Cons:
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Oddly arbitrary ability gating, that can be needlessly confusing
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Shared resources hamper the usability of tools
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Boss fights are too simplistic
THE SHORT OF IT
Play the demo and finish it. It can take a while to understand the mechanics -specifically the rhythm of the combat-, but once you do, and once you get to use the first couple tools, you’ll know.
– Real player with 12.6 hrs in game
Decent post-apocalyptic metroidvania that can be completed in 4-5 hours. After you beat the game you can also access the “hard mode” which changes the pathways, relocates power-ups, and increases difficulty. You play as a human survivor in a Lovecraftian world that is populated by biomachines and human-sized love dolls. Our character receives a message from a mysterious individual who we assume is another human character and our goal is to find him. My favorite part of this experience is the atmosphere - the soundtrack that creates the foreboding mood and the feeling of isolation. The game has a neat art direction which I can only describe as the ‘Village Hidden in the Rain’ - a city overrun by pipes, tunnels, mist, and fungus. As with many metroidvania games, it allows you to complete the areas out of order if you find the correct power-up, but there are only 3 major sections with a few optional locations (not a very big game). Oddly enough there is no map, although you will get many shortcuts if you pay attention.
– Real player with 12.3 hrs in game
SKYHILL: Black Mist
I was having fun both times I tried (before and after patch) but game breaking bugs disappointed me a lot. If the devs fix these bugs, the game has great ideas.
Pros:
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fun bossfights
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cool atmosphere
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GREAT voice acting, can make you feel uncomfortable (as a horror game should be)
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the game doesn’t force jumpscares to give a feel of horror, but it doesn’t feel uneasy at all
Cons:
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a lot of game breaking bugs, you literally have to restart the game from scratch
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the game is slow but you don’t have time to explore since you have a timer ticking to kill you
– Real player with 8.5 hrs in game
Giving this a positive in advance since i REALLY trust in the future of this game. It has a lot of potential to become a unique survival horror, so this will probably remain positive in the future if the devs do everything right.
TL;DR: The game has lots of bugs ranging from very minor to game-breaking. Dying in the game means nothing, just a slight time inconvenience. The devs are not active on the steam forums, got no replies from anyone at all. Lots of potential if the devs follow the implement-more-difficulty-options route and actually start replying to people.
– Real player with 8.5 hrs in game
DARK SOULS™ II
Everything is fair
– Real player with 236.0 hrs in game
The souls series is one of my favorite series ever, and this game is no different. ignore the hate for this game, its a good game, its just a 9 in a series of straight 11’s, one of the games has to be at the bottom and it just so happens to be this one, but that does not make it a bad game. I would recommend this game to all, including souls vets who have never played it and anyone new trying to get into the series.
– Real player with 182.3 hrs in game
DARK SOULS™: Prepare To Die™ Edition
Short version :
One of the best RPG games EVER made, that’s coming from a gamer who’s played over a hundred RPG titles in his life.
Dark Souls - 9.5/10
_Long Version :
Darks Souls….. so much to say about this game.
The game throws the player in a very difficult world, not just by gameplay standards, but plotwise as well. The story / lore is depicted in such a way that it’s never speaking to the player directly, but rather to your character, it never breaks the 4th wall by directly telling the player what to do and how to do it, only the basic attack move buttons are given to you at the beginning, and from then on, you’re completely on your own for the rest of the 50+ hour journey. Unless you get a co-op partner that is._
– Real player with 254.2 hrs in game
TLDR: Yes.
Dark Souls has issues.
While most entertainment experiences go out of their way to encourage your interest, it feigns indifference to your attention.
Introducing itself via bizarre and meaningless cut scenes you find your protagonist in a pretty dull dungeon. “Oh look, a man with a sword viewed from third person” you observe with a mounting sense of déjà vu. “No doubt I have a healing potion and a sense of manifest destiny somewhere in my bag too” and reach for the reset button/cyanide pill. But Dark Souls IS different - not that it is keen to show off. Like Usain Bolt winning the Dad’s race on sport day mumbling something about how he probably jumped the gun, Dark Souls’ initial coyness infuriates and astounds with equal measure.
– Real player with 242.8 hrs in game
Othercide
Othercide changes the concept of turns and introduces its own original creation, with a small dose of roguelike elements, neatly packaging it all in a freakish world, rich in lore and a whole lot of dying.
Destroy the Child, corrupt them all!
The story is shrouded in a Lovecraftian guise and leaves a lot to interpretation. The world is engrossed in an endless war with demonic creatures, as the last bastion of hope, The Mother, falls prey to the overwhelming power of The Child. But, a mother knows no rest, and even in death, she aims to free The Child from suffering, tearing pieces of her soul so she can conjure an army of her daughters that will succeed where she failed.
– Real player with 74.2 hrs in game
Memento mori
Laid in black and white with a hint of red, Othercide is a turn-based tactical game developed by indie developer Lightbulb Crew and published by Focus Home Interactive. This title’s most striking quality is its distinct, minimalistic aesthetic. The game has a similarly humble soundtrack to match with subtle ambient and whispers, disturbed by occasional musical track only in the most extraordinary of moments. Impressive both in terms of gameplay and stylistic choices, the title in question is a bittersweet journey about keeping hope amidst despair.
– Real player with 68.6 hrs in game