Blast Brigade vs. the Evil Legion of Dr. Cread

Blast Brigade vs. the Evil Legion of Dr. Cread

Overall

Objectively 8/10 - but subjectively - would play again. And again. And … again. And again.

Blast Brigade is a Metroidvania Platformer that takes everything about the current Metroidvania Zeitgeist and puts it on its head. Dark and Depressing is replaced with Bright and funny. Nail-biting hard is replaced with approachable while challenging. It’s a game that doesn’t have many similarities to current average MEtroidvanias, and that’s what makes it my recommendation. I just enjoy my time in it - it feels good on a basic level that just makes it a joy to play and replay.

Real player with 120.4 hrs in game


Read More: Best Early Access Platformer Games.


This game is really great and very entertaining to play. I really like how challenging the boss fights have been. I would highly recommend this game to everyone!

Real player with 29.3 hrs in game

Blast Brigade vs. the Evil Legion of Dr. Cread on Steam

Mousebound

Mousebound

Upon initially opening Mousebound I was immediately thrown into a difficult and non-apologetic world. Every level, every sequence, and every jump constantly has the player trying their hardest to apply different movements to try and figure out a way to achieve that next jump. While at some points it make you want to scream, at the same time you are brought into a beautiful world with fun physics and mechanics that make the player feel that with every jump and every attempt they are bettering themselves and building upon their last attempt to finally beat it this time. Mousebound is a fun open-world puzzle game that I truly enjoy and highly recommend.

Real player with 4.1 hrs in game


Read More: Best Early Access Singleplayer Games.


Like Monkey Ball but no monkey and more stress. Fun level design keeps each section fresh while still adding the pressure of other Foddian games like Getting Over It and PogoStuck. Overall, pretty good :)

Real player with 3.6 hrs in game

Mousebound on Steam

Vivid Surf

Vivid Surf

Keep track of the progress by adding it to your wishlist and/or following!

Vivid Surf features:

  • Oldschool aircontrol movement.

  • Running on UE5 utilizing the new Lumen lighting solution.

  • Frictionless collisions across all surfaces.

  • Surf assists which removes the necessity for movement keys.

  • Unique inputs that make controller gameplay an option.

  • No “max velocity” levels.

  • Save your location/velocity to optimize routes, learn new maps, and assist in difficult areas during any attempt.

  • Improve your times and beat the goals to progress through the campaign and customize your Spectre (appearance).


Read More: Best Early Access Physics Games.


Vivid Surf on Steam

Afterthought

Afterthought

How I became a Speedrunner

When I first saw this game, I thought it would be too hard for someone like me. But the game mechanics are very intuitive and you can actually play the game quite easily, if you know platformers in general. It comes with a lot of beautiful artworks and an outstanding soundtrack, which I enjoyed a lot, but I think those things are not even the best parts about Afterthought.

What makes this game special is the unique gameplay. If you want to dive deep into the mechanics, you can basically invest infinite time into the game and pull off the craziest stunts! God, it just feels so rewarding when you finally get that S time. You can even beat the developer ghosts, if you want to embarrass them. And there are a lot of bonus objectives and Skins for all the completionists out there. Although it does not seem like it, almost everything in the game is quite achieveable even for Normies like me. Except for the online highscores…

Real player with 65.7 hrs in game

Some of the best designed and most fun movement I have seen in a platformer ever! :o

Real player with 16.2 hrs in game

Afterthought on Steam

Aya’s Journey

Aya’s Journey

This is a change in pace for me, because I genuinely hate writing this review.

I’ve wondered why the ‘Limbo’ style games never caught on. Until now. This game is like Death Stranding, except bad. Bad in an irredeemable way. I don’t even think it matters what I say, because this game seems to be in eternal ‘Early Access.’ It’s very likely the 2 people working on this game (that’s not a joke), gave up on this project as no progress has been made in 3 years.

But hey that’s what happens when you allow 2 people to run a game company with ADHD. (that’s a zinger).

Real player with 3.6 hrs in game

If your a fan of Limbo then you will like this. Few times I had to push an item a little to long to get it in place for the puzzle but not sure yet if that is part of the story or lack of. Can’t wait to see what else comes of this title…

Pros: Artwork, Atmosphere, similar style as Limbo, price, early access

Cons: Repetive Soundtrack, pushing something at a slow pace for what seems a little to long

Real player with 1.9 hrs in game

Aya's Journey on Steam

BACK OF SPACE

BACK OF SPACE

Amazing game, i have every achievement in OLDTV, and i still play it, when i found out and saw the trailer for the new game, i was freaking out. I bought the game and i don’t regret it one bit. :) Would recommend this to anyone. btw C Y A N

Real player with 18.0 hrs in game

IT’S FINALY OUT GUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUYS

(ahem)

Of course it’s beta, but i REALLY like playing this, and also I got some flashbacks from PlasmaTV

The only question is…

WHERE IS CYAN AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Real player with 11.6 hrs in game

BACK OF SPACE on Steam

Blacklist Brigade

Blacklist Brigade

Pretty fun little game. Honestly has more to it than I thought, with weapon and character upgrades, 6 different soldiers who each have thier own couple passive abilities to help the team. Has quite a few gun options(Though there are never enough guns!). Combat, while not to overly difficult, has just enough challenge to where you cant totally yolo everything, unless you just dont care about being downed over and over. Its quite forgiving, with the rather quick and unlimited revives. I also like the amount of UI options.

Real player with 25.2 hrs in game

My friends and I are huge fans of coop tactical shooters. We got this game because we thought it might scratch that itch and we were not disappointed. Lots of tactical movement and teamwork. Tense firefights that are sometimes quite chaotic. Enough gear and class choices to ensure a team of four can specialize, and also a skill system. Easy to get into and play, and next thing you know you’ve spent a couple hours. In a nutshell: fun.

The game is currently in early access, so be aware it isnt in a completed state (though still very playable). Maps are limited for now, but being added to. The developer is active in the forums and extremely responsive to feedback, which is nice. This is a small title that deserves support.

Real player with 18.3 hrs in game

Blacklist Brigade on Steam

Rift Runner

Rift Runner

As of now, I cannot recommend this game. I did rather enjoy playing it though. I love speedrunning in general, as well as platformers, so this is my type of game. I played through the first world trying to get three stars on the maps, but most of them I could only get two. There are gameplay mechanics that speed you up which arent explained at all, but I think it involves timing the jumps either at the end of a slide or at the end of a platform. I am not sure exactly. I like that there is no tutorial, but an option to read about the gameplay mechanics would be cool. Anyway, after I beat the first world I made a few maps into the second and gave up after a few more attempts. When I went back to the menu it became unresponsive to my inputs. Both gamepad, and keyboard. I tried the game again later after closing it and playing some other games, and everything is still unresponsive on the level select screen. The only thing that works is mousing to the back button. Nothing else. There are also some weird graphical bugs, where the level names are still overlayed on the main menu screen after backing out of the level select screen. I was playing on gamepad when this bug happened. I really enjoyed what I did play of the game, and when this gets fixed I will change it to recommended! I am using an AMD R9 380x gpu. and intel i5 4590k cpu.

Real player with 1.1 hrs in game

bug where if you press quit on a level you go back to the level select and the background is all white, nothing is responsive and deleting and re downloading the game does not work and the game becomes unplayable. was a good game but now i cant play it lol so

Real player with 0.5 hrs in game

Rift Runner on Steam

Suit for Hire

Suit for Hire

This is the best non-turn-based John Wick simulator. Running around face shooting and doing gun fu and knife takedowns never gets old. My only complaint would be the difficulty, but for me that just makes it have more value as I play a level over and over trying to beat it. Some might get frustrated, though, at going all the way back to the beginning of each level when you die.

Each level gives you a set location and group of badguys to take out, usually on your way to some kind of objective, even though there is no story at present to give any meaning to the killing. That is fine with me, but it might urk some. They are planning to add cut scenes, though, so for now, make up your own story about how the people he’s going after killed his car and stole his dog right after his sister died or something.

Real player with 48.9 hrs in game

The combat for this game is well executed.

It rewards you with a full magazine for landing 7 back-to-back pistol shots.

Missed some of your shots? No problem, the game encourages you to mix it up with a close quarters option as a stylishly fancy way of getting more ammo for your pistol.

Performing an up close finisher on an enemy gives you a full magazine in your pistol. In order to have a chance to do a finisher you’ll need to build up a meter using punches and kicks.

Punch and kick are on 2 separate buttons, this is important to take note of because kicking objects towards enemies (including grenades) is a mechanic in the game.

Real player with 9.6 hrs in game

Suit for Hire on Steam

The Altered Lands

The Altered Lands

early stage but alot of fun for souls like fans, i see great potential in this and will continue playing to see all the advances itll make, yes there will be bugs and issues but nothings perfect at first and i see this game becoming big

Real player with 19.8 hrs in game

The Altered Lands is a graphically beautiful indie RPG with enjoyable combat. This game is being developed by one person and is currently in Early Access and thus has some areas that need some adjustment/improvement, but nothing that makes the game unplayable or unenjoyable by any means.

To see an analysis of specific pros and cons, you can view my brief, yet in depth, review/gameplay here:

https://youtu.be/6RFo9HwGW78

Real player with 4.7 hrs in game

The Altered Lands on Steam