As you may well know, Edwin has been devoured by The Maw more than once in his time as news editor. Though you cant say he’s not learned from the experience of being a digestee. Knowing that The Maw becomes particularly agitated in weeks stuffed with new releases, I suspect he saw the bloated Steam Upcoming chart and hastily booked his holiday, leaving us to wrangle the beast.
Luckily, I was only chosen for this role after the hiring manager learned I trained under the great great great great granddaughter of lion tamer Isaac A. Van Amburgh. Hand me that rattan armchair, I shall keep the great devourer in check.
Monday 13th April
- Gunboat God gives me strong Luftrausers vibes, though its side-scrolling shooter and stark black-fronted colour palette look to be backed by more complex RPG systems.
- While you may have been cheered by the announcement of Don’t Starve Elsewhere, if you’re looking for an actually cheery survival game, all the deserted islanders in Oceaneers look much happier than Klei’s Tim Burton-styled survivors. Plus, they wear cute hats.
- As Edwin wrote recently, Moves Of The Diamond Hand is “the grander follow-up to Betrayal At Club Low, which Alice O (RPS in peace) called “a delicious snack-sized espionage RPG””. I was tempted to try a deeper layer of quoting, but I’ll leave that to someone citing this entry in The Maw.
Tuesday 14th April
- In development since 2018, Replaced is a 2.5D platformer set in a post-nuclear war US. Mark played the demo and while he liked the atmosphere, he also ran into quite a few bugs (not the cockroach kind).
- Windrose puts you in the salt-encrusted and waterlogged boots of a co-op survival-gaming pirate. Sail seas, swash buckles, and furl and unfurl sails at your leisure.
- A Storied Life: Tabitha runs with the storytelling mechanics of Unpacking. Though, instead of moving someone into a home, you’re parceling up the belongings of someone who’s recently passed. A Gamescom demo left James intrigued but uneasy.
- Sequel to Regions Of Ruin, Regions of Ruin: Runegate expands the sidescrolling RTS formula established by Kingdom with much more developed combat and, well, Dwarves.
- I shouldn’t be as easily swayed by a marketing line, but Dosa Divas ‘cook meals, fight corpos’ is a catchy line. There’s mech-piloting and turn-based RPG battles which is enough to get me interested.
Wednesday 15th April
- Maybe it’s just because of our recent Clive Barker’s Undying feature, but there’s something wonderfully ’00s about Blood Reaver. It’s a demonic horde shooter, and likely has more in common with Call of Duty Zombies, but I’ll take any opportunity to point people to the Clive Barker piece.
- Don’t Lose Aggro turns MMO raids into a singleplayer game where your only role is to draw the attention of the enemy while your AI-controlled team whittle down the big bad.
Thursday 16th April
- Looking like Doom seen through a pair of official Cuphead-o-vision glasses, Mouse: P.I. For Hire is a first-person shooter drizzled in the aesthetic of the Golden Age of American animation.
- If the mention of Cuphead has put you in the mood for a shooter with a more side-scrolling bent then ZPF may suit your fancy. It’s colourful, stuffed with bullets, and looks like a lost Sega Mega Drive game that you found while clearing out the attic.
- However, if all this talk of shooting has raised your hackles, then narrative game Opus Prism might soothe your soul. Play a photographer travelling through a strange world with a girl who’s lost her memories.
- Smash It Wild is turn-based tactical volleyball played by super-powered animals. I am immediately sold and will try to get some demo impressions together later this week.
- Sintopia is a fusion of two management games. Its surface world is a hands-off Black & White style god game where little people go about living, dying, and most importantly sinning. The lower world is your hands-on domain where you create production lines of sin-cleanising demon-run absolution stations where you earn points for wiping sinners clean before reincarnating them. Impressions, again, coming later this week.
- Largely included to celebrate McIlroy’s consecutive Masters win, Under Par Golf Architect is a management game where you build and run a golf course.
- Phew, nearly through Thursday. Scriptorium: Master of Manuscripts (pictured) blends the monkish medieval setting of Pentiment with the ’90s art games like Magic Theatre. Basically, use customisable stamps to make your own illuminated manuscripts.
Friday 17th April
- Finally, on Friday, we have Pragmata, a game Edwin’s played and describes as “a slick thinking girl’s shooter and a gratifyingly bright and clicky piece of lunar set dressing, with shattering robot enemies that put me wistfully in mind of Binary Domain.”
As to what the team are up to. I’ve ambitiously set myself the target of writing three preview pieces and a review this week, so we’ll see how that goes. Mark has got his hands on a gear stick he’s putting through its paces. James has got his hands on a cyborg and is putting that through its paces. And Edwin shall be returning from his long hike with chiselled calves.
Please follow and like us:
