Posts from ‘Highly Recommended’ Category
Natural Selection 2 (Build 194) – Gorilla
By: Alehkhs
On: February 2nd, 2012
The long-in-development indie FPS/RTS title Natural Selection 2 has reached an important milestone: The gorilla-like evolution for the alien team, the Onos, and the marines’ jetpack accessory (both of which were important facets of the original Half-Life mod that NS2 is the sequel to) are now in the game. These additions, along with a brand new map, “Mineshaft,” are just some of the over 100 new features, balances, and tweaks for this build, which is now available to all pre-order customers.
Check out the fantastic new trailer that shows just how far this project has come:
Dustforce
By: Derek Yu
On: January 22nd, 2012
The levels in Dustforce aren’t long or particularly difficult, but my progress has been really slow. This is due in no small part to the results screen, where, if you’re like me, you’ll likely spend an inordinate amount of time checking your ranking, checking your friends’ rankings, watching replays, and formulating plans to improve your run. Case in point, I probably replayed the tutorial level a dozen times alone before I was satisfied enough to move on to the rest of the game.
I’ve seen Dustforce compared to Super Meat Boy as an “ultra-hard platformer”, but the point of both games seems different. The challenge of Dustforce isn’t so much to beat each level as it is to beat them well, achieving S ranks in both completion (debris cleared) and finesse (number of deaths), and doing it as quickly as possible. This point is driven home by the climbing and dashing mechanics that are based around speed, and the fact that enemies end combos and slow you down, but never outright kill you. You also get keys for SS ranking that will unlock more levels in the hub world.
The controls feel great (gamepads supported) and the levels are designed well around the game’s purpose and your character’s moveset. Watch the replays of the highest scorers and you’ll see some amazing precision, but even with just a little practice you TOO can feel like a ninja! The graphics, which are stylistically too close to free Flash web games for my taste, nonetheless animate extremely fluidly and support the acrobatics nicely. No complaints about Terence Lee’s soothing soundtrack, though, especially “9-bit Expedition”, the song that plays during the tutorial.
Aside from a few interface issues I ran across, I’m having a wonderful time with Dustforce. It’s a great release to ring in the new year with.
TIGdb: Entry for Dustforce
Brogue
By: Derek Yu
On: January 15th, 2012
Brogue is a roguelike that’s been in active development since 2009. It’s unique in that it eschews all other attributes – dexterity, intelligence, charisma, wisdom, etc. – in favor of strength, which can only be gained through potions. Likewise, this single stat only determines one thing: whether or not you can wield better weapons and armor without incurring a penalty. Potions of strength are obviously important in Brogue, but so are scrolls of enchantment: enchanting items not only increases their power, but also reduces their strength requirements.
In a game like Nethack, for example, you’ll often encounter monsters and items that are similar to one another, like the four different types of short swords that only deal slight differences in damage. In Brogue, however, everything is much more distinct. Many monsters have unique attacks, like thieving monkeys or goblin conjurers that summon spectral blades to chase you. And it’s easy to tell whether a weapon or armor is better by simply looking at the strength requirement (although some types of equipment have special abilities, too, like hammers and spears which deal damage across multiple spaces).
Brogue is streamlined, and even though it sports ASCII graphics it reminds me of console roguelikes like Shiren the Wanderer, due to its intuitive interface (fully mouse-accessible) and simplified mechanics. It still manages to be challenging, but the challenge lies less in knowing trivia about the game than simply making smart decisions. The graphics are actually very pretty, too – Brogue’s dungeons are quite naturalistic and sport all kinds of colorful areas, from green-and-brown fungus forests to blue-and-purple sun-lit grottos. Even caustic gases and deadly wildfires look great as they spread slowly across the floor… just make sure you don’t get backed into a corner while you’re admiring them!
TIGdb: Entry for Brogue
Top Indie Games of 2011 (According to the TIGSource Forums)
By: Paul Eres
On: January 12th, 2012
I asked people what their personal favorite indie game releases of 2011 were in the forums; this is a compiled list. Each mention got one vote per person. This is a sequel to last year’s list. There were a lot of ties, so don’t comment asking what’s up with the numbers, like everyone did last year. See the full list under the jump.
1. Bastion
3. Terraria
Unity of Command
By: Derek Yu
On: January 3rd, 2012
Unity of Command nearly passed under my radar, which would have been a shame – even a casual strategy fan such as myself can tell that the game is something special. For one thing, long-time TIGSource readers may recognize the artist, Nenad Jalšovec, who created Rescue the Beagles and Ablation. Indeed, the artwork in Unity of Command is lovely – a far cry from the low-res pixel art of his previous games, the semi-iconographic style he employed here is much more detailed but nonetheless just as eye-catching and functional.
Set during the Eastern Front of World War 2, the game lets you play as either Germany or the Soviet Union in a campaign that includes the Battle of Stalingrad. You command at an operational level, with the campaign divided into scenarios where you control divisions of soldiers and earn prestige bonuses based on your performance. Supply lines are crucial to victory in each scenario – units quickly lose their effectiveness once they’re cut off. To emphasize this, Unity of Command lets you view supply easily and the AI, which has been praised by sites like The Wargamer, jumps on any chance to starve your army.
Alongside the campaign, UoC offers individual scenarios (including a tutorial), internet/hotseat multiplayer, and replays. It also comes with a 40-page PDF manual that is as well-put together as the rest of the package (just look at how much effort went into the cover art for this digital game!). With the manual, tutorial, and intuitive interface, even newbies can quickly get up to speed and start enjoying the more intricate aspects of the design.
TIGdb: Entry for Unity of Command
T-17 Tanky
By: Alehkhs
On: October 1st, 2011
As our column of tanks rushed down a hill towards an enemy column, one of my fellow tank commanders – apparently a raven wearing a top hat – screamed, “Kill them all!” That was the moment I decided that T-17 Tanky was a game for me.
T-17 Tanky is the first game by the one-man studio Preen Dog Interactive. The game sees two armies – the bird-populated country of Egalitaria and the rat-lead Crat Empire – warring against each other. While an actual campaign is still on the way, the game currently offers a custom battle option, which places the player in charge of a squad of tanks from Egalitaria and tasks them with destroying similar squads piloted by the Crats. In addition to standard heavy and light tanks, the player can add truck-mounted flack cannons, rocket artillery units, and even airplanes to the battlefield.
Similar to Kerbal Space Program, T-17 Tanky is charming in the fact that it has a very cartoony, very light aesthetic to it, yet goes deeper into the simulation field of gameplay than you would have suspected. Each vehicle has several weapon types to choose from, and can be damaged in various ways: tires and treads can be shot off, engines can be critically damaged, etc. There is a ballistics model and even a simple targeting computer, which the player calibrates for distance by clicking the middle mouse-button to “laze” the target.
Currently, T-17 Tanky is still very early in development and still a little rough around the edges, but there is a free demo available for download at the main site. The developer has also set up a funding page over on 8-Bit Funding, where you can pre-order the game and support its development.
Forget-Me-Not
By: Derek Yu
On: September 6th, 2011
Dropped into a randomly-generated maze reminiscent of the classic Pac-Man, players new to Forget-Me-Not will happily gobble “flowers” and shoot enemies for a few minutes before all manner of wacky creatures begin warping in – bombs, centipedes, replicating diamonds, etc. The enemies are not only harmful to the player, but also damage each other and the maze freely, adding to the chaotic feeling of the game. They can also rob you of the key, an important item that lets you unlock the level’s exit door and protects you from killing yourself with your own bullets as they pass from one side of the screen to the other (nothing’s worse than realizing you’re shooting yourself in the butt because some random beastie nabbed the key). Eventually, the screen goes black except for a small area around your character and a ghost chases you around until you get the heck out or die.
Dungeons of Dredmor Released
By: Alehkhs
On: July 13th, 2011
Dungeons of Dredmor (Windows, Mac, and soon Linux)
Released: July 13, 2011
Price: $5, on Steam
Gaslamp Games’ indie roguelike, Dungeons of Dredmor, has finally been released today and is currently available on Steam. With addictive gameplay and tons of replay value, it’s a steal at only $5.
A while back I gave my enthusiastic impressions of my time with the Dungeons of Dredmor beta. Changes have been made to the game since then (ensuring an even finer experience since I played) but if you’d like to hear what I thought back then, be sure to check out my preview.
Review – Wanderlust: Rebirth
By: Alehkhs
On: June 29th, 2011
Long in development, indie co-op RPG Wanderlust: Rebirth has finally been released. Available either as a single copy for yourself, or sold in discounted packs of up to four for groups of players, Wanderlust: Rebirth allows for the player and up to three co-op companions to choose from four varying character classes and play through both a ten-chapter story mode as well as a never-ending, ever-more difficult “Crawl” mode.
A few weeks ago, I posted that the game had entered an “open beta” stage, and since that time, the game has undergone several changes based on feedback from the beta. I’ve played Wanderlust: Rebirth recently and so have decided to post a review of my time in the game, so be sure to read on after the jump.
Infested Planet Beta
By: Derek Yu
On: June 23rd, 2011
The feeling of relief I had as I destroyed a particularly well-defended hive quickly evaporated when the aliens counterattacked me to the north. They had evolved a unit that could lay “mimic eggs” – the eggs exploded when your marines got close and released dangerous clones. With the help of this monster, the two flamethrowers I had on defense were getting overrun and I gave up two bases to pull back. I honestly thought it was a lost cause at that point, but carefully leap-frogging turrets turned out to be the perfect antidote to this new type of enemy, since they could fire on the eggs without triggering them. End result? A perilous victory that took the lives of 60-odd marines but also brought an end to nearly a hundred thousand horrifying xenos.
That battle was the hardest I’ve fought so far in Alex Vostrov’s Infested Planet, a spiritual sequel to his real-time strategy game Attack of the Paper Zombies. The highlight of IP, of course, is the alien enemy, which moves slowly but in large numbers, and adapts to you with a new upgrade each time you take over one of its hives. Build points that are gained after each capture can be spent on training marines and building turrets. Everything can be sold back at cost, so the key to success is to adapt with the aliens and maintain a nice containment on them as they grow more and more powerful. It ends up feeling a bit like a Tower Defense game, albeit one where you can actually counterattack and win.
Infested Planet was released yesterday as a public beta at $15, a 25% discount (35% if you enter the code “STARBEAR”). It’s a great game, and well-worth checking out. If you’re still unsure, read one of Alex Vostrov’s own battle reports, which lays out a Master-level engagement. It includes lots of nice screenshots to show off the vibrant visual design (courtesy of Mike & Greg‘s Greg Wohlwend).
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