Further, a cyberpunk retro puzzle platformer


Alright, got rid of another exam. Now, with much less weight on my shoulder and a mind way more clear I'm about to present a game that has been recently released as a result of the effort of five students from the Turku University of Applied Sciences. This is Further, a game that despite the initial look, has proven to be an extremely complex one in regards of the gameplay - and I'm not saying that this is a hard game, don't get me wrong, it's just a huge variety of concept wonderfully merged together.

The game is developed in Java, it's free, and offers 20 levels of puzzle solving while performing millimetric jumps that need some high quality nerves of steel. Aside usual levers to activate and keycards to obtain that are just the too typical to spend words on them, I'd like to focus on the cyberpunk-ish  scenario in which the game evolves. In fact, on top of having having a main character that's halfway between a human and a sort of  robot, throughout the whole experience you'll have to deal with the battery that - I suspect - keeps you alive, acquiring batteries along the way is going to be your main trouble as you move forward, because once the battery bar will exhaust, there won't be any checkpoint. You got that right, die once and you have to restart the level from the very beginning, yes, Further is essentially a cruel platformer that doesn't forgive mistakes. 

And if there has to be one thing that actually kept me going through the first tutorial-like levels, - which is where I quit most of the games that I find - that would be nothing but the rather creepy melody played in the background, that type of mixture between a pretty catchy song and an undefined background noise that I couldn't really explain any better than this. Further probably lacks of outstanding graphics to completely hit the next level, it's entertaining, cute looking and clever, but not exactly as good as it appears. It sure has its own great moments, but in the end of the day, it gets quite repetitive. I perfectly understand that the idea of bringing to life an electromagnetic storm that will raid the whole map to end up by killing you may seem appealing, but when there's just a few safe points and the they happen way too often you start to freak out for real.

Anyhow, trying this game can't harm anyone, it's free, and can be downloaded on GameJolt, if you appreciate overwhelming atmospheres because of God only knows why, Further is the best you can find among the recent titles, good luck!
Posted by Luca Colosso
Labels: ,

Pizza Delivery updated to 0.2, but is more like 2.0


Remember when we first stumbled upon Pizza Delivery? Well, Shahabaz Khan has recently released the new 0.2 version, and with undeniable surprise, I played through a whole new interactive fiction. The story has been majorly revisited, the graphics received an insane enhancement and I'm glad to say that sparkle of innovation that I had seen back in the days, now it has exploded, turning the good idea into an actual horrific game.

Despite the premise being identical to the previous version, our pizza boy this time is suffering from achluophobia - the fear of the darkness - so, while you'll be always invited to come inside by the girl who ordered your goods whereas she looks for her wallet upstairs, the unexpected power cut will slowly drive our main character in a state of hallucination because of his disease. The confused graphics associated with your altered mind will kick in, and from that point, stay sure that you can't trust any inanimate or living entities around the much more wide house. In addition, you won't be dealing with nonsense floating corpses and all the other previous things that really felt out of place, instead, this time you'll dive in a story that is much more realistically structured, other than guaranteeing at least 10 minutes of tense gameplay.

But don't misunderstand me, I'm not trying to say that Pizza Delivery has finally become the definitive horror game that is supposed to finally oust Slender from its yet unclaimed throne. Most of the dialogues are still displayed only textually with the standard Unity output box - horrendous to say the least - and there are an awfully huge number of graphic glitches but still, I had the goose bumps from the beginning to the end regardless. In short, the atmosphere is completely nailed, but the visuals overall still need to be polished. Needless to say that this anyway is a great step forward through the development of Pizza Delivery, now I demand more!

Download Pizza Delivery 0.2 for free from Shahabaz Khan Production's official site, stay calm, and rush into this completely overhauled horror game! Windows and Mac links can be found right below the image.
Posted by Luca Colosso
Labels: , ,

Pick from the past: Au Sable, a creepy platformer


Oh, I remember back when I was just moving my first steps through the indie gaming along with my fresh account of TIGSource, - to which I have no longer access - it was all new by that time, and I can't believe that at least 4 years have passed since I got into this magical land made of games that the press was totally ignoring. Most importantly, I perfectly recall that feeling of being literally astounded by the fact that a huge portion of them were completely free, just like Au Sable, developed and released in 2009.

The game is a pixelated 2D platformer that on top of combining action elements and puzzles delightfully, shines for its incredibly creepy essence. With no background story, you're casted in a glitchy dark world where you'll be controlling a mysterious nimble redhead girl, whom has a pretty peculiar aspect that I'm sure it's something you would undoubtedly notice if she was right in front of you. The unnamed character, in fact, has a sort of demonic eyes that seem to be connected to her by an invisible chain and as a result, the two unidentified objects will float right behind the girl following continuously her path - with just a little delay though. But that's not another nonsense type of thing just to make the whole game slightly more unsettling, they're the only ones that can interact with a certain kind of buttons, and believe me, sometimes it will be a real challenge to calibrate the jump to make them hover on the needed trigger.

Despite the well polished mechanics, Au Sable has also a lot of room for more unexpected shifts, but you'll eventually get used to experience creepy cinematics where malformed creatures and threatening phrases are playing the main role. In addition, a pounding soundtrack that doesn't really consists of songs as we are used to define is what ultimately makes Au Sable a very well executed disturbing game - see, there were these sort of games way before than Slender.

If I only knew by that time that Game Maker was enough to create such intense experiences, who knows, I might have been a developer nowadays. Anyway, I feel like I also should make clear that I haven't finished the game, so, I don't really know how much time can it take. But given the premises, I hope it's long enough to satisfy my need of speeding through pools of deadly lava and enemies.

Au Sable can be downloaded for free from this TIGSource post, which is what you're all going to do now, right? Have fun!
Posted by Luca Colosso
Labels: ,

Surviving in Survivor Squad


Survivor Squad, product of Endless Loop Studios, is a zombie apocalypse lover's dream. The game sends you into hostile environments full of mutants and walkers with 1-4 squad members. If the squadmates die, then that's it: they're dead. Yes, this game does feature permadeath of it's randomly generated characters. The game was a blast and I give it a full recommendation.

You view the maps from a top down perspective, and you choose where to go from a waypoint-based map. However, you can only see what the survivor's have in their line of sight. There are some items that cover more area (sensors, cameras, etc), but it seems like zombies can just appear out of thin air sometimes. 

While you are limited to 4 members in a squad, you can have more members leftover, like a reserve guard. These guys come in handy, as sometimes your bases will be attacked by a horde. This isn't a big deal at first, but the game becomes noticeably more difficult as the game progresses. Objectives like alarms, spawners, bosses start to become more prevalent and need to be dealt with quickly. Reloading can be deadly in these situations, but luckily ammo is infinite. While normally I don't have much love for infinite ammo in a survival game, the mechanic tends to work with Survivor Squad, especially considering that one has to deal with up to 100 zombies, all alerted to your position. 

Some minor downsides to the game are the music and the atmosphere. The music changes to a loud, rock-like noise whenever you fight a zombie, then quickly fades away if you don't kill another in short order. The music itself is more of an annoyance, so eventually I just muted it. The game provides visual cues when combat is going on, so it wasn't needed for that extra alert. The atmosphere, while good, lacks a somewhat confusing part: there are no women. None at all. There aren't any female survivors or walkers (although it's hard to tell walkers from each other) and it seems a little odd. The game is still in development though, so maybe it has yet to be added. The good news is that they'll probably have multiple voice actors, because each male seems to have a different voice. They're all the same 1 or 2 word responses, but it helps identify the characters from each other.

Survivor Squad is $8.99 on Desura, or DRM free on their site for the same price. The game also has a demo and is on Steam Greenlight, so if you enjoy the game then give it an upvote! We're looking forward to see what the developers add to the game next!
Posted by Tyler Rowe
Labels: ,

Amnesia: Machine for Pigs dev website gets an update, and a new song!


And it gave me the heebie jeebies. Yes, the game's website has received a minor update, adding a new song from the game. The song itself is quite unsettling, and it gives you an idea of how fast you're going to be trying to run through haunted hallways. I recommend going to the gym, hopping on a treadmill, and popping "Mors Praematura" in. Your imagination will do the rest.

 Amnesia: Machine for Pigs is still planned for Summer 2013, after the unfortunate delay (boo!) a week ago. However, it looks like they're sticking to it, and hopefully this minor update will mean more teasers will be on the way up to release day.

 Developer's Site: http://thechineseroom.co.uk/games/amnesia-a-machine-for-pigs/
New Official Game Site: http://aamfp.com/
Posted by Tyler Rowe
Labels: ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)
Return top