Pictured above: Dead In Vinland
Last week was too light on releases to warrant an article, but now I’m back with another batch of new indie and AA releases that you may have missed. I’m not here to personally recommend any of these games, just to highlight some titles that stood out among the many releases that hit Steam on a weekly basis. Be sure to check out reviews and videos to find more information on each game.
PC
Skydance Interactive
Free-To-Play
PWND is a class-based arena shooter focused on fast, vertical combat that recently exited Early Access. Created by former developers from Treyarch, PWND‘s key mechanic is also where it gets its namesake from: humiliating your fresh kills. To score the maximum amount of points, you’ll need to successfully perform a victory dance on your disabled foes as they slowly bleed out. You are completely defenseless while performing your victory dance, so a big part of PWND‘s teamplay comes from defending players that are performing PWNs, or trying to interrupt an enemy’s PWN to save your teammate from humiliation. PWND‘s business model is based around acquiring new outfits and other cosmetic items to customize your character’s appearance.
PC, PS4, Xbox One
JW, Kitty, Jukio, Dom
$9.99
Minit is a new adventure game developed as a collaboration effort between four famous indie devs, and published by Devolver Digital. This minimalist adventure game is loosely inspired by the older Zelda titles, especially the time aspects of Majora’s Mask. You explore the game world in 60 second chunks, finding new areas, foes, and secrets during each interval. The goal is eventually break the unfortunate curse that causes each day to last only one minute at a time.
Loyalty and Blood: Viktor Origins
PC
Shorebound Studios
$9.99
Loyalty and Blood is the prequel to Viktor, a side-scrolling shooter that originally released back in 2014. The prequel is set several years before the original, and follows the origin story of Viktor as he climbs through the ranks of The Legion. The phase shift mechanic returns, allowing you to quickly dodge through enemies and projectiles alike. Unlock an arsenal of 40 upgradable weapons across 90 missions, bounty hunter challenge levels, and a New Game+ mode.
PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One
Massive Monster
$14.99
The Adventure Pals is a colorful and quirky 2D platformer with light RPG elements. Your birthday bash is ruined when the maniacal Mr. B dad-naps your father as part of his devious plan to turn old people into an army of hotdogs. Join your pal Sparkles the Giraffe on an adventure through five themed worlds full of traps, enemies, and treasure. Level up by defeating enemies to improve your abilities and learn new skills. The Adventure Pals can be played alone or with a friend via local co-op.
PC
CCCP
$19.99
Dead In Vinland is a survival management game with RPG-style character progression and turn-based battles. Eirik and his family are the only known survivors of a Viking expedition to an unknown land, and have found themselves stranded on a mysterious island. Manage the physical and mental health of your family, build up your camp, explore the island, and interact with other people stranded on the island. Eventually you’ll find yourself controlling a full community of survivors, each with their own character quirks and personalities that can cause tensions within the group. Dead In Vinland promises a massive story with over 150,000 words of dialog and branching paths, as well as three difficulty settings designed to cater to gamers of all skill types.
PC
Event Horizon
$24.99
Finally we come to Tower of Time, a party-based tactical dungeon crawler RPG that just released from Early Access. Create a party from seven flexible character classes and embark on a journey to explore the Tower of Time, a mysterious structure that blends magic and ancient technology to create a world where the normal laws of physics no longer apply. Use the game’s “Arrow Time” mechanic to slow time to a crawl so you can react to new threats and queue up orders to your party, and manipulate the bizarre gravity of the Tower to perform superhuman feats of strength and agility. In another interesting twist for the genre, many of the game’s spells and abilities can be “drawn” through a gesture-based system to place effects exactly how you want them. Tower of Time touts over 50 hours of content, with five difficulty settings, branching paths, and an alignment system for additional replayability.
Which of these games caught your attention?
