Gibbous: A Cthulhu Adventure (Developer: Stuck In Attic) [Nindie Choice] - I’m pretty much always a sucker for the classic noir detective style, and when a game instead chooses to skewer it a bit with humor as well it tends to make me laugh. This point-and-click style adventure is very much in the vein of the classics from the likes of LucasArts, though as always that comes with some baggage in the form of some puzzle moments that will make you seriously consider hitting an online walkthrough. The key here though is definitely the humor that comes through in some clever dialogue and some truly odd situations, and that’s backed up by what’s generally terrific hand-drawn art. If you’re an adventure fan, this title should be satisfying.
Nuts (Publisher: Noodlecake) - With a focus on the mischievous little
woodland creatures, the squirrels, this is a pretty unique adventure you’ll
undertake as a wildlife observer of sorts. With pretty well no introduction
you’ll need to follow your instincts and meander a bit to find your mobile
research station, get everything running, and get caught up with your
scientist in charge via phone. At times what you’re expected to do, or
precisely how, can be a bit unclear and require a bit of trial and error
experimentation to satisfy precisely what the game is looking for in order for
you to progress but it typically isn’t an unreasonable effort to work out what
you’ve been doing wrong, even if you were pretty much doing the right thing
all along. The pacing is pretty slow, but the aesthetics and pretty carefree
style of play may be appealing to people looking for something more mellow and
periodically amusing, though a wrinkle here and there in the story help deepen
the intrigue as well.
The Unexpected Quest (Developer: Rionix) - Looking and often feeling
like a game made in an earlier and simpler era, The Unexpected Quest would
best be characterized as a very simple and watered-down RTS title. The
fact that it has come from the mobile space makes that a bit easier to
understand though. This is a game all about managing your resources,
constantly checking back and clicking to get your workers to pick up supplies
of various kinds, constructing buildings, and being sure to have the proper
units and upgrades necessary to progress. The thing is, there’s very little
strategy at play aside from perhaps being more efficient to save your time,
and that makes your successes generally unsurprising and lacking in
excitement. Perhaps if you’re a newbie to gaming or at least the real-time strategy
genre The Unexpected Quest may be a good way to get your feet wet with the
genre, anyone with even a moderate level of experience in the genre in general
will likely find this to be a slog though.
Loot Hero DX (Developer: VaragtP Studios) - Games aren’t always about
high-stress situations and challenges, sometimes you’re just looking for a way
to kill some time while not having to expend a great number of brain cells or
substantial effort. Loot Hero DX is a game that satisfies that urge. There’s
not much to know, you’ll simply continue to move right and left, auto-fighting
enemies and generally plowing through them as long as you keep doubling back
to amass more loot for upgrades and level your powers up. Unfortunately,
that’s really about all there is to it. You’ll only die if you push yourself
too fast too soon, but as long as you keep going back and forth every
checkpoint or so and keep leveling you’ll always be sure to win even against
the game’s sometimes hulking bosses. Don’t expect much and you shouldn’t be
too disappointed.
Frodoric the Driver (Developer: Projects from Basement) - OK, so in the
indie space there’s gotten to be a pretty large gap between experienced but
still small teams of developers toiling together and individual and somewhat
green developers going solo. Frodoric the Driver is unfortunately very much
the product of the latter. I was a bit intrigued by its visual similarities in
screen shots to the classic arcade game Spy Hunter but all hope flew straight
out the window in the first 30 seconds. This is a very bare bones offering
with little in the way of gameplay, polish, or fun and even with a deep cut
sale it likely won’t be worth the purchase for anyone.