Andre's Indie Game Chosen Ones Issue #9
Issue #9 features Fights in Tight Spaces, Deeeer Simulator, Century: Age of Ashes, Fight Knight, Tunnel of Doom, Wartales, Adventure Light, Last Epoch, Bravery Network Online
Welcome to Issue #9 of Andre’s Indie Game Chosen Ones!
This is a reminder that anything below that is underlined is a clickable link.
Not every section will be included in every issue. My Indie Game Discovery Roundup will always be included! This is explained in the About section.
Enjoy the issue!
Indie Game Discovery Roundup #58
Fights in Tight Spaces
(PC, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One)
Fights in Tight Spaces, developed by Ground Shatter, is a deck building turn-based tactics game. I played this back in February when it launched into Steam Early Access and really enjoyed it. The overall setup of how you progress is similar to Slay The Spire, as you choose your path and upgrade your deck’s cards to become more powerful. Maneuvering within tight spaces to avoid taking hits and creating good spacing to deliver hits is what most of the gameplay is all about. This version 1.0 release kind of snuck up on me out of nowhere, but I expect to play more of it before I put together my favorite games of 2021 list. If you like tactics games and deck building, don’t overlook this.
Release Date: December 2, 2021 (OUT NOW)
Fight in Tight Spaces on Steam
DEEEER Simulator: Your Average Everyday Deer Game
(PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Xbox Game Pass)
Deeeer Simulator, developed by Gibier Games, is a game I sort of wrote off just reading the name because there are so many simulator franchise games out there being released with minimal creativity. This one is different. The visual style certainly helps to make this wacky game more appealing. In this experience you control a deer that can move around and destroy the town. I recommend watching the trailer to get a better idea of the wackiness in this game.
Release Date: November 25, 2021 (OUT NOW)
Deeeer Simulator on Steam
Deeeer Simulator Launch Trailer
Century: Age of Ashes
(PC)
Century: Age of Ashes, developed by Playwing, is a free-to-play multiplayer dragon battle game. I’m usually somewhat cautious to take new multiplayer experiences seriously because they are hard to sustain, but this one has a level of quality that makes it worthy of your attention. The dragon battle gameplay that I’ve seen is very exciting, especially because the game uses the third person view. The online gameplay features multiple battle modes ranging between 3v3 and 6v6 combat. You can also customize the look of your dragon. This is definitely flying under people’s radar, so don’t overlook it if this is your kind of game. I may try this one out myself before 2021 is over.
Release Date: December 2, 2021 (OUT NOW)
Century: Age of Ashes on Steam
Fight Knight
(PC)
Fight Knight, developed by Team Sorcerobe, is a game I’ve had my eye on for over a year. This first person dungeon drawler game had my attention once I saw the very unique and colorful visuals. The aesthetic of Fight Knight sets itself apart from many other games, but the gameplay of first person grid-based punching, dodging, blocking, and countering is the bigger appeal of the game. Having a nice soundtrack doesn’t hurt either. Don’t overlook this game If first person dungeon crawling is your genre.
Release Date: November 30, 2021 (OUT NOW)
Fight Knight on Steam
Tunnel of Doom
(PC)
Tunnel of Doom, developed by Antti Vaihia, is a rogue-lite tower defense game mixed with melee and ranged combat. There are plenty of tower defense games out there, but very few that involve controlling a character that takes part in destroying enemies also, especially from an isometric view. Another interesting aspect about this is you gather resources from room to room to help build your towers. This isn’t the most unique tower defense game, but one that is probably worth playing at some point.
Release Date: November 23 2021 (OUT NOW)
Tunnel of Doom on Steam
Tunnel of Doom Launch Trailer
Wartales Steam Early Access Report (Launch)
Disclosure: A copy of Wartales was provided for free.
Wartales, developed by Shiro Games, is an open world RPG set in a medieval times where you control a group of mercenaries and fight in turn-based tactics battles. I've played a bunch of games pre-launch to Steam Early Access, but this is the first time I've played a game where the game got updated to be better during the course of my playthrough. As of this writing, I've played around 30 hours of Wartales, but a good chunk of the beginning was me battling technical issues. Eventually it turned into a better experience and I was able to advance farther and quicker into the story.
Given that this game is in Steam Early Access, imperfection and gameplay mistakes are forgivable until it releases out of Steam Early Access to version 1.0. All that being said, the game has a very enjoyable and addicting foundation of a game that is extremely unique. You start your experience by selecting your starting group of four mercenaries that you'll be controlling across the world map and in tactics battles. You're given a bunch of set groups of different combinations of four classes to choose from among the warrior, brute, swordsman, ranger, spearman. and archer classes. Each choice has a destiny background that will be accompanied with stat changes that affect your interactions and decisions as you travel the world map. You also get to pick an advantage and disadvantage for your mercenaries that will affect your experience. I picked one that I felt would hurt me the least since this was my first playthrough.
The world map of Wartales is incredibly beautiful. As you control your mercenaries exploring the map you reveal new parts of the map and gain discovery points that add up to eventually receiving a knowledge point that can either be spent to give your mercenaries passive bonuses or learn new crafting recipes for a profession. The game doesn't really have a tutorial, so a lot of my time was spent trying to learn every system in the game on my own. There is a resource management aspect in Wartales that is probably going to make or break your enjoyment of the game. Every mercenary has a wage, plus there's a game clock that is constantly running that I feel is a bit too fast. Your mercenaries also have a stamina meter that determines when they need to rest. If you're in a town you can pay money at an inn to rest, but most likely you'll find yourself stranded in the world somewhere when that meter runs out. Luckily, you have a camp that can be deployed whenever and upgraded as you play the game. The basics of the camp is that you feed your mercenaries and pay them. If you don't pay them it affects their happiness meter and they can leave you! You can also be attacked while resting in dangerous areas.
What peaks my enjoyment of Wartales so far is the customization. Although you have a starting set of mercenaries you begin with, you can hire other mercenaries from different classes as you meet them using the money currency (knowns) and influence points gained by completing quest contracts or giving a resource to a wandering trader. Just remember that everyone you hire needs to be fed and paid. There are no 'random battles' except when resting in dangerous areas, so if you see a group of suspicious people or wild wolves/boars you can move away from them to avoid the encounter. The turn-based battles are done very well. From a visual perspective, the battle areas generally always fit where the battle is taking place. If you're in snow, the battle takes place in a snowy battlefield. Attention to detail like this takes this game to a higher level of quality. Before each battle you can move your mercenaries to the positions you want them in, like protecting your archers and putting your warriors closer to the enemies. What I really like is that there is no set order to use your mercenaries, but you have to use all of them once before you can use them again. The bottom left of the screen shows turn order and specific enemy turns, so that is pretty much what you'll use as your guide to manage your turns for victory. Every mercenary has special ability based on their weapon that can be used by spending Valour points that are replenished through resting. Plus, as you level up your mercenaries into specific subclasses you choose an ability that can gain a temporary Valour point in battle that disappears after battle. At level 3 you get to choose a subclass from a choice of three that comes with another ability.
After clocking 30 hours I was only scratching the surface of the second area. A lot of those hours were spent wasting time trying to learn the game and overcoming game crashes. Now that I know the game flow I expect to do better when I start fresh again. The game also has minigames when using certain professions and a 'Steal' mechanic when in NPC houses or markets. I definitely got vibes of an isometric version of Elder Scrolls with the ability to steal NPC items, in addition to all of the dialogue you encounter in the game. Your choices will matter in the story, but sometimes I felt backed into a corner because a lot of the choices required certain items that I didn't have at the time. Rather than stall my playthrough, I just went with whatever choice I could do at that moment. Once you complete the starting 'scenario' of story quests you'll be allowed to travel further into the map,
Wartales has a great foundation of a game. I'm not too thrilled about enemy level scaling and some of the game balance with certain abilities and skills, but all of these issues are expected. I also found myself saving and reloading because once a mercenary dies they are gone for good! The game does feel punishing in the very beginning. With the right changes in version 1.0, this will easily be included in my Game Hype Rankings for 2022 down the road.
Wartales just launched into Steam Early Access and currently estimates to take roughly 12 months to reach version 1.0.
My Version 1.0 Wishlist:
Add a save hotkey
Remove enemy level scaling
Slow the game clock
Wartales on Steam
Wartales Steam Early Access Release Trailer
Kickstarter Spotlight: Adventure Light
Adventure Light, developed by Room 106, is selected for my Kickstarter Spotlight because I really like the overall visual presentation and dark silhouette style of this puzzle game. It does remind me of Limbo, a puzzle game from ten years ago. If you like puzzle games don’t just take my word for it, judge for yourself. They have a demo on their Steam page that I will eventually play.
Check Out Adventure Light on Kickstarter
As of this Writing: $1,481 pledged of $5,000 goal
ENDS Sat, December 18 2021 9:44 AM EST.
Disclaimer: This is not an endorsement of the Kickstarter, nor am I affiliated with the developers. Pledge at your own risk.
Trailer Impressions
Last Epoch
Last Epoch Early Access Trailer
Last Epoch is a game I’ve been following for quite some time. I’m a big fan of dungeon crawling ARPG games, so I’m waiting for this to release into version 1.0 before I devote my playing time. The big selling point for this game is that each skill has its own skill tree for deep customization. The visuals aren’t bad either. I would say the graphics are almost on par with Path of Exile, which is good enough for me. I’ll be looking forward to this in 2022 and so should you!
Release Date: 2022 (PC)
Last Epoch on Steam
Bravery Network Online
Bravery Network Online Early Access Launch Trailer
Bravery Network Online is a game I played the demo of a year ago. The trailer does a good job of showing what the game is. Turn-based combat games seem to be on the rise in many genres. I’ve always wondered what a turn-based fighting game against another person would be like, and finally this game does that. I played against the CPU in my demo experience, but there is also an online matchmaking system in the game to play against other people. Bravery Network Online is very high on my list to play in 2022 when it gets out of Steam Early Access.
Release Date: 2022 (PC)
Bravery Network Online on Steam
Upcoming Content
What to Expect in Issue #10:
Indie Game Discovery Roundup (5 Games)
Kickstarter Spotlight
Trailer Impressions
Review Excerpt and Link: Wolfstride (PC)
Last Week I published Over 50 Game Recommendations. This list will be updated periodically and re-organized during the course of the next year. It’s also linked in the sidebar of the homepage. Bookmark it for the upcoming December Steam Sale.
I generally dislike covering new games in December, but a few of the games I had a lot of interest in are releasing so I couldn’t resist. Wolfstride Review (Excerpt & Link) in Issue #10 next week, plus I may have another new and last full review of 2021 in Issue #11 (two weeks).
Thanks for reading!
-Andre
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