Indie Video Game Round-Up #4 - TRIGON: SPACE STORY, SEA OF THIEVES, STARSHIP TROOPERS: EXTERMINATION, and More
It’s a new week which means it’s time to look at some of the news about some indie video games. There’s quite a bit to go through, but let us know if we miss anything or which news you’re most excited about in the comments.
First, Other Ocean shadowdropped an update for Project Winter. The update completely reworked the Traitor role, added two new sub-roles, and added holiday-themed breakables for events. Project Winter is an 8-person social deception survival game and the new Traitor role is designed to encourage more “Wolf in Sheep’s clothing” strategies as you gain buffs from sabotaging, trapping, stealing, and more. The new sub-roles are the Immune who is fully unaffected by chaotic global events and the Necromancer which is a version of the Traitor that can revive dead players. You can play Project Winter now on Nintendo Switch, PC, PS4, PS5, and Xbox (affiliate link).
The development team 24 Entertainment recently dropped a brief documentary reflecting on their hit game Naraka: Bladepoint. There is a lot for fans of the game to enjoy and learn. From the fact it was inspired by Quake III to the dramatic makeover of Viper Ning and more. You can enjoy the documentary here.
If you enjoy the 2.5D fighting game Guilty Gear -Strive-, you’ll probably be excited about the new character release. Last week, Sin Kiske joined the roster as part of Season Pass 2 alongside Bridget and 2 yet to be announced characters. Sin uses a flag as his weapon to reach far away opponents. If you buy the season pass you’ll get access to all four characters, two battle stages to be released later and the Additional Color Pack #2.
As the child of Ky Kiske (Allied King of Illyria) and Dizzy (a half-Gear), Sin is one-quarter Gear and was entrusted to Sol by Ky as a child to avoid unwanted attention due to his incredible rate of growth caused by his Gear blood.
The spacefaring game Trigon: Space Story also got a massive update recently. Gameforge has pushed out an update that has fully localized the game in Italian, fixes, technical updates, and a ton of new content. On the technical side, you can now enjoy improved visuals and the choice of utilizing MSAA, FXAA, and TAA. There are also new enemies and locations to engage with. Here’s a list of updated features:
Updated statistics window
Added a pop-up to the “Continue” button in the main menu as well as the in-game menu with information about the current run, such as difficulty setting, chapter, mode, etc.
The ability to change the order of units in the list on the left
The option to skip cutscenes
Improved explosion visuals
A new alert with a countdown has been added for enemies using a teleporter
Alerts: weight and color depends on criticals and importance
At the Trigon location in battles with clones, the correct portraits of captains are now updated
In the encyclopedia in the player’s ships section, ships no longer overlap each other
The ability to throw the captain overboard has been removed
When a unit is selected, the mouse cursor now changes
Players can now close the ability selection window when leveling up, allowing them to see what abilities their ships and other units already have
The trading station now allows items to be purchased in bundles of five
Improved the crosshair cursor UI
Pop-ups for guns, drones and shells are now unified, displaying the same number of lines for ease of comparison
Added effects when upgrading or buying a system
When saving the positions of units and returning units to the saved positions, arrows are now temporarily shown in the places of these positions, as when giving a unit an order to move
In the unit’s pop-up, the current active passive ability is now highlighted in orange with a triangle next to it
If you enjoy VR, Vertigo Games announced a new full body VR adventure based on the 2021 PC VR Game of the Year, After the Fall. The new title is After the Fall – LB VR Edition will utilize location based entertainment (LBE) mixed with co-location play to allow up to 4 players to play together in a single space using full-body tracking and physical, free-roam movement. That means that the game will utilize your real-life movements to traverse LA’s frozen urban wasteland with three of your friends in the same physical space.
Rare’s Sea of Thieves launched Season 8 for all to play on PC and Xbox (affiliate link) including Xbox Game Pass (affiliate link). In the new season, players can now engage in PvP ship-to-ship combat on demand, declare loyalty for one of two Factions, and more.
If you like physical games for classic video game consoles, Retro-Bit has got some goodies for you to enjoy. From now through December 27, you can pre-order Gley Lancer on the SEGA Genesis & Mega Drive (Castlemania Games, Limited Run, Nedgame, Xtralife) and Battletoads & Double Dragon on the SNES (Castlemania Games, Limited Run, Nedgame, Xtralife). The games cost $54.99 each, but look absolutely amazing to play.
11 bit studios released a new trailer for The Invincible from Starward Industries. The trailer gives you a brief look at the life you’ll encounter on Regis III. The Invincible is set to release in 2023 on PC via Steam.
You are Yasna, a highly qualified astrobiologist sent on a scientific mission to discover what lies on the dusty surface of the uncharted, eerie planet, Regis III. When your crew disappears, things quickly get out of hand and the mind-boggling scientific phenomena that you experience throughout the course of your journey will bend your understanding of the difference between life and death, and force you to rethink humankind's position as a pinnacle of evolution.
Game Boy and Game Boy Color fans can be excited for a new game, too! The Retro Room Games launched Magic and Legend: Time Knights on both handhelds for $42.99. It is a new action platformer featuring five unique levels, characters with unique abilities, and more. The game comes on a physical cartridge in a box similar to original games for the handholds and even includes a fully detailed manual.
The team at Cultivation Studio are working on a new turn-based card battler called Ragnarok: Fallen Legends. This game offers 2v2 PvP, solo roguelike, and 6-player modes. In a match, both players use a shared deck which definitely sounds like an interesting approach. Players will enjoy hand-drawn characters based on 24 gods/goddesses and 24 mythical creatures from various mythos and a demo is set to release soon so that you can give it a spin and add it to your Steam wishlist.
Ziggurat Interactive is bringing a Dreamcast era franchise back: Slave Zero. The new game is Slave Zero X and set to release on PC via Steam in 2023. The hack-n-slash game is being written by Miles Luna (RWBY) and will feature the voice talent of Griffin Burns (Attack on Titan) and Jordan Reynolds (The Seven Deadly Sins) as Shou and Atavaka respectively.
The newest title in the classic Dreamcast Slave Zero™ franchise will bring a whole new side-scrolling hack-n-slash experience to fans of the original game. A satisfyingly punishing game, Slave Zero X sees players donning a death-dealing biosuit to do battle against the violent forces of the tyrannical SovKhan. Featuring multiple gameplay modes and a variety of futuristic 2.5D dystopian urban levels to battle through, players will string together brutal combos and fight through waves of genetically enhanced biopunk opponents — all to the tune of a gnarly synth soundtrack.
Meanwhile, Offworld Industries and Sony Pictures Consumer Products revealed Starship Troopers: Extermination. This is a 12-player squad-based cooperative FPS based on the cult classic film from 1997. The game will hit Steam Early Access on PC in 2023 and features three playable classes, five unique bug types, a class progression system, large-scale battles, and more. This game sounds like something that people are going to love.
Starship Troopers: Extermination puts players on the far-off front lines in an all-out assault against the Arachnid menace. Squad up as a Trooper in the Deep Space Vanguard, an elite Special Forces group within the Mobile Infantry. And get ready to stomp some Bug because no Trooper will ever stand alone as they line up shoulder-to-shoulder with their fellow Vanguards—trusty Morita Assault Rifles in hand—to battle against hordes of bloodthirsty insectoid aliens on the hostile surface of the planet Valaka.
Work together to complete objectives, acquire resources, build and defend your base of operations, and then escape to the extraction point together. The battle will be intense but, as hardened warriors standing for all of humanity and the United Citizen Federation, leave no inch of ground safe for the Arachnids!
Suit up and ship out, Troopers! After all, the only good Bug is a dead Bug!