Whilst the summer has some people heading outside and enjoying the hot weather. There are just too many indies for us to brave the outside world. So what do we have on offer this week? Well it is quite the collection!
Exophobia
(words by Stu)
Remember when you used to wake up and realise your crashed spaceship was infested with aliens. Pfft. Mondays, am I right?
Battling the intruders is your task in this DOOM-inspired boomer shooter: a ‘push this to open that door over the other side of the map’ old schooler with a slight (but interesting) Metroidvania layer to it. It’s a curio hybrid, with no vertical look and little in the way of verticality full stop, but puzzles exist a-plenty.
Using a mostly two-tone colour palette and boxing you into claustrophobic environments makes things sweaty at times, and the xeno intruders love to keep you on your toes. Thankfully you’re armed with a decent weapon set and whilst challenging, combat is balanced. No hit scanning here, thank goodness.
OK, so the map is a tad simplistic and where you need to go next – within the large, multi-tiered ship – can be wilfully obtuse at times, but for the large part this is a thoughtfully structured retro FPS that asks, “what if Wolfenstein but Samus Aran?” Turns out, that’s a pretty good question to have asked.
Roots of Yggdrasil
I love it when an unexpected gem arrives and Roots of Yggdrasil (I am pronouncing this as Yegg Dray Seal) is exactly one of those unexpected gems.
It is part city builder, part roguelike, part deck-builder Which has a fair bit in common with the amazing Against The Storm. In that, yes there is a longer term progression to it, but the game is split into smaller areas that reward clever and considered play.
Let me step back a second. The setup is that there is a thing that happens that is causing a world ending event and you are in a loop with the aim of surviving and maybe bringing an end to the decestation. Y’know, the usual Tuesday.
You do that by trying to build up your ‘home world’ of sorts known as The Holt, whilst repeatedly travelling to other islands/worlds to get the resources you need. Each area you visit will have a set of tasks that you need to complete. The better you do the more resources you escape with.
However, you are working to a turn limit. Because a force known as the Ginnungagap is closing in and if it reaches your ship and devours you, then it is game over and you need to start again. Whilst you can escape at any time, you must have completed at least a certain number of objective to fuel your ship to be able to escape.
Objectives are done by drawing cards from a deck that represent things like population, might, resources, etc. You build settlements, armies, resource gathers by placing down the items that come from the cards. The skill comes from building a deck that allows you to draw the best cards to give you the best chance of meeting the objectives.
Whilst it may sound complicated to explain because there are numerous smaller parts to the game, the actual experience is so smooth. Within about 10 minutes of playing I understood the core concept and was able to experiment, do a bit of trial and error, lose many times over, get the odd win and discover more and more of the game.
In fact last night I went to play for a few minutes, just so I could make a couple of notes and ended upo losing 4 hours to it. Such was my enjoyment. If you liked something such as Against the Storm, or you have an interest in deck or city builders then picking this up is a no brainier. Especially as it runns perfectly on Steam Deck too.
The Crush House
Oh my, Oh my! The Crush House was one of those games from the The Summer Showcase and Steam Next Fest that I was really looking forward to. Unfortunately though, it is one of those games where I want to talk about it, but give nothing away.
As someone who cannot abide Big Brother, Love Island or anything like that, I was unsure how I would feel about a game that pretty much takes its cues from those shows. Yet the trailers and the demo did enough to allay those worries.
Without giving anything away, the story is excellent and it goes places, really playing with the formula of the aforementioned shows in some really interesting ways.
The basic premise is though you are hired to film within the Crush House, by following the contestants and giving the viewers what they want to see. Whether it be drama with asrgments, blossoming relationships, hell even product placement and arty shots. You need to keep whatever audience is watching on the day happy by working to thier comments.
You raise money by running ads as the right time, that again are tailored to the audience watching so you can raise money to expand and buy things that will grow the audience even further.
Whilst the initial parts of the game are fairly straight forward and linear, it does open up the longer you play and discover there are things to discover, by maybe not sticking to the rules, or by exploring, among other things. It does a great job of feeding your curiosity and in truth shiones a light on the voyeuristic nature of reality TV.
I did think The Crush House would be more satirical and a commentary on the world than what it actually is, but that is to its benefit, as for me it walks the line between being a fun game and said satire pretty well.
Highly recommended and again run wonderfully well on the Steam Deck.
