The second month of the Summer Holidays is in! August is no less packed with excellent games than the previous months. It amuses me to hear people in the AAA side of the gaming industry saying that summer is a dry season for gaming... Seems to me they should look into Indies to find a month filled with promising titles. So without further ado, let's check out five excellent games that I either played the demos of and got excited... or they look promising to me on the surface.
THANK GOODNESS YOU'RE HERE | Release Date: 1st August
They call it a Slapformer. That is a slapstick-driven platformer. Clever. The game is packed with charm to the brim, with excellent, fun art style and detailed environments with hilarious details. It's very British, to the very core, in the same way, Monty Python is British - the humour, the voice acting, the odd-jobs... It's all whacky in the best possible meaning of the word. The tiny town of Barnsworth presents itself through its inhabitants, all a little screwy in their noodles. You are a traveling salesman who has the (mis)fortune to visit this town and meet all the people who are more than happy to use you in their goofy tasks. Leave your mark on the town, and cause a bit of chaos. Did I mention that for some reason unknown you're very, very tiny? Barnsworth must be a town of giants! Or you never got a chance to grow up into a big, adult suit...
The game for me has this UNTITLED GOOSE GAME vibe, where you're going from scene to scene to unleash a little comedy. Here it might be more scripted, more having a written scenario to unfold in some comedic fashion, but the energy is there... And I am here for it.
CLOSER THE DISTANCE | Release Date: 2nd August
I already briefly talked about this game in a previous Demo Dive and by now I am sitting on needles to get my hands on it. While the intro I still maintain is the weakest part of the game, lasting too long and stealing your agency as a player, the game opens up beautifully right after that. I might sound callous here since the story opener is crucial to setting the stage for this tragedy to unfold, but I can't dismiss that it didn't keep me engaged. Putting that aside, when the game let me step out into the tiny, self-contained world of Yesterby - a little village by the shore - and see the full vision of what it offers... It completely took me in, drawn to the idea and the execution.
You will witness how every character within the narrative deals with the situations. With their preconceptions and failings, their strengths and weaknesses. You will be able to guide them and help put them on the correct paths. Or so I hope they will be correct! As time passes even the monotony of day-to-day life can be a comfort. A distraction. It's a haunting, tender, and raw look into how a community stirs and shakes after turmoil, a dramatic event that touches everyone - one way or the other. Yeah. I am excited to play it to the finish line.
STEAMWORLD HEIST 2 | Release Date: 8th August
Woo! Yes! Gosh, I am a fan of the Steamworld games in their totality. I enjoyed them all, to various degrees, with the original STEAMWORLD HEIST being my absolute favorite, and by far, too. So it is no surprise I am thrilled to see the sequel coming up and to soon have it in my hands. This time the location and focus shift, from spaceships to naval vessels, as we embark on dangerous sea voyages with Captain Leeway! Scouring the seas to fight pirates, find treasure, and surely upgrade your junk and gear will be a right proper adventure. Or so I hope. The best part of a sequel like this is that they don't even have to shake up the formula. The first game worked like a charm, scoring an Overwhelmingly Positive rating on Steam nowadays. I reckon most of the fans would, like me, be delighted to just have more of the same - tactical puzzles to solve, bullet bouncing, unique weapons, and crew members with interesting abilities.
That doesn't mean that I am not eager to see what new things they will bring to the table. What news systems or mechanical features shake things up a bit, toss the rust off the old formula, and bring new excitement to the players? Time will tell.
PRESERVE | Release Date: 8th August
Another game I already wrote about in one of the previous Demo Dives, coming out at last to give me a fresh fix for my tile-layer addiction! PRESERVE is a beautiful, tranquil game about restoring nature, raising biomes to their full potential, and populating them with animals. While the demo was gorgeous and a pleasure to play with, it felt a bit limited in what you can do with the game itself. The full version seems to have many cards (literally!) up its sleeves to make sure the gentle puzzles you'll have to solve to progress and make your perfect little natural parks are engaging through and through.
It is important to notice that this is NOT a full release of the game but a launch into Early Access. This means that the version we are going to get is not a complete vision yet, but a package with more content than the demo. It would be interesting to see how the game grows during that process. If they can repeat what TERRASCAPE did and release after a time such a dense and content-filled 1.0 version as the aforementioned title, it's going to be fantastic.
DUSTBORN | Release Date: 20th August
This is a new title for me I pretty much just stumbled upon. I have mixed feelings that are hard to describe, but in the end come out positive, hopeful maybe? The art style is a big draw, it's this soft, cell-shaded comic book look that I jive with. The world-building is very interesting at first look. A divided States with some peculiarities, a dash of post-apocalypse with the dystopian utopia of the totalitarian version of order? And you're a bunch of 'misfits', rebels, and quirky characters straight from Time of the Tumblr? Yeah. Mixed feelings. The animations feel very stilted and stiff too, but then there's a giant gorilla-like robot, humongous wendigo, and some cosmic tentacle creature. That I like. The genre seems a mashup of things as well. Adventure, exploration, maybe rhythm-based sections, as the musical gear is a big part of the game, it seems?
For now, I am cautiously interested. The world they show in a trailer feels fresh, the music got my head to nod along and the characters' voice acting seems pretty on point, even if their rebel status on the surface feels a little... rudimentary, at first glance. Will see how this one goes once I get my hands on it!
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