In case you didn’t know, STEAM released its second Game Festival yesterday. What it means is that users get to try out over 40 indie game demos, both new and ones already showcased at various events. It’s a great way to add some new titles to your wishlist, as well as see how some of the games you’ve been following is turning out. The timing seems fitting as well. More than half the world is isolating themselves inside homes due to COVID-19 and despite the graveness of the issue, the Game Festival gives us all small slices of some of the exciting indie games in development.
Us over here at The Indian Noob gave some of these demos a try and figured why not let talk a bit about a few of the games that caught our attention the most. We understand that some of the demos in the list have been available prior to the Game Festival and there are a lot of good games we missed. Even the Noobs are human after all and there’s only so much we can play. So here are our biggest takeaways from the Steam Game Festival: Spring Edition, in no particular order.
Raji: An Ancient Epic
I feel like it’s been an eternity since Raji has been announced. The people over at Nodding Head Games are surely taking their time on this beautiful action-adventure game set in ancient India. Regardless of the progress made, the demo for Raji is a pleasant experience. The game tells the story of Raji, a young girl blessed with the powers of the deities who has to save her kin from the Asuras. Taking elements from the Puranas, folklore, Hindu and Balinese mythology and fantasy, Raji is shaping up to be something unique indeed. Raji boasts beautiful visuals, enchanting traditional Indian music and gameplay inspired heavily by Prince of Persia, a game Indians hold dear than anything else. Makes you wonder why this wonderful setting has been so criminally underused. No flexing, but there’s like 50 games worth of super cool stuff waiting to be explored in Indian mythology and history. We hope to see more of Raji soon!
Vigil: The Longest Night
These days, you can’t take a stroll in the STEAM store without bumping into ‘soulslikes’. With the exception of The Surge, I haven’t seen any mainstream game pull Dark Souls’ magic off. However, the indie scene is brimming with titles inspired by Dark/Demon Souls. While they’re not all good, titles like Salt and Sanctuary, Blasphemous and the other ten that isn’t coming to mind right now reminds us time and time again than the revival of the indie scene is the best thing to happen to STEAM. Vigil: The Longest Night appears to be the next title aiming for a spot among good soulslikes. Excusing some of the crude animations, Vigil has everything going for it. Smooth and fluid combat, eerie atmosphere, RPG mechanics, bigass boss fights and the possibility of death looming around every corner of the screen.
CARRION
Carrion has been on my list ever since I first saw it. This side-scrolling stealth action game where you play as this disgusting biomass of flesh and blood, stalking and consuming every living thing in sight has my money already. Despite the demo being available last year itself, yesterday was the first time I got to play it myself. The controls need some getting used to. But other than that, the carnage in Carrion is satisfying as hell. The crawling spaghetti monster protagonist is the show-stealer. Stalking your prey, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike and finally, swooping in for a gory kill as you watch people around you run in terror is truly a sight to behold. Intricate level and monster design, eye-popping art style and fluid controls of Carrion make you just go ‘mmmmmmm’. John Carpenter will be proud!
Liberated
Of all the things I remember Max Payne for, two things stand out the most. One is the setting and the other one is the stylized graphic novel-like cutscenes. Liberated takes the idea one step further. What if the whole game is played as a comic book? The execution is fantastic. Marketed as the “world’s first playable comic book”, Liberated tells the story of a cyberpunk tale of revolution in a dystopian near-future. Even a bit of noir is thrown into the mix for some extra flair. The demo plays out in the form of a stylized comic book. Each strip of beautifully illustrated black and white pictures and text bubbles move the story forward in an interactive fashion. The best thing is that the game doesn’t take you out from this experience during gameplay. The game transitions from cutscenes into Exploration, puzzles, stealth and combat, one strip after the other in a seamless motion. There’s more to love in Liberated with features like multiple playable characters while tackling themes such as social security, cyber threats, freedom authoritarianism etc. Definitely worth adding to your list!
Röki
The Lord (or extraterrestrial beings depending on who you ask) knows we could all use something relaxing to play in these troubled times. I found Röki to be exactly that. A gorgeous adventure game inspired by Scandinavian folklore, Röki is relaxing to the body, mind and soul. You play as a little girl named Tove and follow her on an adventure in a strange land inhabited by even stranger creatures. Röki is enriched by gorgeous visuals, fluid animations and some of the most soothing music you’ll ever find on STEAM. Yet, behind the snowcapped pine trees, enchanting forests and abandoned housings, you can sense something sinister lying in wait. Another one to the ever-growing wishlist.
Divisadero
As a fan of the first season of True Detective, it didn’t take long for Divisadero to pique my interest. Visually representing the graphic adventure games from the 90s, Divisadero is a detective game that puts you in a war-torn dystopic future San Francisco. You know the story is going to be something weird when your player character is a former cop turned inmate turned cop once again because the law is short of officers. The game doesn’t shy away from revealing its inspirations, i.e, dark crime dramas and the climate fiction literary movement. The demo is really short but what’s on the table is enough to put Divisadero in your wishlist. Expect a heavy dose of moral dilemmas and some post-modern philosophical themes. Here’s hoping that Divisadero will be for adventure games what Disco Elysium was to RPGs. I still have no idea what the word Divisadero means though.
We regret not being able to cover all the demos as there are a lot more good games on offer including Spiritfarer, Recompile, Cloudpunk, Heaven and more. Did you guys check out Game Festival and found any gems worth keeping an eye out for? Let us know in the comments.
Divisadero is an iconic street in San Francisco. It’s really lively, especially in the evening, with tons of bars and places to eat.
I’d skipped over Liberated but after reading this I’m definitely going to try it tonight, thank you!
Great to know!