If we’re to believe the headlines from the past half-year of video games, the industry is dead, publishers hate gamers, and developers all live in a true-life equivalent to Rust, subsisting on a steady diet of coffee and promises of a Christmas bonus that never comes. Take a deep breath. Might we suggest something a little more low-budget? Have a quick look at this list of a few promising indie games set to drop sometime soon. It’s alright. AAA can’t hurt you here.
Necrobarista
Even without having read its official description, one could surmise that a game titled Necrobarista could only be about two things, really: coffee and death. Frankly, that’s the full extent of confident assumptions one could make about this game based on name alone. And so, we were pleasantly tickled to discover Necrobarista will be a visual novel, of all game genres, and a devilishly stylish one at that.
Necrobarista puts you in charge of operating a caffeine dispensary that caters to the not living and early looks at its gameplay appear promising. It’s shaping up to be a quirky mix of Walking Dead choose-your-own-adventure directed choice with a healthy dose of Persona’s visual flair laid atop a gritty, dirty synth-rock soundtrack and, honestly, if you’re not sold at this point, you might want to get your pulse checked.
Dolmen
We’ve seen Dolmen described as space spelunky Dark Souls. It also looks a hell of a lot like Dead Space – not that we’re complaining. Dolmen seems to be a healthy mixture of the two aforementioned titles, a frighteningly gory third-person space action RPG adventure through dark space caverns and ominous space dungeons. There’s also crafting because of course there is, so get ready to spend hours on a alt-tabbing between the game and a wiki page, committing item recipes to memory as you scream-shout your way through waves of increasingly horrifying monstrosities.
Table Manners
Finally, a dating game that simulates what it’s actually like to be out on a first date with a Tinder match. Table Manners is a physics-based disappointment simulator that sees you slowly and carefully manipulating your dismembered limb in order to complete what should honestly be simple physical tasks in increasingly desperate attempts to appear suave in the eyes of the cutie across the table. Does your date want a sip of wine? There’s no bolder opener than accidentally pouring out the whole bottle into the entrée! It’s his birthday is it? We meant to light the candles, but this impromptu fire display will make it one to remember!
EASTWARD
Look at it! It’s beautiful! Eastward is a gorgeous 2D top-down RPG adventure game by Pixpil, a small indie team based in Shanghai. Inspired by classic 90s anime, Eastward promises classic action RPG gameplay with silky smooth animations and a super-polished visual style that reminds us of golden era Metal Slug. In the depths of an underground facility, John chances upon a young, white-haired girl named Sam. When an army of menacing creatures attack town, John and Sam make their way eastward on a spiritual quest for the truth about where Sam came from and the origins of the monsters that prey on the remaining survivors of human society.
Wrath – Aeon of Ruin
Lately, we’ve seen plenty of throwbacks to the classic twitch shooters of the ‘90’s and early 2000’s, but the mad lads at KillPixel Games decided to take the concept to the next level. Wrath – Aeon of Ruin is being built on the original Quake engine from 1996. Gimmicky? Perhaps. We can’t think of any good reason why they’d want to release a game in 2020 using a 15-year old engine other than that it makes for a catchy headline, but early looks at the game have proven promising. If you’ve got an old Voodoo 3dfx graphics card lying around, Wrath even promises full support, and now we can’t wait for the inevitable benchmark videos of the game running on someone’s old Pentium.
Yaga
Yaga is what a Zelda game would look like if American McGee had just come off a week-long binge of Don’t Starve. By that we mean it looks like an insanely entertaining, darkly comical top-down action. YAGA is set to be released as an Epic Store exclusive, but that’s no reason to not check it out.
RPG that is equal parts charming and chill-inducing. Hack and slash your way through a world of Slavic mythology, interacting with villages and clashing steel with an array of strange and creepy creatures. This means witchcraft and runes, curses and mystical secrets, floating severed heads, and all manner of ghouls and goblins. You play as the unluckiest man in the world, a one-handed blacksmith by the name of Ivan who is being forced by the Tzar into doing increasingly ridiculous jobs and simultaneously being exploited and manipulated by a strange witch person with unclear motives. All the while trying to wriggle your way out of getting married to a woman of Grandma’s choice.
Mount &Blade 2: Bannerlord
Do our eyes deceive us? Mount & Blade 2, the long-awaited sequel to the 2008 cult hit named – you guessed it – Mount & Blade is finally seeing release in 2020, a full eight years after its development was first announced.
Mount & Blade 2 looks to reintroduce players to the series one-of-a-kind mix of role-playing and strategy. The original game was a triumph in player freedom, a shining example of the open-world sandbox. No hand-holding and barely even a tutorial to help you get your grips with the hundreds of different in-game mechanics that drive the title’s emergent storytelling. Number 2 looks to be largely the same game with some a new paint job and some shiny rims. Not that we’re complaining; the first Mount & Blade came out so long ago that we’re just excited to jump into another one.
We hope you enjoyed this look at some of the best upcoming indie games. The next year of games is looking to be a mini-renaissance of sorts for the indie scene, with tons of exciting titles going to see release over the next several months. What do you guys think? Did we miss any good ones?