Indie Sport Roundup – October 2023

October’s indie video games are completely stacked. Severely, the listing this month is longer than traditional as a result of whittling it down anymore was inflicting us the form of psychological ache you’d usually solely endure when your two-year-old discovers the Child Shark movies and throws a tantrum each time the video ends. Is that good parenting? Perhaps! Is it essential to survive? Completely!

Together with a great deal of video games, October brings alongside a number of the greatest issues of the 12 months. An finish to the summer season (hopefully), Halloween, and in addition the fixed reminder that even timber have a mortal lifespan as their leaves decay and fall off. Wait, not that final one. Look, video games are good, most of you received’t learn the intro anyway, so let’s simply get into the listing of October’s greatest indie video games. 

We love roguelikes, and Battle Shapers is an FPS sci-fi roguelike which helps you to steal powers from ruthless robotic overlords and, if we’re being sincere, it sounds lots like an FPS Mega Man sport. That couldn’t be extra of a praise if we tried, and the graphics, absurd skills, and over-the-top weapons are all going to hold you dwelling. Or to our deaths. Or perhaps to victory. It’ll be enjoyable irrespective of the place you find yourself although.

We simply wrote about the very best stealth video games, however it may nicely be that The Lamplighters League finally ends up being on that listing as soon as it’s out. This sport sees you recruiting a staff of individuals with distinctive skills after which guiding them by varied ranges looking for the Banished Courtroom and cease them being all evil and stuff. You get to do real-time sneaking, and when you’re caught, you then get to combat it out in turn-based fight. It simply appears to be like enjoyable, and Harebrained Schemes, the developer, has an excellent pedigree of video games behind them. 

Whereas we’re with reference to fairly video games, Worldless suits into that class very simply. You are taking management of a form with some weapons that may soar (we’re unsure how else to explain it), and it’s good to discover two completely different realms as you proceed in your journey. Fight is definitely turn-based, however exploitation is pretty free-form and appears extra like a basic Metroidvania. The artwork model can be superbly summary, and the soundtrack is already unimaginable primarily based on simply the trailers alone.  

Cease Useless is a sport the place when you cease you’ll die, and it appears to be like like a mixture of Psy-Ops, Neon White, and Mirror’s Edge. You are taking management of a telekinetic heroine who can use just about something as a weapon with a purpose to try to take down a rogue AI, who’s determined people type of suck and should die. The sport has 40 ranges to blitz by, and we’ve a sense this might be an excellent one for many who like to hunt perfection of their speedruns, though the novel fight ought to make it good for these of us with different hobbies too. 

We’re unsure you’re meant to sing “Wizard with a Gun,” however we will’t assist it. That apart, this sport is a survival sandbox that you may play with a buddy, and appears to largely revolve round not simply being a wizard, however then additionally having a gun. We’re unsure why no person had thought to offer wizards a gun earlier than, however it positively looks as if a notable improve. Simply think about if they may curve bullets. Wait, they made a movie about that, didn’t they? 

We’re unsure anybody would have thought a Hellboy sport can be popping out that’s a roguelike brawler, however we’re fairly glad about it. This sport’s truly being made in partnership with the creator of Hellboy, Mike Mignola, and apart from the promise of a lot of pummelling, we’ve received to speak concerning the artwork course. Plenty of video games get in comparison with comedian books, however Hellboy appears to be like precisely like a visible novel, and it’s absurdly fairly consequently, the block colors and minimalistic detailing make for a feast for the eyes, so even when it’s dangerous, it’ll nonetheless look good. 

Cavern of Goals is an N64-style 3D platformer the place you play as Fynn the dragon. Your mission is to save lots of your unhatched siblings from the titular Cavern of Goals, and alongside the way in which, you’ll get new skills, clear up a great deal of puzzles, and undoubtedly soar on plenty of issues. Actually although, we’re simply right here for the hit of nostalgia this sport is providing us, as a result of in our youths we very briefly didn’t should pay payments, and that was nice. 

Our second sport on this listing with each weapons and magic is Darkish Envoy, a brand new RPG with tactical real-time fight. It additionally has on-line co-op, and nothing’s higher than enjoying with your mates on the one evening a month you each discover time to take action. As your get together is battling it out, you’ll be able to briefly pause time to unleash magical abilities to take out teams of enemies, separate them from their buddies, or reduce off their escape routes. There are a number of lessons too, which ought to make for some good replayability if the story is value it. 

Our penultimate alternative for October’s indie video games is Ghostrunner 2. This sport describes itself as a “hardcore FPP slasher set in a post-apocalyptic cyberpunk future.” We’re going to explain it as a very fast-paced sport the place you get to regulate a cyberpunk ninja with a giant previous future sword who can do wall runs and stuff. The primary sport was magnificent, so we’ve received excessive hopes for this one too. 

You may assume that Headbangers: Rhythm Royale goes to be a follow-up to Brutal Legend, albeit with much less Jack Black and extra EpicFortniteGamer420, however you’d be improper. Effectively, perhaps not about expensive previous EpicFortniteGamer420, however about it being something to do with Brutal Legend. As an alternative, this rhythm battle royale sport has you and 29 different pigeons competing in opposition to one another in a lot of rhythm mini-games to see who’s essentially the most rhythmic of all. It appears to be like like a pleasant change of tempo, and we’re up for turning into a master-level pigeon.