The original Submerged was a remarkable game, if a divisive one. It set out with the singular goal of crafting a relaxed yet thought-provoking experience, as you explored the submerged ruins of a climate change-affected city and played witness to a bittersweet story of survival and togetherness. Some found it …
Pure adrenaline and meditative calm might seem like polar opposites, but—as anyone who’s ever tried their hand at an extreme sport will know well—they can be different sides of the same coin. It’s not a balance that videogames are great at finding, generally speaking. Not Grand Mountain Adventure: Wonderlands, though—this …
The combination of exploration, Tomb Raider-esque adventure and traversal, and a sunken world that finds beauty in the post-apocalypse, without any of the combat or sense of danger that often accompanies such games, is a recipe for a game both intriguing and relaxing. Uppercut Games proved the merits of this …
In a surreal land without a past, frozen in time, a lone birch sapling sits on a pedestal, its roots dangling into the water below. When a strange creature gives you a set of test tubes and informs you that the fate of the world is tied to that of …
If you like short, experimental, artistic games, you’ll want to pay attention to Sunlight, the latest game from Krillbite Studio (Among the Sleep, Mosaic, The Plan). Coming to Steam on January 14, it sees you exploring a hand-painted forest and listening to a story unfold through the whispers of the …
If you like exploration-centric platformers (aka metroidvanias) and emotive, story-driven games, you’re going to want to keep an eye out for Reina & Jericho. This “touching metroidvania from Reclamation Games following a woman’s time bending journey to save the love of her life” comes to Switch and PC next year. Reina & …
In Other Waters is something special. It’s the sort of game that takes a seemingly simple idea—in this case, an underwater exploration driven entirely through a minimalist user interface—and delivers on that to perfection. It’s a game where you’ll never set eyes on the place you’re exploring, other than through …
One thing I love to do in games is fly. If a game has a flight mechanic, you just know I’ll spend a lot of time aimlessly, joyously soaring across the sky. I did this in Tearaway Unfolded, with its paper planes. I did this in Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward, with its …
[URIS id=495] Postcards from the beautiful world of Submerged This week sees the launch of Submerged, a wonderful little indie game from Canberra-based Uppercut Games. It’s a combat-free exploration game about the efforts of a young girl to aid her injured brother in a beautifully post-apocalyptic world that is, well, …
We haven’t had a new IGAvania in six and a half years, but finally, Koji “IGA” Igarashi has come out of the shadows with a new project: a “A gothic, exploration-focused action platformer” called Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. His is probably not a household name, but as the person …
