Wow. Hey. So. This was a year, huh? Ups and downs, with the new website and all that.
I’m sure I’m speaking for everyone here at Indie Games Plus when I thank you for keeping the faith and sticking with us through these turbulent times. Also, I’d like to thank Joel and the crew for being the most excellent partners in crime one could wish for. So there’s that. Oh, and this year’s games were quite excellent, too! Here are a few highlights.
Unavowed
In the last few years, Dave ‘Wadjet Eye Games’ Gilbert has firmly established himself as creator of good (sometimes even great) adventure games with a strong focus on narrative over obscure puzzles. His latest game, Unavowed, makes all his previous accomplishments look tiny in comparison.
With the help of an organization called the Unavowed, you try to find out why you’ve been possessed by a demon for a year. This turns out to be the least of your problems, as New York is full of paranormal troublemakers, apparently. Thankfully, your new friends are used to something strange in the neighborhood, and they themselves are not what you’d call normal…
This is not just an amazing, mature urban fantasy adventure game with strong writing and an authentic, modern-day setting. It also takes a cue from Bioware titles and introduces a group of companions who accompany you and add their own personality into the mix. Depending on who’s with you on the case, the solution might be different. This adds replay value and, frankly, makes a genre that traditionally is more on the linear side feel wonderfully fresh and exciting.
Unavowed is available for $14.99 on Steam.
Horizon Chase Turbo
I generally have no love for the racing genre, but whenever I had some time to kill in the last few months, I found myself reaching for the Switch to play a few rounds of Horizon Chase Turbo. Because that’s exactly the thing: it usually takes you about two minutes to leave those other cars in the dust and cross the finish line. And then you end up doing it again and again, because these fast-paced, Out Run-style races are a ton of fun.
The game’s World Tour mode has you travelling the globe and visiting distinctive locations with a lot of personality in order to unlock new cars and upgrades. The new Playground mode features regularly-updated challenges that have you competing for the top spot of the leaderboards.
While technically, Horizon Chase was first introduced to the world in 2015, this year’s Turbo edition was ported to new platforms and offers enough stuff to almost feel like a proper sequel.
Horizon Chase Turbo is available on Steam, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox One.
Gris
Ever since I first laid eyes on it in 2016, I have been raving about Nomada Studio’s Gris. And for good reasons: this is one of the most beautiful games you will ever play. Conrad Roset’s artwork and Berlinists fantastic score transform this into a memorable platforming experience that’s not just awfully pretty, but also mechanically interesting. While it hardly offers any notable challenge, seeing our female protagonist fill the world with colors – each one representing a new gameplay element – is just enchanting.
The game’s story is steeped in vague metaphor about loss, or grief, or putting the pieces back together after your whole world is shattered. While this vagueness might ultimately lessen the whole experience’s emotional impact, it still resonates on some basic level. Instead of succumbing to despair, you keep moving forward, even making some friends in the process.
Gris never feels desperate or oppressive, but almost aggressively hopeful. If anything, that’s a good thing to take away from any game, especially in times like these, when the world just gets too much sometimes.
Gris is available on Steam and the Nintendo Switch.
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