In Away Team, you play as a lone Duplicant (a colonist clone from Oxygen Not Included) who accidentally lands on a strange new world. You must build a base, scavenge resources, and survive a landscape where every tile is simulated in detail. Like Oxygen Not Included, Away Team thrives on dynamic interactions, creating physics-driven chaos. Liquids flow and evaporate, fires spread, and every action demands a careful understanding of thermodynamics.

The game’s side-scrolling view blends exploration with survival crafting as you explore procedurally generated environments. As mentioned, every tile reacts to your actions, creating a world where one mistake can lead to disaster.

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This game blends open-world exploration with fast-paced hack-and-slash combat, sending you across diverse landscapes, from forests and caverns to treacherous, storm-swept regions. Along the way, you’ll battle goblins, monsters, and other foes determined to wipe out the last dwarves. Our draw hero is wielding a range of weapons and skills, highlighting the game’s dynamic and customizable fighting styles.

Beyond combat, Regions of Ruin: Runegate emphasizes rebuilding and community. As you journey, you’ll meet dwarven allies in need of help, offering aid to recruit them to your cause. By gathering resources like ore and timber, you can construct new facilities, unlock advanced technologies, and create a safe haven for your kin. The trailer revealed glimpses of base-building mechanics, showing how you transform barren lands into thriving settlements.

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Video games, alongside sci-fi films, are finally exploring themes of clones, or your alternate selves. 11 bit studios has delivered a truly unique game, The Alters, opting for a realistic yet diverse mix of elements to make the gameplay loop meaningful. This blend includes survival, base building, resource management, exploration, and interpersonal relationships, all supported by a compelling narrative with a dash of adventure. The core premise involves moving a mobile base while fleeing a deadly sun, creating a constant sense of urgency. Meanwhile, you strive to understand and calm your Alters, adding necessary emotional depth to otherwise mechanical tasks.

Once you start playing, you’ll simply get lost in that world. Whether it’s due to the stunning graphics (notably, the game has been delayed several times), the abundance of content awaiting you, a love for surviving on harsh planets, or the fact that it’s a more open game that doesn’t hold your hand, offering tasks but leaving the solutions up to you, there’s plenty to draw you in. Moreover, it feels like you’re “role-playing” as the story keeps pushing you forward. The narrative unfolds through several interconnected layers, from uncovering the planet’s mysteries and the element Rapidium, to deciphering the motivations and plans of various side characters, and ultimately learning more about yourself through your relationships with your Alters.

Base management and resource gathering

As can be inferred, since the base occasionally relocates, your survival is key, which involves gathering resources on the planet. Initially, you collect metals, fuel, rare materials, and food yourself, but over time, you’ll gain the ability to cultivate certain items. It’s crucial to locate deposits, build mining facilities, and connect them to the base via transport pylons, creating engaging environmental puzzles. You can then assign these tasks to your Alters, each bringing their own skill sets, for example, they can quickly craft tools, build rooms, research new technologies, or even argue and influence each other.

However, a challenge arises here. The base’s modular design allows for room reconfiguration, but this can become disorienting as the base grows. Key rooms, like the communication center, are hard to find without memorizing the layout, especially when your screen is cluttered with countless items and you’re unsure of the ideal base design. Additionally, there’s a lot of micromanagement involved, it’s not simple; you must initiate certain processes for tasks to repeat. The constant scarcity of resources and ticking clock create high-pressure scenarios, especially during magnetic storms that halt exploration and damage the base, or when you’re still figuring out how to combat anomalies reminiscent of those in Stalker.

Managing Alters and social dynamics

Clones like Jan the Technician, Jan the Scientist, Jan the Miner, or Jan the Botanist aren’t just workers, they’re fully developed characters with unique backstories, skills, and emotional needs. Each Alter’s personality stems from a key life choice, such as standing up to an abusive father, directly affecting their work ethic, mood, and interactions with others. You’ll even see mood bubbles pop up to instantly show if you’ve picked the right dialogue. Instead of good communication, you can also tease or argue with them.

You can manage their moods through conversations, gifts, or activities like beer pong, which unlocks new dialogue options or reduces the chance of rebellion. Ignoring their needs leads to conflicts, impacting productivity and survival. On the other hand, the “branching screen” feature stands out, visually mapping key decision points where Alter personalities diverge, as well as defining moments in each Alter’s life that shaped them. It’s fascinating how each character has a detailed story to explore, despite being the same person.

Of course, the story won’t focus solely on the Alters but also on the actors who brought you to this unknown planet. You’ll communicate with Earth characters, dive deeper into the narrative, understand why you’re the sole survivor of your team, and grasp the importance of the metal Rapidium. Expect plenty of intrigue and humor, along with the chance to ask yourself rhetorical questions.

Planet exploration and technology

Exploration occurs from a third-person perspective, with Jan navigating alien landscapes using tools like a grappling hook or a makeshift gun to combat radioactive anomaly clusters that cause radiation damage. These encounters are simplified, requiring you to aim a torch-like weapon at the anomalies until they disperse, serving more as environmental obstacles than complex battles.

Movement includes light platforming, such as descending cliffs, but Jan’s controls can feel clunky at times. I’m unsure why his movement isn’t smoother, or at least feels like we’re on a planet with different gravity or no oxygen, leading to awkward turns and stumbles. Invisible walls prevent falls but limit jumping and reduce exploration freedom. While visually impressive, the planet can feel empty depending on the perspective, with repetitive ores and shapes. Though biome variety is limited, what’s available is aesthetically appealing. The Alters lacks true combat; it focuses on management, survival, and your skill in handling these aspects.

What personally captivated me are the technologies and the ability to craft various items. It’s not just one thing to build, everything is interconnected. Want a device to destroy obstacles? You’ll need to gather resources. Want to mine metal faster? You must research that technology, looping through various tech levels. The tech trees are well-designed, logical, and offer plenty without distracting from the core experience: uncovering mysteries and building relationships with Alters. The refinery system and gradual unlocking of new prototypes and blueprints are engaging, ensuring things don’t stay the same.

Does the game run smoothly?

Given that the game is built on Unreal Engine 5, it’s surprising it runs smoothly at all, though there are moments where optimization falters. For instance, returning to the base or unlocking a new planetary area can cause brief stutters. It’s clear the game performs well on high-end machines, but how it fares on other platforms is hard to say. There were no major issues, and it’s impressive how well everything is crafted considering the vastness of the world, possibly because the planet feels quite empty, making such optimization less surprising.

Beyond that, the voice acting by Alex Jordan deserves praise for delivering an outstanding performance across all versions of Jan, convincingly bringing each iteration to life with unique personalities and attitudes. Portraying ten variations of the same character is no easy feat, but he nailed it. On the other hand, Jan’s character models and his Alters are expressive, with subtle differences in appearance (hair, posture) and animations reflecting their personalities. However, some scenes use static storyboards with voice narration, which feels low-budget compared to the game’s in-world visuals and detracts from the overall impression.

Well-written story that won’t disappoint

To wrap up, I’d highlight a few key points. The survival elements in the game don’t feel like a grind, thanks to accelerated time during resource extraction, making it all about efficient time and team management. If you’re expecting a classic survival sandbox, this isn’t it. The game is primarily driven by a strong narrative, constantly giving you goals to achieve with some freedom in how you approach them. At the same time, it’s not just about moving from one end of the planet to the other, you need to prepare well for upcoming threats.

You won’t lose anything by trying it; in fact, you can play it via Game Pass, so there’s no need to second-guess its value. After 20 to 30 hours of gameplay, you’ll realize how special The Alters is and how, after the weaker impressions of Frostpunk 2, 11 bit studios can truly create something commendable when they’re motivated and free to experiment.

Review copy provided by the publisher

4.3

The post The Alters – An Unconventional Adventure with Narrative and Survival at Its Core first appeared on IndieGames.

In this strategic game, you manage a kingdom by constructing buildings, planting and harvesting crops, and gathering key resources to strengthen and upgrade. The game offers dynamic gameplay where each run is different, forcing you to adapt your strategies while defending your kingdom from waves of enemies.

However, it features a rather complex system of production chains and strategies; you’ll trade resources with villages to craft rare materials or unlock ancient spells. Additionally, fortifying your castle with stone walls and tactically positioning various types of troops is crucial. Each biome you encounter brings new challenges, making the roguelite concept work perfectly in this game.

The post The King Is Watching, a roguelite where you build your own kingdom, awaits us in July first appeared on IndieGames.

This game draws inspiration from DayZ and Rust, offering an open world with PvPvE elements, crafting, and base-building mechanics. This means you’ll gather resources and construct shelters to protect your loot and your life. Additionally, unique duck-handling mechanics have been introduced, allowing you to glide, hover, sprint, and dive even while shooting and fighting.

The goal is to gear up, build a nest for safety, survival, and strategic advantage: every structure can be destroyed, and every hideout can be raided. You can play this creation solo or form a flock with other ducks to build, explore, fight, and survive together.

The post Multiplayer survival game Duckside exits Early Access in August for PC and consoles first appeared on IndieGames.

In RailGods of Hysterra, you venture alone or in a cooperative team of up to five players into a nightmarish world where H.P. Lovecraft’s Old Gods have twisted Earth and its inhabitants into bizarre creatures. Defying their power, you play as a so-called dreamer, who forms a pact with a RailGod, an ancient alien entity that uses a powerful locomotive as its armored body.

The game centers around a massive mobile fortress, constructed from steel and flesh. Players can customize this train with different carriages designed for storage, scavenging, and production. At the same time, you’ll explore ever-changing dynamic landscapes, battling supernatural enemies using axes, firearms, and magic. As you progress, you’ll gather resources to craft tools, upgrade your train, and unlock various skills to aid in your struggle for survival.

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The demo will give players a taste of the game’s core mechanics:

• Building production facilities on asteroids
• Creating complex production chains
• Managing interplanetary transport networks

While the full campaign will only be partially available, players will get to meet the main protagonists, space-traveling birds, and test their skills in a specially designed challenge level. Toukana Interactive emphasizes that Star Birds will appeal both to fans of relaxing gameplay with accessible mechanics, as well as veterans of the genre.

Inspired by the distinctive aesthetic and tone of Kurzgesagt, Star Birds offers a bright and humorous take on space colonization, blending sci-fi themes with innovative building mechanics. The game creates a unique atmosphere where birds colonize asteroids, and the new trailer, shown during the Triple-i Initiative Showcase, offers a glimpse of what to expect from the upcoming demo.

The post Asteroid-Building Sim Star Birds Will Get a Demo in June first appeared on IndieGames.

At the heart of the story is Elian, a brave young hero leading the fight to protect his hometown of Regera from enemy attacks. You must gather resources, fortify the village with various defensive structures, and strategically place them to outsmart incoming threats. Additionally, each new playthrough offers randomized resource distribution, enemy spawns, and weather conditions, ensuring a fresh experience every time.

As the game progresses, enemies grow stronger, new challenges emerge, and storms can destroy buildings and reduce resource production. On the other hand, sunny days boost worker productivity, while at night, towers have a limited field of vision, adding an extra layer of strategy to the gameplay.

The post Defender’s Dynasty donosi stratešku obranu baze u srednjovjekovnom svijetu, izlazi sredinom godine za PC first appeared on IndieGames.

Tempest Tower features a building phase followed by an action phase

During the Build Phase, you plan and construct your defenses. You can place turrets, traps, and other contraptions to fend off the incoming Creepers. The game offers a wide variety of tools, ranging from lethal turrets to trampolines that let you bounce across the map. You can even jump on enemies’ heads, though beware, your HP bar depletes with each encounter, and if it reaches zero, you’re sent back to your base. This phase is all about strategy and creativity, as you experiment with different setups to create the most effective defenses.

Once the Creepers attack, the game shifts to the Action Phase. Here, you take direct control of your character, fighting enemies, activating traps, and repairing defenses. However, my biggest gripe is how tedious this phase can become, especially since your defense towers deal almost no damage on their own. They require electricity to function, which is generated by wind turbines that only activate when there’s wind. While you can use a cleaning brush to push enemies and create wind, the game limits where you can place these defenses, adding an extra layer of challenge.

Another key mechanic is the collection of souls from large plants stationed near your defenses. These plants are scattered randomly across the map, so it’s always a good idea to build your towers close to them since they collect the souls of enemies. Once you’ve gathered enough souls, you can consume them to earn points for constructing more defenses and advancing further. The map is also constantly evolving and expanding, forcing you to keep moving rather than staying in one spot.

Exploitation of the environment and problems with enemies

You can also leverage hazardous environmental elements, such as explosive barrels or traps, to your advantage. For instance, the demo effectively demonstrates how to use bombs scattered across the map to take out multiple enemies at once. Additionally, teleporters are strategically placed to help you navigate the map more easily.

However, my biggest issue lies with the enemies. As mentioned earlier, they’re overly tanky and take far too long to defeat. Some enemies even block your turrets by spraying goo. There are also goo walls that obstruct your path, forcing you to clear them to move more freely. Even when stomping on them like in Super Mario, it still takes an excessive amount of time to eliminate them, which can feel frustrating and slow-paced.

Here’s why the game is designed this way: it focuses on short-term sessions rather than long ones. Your main tower needs to be powered up using enemy souls, and once it’s charged, you must activate it to destroy the remaining enemies. This mechanic discourages long sessions, as enemies are numerous and tanky, which, personally, can ruin the fun. However, I understand the intent behind this design, it forces you to experiment and adapt rather than sticking to a single strategy.

The colorful world of Tempest Tower promises an interesting experience

Visually, Tempest Tower is colorful and vibrant, with a cartoonish art style that fits its quirky tone. The world of Trip Space is full of personality, with unique flora and creative contraptions that make each level visually interesting. The Creepers are well-designed, with a variety of types that keep the enemies feeling fresh. The animations are smooth, and the action is easy to follow, even during chaotic battles.

I’m looking forward to seeing what this game has to offer. So far, everything seems promising, it’s just a matter of whether the full version can deliver a polished and satisfying experience. Considering Half Past Yellow, the developer behind this game, has had its ups and downs but is now bringing us another title, I remain optimistic about this project.

The post [PREVIEW] Tempest Tower - Promising Tower Defense Game first appeared on IndieGames.

Drawing inspiration from RTS legends like Red Alert 2, Ground Control, Starcraft, and Supreme Commander, Fractured Alliance brings fresh tactical depth to the genre. You will navigate dynamic battlefields, harvesting resources, capturing strategic nodes, and leveraging terrain for an advantage. Whether positioning artillery on high ground or launching sneak attacks from the sky, creative tactics and unit composition will shape every engagement.

Unlike some modern RTS games that have moved away from base building, Fractured Alliance embraces this classic gameplay element. You can construct and fortify your bases, set up defensive turrets, and even wall off sections to create a SimCity-style war fortress. For fans of strategic base development and defensive playstyles, this is a welcome return to form.

Beyond its story-driven single-player campaign, Fractured Alliance offers casual skirmish and cooperative multiplayer experiences. You will constantly test your strategic mastery as they unlock devastating superweapons, including weather-control storms, nuclear strikes, and stealth carpet bombings.

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