Last we heard of our heroic Analander, at the end of the second chapter of the series, he had already crossed the perilous Shamutanti Hills near his homeland and had survived the more insidious dangers of the Cityport of Thieves. We find him again, in Sorcery Part 3, at the midpoint of his journey to the fortress of Mampang where the evil Archmage awaits him for their final confrontation. Despite their brisk release schedule, the latest installment's release a mere two months after its predecessor's, inkle have introduced a number of innovations to revitalize the stale gamebook formula. The trend had already been apparent in the move from the linear, plodding first part to the more complex urban interactions of the second, but here the creativity on display is nothing short of impressive.
Slain! looks as gorgeous as we expected, but despite the numerous delays, the game is still a broken mess. Numerous bugs, a simplistic, unresponsive and repetitive combat system, balance issues and awful writing all amount to a cavalcade of nuisances that will break your will to persist in reaching the next spectacular vista.
Sheltered starts off brilliantly, hooking you with the immediate and pressing needs of a family seeking sanctuary against the perils of its post-apocalyptic world, but there is not enough content to reward prolonged play. Once your vault has been fully upgraded, the experience becomes bland and meaningless, veering dangerously close to authenticity of the undesirable sort.
If last year the indie scene was, once again, dominated by roguelikes and survival games, 2016 seems to be all about hacking 'n' slashing through worlds of high fantasy rendered in glorious pixel art. While release dates for the likes of Death's Gambit, EITR, and Below remain hazy, the first of a gorgeous bunch is already upon us with Moon Hunters, and, if Kitfox Games' sophomore effort is any indication, it's going to be a vintage year.
The rise of the Early Access publishing model has brought about a rather troublesome change in the industry: it altered our perception, both as consumers and as producers, of what a saleable game should be, namely, not necessarily a finished article. While this is fine for smaller games participating in that particular Steam programme (and has long been the case with deadline-obsessing AAA titles), the tenet is, worryingly, starting to seep through elsewhere. I've had two games to review this week, both designed around a brilliantly conceived set of central mechanics and both clearly in need of much work to be regarded as completed. However, while the flaws of a title like Blacksea Odyssey can be – temporarily – overlooked, the game being offered on Early Access, Blood Alloy: Reborn is marketed as a full release, and will be judged accordingly.
Gamebooks were all the rage in the early '80s when CRPGs were not evolved enough to conjure up a convincing, colorful fantasy world but, even back then, they always felt like a substitute, a quick fix for the rainy days and stray hours when you couldn't set up a D&D session with your friends. The format may be mounting something of a digital comeback, with titles like Joe Dever's Lone Wolf HD Remastered and This Book is a Dungeon, but in a genre dominated by the epic open-ended experiences crafted by Bethesda and CD Projekt, can they still fulfil a role other than sheer nostalgia?
