Indie Game of the Week is a new weekly article that features an up and coming indie game and delivers it to our community. Originally, the article was to include only Xbox Live Indie Games (XBLIG), but we realized that limited us, as well as our fans, in the amount of games and platforms that we could showcase great independently developed video games. What we have now is the new weekly segment, Indie Game of the Week. Enjoy!
For the first installment of the newly named ‘Indie Game of the Week’, Gaming Irresponsibly decided to focus on a PC bundle. Bundles have been growing in popularity, and it is easy to see why, since you get a select number of games for a discounted price. The bundle we chose to feature this week is the IndieFort Bundle Number 1. The IndieFort Bundle packages six great games for less than the price of one. The best part about this bundle is the price, at a minimum of $5.99, but you can pay more than that if you wish to help directly support the developers that worked long and hard on these games. Every penny paid over the minimum price goes straight to the developers, so it is a great way to make sure that those that dedicated their lives to making these games are rewarded fairly. If all you can afford is the minimum price, that’s fine, and it is a steal at $5.99 considering that the retail price of all games total over 65 bucks. What exactly do you get in the IndieFort Bundle? Well the bundle includes six games: Black Market, Cardinal Quest, Devil Whiskey, Kenshi, Steel Storm: Burning Retribution and Wanderlust: Rebirth. Also, when the bundle pack reaches a certain financial goal, they will reward everyone with bonus content such as soundtracks and artwork. Let’s take a look at each game, and you will begin to see why the IndieFort Bundle is a great buy.
Black Market
First we have Black Market developed by Big Block Games. This game thrusts you into the world of ‘space trading’ as you make your way about the universe, trading supplies, equipping your ship with the latest weapons and technologies, and blast through pirates, as they attempt to destroy your vessel. The game features a menu based mechanic for selecting quests, talking to bar locals, upgrading your equipment and the buying and selling of goods and supplies. The game does a great job of making the menus easy to navigate, and it won’t take much time at all before you feel like you can just ‘dive in’. The battle mechanics are slightly different though, steering away from the menu options to more of a ‘point and click’ system that will have you selecting modes of attack, and clicking on the appropriate enemies for their impending destruction. The map works relatively the same, as you point to where you wish to go, and click to get your ass there.
During the beginning of the story, Black Market grasps your attention through Vincent (the protagonist) by waking him up from what seems to be a deep slumber. But have no fear, your trusty eye patch, a.k.a. Hardgrove, is there to let you know why you don’t remember anything, and why he is talking to you through your eye patch in the first place. Hardgrove basically takes you through the games short tutorial and springs you into the universe to do with it as you please. Black Market controls well, with a nice change of pace from the menu based system when docked, to the explosive ‘point and click’ battles, and looks beautiful. The game is fun and a great addition to the IndieFort Bundle.
Cardinal Quest
The next game featured in the IndieFort Bundle, Cardinal Quest is an arcade-style dungeon game inspired by such great games as Gauntlet. You begin the game with a brief story of an Evil Minotaur that needs slaying, and you can do so with one of three characters; A Fighter, a Thief or a Wizard. Each one has a distinct set of abilities that they use to make their way through the halls of the dungeons, battling their way to better loot, and encountering numerous enemies.
The game is very simple to play, and does a fantastic job of instilling upon you, a fresh yet nostalgic feeling that games of this generation seem to overlook. For a moment, you feel as you did when you first played Gauntlet, not knowing what was behind the next door, fighting your way through dungeons, not knowing where to go, but eager to venture everywhere. Most AAA releases won’t come as close to capturing that feeling as Cardinal Quest does, and that in itself is worth the minimum balance of the IndieFort Bundle.
Devil Whiskey
Devil Whiskey is a turn-based RPG, originally produced by Shifting Suns Studios. The intro to the game itself was very intriguing. The camera panning above the ocean, with a lush forest landscape slightly off to the right took me back to my younger days when (those of us that know) would sit alone at night, playing turn-based RPG’s in the dark until your eyes burned, awaiting what amazing creature you would encounter next, always worried what hideous beast lurked at your back.
Devil Whiskey, much like Cardinal Quest, will capture your attention through nostalgia, and never let you shake it free. The game is easy to control, the artwork is amazing and you create your own party members from a plethora of races and classes. The playable races are: Human, Elf, Half-Elf, Dwarf, Anthros (most prevalent race, Human/Dwarfish), Gnome, Beggans (small, gnome-like people), Orkin (Half-Orcs) and Saurians (reptile like bipedal creatures) and Senrats (Half man, Half Rat). There are also a multitude of classes available such as: Arcanist, Barbarian, Bard, Elementalist, Monk, Paladin, Psi Knight, Ranger, Rouge, Saurian Red Claw and Warrior.
There is lots of life in this game, and it makes a great edition to the IndieFort Bundle. The game generally retails for around 25 bucks, so getting it at a discounted price, and bundled with other great games is more than enough reason to invest in the bundle.