Whenever a Steam sale comes out, I tend to get a whole bunch of indie games. Here's a list of the indie games I got during the Steam Summer Sale this year:
Chicory: A Colorful Tale:
I was really hyped for Chicory ever since its announcement. A Zelda-like adventure game about painting made by the creator of Wandersong and composed by Lena Raine of Celeste fame, this had the potential to be something amazing. Thankfully, I wasn't let down in the slightest. Chicory is an incredibly charming and wholesome game with fun exploration, a great presentation, and a surprisingly deep story. The world strikes a solid balance between being large and open, while also being dense and packed with side quests and collectibles. The puzzles can be pretty clever at times, and the boss fights are genuinely tricky bullet hell dodging games. The real highlight though is just how many options you get for playing around in this coloring book. You can get costumes to customize your character, brush styles like fills and textures, abilities like swimming through ink, furniture and decorations to place wherever you want, a photo function, and so much more. Chicory is an incredibly welcoming game that encourages you to express yourself and play in any way you want. I'm a really big fan of accessible and wholesome games like this, it gave me serious A Short Hike vibes.
The story is also really great here too, it deals with imposter syndrome in a respectful manner, which kinda feels like the perfect topic for a game about art to tackle. It's easy to feel like your art (or anything else you're passionate about) sucks and that you don't deserve any praise that's heaped onto you, but Chicory runs with its message that you're valid no matter how you draw through its (mostly) positive dialogue and slew of options. Don't get me wrong though, it's not all sunshine and roses, this game can and will punch you in the gut. The art style is cute and charming (though its black and white environments and characters leave room for you to draw), and the music from Lena Raine is great. It's varied and optimistic while still using a bunch of leitmotifs in unique ways. As a whole, I was very satisfied that the game ended up as good as I hoped it would. Currently, it's in the running for my game of the year so far.
5/5 Stars
Baba Is You:
Baba Is You is one of the most creative puzzle games I've ever played, and it continues to surprise me with its inventive mechanics. It's basically a Sokoban-style game about programming, where you have to manipulate the rules of the world, starting with simple puzzles like removing the hitboxes from the walls, and build up to insane challenges that allow you to completely destroy the boundaries of the game itself. Each puzzle is inventive and unique, and figure out the right solution almost always leaves me feeling smart. Even more, many puzzles have multiple solutions, some likely unintended, so sometimes I'm not even sure if I have solved them correctly.
Baba Is You has a ton of levels, over 200 from what I've heard, so the fact that nearly all of them manage to stand out from each other is an impressive feat for a puzzle game. There are also some really charming puzzles like the iconic poem one where you have to manipulate a "Roses is Red" poem to modify the world's literal roses. The sketchy artstyle is distinct and cute on its own, and the calming music is pretty great. I wish I could say a bit more about this one, but there are so many secrets, surprises, and extras that I just don't want to spoil. It really is best to go into Baba Is You blind. It's a clever and tough puzzle game that demonstrates exactly why I love programming so much.
5/5 Stars
N++:
N++ is a pretty solid precision platformer with tight controls and a fairly basic design. There isn't much of a story here, you basically play as a ninja and run through these sterile obstacle courses. The controls feel great, pretty much entirely built on momentum as you jump up walls and fly over obstacles, and the level design has a fairly great difficulty curve throughout. Eventually, the levels do become genuinely tough, but never to the point of feeling unfair. Everything is under your control. N++ is also filled to the brim with content, with multiple modes, multiplayer, tons of levels, collectibles, time trials, and even a level creator. It'll probably take me a very long time to get through the whole thing.
However, the reason why I'm not going to be rating it as highly as the other two games is just how simple it is. N++ boasts incredibly basic level design that doesn't really push any boundaries compared to other precision platformers like Super Meat Boy and Celeste. We have our staples here like spikes, lasers, and keys, but the last level of the game isn't all that different from the first level. It also doesn't help that the entire game has this clean vector look to it, that looks nice at first until you realize that it means pretty much every level looks the same. There are color schemes that you can switch between, but that's pretty much it. The music is also fairly unmemorable as well. Still, I definitely enjoy N++. It nails the game feel and difficulty curve that's necessary for making tough platformers like this, even if it never really goes above and beyond.
3/5 Stars
My ranking of the games I got is:
- Chicory: A Colorful Tale
- Baba Is You
- N++
No comments:
Post a Comment