The latest
indie bundle has been unveiled courtesy of Kyttaro Games, this one focusing entirely on adventure games. If you've read any of the book (or really, just the site's review of
Runaway), a lot of modern "professional" adventure games are kinda bad, and it's really the indie scene that keeps the spirit of the genre alive. The games featured in this bundle contains some of the best titles released in the past few years, so skipping it would be the height of foolishness. For the price you get DRM-free copies, as well as Steam keys (and the ability to download it on Desura, an indie game distribution platform that's a bit more open than Steam.) Read more for the contents, as well as the site's reviews, where applicable:
Gemini Rue
Astonishingly good sci-fi/cyberpunk tale with a fantastic visual style and an excellent story. If enough people buy the bundle, everyone will get the soundtrack too, which I bought separately when it came out and was worth the $10 alone.
A duo of comedic titles starring Ben and Dan, two British adventure game enthusiasts caught up in ridiculous scenarios, at least one of which involves Nazi dinosaurs and mecha-riding Hitlers, per above. Sketchy graphics but some of the best written, funniest dialogue to come out of any game in the past few years.
1893: A World’s Fair Mystery
Not super familiar with this one, actually! It's actually a pure interactive fiction game, which means full text entry with some supplementary graphics. It's also older than most of these, having been published in 2003.
The Sea Will Claim Everything
A brand new game from Jonas Kyratzes. Haven't gotten a chance to try it yet, but the art style is nice, and a brand new title in this bundle is a pretty decent deal. If you pay higher than average, you also get:
A short game about a crime solving rabbi. That makes it sound sillier than it is, but even though there are bits of humor, it's actually quite a dramatic murder mystery, with some excellent writing and voice acting.
Metal Dead
Yes, yes, zombies are the "in thing" right about now, but Metal Dead is a much more cartoonish, far sillier take on the topic than even something like Shaun of the Dead. It's quite dark and violent though, of course, with a healthy sprinkling of heavy metal stereotypes.
At any rate, every title in this package (the ones I've played anyway) all come very much recommended, making this an almost absurdly good deal. The only really major indie adventure game that I can think of that's missing are the entries in the Blackwell series, but one of them just came out a few months back, making it a bit too new. (Some of the entries were featured in another bundle not too long ago as well. They're also definitely worth grabbing regardless.)
Gemini Rue is definitely worth getting. Im really not sure about the rest though since I havent played them, but might as well get them all for the price of Gemini Rue.
ReplyDeleteThat text adventure game is bit weird choice. I know there's plenty of good text adventure games, I've played few myself, but at this day and age who would buy one unless its very cheap or comes in one of these bundles?
Did you mean to say "DRM free" copies? Or do you actually mean copies of the game with DRM? Damned tempting (min is $3 when I check just now), but DRM and Steam puts me off somewhat.
ReplyDeleteAccording to the website they're DRM free. But unfortunately there are no Linux (or even Mac) versions like with the Humble Bundles :(
ReplyDeletePurchased. Very excited for Gemini Rue.
ReplyDeleteSketcz: Yes, each game is available as a seperate DRM-free download.
@Sketcz I haven't bought it (yet), but on the down side it says "DRM Free!" so I guess it was a typo.
ReplyDeleteI have to get this.
Yup I meant DRM free. As usual, serves me right for posting right before I go to sleep.
ReplyDeleteWasn't The Shiva free for download? Or was that a limited time offer?
ReplyDeleteAlso, because Germany is the most awesome country for adventure game fans to live in, I've got the retail version of Gemini Rue. Still haven't gotten to play it, though. Couldn't stomach the way the protagonist pronounced "Boryokudan" (in the English dub) at first and put it away for later... gotta get back to play it one of these days...
The Shiva was and (I think?) still is free. But that's the text version. Then they made a "premium" voiced version for a small fee. Then, that voiced version was also made freely available, for a very limited time, then went back to being fee-based.
ReplyDeleteI think. Could be wrong. But that's how I remember it.
The Shivah now also has a director's commentary feature. It's had it for a while, actually.
ReplyDelete