You wake up stranded, after seemingly crashing your ship on The Sarcophagus — a giant, space-drifting, cosmic uterus holding an ancient demonic being known asULTROS. Trapped in the eternal loop of a black hole, you will have to explore The Sarcophagus and meet its inhabitants to understand the part you play.
Are you the gruesome breaker of this cycle, or can you become a link from destruction to rebirth?
A PSYCHEDELIC SCI-FI JOURNEY
ULTROS is set in a multifaceted realm - a vast alien landscape teeming with life. Grounded in science fiction, ULTROS comes wrapped in an eccentric art style and a mystical soundtrack from the visionary El Huervo, renowned for his work on Hotline Miami. ULTROS explores meta-themes of mental health, life, death, and karmic cycles through deep lore and environmental storytelling.
A WORLD OF CONTRAST
Experience brutal, intimate, close-quarter combat with cosmic lifeforms, driven by a sense of urgency – where precision is paramount and every cut of your blade counts. Yet this intense combat is juxtaposed with cultivating the greenery and tending to plant life in The Sarcophagus, providing precious moments of contemplation and peace. In turn, this grants deeper access to obscured paths.
A MYSTERIOUS, LAYERED LOOP
The rich world ofULTROSholds many secrets for those curious enough — and fearless enough — to seek them out. A unique loop-based mechanic will allow you to start over at key moments in the story, providing opportunities to unfold such secrets, unlock different areas of the world and new abilities on a branching skill tree. Experiment with and master your own specific fighting style as you explore the world ofULTROS. Each loop brings you closer to the truth...
It's about damn time that we received a Blazblue 2D platformer. It makes sense, they don't have to be stuck in an arena, open the world up and... send us on a kickass adventure! This is promising and has the potential of bleeding over into Blazblue fighting games. I can picture it now, remove the drawn-out cutscenes and let us reach the destination of battle in a certain mode. Arcade can remain arcade, and adventure can incorporate what we see here. I'll get my head out of the clouds though, because they don't need to be there with BlazBlue Entropy Effect... out now (in Early Access).
BlazBlue Entropy Effect is a brand-new action roguelike developed by a team with years of experience in action games, ready to present what they claim to be "the best 2D action combat experience the world has ever seen!"
According to the developers, each character has its own traits and hundreds of moves to choose from as you create your unique combos. The Legacy System makes each battle a unique experience. This is easy to confirm as truth because they're using the character moves from the BlazBlue universe.
Tactics come into play by way of you being able to select from eight different elements like lightning, fire, light, umbra, and more plus over 200 upgrades that you can utilize in various way to go nuts with your combos. My hands are twitching just thinking about it jumping into this Metroidvania-inspired game and its sandbox-style levels.
While the characters are familiar, BlazBlue Entropy Effect is a spin-off of the BlazBlue series. It has its own original storyline. By the way, you can snatch this game up for $19.99.
We got a request to cover this indie title and thought it would be a perfect opportunity to showcase the game... and speak on indie dev projects like this.
Shadow of the Guild is described as an epic tale of the Rain Merchants Guild. In this side-scrolling beat-em-up adventure, you play as Yaran, an assassin with a powerful combination of mage and warrior skills. You're able to perform stealth attacks, cast spells, and use combos for a variety of attacks.
Features:
RPG: 3 skill trees to follow the path that suits you best: Warrior, Mage, and Assassin
Beat 'em all: Dynamic fights where you can mix your skills in epic combos
Items: Consumables, throwing weapons and a whole bunch of runes to give you new skills
Exploration: Side quests, special items, secret passages
I like what I'm seeing in this game. As you've heard in the first 30, I understand that the road of indie development is challenging... and there are a lot of indie games that never get this far. There are projects that come to a complete halt based on a lack of time and resources, so it's good to see those that break through.
If the team plans to continue updating the game past launch (which we don't know what that version looks like but), I see a number of things supporters can look forward to. One of the biggest things I see them updating is the art and animations, just fleshing them out more (because a number of assets look like concept art/placeholders).
I wouldn't normally post these... but the team gave me the green light to proceed, so shout out to them. If you're a dev team on the road to release and your game is playable, I think there's a bit more grace for an indie dev versus a bigger studio.
If the game is playable with the finishing touches being minor (or other things have to be implemented), consider early release. It makes sense, especially if the bugs aren't game breakers because... it can help fund the rest of the project or put more wind in your sail to get it released. I say this because of what I've mentioned with some projects coming to a halt, if you can avoid that and deliver a great game... early release could be the route for you and you can update it moving forward. Just make sure that you follow up with the updates so that the efforts don't go to waste as a result of burning supporters.
As far as Shadow of the Guild goes, I enjoyed the gameplay, and the stealth kill scenes. The stealth kills are brutal... so (parents) keep in mind that the mature content will likely get it an "M" (for mature) rating. I don't know what else they have in store... I know that there was a warning + the First 30 showcased some of it, so just keep that in mind when it comes to your kids.
Anyway, the game definitely reminds me of Prince of Persia + Mark of the Ninja, but when it's all said and done... I hope it stands on its own as a memorable title.
"They Always Run": The single-player 2-D platformer + space western.
Developed and Published by Alawar Premium
Released October 20th, 2021
Story:"They Always Run" is a single-player 2-D platformer with space and western themes Developed and published by Alawar Premium. You play as Aidan, a 3-armed mutant bounty hunter. As a bounty hunter you will be rewarded with not only money but also information that leads you down a rabbit hole of a galaxy-wide conspiracy!
Gameplay:The game does a great job of introducing you to the many controls that will be used as a 3 armed bounty hunter. While I'm not the best at fighting, navigation was a breeze in the game and oh so smooth. I had so much fun zooming through the levels. I did struggle with remembering how to parry and dodge a lot, along with frequently dying at the hands of gunmen. However, the quick re-spawn and the nearest check-point and no live count kept me going and trying, again and again, to get to the next checkpoint.
If you're looking for a breeze of a game, this isn't it, but if you're into challenges and have nostalgia for Samus and her Metroid games, you may have found a gem here.
Replay Value + Visuals:I love pixel art, so it was already a plus in my book. The game is visually pleasing and I found myself thinking how well done and pretty they made the animation of blood spewing from my foes.
Price:The purchase price of $19.99 is great for those who love 2-D platformers and generally the way indie titles are priced. I would say as a gamer, I wouldn't bat an eye at dropping cash for a game like this.
"They Always Run", is now available on Gog.com, Steam, and Epic Games!
