FreeMind S.A. introduces NEVERWAKE, a challenging retro roguelite RPG from the creator of the well-received IT Specialist Simulator. The Steam page is now live, and players can add the game to their wishlists.
Your mission sounds simple: find a very special three-legged table. Unfortunately, the fantasy world between you and that table is full of monsters, dangerous encounters, and an unreasonable number of ways to die.
Inspired by classic 1980s computer RPGs, NEVERWAKE combines retro pixel art and a nostalgic CRT look with tactical turn-based battles, loot, exploration, and permanent upgrades. Every failed expedition is a chance to learn, grow stronger, and push further on the next run.
Your first expedition probably won’t end well. Neither will your second. But that table isn’t going to find itself.
Shardwatch Dominion for PlayStation 5 was sent to me by Brainium Games which is appreciated. The game itself is a tower defense game. You are set up in a middle of a map and must defend a castle. You simply build towers where the enemy will come, and hope they do the job.
As you kill enemies some of your towers will spawn little crystals, you can probably guess its the big blue crystals. You can use these on things like arrow towers, spells, towers that shoot saw blades and other things like traps. If this sounds easy, you would be right.
It took me about an hour to get the platinum for this game, including 1 death, which was intentional to get the trophy for dying. As you can tell, it is also not a very long game. As a bonus, it isn’t a vert expensive game either. The game is only $7 and functions pretty well. The only real issue I have is the game also wasn’t that fun to me. After every wave you get to pick a card, some unlock the new towers others upgrade the ones you already have.
That is really all there is to the game however. Shardwatch Dominion is far from being a bad game, and it isn’t even a bad way to introduce someone to the Tower Defense genre if I am being honest. Unless you are willing to spend $7 on a platinum however, get this 5/10 title on sale. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.
How Empires Work was sent to me by Crow Cottage. How Empires Work is an incremental grand strategy game. It plays out with a clock you can speed up or pause, as you would expect; there are even some basic troops you can move around and enter into a basic form of combat.
The huge difference here is the fact that you start with one city and just collect taxes and recruit troops. The troops will fight off bandits. Over time, you can expand to a new city and start the process over again. Soon you will be able to automate the processes of doing things like collecting taxes and recruiting troops. Even making small armies and shipping taxes and trade eventually all become automated.
This is where the challenge comes in. Automate certain things too soon, and your economy will crash. Don’t make any mistakes; this game is not as in-depth as the grand strategy games you are used to, and while most things can be automated, not everything can. You will spend a lot of time clicking to collect things, for example. Building roads is necessary and relatively cheap, for example, but new technology can be insanely costly.
For an early access title, however, the game is pretty good with a lot of potential. At $10, the game has some decent playtime attached to it, and I am hoping for some more polish and a few more automation options; this 7/10 game can definitely reach higher. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.
The epic 2D fantasy adventure Elements Destiny is coming to PC (Steam & GOG), PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, XBOX One and Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch. Solitas will soon open its gates.
Step Into the World of Solitas
What begins in a quiet, peaceful hamlet carries the lingering weight of past tragedies and ancient sacrifices. Players will control Erika, a young huntress whose troubling nightmares hint at a far greater fate. You won’t carry this burden alone, Lia, Maline, and Karen join Erika on her quest, each bringing their own strength to the struggle for Solitas.
What Awaits You
Strategic Turn-Based Combat: Unleash devastating elemental powers, forge legendary equipment, and master herbalism. Each character has unique abilities that are crucial to outsmarting formidable foes.
A True JIGRPG Experience: The golden era of classic JRPGs (inspired by legendary gems from the Game Boy Advance era), blended with a distinct modern touch.
Striking Retro Aesthetics: Nostalgic pixel art harmoniously paired with amazing, hand-drawn character illustrations.
An Epic Audio Journey: Fully voiced by over 40 professional German voice actors, packed with a rich soundtrack featuring more than 100 original tracks.
Classic Spirit, Modern Polish: Traditional RPG depth enhanced with smooth, modern controls and thoughtful QOL features.
Elements Destiny is finally being released after all these years. Get ready to embark on an unforgettable journey and reclaim what was lost. Mark your PC, PlayStation, and XBOX calendars for December 8thand your Switch calendar for December 15th, 2026!
A title that will put a smile on the face of every indie fan and folks who remember the good old days of gaming. Crystals Of Irm is heading straight to PC, PlayStation 4, 5, XBOX One, Series S|X, and Nintendo Switch on January 21st, 2027! It wouldn’t be us if we didn’t invite you to check out our carefully crafted trailer, straight from the deepest dungeons of our video magician.
Speaking of dungeons, in Crystals Of Irm you will have plenty to crawl into! Dungeons mean dreadful monsters, backpacks full of loot, and powerful spells. As the party leader of three heroes from Irm, you will unleash your force on all the monstrosities in unparalleled fast-paced Grid Battles where your wits will be tested. So, move quickly!
But smiting opponents all day might make you tired, naturally. So, explore the Overworld map, talk to vibrant characters in unique cities, quarries, mines, and farms. Or, grab a rod and just catch your breath while fishing. There are plenty of ways you can enjoy your time in a game that sheds some new light on retro games and creatively blends first-person dungeon crawling with bullet-hell battles.
On behalf of Deck13 Spotlight and developer David Schütze, we’re honoured to invite all gamers to exploreCrystals Of Irmon PC and Consoles, January 21st 2027. Mark your calendars, polish your armor, pick powerful spells and may the Crystals shine for you!
Annihilated is a Roguelike RPG sent my way by Flashlight Games and Death Kumiai Games, and for that I am grateful. Annihilated is not your usual roguelike; it is very story-driven. So much so that I should warn you: some patches are very text-driven. This is not a big deal for most people, but for some of you it might be, and I thought I would give you a heads-up.
Another thing to warn you about: the game has various branching paths. You can make a decision that will end your game quite suddenly, and hilariously. Do not worry too much about that; the game does revert you back to before you made that choice so you can avoid it.
This brings me to my favorite part of the game: the combat has managed to make me not hate destructible weapons in an RPG. See, normally the only thing losing a weapon gets you is the fear of using a powerful weapon that you may waste, or if you are lucky, the game lets you get an item from it to build or enchant something else. In this one, basically anything that isn’t your basic setup will break after you use it enough. As you would expect, those are also the best items. The reason it isn’t bad that they break however, is that’s when they become the most useful. Your healing item might heal for far more; the damage-dealing beast you have may suddenly become something even bosses can’t deal with.
When you combine this with a cast of characters you won’t soon forget and an art style built for this sort of game, it becomes easy to recommend. When you find out it is a $17 title, however, it becomes a 9/10 must-buy. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.
Friendly Foe Games sent me Pit of Goblin, and I thank them for that. Admittedly, this one was a weird one for me to review. Don’t take that to mean the game is bad; far from actually, sort of. I am going to go in reverse for this review and tell you where this game epically fails, so when I say the good stuff and inevitably recommend this game, it won’t come off as weird.
First, the game has no tutorial at all. You will be dropped into the game to just figure it out. Should you buy a torch? A rock? Follow the other people and sort it out. How does the elevator work, and what floor should you go to? Better guess. The game also has some sketchy controls and graphics and no explanation for what you should be doing, really, but talking to a few people on the top floor does make it pretty clear you need to feed the queen.
The lighting is also kind of terrible at times; even with a light source, some areas are so dark it is hard to see. Stack this with the fact that playing alone or with a random group is basically not an option. You need the right group of friends to make this game fun.
This brings me to my final point. The game is $8, and aside from some minor technical issues- nothing game-breaking- when you do get lucky enough to have a good random group, or if you have a group of friends to play with, this game is one of the most fun games at this price point. Listening to your friends scream as a rat suddenly pops out, or it being feeding time and being just a bit too low on food so you try to toss your friend on the food tray to see what happens, is worth the money alone. The game is a 6/10 game, but with friends it is a lot of fun and worth picking up. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.
Escape From Playtime was sent my way by Mob Entertainment. Thanks to my daughter, I know way more about Poppy’s Playtime than I would like, and when I saw this, I thought, finally, one of their games I would actually like to try, even though I own and have played as few.
I won’t lie, I have heard the rumors that most of the team was laid off earlier this week. That won’t affect my review or my recommendation for this one. Yes, this is either a sign of my ethics or a sign of what is to come. If you don’t know, keep reading and find out; if you do know me, keep reading and find out if I actually have ethics.
The concept of the game is sound. It fits naturally with the world and the lore. It is just you and your friends (or solo, but it is meant for co-op) trying to survive in the Playtime universe in places like the warehouse or classrooms while being hunted by the hungry dwellers. This all sounds great, and all for $10. So where does it break down?
It really starts to fall to pieces when you download the game. At first, unless you had a friend or joined a Discord or group, there was no way to play with other people. It was strictly password-only. Eventually, they did add matchmaking, and this made the game only slightly better. I say slightly because it didn’t really become easier to find people to play with. It could still take a decent chunk of time if you picked a bad time to try, and never if you picked a worse time. (There are fewer than 300 people as I write this.)
The controls also aren’t great; there are maybe one or 2 enemies that matter, so any decent team is fine, and worse, most of the items are either useless or so overpowered that finding a few breaks the game anyway. The biggest sin this game commits, however, is that it doesn’t do anything. In a world with a ton of things going on that could have been placed in this world to make it different from the 20 other games that follow this same pattern of explore and collect items, it did not do any of them, or even invent a new one. It did not even try to fake it. At $10, this 4/10 early-access title is going to have to stay there for a long time before I can recommend it. With a multiplayer aspect that barely works and very little to do once it does, don’t waste your time with this one. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.
Stupid Never Dies was sent my way by the great people over at GPTRACK and I am eternally grateful for this one. Everything I am about to say about this game is one mans opinion. Stupid Never Dies has been met with mixed reviews, some positive, some saying it is just ok. One from Polygon very unjustly calls it “Easily the worst Game of 2026” (Yes I linked them, give them the traffic I don’t mind, then come back and tell me if i am overreacting calling it unjust in a year when Tokyo Scramble came out?)
Now anyway I digress, Stupid Never Dies is the story of Davy, a zombie in a world not unlike ours, except very different. Here monsters live on tv and in games and books. In Davys world they lived more in a parallel layer of Earth near us. One day, someone or something disturbed that and monsters mixed into the human side.
I will skip past a bunch of plot points as to not ruin the story, suffice it to say Davy ended up with some friends in a mall, attempting to over throw the king of the monsters. They all have their own reasons for wanting Davy to use his powers to eat other monsters and use their powers to beat the king, but Davys? Only one thing can make a zombie rise of from the weakest creature on Earth to fight a possible god, and it isn’t brains, it is love. Well one sided love, she is frozen solid in a freezer and has no clue Davy exists.
Ok so have we established the story is basically an 80s B movie in video game form? Awesome lets move on. Graphically the game is impressive considering the company has made exactly this game. The music is equally amazing at really hitting home the pop punk vibe they were going for. Now, if you don’t like these things I can quickly see where the game won’t be for you, but don’t mistake not for you with bad.
The combat however is where the game struggles, and that isn’t up for discussion. How in 2026 do you not have a lock on button in an action game? They thought to add a ring around the player to represent how far certain ranged attacks would land, but not a lock on? This alone made using certain powers damn near pointless to even try to use. I have thousands of kills with certain monsters and maybe 30 with others because there is no pay off to struggling against the controls.
As much as I personally love this game for the story and how much I enjoy the humor, this is 100% one of those games I will caution you before you buy. $50 is a hefty price for a game you may not enjoy. You can expect about 15-20 hours if you play at an average pace, so maybe wait for a sale if you are on the fence. I enjoyed my time with this 7/10 title, and would say it is worth the $50 for me personally, but I will say many would disagree. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.
First, a huge thank you to Stormind Games for sending us the deluxe version of the game. The soundtrack is exquisite and I really enjoyed the artbook; absolutely worth the extra money. This is my first time with the Remothered series, so unfortunately I can’t really compare it to the previous installments or pick up on the series overall connections.
Sarah’s daughter Agata went missing without a trace. Her and her husband might’ve come across a glimmer of hope at the Ashmann Villa beneath the looming, slumbering volcano Mt. Etna. Quickly Sarah and her husband are separated and it becomes clearly they aren’t safe. Sarah is plunged into a dark mystery of vengeful nuns out for blood as she discovers her own supernatural gifts, learning Agata maybe the final piece in a horrific puzzle.
Oh boy, the story of this game is not for the faint of heart. Much like Hellraiser: Revival and Mouthwashing, this game deals with some incredibly heavy topics such as sexual assault and the trauma related to it. There is a trigger warning upon starting the game, but I’m just putting it out there. The game’s overall story I found to be one of it’s best selling points. I was genuinely intrigued to find out what in the hell was going on. I will say I wasn’t so much invested with Sarah, the player character, but the tragic story of Gloria we unravel throughout the game through memories. I really enjoyed the use of psychic abilities like recovering memories and finding secrets within mirrors.
Gameplay is predominately stealth based with puzzle solving. You can’t kill the enemies but hide, run, and stun. I was utterly grateful this wasn’t an Outlast situation where it’s running simulator. The enemies are persistent but not enough to be annoying. The Bride is the standout enemy of the game for good reason, her design is pretty damn disturbing and instantly elevates the anxiety the game does well to maintain. I like the unsettling black and white clips littered throughout the game with some jaw dropping imagery I wasn’t prepared for. The puzzles aren’t too demanding but not brain dead.
I must confess I wish the game clicked more with me. Partly way it took me so long to finish this review was trying to putting my finger on why it wasn’t. Great story, atmosphere, music, and enemy design with solid gameplay. I think part of it was I never connected with Sarah at all. Her voice actress did great. All the voice talent did. Sarah does a few stupid things throughout the game like running into danger alone when she could’ve had back up if she waited thirty seconds, and some of her narration made me laugh when it wasn’t supposed to. I found the enemies of the story so much more engaging than the main character. Part of it maybe the stealth aspect which makes traversing slow, which ain’t bad, but when you suck at path finding like myself, that means a lot of ground to back track.
In the end, I enjoyed Remothered quite a bit although ultimately, the game wasn’t quite for me. As it stands, I’d give it a solid 8/10 because it will hook you and keep on edge throughout a fair length game. Again, many thanks to Stormind Games for sending us the deluxe version, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.
