Another year has come and gone, and a quick glance around the Interwebs seems to indicate that many gamers are remembering 2014 as the year that the AAA industry projectile-vomited a giant stream of rancid disappointment all over us before nicking our wallets and running away. This year saw plenty of examples of full priced, "AAA" games that launched full of bugs, glitches, shoddy netcode, busted DRM, and all manner of other anti-consumer BS, with companies more concerned about trying to sell us season passes and the next installment in the franchise while the current game was unplayable. Even games that did work ended up being completely underwhelming, even more so after the years of hype telling us that this would be THE next step in gaming.
It wasn't all bad, though. We still managed to have a pretty kickass 2014, all things considered. Shadow of Mordor and Wolfenstein: The New Order ended up being surprisingly awesome, we finally (almost) forgot about Colonial Marines with the release of a good Alien game, Hearthstone made us do questionable things to afford more packs, and the indie scene brought us some real gems. Age of Wonders 3, Transistor, Xenonauts, Shovel Knight, Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, Endless Legend, Divinity: Original Sin, Wasteland 2, This War of Mine, The Last Federation, Loadout, I could be here all night naming really good stuff I played (or still need to get around to) in 2014, but that's not why I'm writing this.
Instead, I'm looking towards the year ahead of us and all the promising indie titles of 2015 that could potentially be the sort of games that we will be reminiscing about this time next year. I was originally aiming for 50 games split into two articles, but the more I dig around the more uncertain I become of being able to trim the list down that low. As to whether or not any of these games will be good, well, I guess we'll just need to wait until 2016 to see just how accurate this list actually was.
Brigador
Genre: Isometric Vehicular Shooter
Developers: Stellar Jockeys
Release Date: Q2
Brigador, originally Matador, is an isometric vehicle-based shooter with visuals reminiscent of PC games from the '90s like Syndicate. Choose your vehicle and weapons and set out to liberate the city of Solo Nobre or die trying.
Satellite Reign
Genre: Real-Time Tactics
Developers: 5 Lives Studios
Release Date: Early Access, Full Release TBA
Speaking of Syndicate, the spiritual successor to Syndicate Wars just hit Early Access last month. Developed by some of the original developers of the classic franchise, Satellite Reign is aiming to be the Syndicate 4 we never got. And no, that orgy of retina-melting light bloom EA released in 2012 doesn't count.
War for the Overworld
Genre: ITS MOTHER****ING DUNGEON KEEPER
Developers: Subterranean Games
Release Date: Early Access, Full Release TBA
Transitioning in from my previous segue is War for the Overworld, another spiritual successor to a Bullfrog classic that EA recently dragged kicking and screaming through the mud. The current beta build being sold on Early Access is getting there, but still has a ways to go. Hopefully we'll finally have the full game by the end of this year.
SUPERHOT
Genre: Turn-Based FPS?
Developers: SUPERHOT
Release Date: Free Prototype Out Now, Full Game TBA
Originally something cooked up by a few friends for the 7 Day First Person Shooter game jam, the prototype proved so overwhelmingly popular that they are turning it into a full game. This shooter's entire mechanic is brilliant yet incredibly simple: Time only moves when you do, effectively turning SUPERHOT into a...turn-based FPS?
Chroma Squad
Genre: Turn-Based Tactics, Management
Developers: Behold Studios
Release Date: Paid Beta, Full Game TBA
Chroma Squad is an odd mixture of a turn-based tactics game and a management sim where you run an independent Japanese sentai studio. Development ran into trouble last year when Saban of Power Rangers fame contacted the studio with legal threats if the developers didn't split the royalties. The outcome of that ridiculous legal scuffle isn't very well known, but hopefully everything worked out and the game will see a full release later this year.
Space Pirates and Zombies 2
Genre: Space Combat RPG
Developers: MinMax Games
Release Date: TBA
The sequel to the awesome top-down space shooter/RPG is due out this year and is moving to a 3D engine. SPAZ 2 also promises to be a bit more focused on survival than the previous title, as materials are more scarce in its procedurally-generated, open universe following the events of the last game.
Crypt of the Necrodancer
Genre: Rhythm Roguelite
Developers: Brace Yourself Games
Release Date: Early Access, Full Release TBA
Crypt of the Necrodancer is one of a small handful of Early Access games that I have no problem recommending now. This rhythm-based roguelite is already great and should only get better once it is done later this year.
Distance
Genre: Racing
Developers: Refract
Release Date: Early Access, Full Release TBA
I only occasionally dip into racing games, and when I do they are normally futuristic or fantastical to some degree. Such will be the case with Distance, a sci-fi "survival" racing game with a striking neon color palette and crazy courses designed to take full advantage of your car's ability to fly.
Rain World
Genre: Roguelite Platformer
Developers: Project Rain World
Release Date: TBA
The game that won over Kickstarter with a million and one gorgeous .gifs of cute slug-cat animal things trying to avoid being devoured by big lizard-slug things in a run-down world where the rain is deadly. Find a mate and make adorable baby slugcats, then watch them get horribly eaten by larger predators!
Ironcast
Genre: Puzzle, Turn-Based
Developers: Dreadbit
Release Date: TBA
Ironcast is basically Puzzle Quest with mechs in a steampunk version of Victorian London. The game barely made its goal on Kickstarter a few months back; hopefully they can actually finish development and make enough once the game comes out to make those stretch goals a possibility.
Be sure to check back soon for the next part of this ongoing series!