Indie Round-Up
It’s been a bit of a quiet week in the indie scene as everyone continues to betray their friends in Among Us and slash their way out of the underworld in Hades. Additionally, a lot of current media coverage is revolving around the shiny new consoles launching in a little over a month and the games coming out in a crowded holiday season. Also, did you hear Minecraft stuff is coming to Smash? Because I sure did from every single person I’ve ever come across in my life. It feels like even if something big did happen in indie gaming this week, it might have gotten buried under all the AAA gaming news. But don’t worry, I’ve been keeping track, and here’s a quick breakdown of some of the most interesting indie gaming stories I found this week!
Massive Binding of Isaac Expansion Almost Done
Binding of Isaac creator Edmund McMillen has revealed that the upcoming Repentance expansion is over 90% done and that the team is working to ensure that it’s the “Sequel DLC” players have always wanted. He revealed the update in a blog post over on the game’s official Steam page earlier this week, along with the official Binding of Isaac: Repentance “Coming Soon” page. It’s been quite a while since we’ve heard from the team, and over two years since the Repentance expansion was revealed. McMillen promises that this is the “FINAL FINAL FINAL mega expansion,” and that the game’s blog will be updated “fairly regularly starting the second half of October.” He also promised that fans will “shit your asses when you get your hands on it,” which is…that’s good, right? That’s something to be excited about? The blog post did mention console versions as well, but that a team member named Tyrone will have updates regarding them at a later time. According to the official Steam page, the expansion is set to include over 25 new bosses, more than 100 new enemies, 130+ new items, 2 new playable characters, 5 new challenges, over 100 new achievements, and more than 5,000 new room designs. That’s pretty huge! It’s awesome to see this game come such a long way from its humble flash beginnings back in 2011. Hopefully, we’ll also get some word soon on whether or not this cult classic will be making its way to next-gen consoles anytime soon.
Blightbound Update Brings AI Teammates and New Hero
Early access dungeon crawler Blightbound has released the new “Helping Hands” update that brings AI teammates into the mix. Since the game revolves around players forming a complete party with tank, DPS, and healer roles, this means that those unable to wrangle some friends or matchmake some strangers to join them will be able to continue their dungeon crawling without a disadvantage. Additionally, the game has received a new hero named Seirinne. Seirinne is a thief/rogue archetype with an ability called Shadow Statue that stalls enemies while piling damage onto them over a short period of time, which sounds an awful lot like a former partner of mine. If you’ve been looking to check out Blightbound, now may be the time as it’s currently 20% off on Steam. If you’re already a fan and would like to see the full patch notes, you can check those out here.
Airborne Kingdom Coming to PC This December
If you’re like me and spend way too much time window shopping for games to add to your pile of shame in online stores, you may have noticed a pretty little title called Airborne Kingdom hanging out in the Epic Games Store. It’s a city builder with exploration elements, as you can lift your city into the air and fly it around like a Terran Command Center, plopping it down wherever you’d like. There’s some good news for those who have been waiting to become King of the Skies – developer The Wandering Band has set a release date for December 17th, when the game will launch for PC and Mac and cost $27.99 CAD/$19.99 USD. Here’s hoping by that time we can pull ourselves away from Cyberpunk 2077 and our shiny new consoles long enough to actually give it a shot.
Chinatown Detective Agency Gets New Demo
Speaking of Cyberpunk, the onslaught of indie games sporting the sci-fi subgenre seems to not be slowing down anytime soon. Earlier this week a new demo for point-and-click cyberpunk mystery game Chinatown Detective Agency was released, and it looks like it’ll have its own place in the genre’s current insurgence. Our own Nicola Kapron detailed quite a bit of the demo in covering the news earlier this week (thanks Nicola!) but what’s interesting to me is the way the game wears its influences on its sleeve. For example, in one of the screenshots released, you can see a hologram of a pink-skinned blue-haired woman in the distance – a clear homage to Ana De Armas’ character in Blade Runner 2019. The trailer for the demo also shows off a unique cast of characters and quite a bit of action for a point-and-click with the main character kicking in a door to a hostage situation near the end. The Day One demo can be downloaded for free over on Steam, and the game is slated for an Early 2021 release date.
Amnesia: Rebirth Gameplay Trailer Reveals the Horrors That Await
As much as I love horror, I’ll admit I am too much of a fraidy-cat to dive into the Amnesia series the way I would like to – and from the looks of it, the upcoming threequel Rebirth will not be swaying me out of that mindset anytime soon. I had to actually watch the trailer so I could write this and within seconds felt that familiar sense of “fuck this, I’m outta here.” That’s a good thing because horror games are supposed to put the piss in your pants, right? Well, consider my pants thoroughly pissed. The opening sequence in the trailer is way too relatable of a nightmare we’ve all had of being chased by an unknown entity making disgusting sounds. The rest of the trailer is more atmospheric than anything else but by the sheer virtue of being an Amnesia title, manages to keep you on the edge of your seat. Nicola dives a bit more into what the game’s got goin’ on in their coverage of the trailer, and you can wishlist the game on Steam now before it’s October 20th release date – just in time for Halloween.
What do you think of this week’s indie gaming news? Are you looking forward to the Binding of Isaac expansion? How about stocking up on adult diapers for that new Amnesia? As always, let us know what you think of this week’s roundup in the comments, and be sure to keep it locked to COGconnected for all your gaming news!
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