Gloomy-cute pixel art, telegraphed enemy attacks. The Superhot of turn-based tactics? The Into the Breach of running out of games to compare this sort of thing to? The Dark Souls of please forgive these genre shorthands, it’s Monday morning and my brain is melting? Something like that. It’s obviously very funny and well animated – that’s a given – but there’s also quite a tense, involved tactics game underneath it all. Combat is vaguely similar to a tactical JRPG, but designed for people who think eating ground up badger testicles will immunise them from the black plague. Yaza Games’ Inkulinati is a medieval manuscript-style tactics game. Probably one of the higher profile demos on the list, but worth mentioning all the same. Reminds me a bit of Smash TV, in that “like a SNES game you’d hide from your parents” way. You balance feeding, equipping, and levelling up your cadre of human cattle as they move from room to room, fighting zombies and robots. It’s a sort of tactical-roguelike-autobattler that sees you overseeing a band of quivering pink flesh puppets. I am still not sure I fully understand this thing, but I am very much on board with it. Snatches of conversation between the singer’s old band that play when you solve puzzles gives the whole thing a very singular, secretive feel. It’s both cerebral and soothing, with a playful jazz inspired soundscape. This lovely 3D narrative puzzler puts you in control of a jazz singer’s ghost as you float around the woods solving tactile puzzles. Then you get a jeep, and things go from tense stealth and tactics to vehicular homicide power fantasy in an instant. Enemies move when you do, on hexagonal grids, and you can get some free swings or shots in if you can predict where they’re going. Grungy, mud-flecked, but incredibly detailed art and combat somewhere between real-time and turn based. I immediately got big Shadowrun, Syndicate, and Fallout 1 vibes from this, although it’s very much its own kettle of gunky cyber implants. The actual stealth doesn’t seem too bad either, and there’s some pretty involved, winding level design. Retro stealth-puzzle-action with a Lucasarts adventure game sense of humour, and clear love for Metal Gear, warts and all. Dumb as shit but frequently lol-some riff on the first two Metal Gear titles.
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