Greetings and welcome back fellow strategists and gunners. Hope you have kept your wits sharp and your trigger-finger ready to go, because we are going back into Interplanetary for some more planet-bombardment action. The folks at Team Jolly Roger Games have made many improvements to the game since we last looked at it, including graphical fixes, network improvements, more weapons of mass destruction, a tech tree and research mechanic, a working spying mechanic, and other improvements and goodies. I have been purposefully keeping myself in the dark about the game’s development, so that way each iteration can become more of a surprise for my next skirmish. Boy I must say, they really have made some great strides since my initial preview, which you can read here if you haven’t already.

The first topic I wish to talk about is possibly the biggest and most influential of them all, the spying mechanic. Previously you could view your opponent’s planet and see where all cities and developments have been placed, allowing precision-based weapons to take a huge advantage and dominate the weapon selections. With the recent changes, you no longer have all that info readily available. In order to view possible enemy weak points, you must construct buildings which will allow you to view planet infrastructure. Depending on your planet’s level of intelligence – the number of spy buildings you have – the possible targets available range from a couple low-value locales up to the entire planet. To keep away prying eyes, you can counter by building “cloaking” or counter-intelligence buildings in order to hide your planet’s infrastructure. This feature alone adds much more strategic gameplay and flow to the system, as players are no longer just racing to get the biggest and best guns. Priority is now split between getting your planet ready for conflict and keeping your cities and important structures hidden, creating both an arms and intelligence race.

Along with intelligence comes the research aspect of the game. You now need to research technology in order to access the bigger and more advanced weaponry. No longer are you able to build missiles and laser weapons right from the get go. Now you must allocate time in order for research to be done. This is done via a simple tech tree, where various tech and bonuses can be researched and applied to your advantage. Techs include giving permanent boosts such as more power production or spying levels as well as the ability to manufacture one of the two new weapons of massive destruction.

Now we are getting to the juicy parts of the new additions, the new weaponry. A new laser and artillery weapon have been added in the form of the ‘Solar Laser’ and the ‘Asteroid Diversion’ respectively. Once I noticed these weapons in the tech tree, I just HAD to acquire them and give them a shot (pun intended).

FIRE THE LASER!

The Solar Laser is a satellite parked in the sun’s orbit which focuses the sun’s power into a giant solar death ray, obliterating anything you set its deadly sights on with pinpoint precision. I couldn’t help but feel like an evil genius, pinky to mouth, when I set loose the focused wrath of the sun onto my enemy.

As cool as the Solar Laser is, I felt that the Asteroid Diversion was more “in tune” with the sci-fi nature of the game. As the name implies, the Asteroid Diversion weapon takes an asteroid from the local asteroid belt and diverts it to a course of your bidding, into say perhaps a nearby planet that you dislike. Nothing beats the sight of an asteroid hurtling out of space at full speed and slamming right into your enemy’s precious home planet. Numerous blockbusters and B-movies have been made on that premise, and now it is in your hands to unleash upon your foes. So set an asteroid loose on that pesky planet and whip out some popcorn for the show (3D glasses not included).

Recreate a B-movie disaster film on your enemy’s home planet

While all these additions are great, I have merely touched upon a few of the major updates to the game. Many other improvements have been made to the game such as improved multiplayer networking and graphical fixes, all showing that Team Jolly Roger have been putting a lot of effort and love into this project. I was blown away by my first look into the game many versions ago, and the current build they have on offer is no exception to that statement. I look forward to the next iteration of the game. If the additions they have made so far are any indication of the future trajectory of the game, we are in for an Earth-shattering (pun intended) release once the full game is out.
You can check out Interplanetary on Steam Early Access for those interested in some tactical fun. Let’s get those guns primed and lasers flying!

© 2014, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

Survivalist is an isometric 3D sandbox RPG zombie survival game, with great emphasis on the survival aspect. You begin the game as Joe Wheeler who has been hiding in an underground bunker in an attempt to avoid the spreading zombie virus. Supplies have run out after a year, thus you must venture out and procure food and water in order to keep on living. Simple enough, until you realize that there are zombies running around and civilized life is all but wiped out. What follows next is your daily struggle in the search for food and supplies in order to keep you alive and safe from the hazards of a devastated, zombie-infested, gang-ridden land. This being an open-world game, you are free to roam anywhere you please in the search for more supplies. The further you stray from the safety of your bunker though, the more dangers lurk around every corner.

Survivalist focuses on a more realistic tone to the genre than most games do. While you do have the usual gunning and scavenging aspect as seen in similar games such as DayZ, the core mechanic of Survivalist focuses on community and humanity as a whole. When exploring Survivalist’s desert wasteland setting, you will often come upon other survivors of the zombie uprising. Each encounter can easily shape the outcome of your playthrough as every person you meet has their own personality, relationships, and personal goals and needs. Your actions upon meeting this person can easily determine whether they are a friend or foe, and they will remember your choice as well. Rob a passerby early in the game and later on in your next meeting they will remember your face with a seething look of hatred pointed your way and possibly the barrel of a gun as well. Begin friendly trades with a well-armed group and they will welcome you happily to their camp for further use and trade. The amount of work put into the AI to simulate a living and thriving community among the NPCs was simply amazing to see. The fact that I can slowly work my way into the good graces of a community by buttering up one or two members and see the results of my goodwill spread among the rest of the members left me amazed.

Speaking of community, it is not solely limited to pre-established NPC clans. The option is there to build your own community as well. With enough supplies, manpower and skills, you can build your very own fortress to house yourself and any friends you make on your travels. One key member you will come across very early in the game is a woman named Alice who is a diabetic and requires a daily dose of insulin in order to keep her alive. With her among your group, not only do you need the basic necessities but you also need to procure a regular supply of her medication. In a world devasted by a zombie plague, modern medication such as insulin does not come readily available, with the few caches coming in at a steep price. Do you keep her with you and attempt to save what humanity is left, or do you simply abandon her, leaving her to a grim fate?

In my playthrough, I decided to let her tag along with me and did the best of my abilities to keep her regularly supplied with her much-needed medication. I will have to admit that this hit a lot closer to home than I was expecting from a game. I come from a high-risk group of people for diabetes and my family does have a history of the condition. The fact that I got a small glimpse of what I may have to resort to if the collapse of civilization actually occurred, left me in contemplative silence. Not many games I have played have managed to evoke a feeling like this from me, it is both humbling and frightening when I think about it.

The gameplay itself is broken down into familiar action-rpg style mechanics. You have skills ranging from fitness, guns, farming, and construction. Each one can be leveled up by using that particular skill, with successive levels adding more benefits for your continual survival. More fitness for example can allow you to run further and carry heavier loads; better gun skills will allow you to aim more accurately, taking down zombies with ease. The zombies, while not as deadly as the human threats you may come across, are no pushovers themselves. Zombies in Survivalist come in various strengths which have been thoughtfully color coded as virus strains. The virus strains infecting the undead hosts range from a mildly annoying green, stronger blues, dangerous reds, and a rumored instant-death white. With skills you can manage each one with various difficulty, greens offering the least amount of danger and whites the most. Thankfully all the viruses save for the white strain can be combated with syringes called antigens in order to cure yourself of viral bites. These of course will further add to your list of much needed supplies. Getting bit by a zombie will mean death if the required antigen isn’t applied soon, so always carry a syringe or two while out scavenging.

I have to say I love this game. It’s a robust game filled with moral and physical obstacles while giving a grand look on the narrative of humanity and the choices we make. The graphics, while not the best looking, did the job well of playing out a world devoid of modern civilization. Abandoned towns looked eerie and foreboding, the game’s day/night cycle made you welcome the sun. Zombies looked grotesque and dead as they should; the interface offering multiple views and providing vital info when needed. The music in game added the appropriate amount of atmosphere, some more than others I might add. Having an easy, synthesized guitar track guide you along as you explore the vast desert inexplicably changing to a strange electronica tempo just felt jarring. Thankfully the majority of them fit right in and it didn’t distract me too much from the immersion of the game.

The game is so close to being perfect, it has all the aspects I ever wanted in a survival game as well as adding in zombies and a well-defined “living world”. The sheer depth it offers with the narrative separates itself from the other similarly-themed games. With it’s glowing gameplay and mechanics I do see a rather major problem coming up during the endgame, that problem being a gentle downhill slope into repetitiveness. In my playthough one of my endgame goals was to have at least one survivor with maxed out skills. Once you form a basic community and you have people cordoned off and specialized to do certain work, you begin using those members solely for their best skill and rarely anything else. I had one member who was the main builder of the group while I was a skilled marksman and scavenger. I would need to grind construction skills with useless buildings and dwindling supplies just to be able to “win”. Thankfully I have yet to experience this part of the game, perhaps it may not be as bad as I think when I eventually do get to that point. Either way this is a cause of concern for me as using timesinks in order to win does not seem enjoyable in the least.

Despite that, I think that Survivalist is great beyond all expectations and it has become my favorite game among all the titles being offered on XBLIG. It is nearly perfect and it outshines any other title I have played with the survival-horror-sim aspect. If you want a great survival game for a low price, get Survivalist as soon as you can. I guarantee it will keep you busy for hours. While it may not be as eye-opening to others as it was to me, I assure it will give you much food for thought.

Simply amazing.

Overall Rating: ★★★★★ 

What does this score mean?

This game was reviewed using a copy provided by the developer for that purpose.

Other reviews:

Survivalist on theXBLIG

© 2014, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

Over the past few years horror has been making great strides in the gaming community. With releases like Amnesia: The Dark Descent - which made a huge impression on the survival horror genre – it is no surprise that many others wish to make their own mark in the community. One of the more newly announced titles is Monstrum, a game by Team Junkfish and created in the Unity engine.

Monstrum sets you aboard an abandoned derelict ship filled with traps, environmental hazards, and another “passenger” who is not exactly friendly. From there you must find an escape route among the vast, dark, and claustrophobia-inducing confines of the ship’s procedurally generated corridors. Be sure not to meander too long because your fellow passenger is out to get you, and you have no way of fighting back. Run, hide, and use distractions and your wits in order to survive your pursuer’s relentless onslaught.

The ship generates a new layout each playthrough.

Monstrum incorporates permadeath, so if you unfortunately come to your untimely demise, you have to start over again with a brand new ship, new layout, and possibly a new hunter hot on your tail. With three unique monsters, each with their own behavior and hunting techniques, one method of escape or distraction may work on one hunter, but not on the others, forcing you to adapt your escape and survival strategy.

Does that not intrigue you enough? Perhaps the inclusion of Oculus Rift support would heighten your interest. Now you can experience the grit, claustrophobia, and terror first-hand as you attempt to flee your doom.

Monstrum is set to release in late Q3 2014 for Windows, Mac, and Linux. If you love horror games with a roguelike procedurally generated map, Monstrum is the title to look out for. With native Oculus Rift support planned, a unique map generated each playthrough, and three different hunters to chase you down, it seems like a no-brainer for any survival horror junkie.

© 2014, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

Why on Earth did I start playing this game, simply why? Oh, do not take this as a negative comment, I mean that in the most positive and excellent way. Allow me to elaborate.

Starting anew, the first group of gnomes begin carving out a kingdom

I introduce to you Gnomoria, a sandbox village management game by Robotronic Games. Gnomoria tasks you with taking a small wandering group of gnomes who have left their home kingdom in order to carve out a settlement and form a kingdom of their very own. You accomplish this by utilizing the gnomes, as well as their initial supplies. You begin in a randomly generated land, and from there, you must create a home for your little guys. Carve out a home for your gnomes and generally create anything you desire for your kingdom. In order to do this though, you need gnomes with the appropriate skills and tools in order to get your kingdom started. Any mining and digging requires a pickaxe, a gnome with good mining skills, forestry requires woodcutters and axes, farmland requires seeds, and able workers.

Does this formula sound familiar to anyone? If it does, you may very well be a Dwarf Fortress player, or at the very least heard of it. Gnomoria is heavily inspired by Dwarf Fortress, and it emulates many gameplay aspects of the game, but with its own brand of twists on the formula. I myself am an avid Dwarf Fortress fan, and I have logged countless hours creating kingdoms, building them up as marvelous beacons of wonder and wealth, and inevitably watching the kingdom crumble and fall as is the norm in any game of Dwarf Fortress. With each fallen kingdom I strive to build another, then another, and another, ad infinitum until I realize how much time I have spent on my virtual kingdoms – the countless hours of lost sleep on minutiae. Along comes Gnomoria, with the same addicting village management and kingdom creation gameplay. Again I must reiterate, why on Earth did I start playing this game?

Slowly but surely creating a majestic kingdom

While I do call upon Gnomoria‘s similarities with Dwarf Fortress, it creates its own brand of gameplay, and does so in a much prettier package. It uses a 2D isometric overhead style, complete with pixel sprites for every character and object. Gnomoria also sports a very impressive soundtrack. It has an assortment of music to accompany you whilst you build your kingdom. Easy-going and even jolly rhythms play while you build, mine, and farm; if goblins show up it will change to an ominous tone to signify their presence. The unique thing about the soundtrack is that it comes in two varieties, Classic and Orchestral. The Classic version uses an 8-bit style reminiscent of the NES era of games, whereas the Orchestral uses a more modern synthesized track to emulate an orchestral piece. This is an extremely nice touch, and the 8-bit style is a great nod to the retro era of games.

Gnomoria graphics

The gameplay is nice as well, and you create your kingdom by designating areas with various work commands. Then you create workshops which can create various items for your gnomes, followed by your kingdom’s source of food and drink. It all starts simple at first, but as you progress in the game you require more specialized workshops and tools, which of course needs a skilled gnome for that particular workshop. Certain items may need multiple workshops before it can be created, with more valuable items needing more additional steps. Thankfully, Gnomoria provides a bit of automation while creating these. As long as you have the required workshops and resources, you can have the items automatically requested for creation. Simply request an item to be made at the correct workshop, and after some time going you have your item, all made auto-magically and without the manual tedium.

From there on, everything is up to you as you cater to your own whim and fancies. Create an underground metropolis worthy to be called a kingdom or create an imposing fortress up on the surface. That is the joy of this game, seeing as it has no end goal to speak of, the fun of the game is what you make of it.

Goblins, professional soldiers and a ragtag militia. FIGHT!

While a lot of fun can be provided from Gnomoria, it does suffer from a few problems.The pacing seems a bit slow, certain tasks often get ignored from while gnomes putter off to do other things, and large maps tend to crash the game. I have also found that certain resources have bottlenecks that can severely stifle your kingdom, even to the point of failure. I have lost a kingdom due to my gnomes bleeding to death from simple injuries, simply because I ran out of bandages. Bandages are created at the tailor, but I lacked the materials needed for the creation of the workshop or its supplies, so all my gnomes eventually died off one by one.

This game may not be for everyone as it has a bit of a learning curve but once you get the basics down it gets easier. If you are a fan of Dwarf Fortress or sandbox village management games, give Gnomoria a go. The game is still under development and is currently available for purchase at various online distributors.

The kingdom secures its spot in history and has won its survival

Still unsure of Gnomoria? Let me give you an insight on my time with it. So far I have 19+ hours logged into Steam, this is the time while logged online. I do the majority of my gaming offline from Steam, so the majority of my game time has not been logged. That 19+ hours is merely a fraction of the total time I have put into the game. Heck, even a severe power outage problem in my community wasn’t enough to deter me from it. Rolling blackouts that lasted over a week plagued my hometown, and I still snuck in a few hours of game time during that period. I’m surprised I managed to pry myself away from the game long enough to write this article.

Now if you will excuse me, my kingdom needs some attention.

© 2014, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

Ever wonder if there is other life out there in the cosmos? Perhaps some civilizations are exploring the vast reaches of space, or even at war with one another. What if, during such a war, an errant shot from a planet’s defences missed its target and hurled itself out into space? Perhaps that very shot is coming into our own solar system, hurtling towards Earth, with us unaware of our impending danger. At least, that is what I was thinking when I made a huge miscalculation while playing the pre-alpha build of Interplanetary by Finnish based studio Team Jolly Roger Games.

Bombardment!!

Interplanetary is a hard science fiction, turn-based strategy game where you use artillery weapons from your own planet in order to blow up a rival planet. If you have ever played Tanks or Scorched Earth back in the day, it is very much like that, but on a much larger and complex scale. In this game, you must first build up your forces before you are able to begin chucking warheads across the solar system. There is strategy involved as you must manage a multitude of things such as building material, power, planet defences, planet armaments, and of course, your population. Your “life” comes in the form of cities; you must protect them at all costs while at the same time attempting to bombard your opponent’s cities into a smouldering crater. Do that, and you win. Simple right? Nope!

While attempting to destroy that one pesky planet, you must account for things such as planetary orbit, gravity wells, travel time, and other planets and planetoids as well as their respective orbits and gravity. While you do get a guide showing you how your shot will travel, it only takes into account the current state of the system. You must predict how your aim will be affected by other planets and the gravity of the local sun in order to get a shot to land perfectly. Science! Ballistics! Math! …My head hurts.

With skills you can make curved shots around the sun.

The pre-alpha version only comes with multiplayer at the moment, and AI opponents are not integrated yet to my knowledge, but it is planned for a future release. I loaded up the hot seat multiplayer and began playing a solo game. Although LAN and online support is there, I have yet to try them out.

Build up your planet.

Playing both planets did little to stifle my “strategy” since fired rounds may behave in unpredictable ways due to planetary influences. So due to this, playing both sides on a solo game still made things a little challenging. Before I knew it, hours had flown by, and I was still in the midst of a great war, firing shells, missiles, and even laser beams. This reminded me a lot of Scorched Earth where my aim, or lack thereof, can make games last quite a long time.

I am extremely impressed with this, considering it is only a pre-alpha build; it has quite a lot of gameplay and core mechanics already down pat. It is already a strong build in its current state – more than enough to convince any fans of artillery-type games or science fiction buffs. Team Jolly Roger have many plans for the future of Interplanetary, and I for one am looking forward to future builds and releases. Definitely keep an eye on this title in the future, and one in the sky for one of my off-the-mark artillery shots.

I may not be able to hit the planet next to me, but I guarantee the neighbouring solar systems have fear in their hearts whenever they hear my name.

Check out the Interplanetary website
Team Jolly Roger’s Website

© 2014, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

Have you ever been playing a game and thought out loud to yourself, “I can make something better than this piece of junk”, or “I can easily make something as awesome as this”? Ever wanted to make your own video game but lack the creativity or knowledge of today’s thingamabob-gadgets and do-hickeys? Well, it is your lucky day. Greenheart Games have released their flagship title appropriately named Game Dev Tycoon, a business sim where you start and run your very own game company.

 In Game Dev Tycoon you begin your journey at the early years of video games. You begin by giving your company a name and by creating your games on a single workstation in your garage. From this humble origin you must now make a name for yourself in the world of game development. Do not worry about about the technical aspects of the game-making process, creating games has been simplified in Game Dev Tycoon. It is as easy as picking a game topic, its genre, and the target platform and you are on your way to creating the next hit.

As the owner, you call the shots as to what game is created; that werewolf RPG game you had rattling around in your brain? You can make it a reality. Zombie romance sim, government action-adventure, transport RPGs? Sure, why not. Mix and match to your adventurous whims.

Actual development is divided into stages where you adjust sliders in order to focus on certain aspects such as dialogue, graphics, sound, and so on. Care must be given to this as each stage will affect how well your game fares out compared to other games of that genre. Action games heavy in dialogue and RPGs lacking in story or graphics may fare poorly in the market, so you must use experience and your best judgement in order to make the game focused on what is most important to that specific game. Not everything will work, but it is fun to experiment with obscure mixes of genres and subjects. You never know what may become the next smash hit.

Every start up begins somewhere

Your options are very limited at the beginning, with only your garage as your office, yourself as the sole employee, and only the early infancy of computer technology as your platform. As time progresses you will gain new platforms and technology to work with as companies form and begin to release new consoles. As well as new tech, you gain experience with each new game released, new tech to research and, hopefully, some income from your game sales for which you can use to fund more projects or expand your company.

Speaking of platforms, the timeline in Game Dev Tycoon develops much like the real-life game industry. As the gaming industry grows, parodied versions of companies such as Ninvento will release game consoles and even form rivalries with other industry players such as Vena. Early on you gain access to consoles such as the Ninvento TES and the Vena Oasis for your game development. Those names sound familiar? These thinly-veiled parodies of real-life companies were a great source of amusement for myself. It was fun trying to guess what the next console or company would be named.

Cleverly “disguised” company rivals

If you have managed your money and releases well enough you will eventually be able to move into bigger and better offices. These offer a much larger workspace than a dingy garage and will allow you to hire employees and expand your company. As you grow even more you can expand even further into the industry by adding your own research department or develop your very own console. This all adds up to more tech, more development options, and more income. The amount of options available to you is simple astounding and frankly a little overwhelming.

I have played other similar game dev simulation games in the past such as Game Dev Story, but GreenHeart Games’ adaptation offers a bit more “meat”, so to speak. The game continued to impress me at each turn and gave me a few chuckles along the way. Very few issues come up with this game other than some frame rate slowdown at the later stages of the game, but it is bearable and it didn’t bother me so much.

I adore this game. It caters to my whims as an aspiring game developer and it just simply oozes with charm. If you want to fulfill your dreams as the head of your own game company or like business sims, give Game Dev Tycoon a go. You won’t be disappointed.

I wholeheartedly agree with their reviews

I would have to agree with the above rating. Simply marvelous.

Overall Rating: ★★★★★ 

This game was reviewed using a copy provided by the developer for that purpose.

Buy or demo the game at GreenHeart Games

© 2013, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

When it comes to gaming, there are a multitude of different genres out there ranging from your standard FPS fare to obscure mash-ups of sub-genres. Many games tend to the specific needs many players seek out. My interests in particular lean towards the niche genre of gaming known as survival simulation. With that, I introduce to you Renewal, an upcoming zombie survival RPG game.

Unfortunately, they didn’t have my luxurious mane available for the hairstyles. A bowl cut will do.

Renewal is a 2D top-down RPG with heavy emphasis on player survival in a randomly-generated world. You create your own character and you must ensure the survival of yourself, as well as attempting to rebuild in a world devastated by zombies. Yes, zombies. I can already hear some of you readers groaning.

Yeah zombies are a bit overdone, but I among others welcome more contributions to the classic monster. Renewal has plenty of them roaming around for you to encounter and vanquish, all while you scavenge around looking for supplies and weapons. Go out into the world beyond the safety of your town walls in order to find better items for yourself and for the citizens. Use your wits and your newfound items to craft more weapons as you get stronger and bolder.

The game has been in development for about a year, and from what I’ve seen while playing the public beta, it looks to be promising. There really isn’t much to look at in terms of art, but the gameplay is the main focus here and so far everything seems interesting. That is, while the game was playable. I continuously ran into some game-stopping bugs, but seeing as this is still in beta this is to be expected.

Thrust headfirst into the undead nightmare.

More features and gameplay are planned for the future, but so far I like what I see. The beta and its planned goals hold some good promise, and it caters to the survival aspect nicely with its randomly-generated world and loot.

If you like RPGs, survival games, or zombies, I would keep an eye on this one. If you wish to contribute to its development, there is an Indiegogo campaign created by its sole developer, available here. The beta is also available for download there so give it a go if you wish. Give a helping monetary hand or even some encouraging words if you like what you hear.

It is always nice seeing new entries into a specific niche corner of gaming, I for one welcome it.

Watch the Renewal trailer.
Visit the game’s Indiegogo page.

© 2013, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

“The Ancient enemies are back! Can you defend the Drox Operative Guild and younger races against the Invasion of the Ancients?”

From the sound of that ominous warning, it looks like there will be more trouble afoot in the universe of Drox Operative. The wonderful people over at Soldak Entertainment have announced that they will be releasing an expansion to their widely-coveted Drox Operative, the space RPG/dungeon crawler/RTS mashup. The game released to a significant amount of fanfare, and since then it has been gaining a rather large fan base who all have nothing but praise for the game and its odd, yet uniquely appealing mix of genres. I myself am a fan, as I had previously reviewed the original release of the game. If you haven’t read the review yet, you can view it here (hint: it was great).

From what information they have released, the expansion will be focusing on the return of an ancient alien race who have come back from an untold amount of time to reclaim what they have lost long ago. The full story goes as follows:

“Before the Drox ruled the galaxy, before they were even sentient, there were older races now known as the Ancients. Using their Operatives, the Drox crushed and enslaved most of these races. The rest fled known space. When the Drox turned on their own Operatives, the Drox were utterly destroyed. Newer races emerged and thrived in the power void, never knowing the menace waited. Seizing their chance, the Ancients are invading to take their rightful place in the galaxy, as rulers! Thirsting for revenge, the Ancients can’t harm the extinct Drox, but they can crush the next best thing, the Drox Operatives.”

Looks like starship captains, rookies and veterans alike will be facing a much larger threat once the expansion is released. I myself am looking forward to seeing what new challenges arise with the new installment in their unique universe. I admit my piloting skills may have dulled a bit during peacetime, but I am sure my trusty ship, the “Space Weasel” and her crew will be itching to conquer any new obstacles they may cross.

Invasion of the Ancients is scheduled to be released in the third quarter of 2013, but for those who cannot wait for the official release, Soldak Entertainment has opened up the shop for pre-orders which grants access to the beta. So pre-order now and begin fighting the new threat to your mighty empire – you even get a nifty 10% discount for being an early buyer. You simply cannot go wrong with that deal. So fire up your starship’s engines and pre-order your copy now.

I will see you among the stars.

Pre-order the expansion at Soldak Entertainment’s store.
Read the review on the original game.

© 2013, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

Welcome to the world of Valkyrius, a throwback harking back to the days of the arcade and its era of classic gaming. Valkyrius is a PC arcade style shoot-em up created by the one-man studio Iridescent Games. It takes place far in the future where a war between surviving space colonists and rebels has been ravaging space and one which the player piloting the titular “Valkyrius One” must fight to reclaim Earth.

Pretty standard stuff for a shmup if I do say myself. It contains the classic elements of older games such as 1942 and even Gradius and plays like a nice tense bullet-hell. Unlike most bullet-hell games though where you survive by memorizing patterns and using sharp reflexes to bypass them, the enemies in Valkyrius have attacks that will simply overwhelm you and even cover all points of escape and doom your ship. This is where Valkyrius‘ unique teleportation mechanic comes in. Your ship is equipped with the ability to teleport at will. This adds a new dimension to the game as it enables you to make lighting-fast evasions in otherwise impossible-to-survive situations and boy are you ever going to need it if you wish to play for longer than a few minutes. I simply love this feature. Nothing beats the feeling of making precise jumps in order to evade oncoming enemies or even making tactical jumps in order to retrieve that one weapon nearby in order to better take out a persistent foe.

Test your evasion skills using the teleportation mechanic to evade screen-filling attacks

Speaking of tactics, Valkyrius has a surprising amount of depth and strategy in it in the form of obtainable weapons and ship modules. Your score is converted into in-game currency which you can use to purchase different customizations that outfit your ship with a variety of looks and weapons. The weapons include standard machine guns, shotgun-esque spread guns, and missiles. There are also weapons of more powerful and strategic value such as the sword or even the shockwave weapon. The shockwave is a screen-filling weapon that destroys all enemies and even small enemy fire. It’s very powerful but extremely hard to come by. The sword is an energy beam that projects out the front of your ship and can be “swung” around you in a 360 degree arc.

These can be very powerful indeed but nothing changes your play style and strategy more than the modules with which you can outfit your ship once you purchase them. These modules include destroying all enemies on screen once you are killed or making your shield impervious to small enemies and missiles. Among the other modules, my personal favourite by far is the power warp which allows you to damage enemies by warping over them. By choosing different modules you can easily change how you approach the game and how you strategize your attack. Pick the diamond shield and use it to simply plow through smaller enemies and laugh at the missiles they fire at you, or pick the power warp and turn your evasion skills into a formidable offensive weapon. Pick your favourite according to your style of play and dominate the battlefield.

Large, unique bosses will test your fighting skills

As for the game itself I found it an amazingly fun experience. The varied enemies make things challenging, and each stage has a unique end boss which will really test your abilities. Each stage is different and most have interesting and dynamically changing environments. One moment you are fighting over a large sea taking out enemy fleets and the next you are actually giving chase to an enemy submerged underneath the water. A few stages even nix the top-down approach altogether and you are basically doing a free-fall plummet into the heart of an underground enemy fortress. There were many moments where I was simply in awe while I marveled at the changing environment as the soundtrack blared on in a very fitting rock-themed tempo. I loved the soundtrack and each stage has its own track. While all the tracks are different in their own right, they fit in very well with the game and blended well in tune with the game play.

Fight enemies on land, sea, and even space

Do not think for one minute though that the experience is over once you have beaten it. The game comes with a plethora of unlockable goodies including new game modes, harder difficulties, the amazing soundtrack, and even concept art. There are also a large number of medals which you can achieve by beating challenges. These go from easy challenges just for beating certain levels, up to challenging ones like beating the game on the hardest difficulty without using continues or even without firing your weapon. How? I have yet to have the gall to try and attempt them, but I will certainly give it a shot. These challenges will ensure you keep coming back to the game for more fun and chaos.

So yes, it is safe to say I enjoyed this title very much. I had a blast with the challenging game play and the teleportation gives the game a nice twist. The soundtrack is spot-on and the content just keeps you coming back for more. I do have a few minor complaints but these are mainly personal opinions. The weapon pickups can be frustrating at times. If you have a load-out that you are comfortable with it can be ruined by attempting to reload or by accidentally touching a different weapon pickup and replacing a needed weapon. The art is nice and crisp with varied enemies and boss designs, but the story is very cliche and not very original or interesting. The game does have a nice feature which I wished more games came with and that is the ability to turn the story mode off. Simply go into the options at any time and turn off the story to have no more interruptions and get into the midst of the action much faster. The game, while on PC, does have gamepad support and I highly recommend using one as the controls just feel perfect for a gamepad. I played the game with my USB XBox controller and the controls were  tight and very responsive. You will also need a gamepad if you wish to play the local co-op mode that it comes with, so if you want a buddy to join in the fray you will need to acquire a few of them anyway.

As of this writing Valkyrius has not been given a release date or price yet, the game has a page at Steam Greenlight so it can gain a nice wide PC launch but it has been recently announced that it will be published by Green Man Gaming. No other dates or info has been announced but voting is still open on Greenlight and I would advise each and every available person to vote for this great game. I would highly recommend picking up this game once it launches. Iridescent Games have a great and amazing game and I wish them the best of luck at launch.

Visit the Valkyrius Main Page
Vote for the game at its Greenlight page

Overall Rating: ★★★★★ 

What does this score mean?

 This game was reviewed using a copy provided by the developer for that purpose.

© 2013, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

Lately I have been on a space-faring kick and had the urge to pilot a ship and explore the far reaches of the galaxy. As a result I have come upon Drox Operative, an action-based RPG created by Soldak Entertainment, Inc. The game is set in a randomly created galaxy full of dangerous enemies, unique civilizations, uncharted worlds, and the thirst for adventure. In the universe of Drox Operative you are a member of the titular Drox Operatives, a mercenary group who operate in the galaxy as a neutral entity and work to further their own gains. The Drox Operatives have no qualms over how they achieve their goals so you, as their newest member, have total free reign on how to expand.

You are thrown into the game world piloting your own Drox ship and what happens next is completely up to the player. You can scour the randomly-created galaxy wiping out dangerous monsters strewn throughout the area, gain favor with the local civilizations by aiding them with quests, or simply explore and discover strange anomalies and treasures. My career as a Drox Operative began with the christening of my own ship aptly named the “Space Weasel”. From there on I was plunked into a random jumpgate and thus began my journey into the unknown.

The Space Weasel in all her glory

Much like the abyss of space, the beginning of Drox Operative is very daunting. There is a lot of information you must take in right from the get go. The first time you play, a tutorial help-screen begins and I highly advise that you take a thorough examination of the help screens otherwise you will become easily lost. This game can be a bit unforgiving and simply going in blind will cut your adventures very short, very quickly. After mastering the basics, though, will get you into familiar and comfortable territory, as an RPG the mainstay of the game is loot and there are plenty of loot to be had. The items use a color-code system for rarity and grading much like other dungeon crawlers. You can venture out and acquire better equipment for your ship and with experience comes even bigger and better ships, meaning even more quality loot. Be sure not to dawdle too long, though. Unlike most ARPG’s things happen and progress whether you intervene or not. Monsters will patrol the galaxy and feuds between rival civilizations will ensue. Entire worlds may rise and fall without you even being aware of it. You are simply a pawn in the vast universe of Drox Operative.

Anomalies, monsters, incoming missile, just another day for a Drox Operative

You have an end-goal, multiple ones in fact, that you must reach in order to “win” that current galaxy and progress to the next one. Each time you must ensure that the Drox come up on top via whichever method you choose, be it a decisive military win and destroying all those who appose you and your ally, trading goods and becoming rich with an economic win, using brute force and striking fear into the other surviving races so they will not dare oppose you, or simply become a legend and do legendary deeds by vanquishing vile monsters. The choice is yours to make, as a Drox Operative you call the shots and you win how you want to.

Galactic diplomacy, how hard can it be?

The game has a very distinct feel about its gameplay, it plays a lot like a traditional dungeon crawler and yet has a bit of Civilization or RTS mashed into it. An odd mix, but it certainly does work and has its own unique allure. If you have an itching to pilot your own starship and explore, plunder, destroy, or what have you, Drox Operative will certainly not disappoint. My space-faring career may have just started, but the Space Weasel and her crew will soon be feared by all as we aim to be the top Drox Operative.

Great Game!

Overall Rating: ★★★★☆ 

What does this score mean?

This game was reviewed using a copy provided by the developer for that purpose.

Visit the developer’s page
Demo or buy the game

© 2013, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.