September’s here already and with it begins the busiest time of the year for new game releases. Today we’re looking over the top five new indie games coming out this September 2019.
River City Girls
River City Girls is the continuation of the River City series, although the typical roles and rescue dynamics have been burst. Here it’s the girls taking the good news to the hoodlums standing in their way of setting free their kidnap boyfriends. In keeping with the River City playbook, it seems nearly everything you can find within the game world is yours to use as a weapon against the folks getting in your way. This is not unexpected here — the previous games of the series although the retro-style graphics whilst harking back to those on the NES are finally animated. River City Girls landed on September 5 on the PC, PlayStation 4, and the Xbox One with a physical addition plan to come out via Limited Run Games later in the year.
Overland
Overland is a distinctive looking turn-based tactics game from Finn G that comes out on September 19 with it driving onto the PC and all of this generations consoles on the same day. I played a number of demo builds of this over the years, with the most recent being a few weeks ago at Gamescom, which left me suitably impressed. Overland sees you begin with a single individual, what I’ve always assumed as their pet dog and a broken-down car. You’re tasked with navigating your way and surviving a trip across the post-apocalyptic bug-infested North America from the east to the west coast, going through grasslands, over mountains and surviving great deserts. As could be expected, you’ll need to manage the scarce resources as you go on your journey while collecting other survivors which adds a squad element to the game. Each game starts with a randomly generated lead character and car with it also featuring permadeath so should you fail to make it all the way over to the west, your beginning back again where you started. Visually this is a real triumph, from the background to the characters, which I found it easy to empathize with their predicament and the hard choices and sacrifices they need to make to survive.
Noita
Noita out on PC and early access on September 24. Noita is a particle
physics-driven platforming roguelike. It sees you play as an apprentice mage where you explore deep into sinister mines and do battle against all manner of horrors along the way. What sets this one apart from your typical rogue-lites is the art style and overall look and feel, with the incredible fluid and gas physics mechanics at play here associated with the range of spells your mage is able to cast. You’re also able to combine your spells with environmental elements around the map, which is also fully destructible this means there’s no limit to the route for you to move from beginning to end of each level. Noita has been in development for the best part of 5 years and while out in early access. The creator’s knowledge games are saying they expect a full launch next year. Noita, with its intriguing gameplay and imagery, is one I’m gonna buy into sooner rather than later.
physics-driven platforming roguelike. It sees you play as an apprentice mage where you explore deep into sinister mines and do battle against all manner of horrors along the way. What sets this one apart from your typical rogue-lites is the art style and overall look and feel, with the incredible fluid and gas physics mechanics at play here associated with the range of spells your mage is able to cast. You’re also able to combine your spells with environmental elements around the map, which is also fully destructible this means there’s no limit to the route for you to move from beginning to end of each level. Noita has been in development for the best part of 5 years and while out in early access. The creator’s knowledge games are saying they expect a full launch next year. Noita, with its intriguing gameplay and imagery, is one I’m gonna buy into sooner rather than later.
The Sojourn
The Sojourn published by Harlem based Iceberg Interactive. The
Sojourn is a first-person puzzler that is self-evidently steeped in the concepts and stylings of such atmospheric games as Myst rhyme and the witness and of course, that’s no bad thing. While the narrative unfolds as you play, The Sojourn tells a story in which you, the character, inhibit a pure and beautiful world that’s under threat from darkness and evil. In another nod to one of the all-time classics, playing this one puts me in mind of Portal with you traversing from one objective or goal to the other, although you would be wrong to consider this a walking simulator with the puzzles being key to the overall experience. To describe much of the mechanics would deprive you much of the mystery. So I’ll only say you skirt between two parallel existences one in the light, the other in the dark, with much of the puzzling based on the location of statues that are key to the solution of each riddle. With over ten hours of playtime and four distinct areas, each with their own puzzle styles and changing rules. There’s plenty here to keep puzzle fans happy for the duration of The Sojourn and beyond. The Sojourn launches on September 20th on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
Sojourn is a first-person puzzler that is self-evidently steeped in the concepts and stylings of such atmospheric games as Myst rhyme and the witness and of course, that’s no bad thing. While the narrative unfolds as you play, The Sojourn tells a story in which you, the character, inhibit a pure and beautiful world that’s under threat from darkness and evil. In another nod to one of the all-time classics, playing this one puts me in mind of Portal with you traversing from one objective or goal to the other, although you would be wrong to consider this a walking simulator with the puzzles being key to the overall experience. To describe much of the mechanics would deprive you much of the mystery. So I’ll only say you skirt between two parallel existences one in the light, the other in the dark, with much of the puzzling based on the location of statues that are key to the solution of each riddle. With over ten hours of playtime and four distinct areas, each with their own puzzle styles and changing rules. There’s plenty here to keep puzzle fans happy for the duration of The Sojourn and beyond. The Sojourn launches on September 20th on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
Widower’s Sky
Widower’s Sky released on PC and iOS on September 5. Widower’s Sky offers a mix of puzzle action and platforming and tells the story of a family having crash-landed on a foreign planet with the mother having died in the initial impact. You play as the father, and it’s up to you to look after your son and dog and find a way for you to return safely home. Firstly, I’m really taken with the visuals particularly the use of the distant camera perspective. This highlights the relative smallness of our protagonists versus the wider environment. It reminds me of the technique used in Below from earlier in the year, although there’s so much more going on here with the vibrancy of the landscapes and vistas compared to Bulow’s murky dungeon environment. With these visuals together with an engaging soundtrack, Widower’s Sky looks already to be a wonderfully immersive experience and something that’s quite different to the norms.