With the rest of our editors pulling together their compilations of the greatest hits of 2011 and beyond, I thought it best to pause and delve into a few of the smaller independent titles that missed our various roundups and – in many cases – wider attention in general. The list that follows is a mixture of present and upcoming titles that are either already well worth your time or have the potential to make that trip to Steam, XBLA, PSN a little more interesting in 2012.
DustForce
We’ll have a review of Hitbox Team’s hard-as-nails but superbly designed platformer coming up in the next couple of days, but for now, let’s just say that the comparisons with Super Meat Boy are well-founded.
It’s an action game with one foot set firmly in speed run territory and the other set in a devilish merger of Strider and Super Mario Bros, and it strings each of its stages together with a combo system and prominently-placed leaderboard system that’ll keep you hitting the retry button for many an hour.
Not one for the obsessive compulsive on a comedown from Team Meat’s legendary title perhaps, but worth a look for everybody else.
Dear Esther
We took a look at Dear Esther way back in 2010, but the intervening period has allowed this revered project to come a hell of a long way. It’s now poised for launch on Steam as a completely independent game rather than a mod, and it’s gathering critical acclaim from everybody that crosses its path.
The premise is that of abandonment, both thematically and mechanically. You play as a lost soul uncovering the secrets of an island from a first-person perspective, but with gameplay that throws out all the tropes of the FPS genre in favour of a more exploratory and investigative system. It’s surreal, ethereal in parts, and woven with an altogether intriguing tale.
It’s not quite an adventure then, it’s definitely not a shooter; but the atmosphere and ambition alone make it worth investigating.
The Witness
The name Jonathan Blow will be enough to sway many of you to pick this one up before even considering whether it’s any good, and with good reason, this is the chap that masterminded Braid after all.
The Witness promises something equally mind-bending, taking place on a deserted island (everybody on this list has played Myst in the past couple of years apparently), and with puzzles that involve taking environmental queues to trace a line that ‘solves’ specific scenes. You might need to find a particular vantage point before things become clear, or just figure out that an audio effect connects to another piece of geography, for example.
Yep, it sounds like a Jonathan Blow game then; and if that’s not cause for anticipation then I don’t want to know what is.
Spy Party
Quite possibly one of my most anticipated titles this year, it’s no coincidence that SpyParty is also one of the simplest in concept.
Two-player by design, it tasks one person with taking the role of a spy infiltrating a party full of NPCs and carrying out a set list of tasks in as natural a manner as possible, and another as an assassin viewing the scene through a sniper scope, looking for the odd one out. Behave weirdly or move in strange patterns and you’ll get spotted in no time, but dawdle for too long and you equally run the risk of an exploded head.
It’ll all hinge on the behaviour and animation of those NPCs of course, but all signs point to an intriguing experience.
Torchlight 2
Ok, so it’s only borderline indie territory but I couldn’t resist including it in here. After all, we not only reviewed the original once but twice.
In a year that’ll probably include the release of Diablo III, Runic Games’ follow-up to their highly-praised action-rpg might come under some heavy fire. Their seasoned development team worked wonders on the original formula however, and it’s no surprise that people expect a few pleasant surprises this time around. Full online co-op play (with matchmaking support) is a cracking start for that list.
With a recent update hinting that the project is in its final stages of polish, hopefully we’ll find out the rest pretty soon.
Flotilla
Although I ended up waiting until nearly the end of 2011 to pick up this indie gem on both Steam and Xbox (I’m a confessed idiot), it’s a wonder that Blendo Games’ space strategy mini-epic hadn’t caught my attention previously.
There are many things to love here. The turn-based tactical combat harkens back to an age of PC gaming that’ll instantly feel nostalgic for those of you over 30, whilst the episodic procedurally-generated bursts of 20-minute gameplay keep things fresh whenever you start a new campaign. An orchestral soundtrack beautifully underlines the stark visual stylings, there are talking animals with genuinely amusing quips (Anthropomorphic Space Battles would have been a cumbersome title), but above all else it’s a soothing and tactile experience that rewards players with simply becoming better.
You can pick it up for a pittance on the Xbox Live Indie Marketplace, and it’s regularly featured in Steam sales and other outlets on PC. Go purchase.
Project C.A.R.S
This is more dubiously ‘indie’ than any of the other games on this list (developed as it is by Slightly Mad Studios), but it’s such an interesting concept for a project that I’ll be eagerly following its every step.
Project C.A.R.S is a hybrid of traditional development and community-driven content, with anybody interested enough to stump up the varying levels of project management fees able to get in on the action and shape the direction of the game. Invest enough money and you can attend meetings and get involved with key design decisions, or stump up a little less and you can play beta builds every month and vocalise feedback directly through private forums. According to your level of commitment and funding, you might even earn money back when the game ships.
It’s a racing title of course, and powered by one of the finest engines on the circuit given Slightly Mad’s pedigree with NFS: Shift 2 Unleashed amongst others, but it’s the spirit of the community that’ll either make or break this endeavour.
Professional enthusiast, videogame "journalist" and all-round spectacular sofa dweller. "
