Loop Hero, an upcoming mash-up of genres that blends together a roguelike adventure with deck-building and a little auto-battling in a very unique game mechanically is now launching on March 4. There's also a limited time demo up.

Confirmed to have Linux support at release, Loop Hero has been making some waves through various previews done by other publications with plenty giving it high marks. For good reason too, this could be the next great destroyer of time that makes you stay up late with weary eyes.

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Feature Highlight:

• Infinite Adventure: Select from unlockable character classes and deck cards before setting out on each expedition along a randomly generated loop path. No expedition is ever the same as the ones before it.
• Plan Your Struggle: Strategically place building, terrain, and enemy cards along each loop to create your own dangerous path. Find balance between the cards to increase your chances of survival while recovering valuable loot and resources for your camp.
• Loot and Upgrade: Strike down menacing creatures, recover stronger loot to equip on the fly and unlock new perks along the way.
• Expand Your Camp: Turn hard-earned resources into campsite upgrades and gain valuable reinforcements with each completed loop along the expedition path.
• Save the Lost World: Overcome a series of unholy guardian bosses over a grand saga to save the world and break the time loop of the Lich!

Having no direct control is a bit odd at first but that's part of the charm and uniqueness of it. That doesn't mean you're defenceless though, far from it. You are in control, of most things apart from the hero. They're looping over whatever you place down on the map and using whatever tools you've equipped for them. It starts off extremely simple, carefully adding a new layer to the tasty loop over time with more mechanics and more tiles to place down with unique properties. Then you get into the camp building and so much more. There's so much crammed into it!

Right now you can try it out too, as it has a limited time demo available for the Steam Game Festival. It's one of the most interesting games in the entire event so do try it out. I've been quite captured by it because it's so thoroughly weird and unique, a bit too easy to get absorbed into as you watch everything unfold.

I like it so much I need more, a lot more.

Follow Loop Hero on Steam ready for release on March 4 and it's also 15% off to pre-order.

Scarlet Hood and the Wicked Wood from Devespresso Games and Headup has now moved to an April 9 release date, and it will no longer be in Early Access as they will be ready for a full release.

It was going to be due on February 10 so it's not exactly a long delay and they gave no reason for the change. Sounds good overall though as it will release with all parts of the story along with translations for English, Korean, German, French, Russian, Simplified Chinese, and Spanish.

Featuring Devespresso's signature manhwa-style with hand-illustrated graphics by Minho Kim and a non-linear story written by T.L. Riven, Scarlet Hood and the Wicked Wood is a narrative adventure set within a vibrant Oz-esque fantasy world. The game features a recurring time loop (think Groundhog Day) with unique branching story paths and multiple endings.

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"Scarlet, the protagonist and a diva in the making, awakes in the realm of Glome after being flung over by a rogue tornado. She discovers an electrifying world brimming with magic, beauty, and artifacts from a mysterious bygone culture. Her strange journey begins when she takes up the mantle of the Red Witch and leads a troupe of Munchkins through the forbidden Wicked Wood. In a world full of riddles and wonders, she encounters witches, a tin knight, talking beasts, monsters, and many fearsome creatures to overcome."

Features:

• Survive a narrative time-loop.
• Solve ridiculous puzzles.
• Follow your own multi-path story.
• Unlock multiple endings based on your decisions.
• Ogle the hand-illustrated graphics.
• Use Scarlet's witching skills to avoid detection.

You can wishlist / follow on Steam .

Might and Delight have certainly created some unique experiences, with the Shelter series putting you directly into the shoes of various animals and it's back in Shelter 3.

It's a role-playing game but not one where you're fussing with skills and equipment, instead it's about the rawness of nature itself and animal survival. A game where wisdom, empathy and leadership play an important role in your survival, according to the developer.

"As a new mother you must protect your calf, but you must also take responsibility for the whole herd, protecting old and young from lurking predators and the threat of starvation. What’s more, the matriarch has given you the responsibility of steering the herd to an important destination and difficult choices will need to be made on the way."

Now with an aim to launch at the end of March, Might and Delight have shown off a brand new trailer that you can watch below:

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"Landscapes and fauna are rendered in mesmerising patterns and scored with an enchanting soundtrack by Retro Family, conjuring a magical world to lose yourself in. From lynx cubs to elephant families, from the tundra to the jungle, the next Shelter incarnation migrates to new territory, evolving into a new, magical game world and an experience that you won’t forget. "

Looking really good, I'm not sure how much my heart will be able to take when one of the herd dies - it looks so damn sad. Elephants are truly majestic creatures so it's an intriguing animal to focus on. Once we see a confirmed release date we will let you know.

You can wishlist / follow Shelter 3 on Steam .

On a related note Might and Delight are also working on the 'TMORPG' (a tiny online RPG) called Book of Travels, check out some preview gameplay here .

Coming later this Summer the one-woman studio 2054 will launch The Sundew, a dark cyberpunk, retro-styled adventure game. Set in the aftermath of a devastating future war, where the world as we know it was twisted by flames into a terrifying new dystopia, The Sundew follows a lonely beat cop who soon holds the fate of the world in her hands.

"After several years of work and many adventures, The Sundew is finally about to see the light of day. I see this game as a world that players will be able to enter, followed by other games in the same universe. My greatest joy will be to see the players take over this world and make it their own!" - Agnès Vuillaume, solo developer of The Sundew.

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Inspired by classic point-and-click adventure games from LucasArts and Wadjet Eye Games, The Sundew pays homage to those with its gameplay mechanics, style, and storytelling. Beautifully drawn pixel-art, stunning minimalistic sound design, environments brimming with atmosphere and interactivity, and a compact, thrilling tale brings this dark future to life and grounds you in a vision of humanity’s progress that is both alien and strangely familiar…

What to expect from it (apart from confirmed Linux support!): alongside classic point-and-click gameplay The Sundew will ask you to make decisions that will change the future of humanity. Playing off contemporary issues, the choices offered are never black and white. Where do you believe mankind’s interests lie, and what means are acceptable to achieve them?

Features

• Guide Anna Isobe, a cyborg cop with a dark past, through the unravelling of a global conspiracy.
• Experience a diverse cast of characters, each with their own secrets and history.
• Explore Shibukawa and the remnants of the old world.
• Make decisions that will change the fate of humanity, for better or worse.

You can wishlist / follow on Steam .

Scarlet Hood and the Wicked Wood is going to take you on an adventure that loops over with twists and turns, featuring a narrative time-loop like some kind of Groundhog Day. Developed by Devespresso (The Coma & The Coma 2) and published by Headup, it sounds pretty Oz-esque and amusing with the recognizable Devespresso Games manhwa-style.

Initially starting off in Early Access, they've now announced it will begin on February 10. The roadmap to release suggests the final version will be live in March with one third of the story chapters already available. They're using Early Access mainly to ensure the full release is nice and smooth.

Check out the new short trailer below:

Watch video on YouTube.com

" Scarlet, the protagonist and a diva in the making, awakes in the realm of Glome after being flung over by a rogue tornado. She discovers an electrifying world brimming with magic, beauty, and artifacts from a mysterious bygone culture. Her strange journey begins when she takes up the mantle of the Red Witch and leads a troupe of Munchkins through the forbidden Wicked Wood. In a world full of riddles and wonders, she encounters witches, a tin knight, talking beasts, monsters, and many fearsome creatures to overcome."

Features:

• Survive a narrative time-loop.
• Solve ridiculous puzzles.
• Follow your own multi-path story.
• Unlock multiple endings based on your decisions.
• Ogle the hand-illustrated graphics.
• Use Scarlet's witching skills to avoid detection.

You can wishlist / follow on Steam .

Love you wild adventures? Critters for Sale is one you should take a look at because this is the second time I've played it and I still have no idea what the hell is going on.

Originally released on itch.io back in 2019 which I mentioned here , and a contributor also took a look later, it's now seen a first episode release on Steam with Critters for Sale: SNAKE. It's so bizarre! A point and click visual novel adventure, one that's black and white with a bunch of animated scenes in the middle of the screen.

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"Critters for Sale is a compilation of 5 short stories: Snake, Goat, Monkey, Dragon, and Spider. All of which occur in different eras and locations, touching on themes like time travel, black magic, and immortality. A journey in which you meet characters familiar and foreign to you, ranging from inhabitants of a garden in Earth's orbit, aliens from Neptune, Noid Men from neighbouring timelines, and residents of a certain Reincarnation Palace. "

I don't want to spoil it so I will just say it's truly strange and I still don't understand it. Very unique idea, although I'm not really sure how legal including a real person is in a game in this way…you'll know what I mean if you try it. It's short too, so you won't lose much time by giving it a go and seeing if you like diving into something psychedelic.

Try out the first part free on itch.io and Steam . The full game with all episodes is currently due to arrive on Steam on June 3, 2021.

Note: The Linux version appears to still use an old Unity version, which has issues on NVIDIA GPUs. If you see distortions at the bottom of your screen, the easiest fix is just to add this as a launch option which makes it work perfectly:

-force-glcore42 -force-clamped

Skellboy Refractured, the new and fresh release from UmaikiGames is out with Linux support as an expanded version to the game that originally released for the Nintendo Switch. Note : key provided the developer.

"Sometimes, when there is nobody up to the task, old heroes have to rise from the grave to save the day! Crush your enemies and make good use of their guts - literally, as you can augment Skippy with your foe's body parts and weapons! Help Skippy, the cubic skeleton, to fight off Squaruman's endless forces of undead and vicious foes in this rectangular action packed cardboard adventure!"

A very charming game, and very silly too. What really sells it is the graphical style with the perspective. The world is 3D and you move around in a 3D space but the characters look flat and 2D. It's been done before (what hasn't?) but how they've done it here does look fantastic.

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I had a lot of fun play through different bits of this one, with some quite surprising scenes. It's supposed to be family friendly too, and with local co-op support it could be a good one to play with a significant other or a younger gamer wanting something a little different.

This is an action-RPG through and through, with you running across hacking and slashing your way through various different enemies. The fun part is switching between different body parts including you legs and skull on top of the weapon you're using. All of them have different effects so it's however you feel like playing. Some equipment, or body parts, have active abilities too like blocking projectiles or firing a seed at enemies (it gets weird) which makes it all the more interesting and often amusing. The description on some of the items was rather on-point too.

There's even boss fights, which I don't want to overly spoil but even they are a genuine delight in difficulty, design and weirdness. The first one for example, which happens quite early on, makes you fight off a strange creature that needs you to jab it in its many eyes.

Not particularly difficult, it even has a little platform on its back to help you jump up to it but it's so well designed like most parts of the game it's just lovely.

Feature Highlight:

• An expansive singleplayer experience across the interconnected Kingdom of Cubold full of square charming characters and edgy villains!
• A true action-rpg adventure that will test your skill and rewards exploration!
• Swap your bones for 100+ different body parts and items of friends and foes with (more or less) useful effects!
• 5 unique weapon types to clobber any foes you face!
• Special enemies and bosses that will truly test your mettle!
• A Vibrant 2d pixelart style that comes to life in a 3d world!
• Includes some rocking chiptune tracks and sounds!

As far as I could tell, the Linux version runs great.

You can buy Skellboy Refractured on Steam .

Ready for a new adventure? Set in the far future on an abandoned planet Earth, Mutropolis is now confirmed to be launching on February 18.

"It is the year 5000, and the greatest achievements in human history are forgotten. The pyramids, the Mona Lisa, The Fresh Prince of Bel Air – forgotten.
Forgotten by everyone except Henry Dijon and his ragtag team of archaeologists. They left Mars to dig up lost treasures on the wild and inhospitable Planet Earth. Life is sweet, until Henry’s professor is kidnapped, and thing start to get... weird."

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This is the debut game from Madrid-based artists Beatriz Gascón and Juan Pablo González who make up Pirita Studio. Mutropolis will combine together classic point and click adventuring, with a modern interface.

Feature Highlight:

• 50+ hand-drawn scenes, crammed with cute, weird characters.
• Full voice over in English, text localizations in Spanish, German, French, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Chinese, Korean and Japanese.
• Archaeological puzzles with a sci-fi twist.

At release on February 19 it will be available on GOG and Steam . There's also a demo up on Steam until January 25 for the Big Adventure Event.

Note: the Steam page currently for me says February 19 but the publisher mentioned February 18 as the confirmed date on Twitter .

Kathy Rain: Director's Cut is the upcoming expanded and improved enhancement over the original that launched in 2016 and the developer has confirmed Linux support too.

"Set in the 90's, Kathy Rain tells the story of a strong-willed journalism major who must come to terms with her troubled past as she investigates the mysterious death of her recently departed grandfather. Armed with her motorcycle, a pack of cigs, and a notepad, Kathy delves into a local mystery surrounding her hometown that will take her on a harrowing journey of emotional and personal turmoil."

Check out the announcement teaser trailer:

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Speaking about the announcement, Clifftop Games mentioned this was created from the ground-up in a modern up-to-date game engine so it's not simply a patch disguised as a new edition. It's going to be quite big too, with lots of new features and improvements. The original was quite highly rated too!

What to expect from this:

• Extended storyline with a prolonged ending, hundreds of lines of additional dialogue, and multiple new areas to explore.
• Several new major puzzle chains along with many small additions and tweaks of existing puzzles.
• Enlarged game environments to fill up the entire screen without any black bars on the sides.
• Countless visual improvements, such as more character animations, better lighting/shadows and extra weather effects.
• Streamlined mouse controls with an intuitive single click interface.
• Controller support done right. Lean back in your chair and take smooth direct control of Kathy, with no messy cursor getting in the way.
• Expanded and remixed soundtrack by the original composer, Daniel Kobylarz.
• Five brand new motorcycle designs to unlock and customize the Katmobile with.

You can wishlist / follow Kathy Rain: Director's Cut on Steam .