Cruelty Squad

Perhaps the strangest immersive sim out there, Cruelty Squad sees you as a hitman completing some wetwork for a morally onerous company. You’ll have a variety of weapons, fish and play the stock market with your catches, grapple with your intestines, and much more in an acid-dripped world. Kill everything or go non-lethal, explore the environment for secrets, die, and try again in whatever manner you see fit.

A Short Hike

Having arrived in Hawk Peak Provincial Park and unable to get cell reception, Claire must venture to its peak in A Short Hike. Yes, it’s a very simple premise but the world built around this simple goal, with all of its side activities and colorful characters, is incredibly wholesome. Players help locate lost items, go fishing, partake in races, and even fly. Even with its cute looks, there’s a fleeting feeling of Summer, of gallivanting about and learning new things while just having fun (and remembering what’s really important).

Lucas Pope’s detective/narrative puzzler Return of the Obra Dinn will be coming to consoles this month. It’s out on October 18th for Xbox One, PS4, and Nintendo Switch. The title originally launched for PC last year and was showered with praise for its game mechanics, storytelling, and investigative elements.

Taking place on the titular ship Obra Dinn, which has suddenly reappeared after going missing in 1803, it’s up to the player to investigate what happened to it back then. This involves using the Memento Mortem and analyzing the times of different deaths to connect different plot threads together. Oftentimes, you’ll be traveling to the past and witnessing the final moments of someone’s life to gather clues.

Utilizing a monochromatic and decidedly retro aesthetic, Return of the Obra Dinn has also received praise for its visuals and sound design. Whether it’s listening to different characters in panicked tones or the booming soundtrack, the title immerses the player at all times. Stay tuned for more details on its console release in the coming weeks.

Return of the Obra Dinn releases on October 18th for Switch, PS4, and Xbox One! pic.twitter.com/2r35Rw4eXP

— Lucas Pope (@dukope) October 3, 2019

Last year saw the PC release of Return of the Obra Dinn. It earned high praise for its unique visual style, narrative, and its innovative use of puzzles. It took a while, but the game will finally be accessible to console users later in the year.

The game takes place on the Obra Dinn ship. It had gone missing under mysterious circumstances in 1803, and now you, as an Agent of the East India Company, must figure out what happened to it, as well as the crew, who have all either vanished or died. The game utilizes a lot of detective reasoning, along with a special watch that shows you the moment of a person’s death.

Return of the Obra Dinn is available for PC now. Originally the console version was announced at a Nintendo Direct, but the creator of the game confirmed via Twitter that it will come to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One along with the Switch some time this Fall.

"Return of the Obra Dinn" is coming to Switch, PS4, and XBox One this fall. More details when I sort out an exact date. pic.twitter.com/TBqrKnivXp

— Lucas Pope (@dukope) September 4, 2019

“Not enough content”

In this day and age, the amount of “value” that can be had from a game is often discussed. We often hear about some games not having enough content. This isn’t to discount complaints against a game like, say, Anthem or Diablo 3 at launch which were touted as having strong end-games. Setting expectations is key. However, if you pick up Destiny 2 today, run through all post-launch content and then complain about not having enough content? Maybe it’s better to move on and play something else.

It’s incredible to think that a game like Papers, Please – where players assume the role of an immigration inspector in fictional Arstotzka – would gain as much traction as it did. Now, developer 3909 LLC is back with a brand new title called Return of the Obra Dinn. It releases on October 18th for PC and will retail for $19.99. You can find it on Steam and Humble Bundle (a GOG listing is coming later).

Touted as an “insurance adventure with minimal color”, Return of the Obra Dinn concerns a ship that was seemingly lost in 1802. However, it emerges about five years later without its crew, and as an insurance investigator for the East India Company, you have to solve its various mysteries. That includes assessing damages and trying to figure out the fate of its various crew members.

The game’s monochromatic style is bolstered by the resolution being locked to 800×450, which offers an antiquated and old-school look to the adventure. If you’re interested in trying out the concept of Return of the Obra Dinn, then the GDC 2016 build is available free on Itch.io. The developer notes that this is “not meant to be a proper demo of the final product but it’s probably safe to extrapolate from here.” Progress won’t be saved and bugs will be aplenty, but it’s still worth checking out.

The developer of the massively successful independently developed game Papers Please, Lucas Pope has launched the playable demo build for his next PC game. The demo was launched very quietly with no big hub bub made over it.

The game is called Return of the Obra Dinn and is set in 1808 and the game tells a tale of the sailing merchant ship, the Obra Dinn. The Obra Dinn was thought to have been lost at seen six years prior however, so what’s it doing back? Well, no one knows for sure yet, Pope says “This is a very early playable build,”…”There’s not much content and it hasn’t been tested. Progress is not saved.”

The game makes use of a beautifully stylized dot matrix styled graphical world to lead the player on a first person adventure full of mystery at sea. For those of you that are interested, the demo can be found at Pope’s site. 

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