Century: Age of Ashes

After being delayed to get out of the way of Battlefield 2042 (which is hilarious in retrospect), Playwing’s Century: Age of Ashes is slated to release on December 2^nd for PC. This free to play competitive multiplayer arena title is pretty unique in that players ride dragons and battle in high-speed aerial bouts. Along with three classes to choose from, each with their own unique abilities, there are three modes – 6v6 Carnage, the CTF-style Gates of Fire, and Spoils of War which involves slaying foes and stealing their gold. It may seem fairly straightforward but given its looks and concept, Century: Age of Ashes could end up being a dark horse…er, dragon in the multiplayer department.

Solar Ash

Heart Machine’s Solar Ash is its first major release since the spectacular Hyper Light Drifter in 2016. It’s a 3D action adventure platformer, focusing on Rei as she ventures into the Ultravoid to save her planet. Along with encountering various entities, players must traverse the surreal environments of the black hole, grappling between obstacles and dealing with gravity shifts. Eventually, they’ll combat the massive Sentinels and destroy their weak points while hanging on for dear life (not unlike Shadow of the Colossus). Solar Ash is out on December 2^nd for PS4, PS5 and PC via the Epic Games Store.

Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun – Aiko’s Choice

As a new expansion to Mimimi Games’ acclaimed stealth title, Aiko’s Choice sees the titular kunoichi going up against her former master, Lady Chiyo. Thankfully, she won’t be going it alone as the gang reunites for three new main missions and three interlude missions in new levels. Much of the gameplay remains the same though – you can either infiltrate locations quietly and dispatch opponents in non-lethal fashion or massacre everyone, synchronizing your squad’s abilities for deadly assassinations. Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun – Aiko’s Choice is out on December 6^th for PC and doesn’t require owning the base game.

Halo Infinite

The wait has been long but Halo Infinite is nearly here. Though the multiplayer is already available – and under fire for numerous reasons – the campaign launches on December 8^th for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and PC. As Master Chief ventures to Zeta Halo, what happened to Cortana after the events of Halo 5: Guardians and how does The Weapon fit in? What are the goals of The Banished? It’s up to the Chief to find out, exploring a semi-open world with various side missions and points of interest, unlocking new equipment like the Grappleshot, and battling new foes like the Skimmers. If nothing else, it should offer the same tight gun play that fans love.

Five Nights at Freddy’s Security Breach

While previous titles were known more for their jump-scares, Five Nights at Freddy’s Security Breach leans more into first person exploration and survival horror. Trapped in Freddy Fazbear’s Mega Pizzaplex, protagonist Gregory must survive against various deadly animatronics until the morning. In an interesting twist, Glamrock Freddy is a friendly animatronic whose suit can be hidden inside of when required. Enemies can also be stunned using the new Faz-Cam and Fazblaster, and along with minigames, there are also boss battles to overcome. Releasing on December 16^th, Five Nights at Freddy’s Security Breach is coming to PS4, PS5 and PC.

The Gunk

The SteamWorld series is beloved for its quirky style and solid gameplay but with The Gunk, Image and Form is offering a completely different, fully 3D adventure. As Rani, players venture to a planet corrupted by a slimy parasite called Gunk. Armed with a power glove that can suck up the Gunk, one battles monsters, utilizes the environment, and scavenges resources while learning more about the planet’s past, before deciding whether to save or exploit it. The Gunk is out on December 16^th for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and PC.

White Shadows

Following The Great War, civilization as we know it has evolved into half-human, half-animal beings that reside in The White City. As Ravengirl, players must venture to Tin Town in search of freedom, navigating the city’s monochromatic terrors to escape. Touting itself as a “modern fable,” White Shadows features an interesting aesthetic with puzzle solving and platforming challenges. It’s out on December 7^th for PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC.

After the Fall

While Arizona Sunshine leaned into zombie-slaying, Vertigo Games’ After the Fall leans into a different kind of post-apocalyptic VR (read: one with lots of snow). Taking place in snowy Los Angeles during the 1980s, players must survive and craft weapons while also wielding powers to survive against the undead hordes in an evolving world. Along with standard zombies, there are Special Zombies and bosses to battle with four player co-op and 4v4 competitive modes. After the Fall releases on December 9^th for PlayStation VR, Oculus, Steam VR and Vive.

Syberia: The World Before

Microids’ Syberia series is an underrated classic for adventure game fans (except for the terrible third game which was released in 2017). Syberia: The World Before is a brand new story with Kate Walker, taking place across multiple continents and time periods. Along with playing as Kate in 2004, players will also venture back in time to 1937 as pianist Dana Roze with World War 2 looming over Europe. Syberia: The World Before arrives on December 10^th for PC so here’s hoping it signals a return to the series’ compelling roots and gameplay.

Alfred Hitchcock – Vertigo

Developed by Pendulo Studios, who also made Blacksad: Under the Skin, Alfred Hitchcock – Vertigo is another 3D adventure title with plenty of mystery. It’s not a direct adaptation of the film, instead focusing on Ed Miller who suffers from vertigo after a car accident. With his wife and daughter missing, Ed undergoes therapy to learn the truth via flashbacks. Vertigo could be an intriguing mystery but that all depends on its storyline – hopefully, the Alfred Hitchcock name will be more than just an attempt at brand recognition. It’s out on December 16^th for Xbox One, PS4, PS5, PC, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch.

Chorus

Chorus is a brand new space combat title from Fishlabs, best known for its Galaxy on Fire series. It offers a distinctively stronger narrative focus with Nara, former right hand of the Circle, abandoning the cult and rising against them with the help of Forsaken, a sentient ship. Throughout their journey, the duo will gather allies, undertake various missions – from eliminating Circle targets to taking back space stations – and navigating Ruins of the Faceless to ultimately bring down the cult. Chorus is out on December 3^rd for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, PC and Google Stadia.

In development at a small indie studio by the name of Monokai, first announced at Gamescom 2020, White Shadows drops players into a black and white world where a pandemic seems to be ranging in full swing. This new trailer sheds some much-needed light in this dark and gritty platformer’s gameplay. Obvious comparisons can be drawn to Playdead’s Inside as well as Tarsier Studios’ Little Nightmares owing to similar color pallets and tone.

White Shadows is Monokai’s debut game and seems to be showing a lot of promise. No exact release date is known as of now, but it’s due to release later this year for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. Check out the trailer below for an in-depth look at the game’s world along with some developer commentary.

"White Shadows shows a world based on contrast. Rich and poor, powerful and powerless, light and darkness, despair and hope."

White Shadows has a striking visual aesthetic that immediately leaps out of the screen. How did you land on this look for the game?

It’s all based on a pretty simple concept. White Shadows shows a world based on contrast. Rich and poor, powerful and powerless, light and darkness, despair and hope… And it deals with some pretty serious topics – systemic racism, propaganda, a world that uses its citizens as resources instead of giving them civil liberties, a world that is kind of entertaining itself to death. It’s pretty heavy stuff at times, and you know, showing these things can be amazing, but it can also be horribly boring and preachy.

We felt the best way to show all that was by having a stylized way that would allow us to show everything we needed for the story, but never completely fantasy, so there’s still a connection to the real world. And we also wanted to make fun of things. It’s a world where the powerful control the powerless. The world is huge, and you play someone who is really small. So we have these monumental settings, but as we all know, the powerful can be really stupid. So everything is in disrepair, bent and broken and held together in strange ways. We wanted both the horror and the absurd fun of what people do in our world to pop out as much as possible. The game world is off and it’s weird, but also strangely familiar. And the game looks like that, too.

White Shadows’ setting and narrative premise seem rife for some very relevant commentary- is that much of a focus in the game?

Yes, it is. We want to speak about what’s going on in the world around us today. We feel like we’re part of this world and, like most people, we want to help make the world around us a little better, not worse. What you see in the game is our reflection of what we see in the real world we all share. The racism, the propaganda, a world that is growing apart and where people don’t really speak with each other anymore. It’s our little contribution to keep some important conversations going. And it’s also our effort to give you some awesome entertainment at the same time.

Is the light and shadows visual style equally important to the way the game tells its story and the way players interact with it through gameplay mechanics?

Yeah, absolutely. For us, the visuals and the mechanics are not separate parts. They are part of the same thing. Black & white graphics are a visual choice, but they also speak to a world that is divided into parts by powerful people. And power – or powerlessness – is very much part of the gameplay experience. Having strong contrasts of light and shadows is a visual style, but it’s also a mechanic – light can be your enemy in this world, with people looking for you, but it’s also necessary to see things, obviously. It helps create a tension where you’re never quite sure what to expect.

"For us, the visuals and the mechanics are not separate parts. They are part of the same thing. Black & white graphics are a visual choice, but they also speak to a world that is divided into parts by powerful people."

What was behind the idea of occupying the game’s dystopian world with animals and anthropomorphic denizens?

Well, we’re all animals in some way, aren’t we? In its essence, White Shadows is a modern fable. We aim to tell a universal story through the things we all understand intuitively. Wolves are bad, rats are mean, pigs are dirty, sheep just bleat along and repeat what the other sheep are saying. But then, is that really true? Are things really that simple? We want to show a world of stereotypes – and then let the player decide if this allocation are true or not.

White Shadows promises a story that is dark yet funny- which is an exciting prospect, but a hard balance to strike. Can you talk to us about that, and how White Shadows goes about achieving that?

It’s always a question of how the game flows. In the end, our players will hopefully laugh and cry and cringe at what they see on the screen and what they feel playing the game. It always goes back to the world of our game – it’s a pretty dark setting which is loaded with connections to the real world we have around us. But it can also be really boring and depressing when dark stories are just dark and nothing else. For darkness to be truly dark, you need light as a contrast. For something to be funny, you need something serious next to it. It’s those contrasts that give ideas their full expression. When I play a game, I don’t want to just feel one thing – I want to feel everything. And so “dark yet funny” is not actually a paradox for us. It’s necessary to tell the story in the way it should be told.

Can players expect to learn much about the history and backstory of the game’s world through the course of its story?

Yes, they can. There are scenes specifically built around understanding the backstory of the game world and the origin story of our little heroine. The main thing is for us is to tell our story through gameplay – so when there’s something to understand in the world, we make sure that we give it to you in a playable way and not in a cutscene. We want to keep up the flow of the game at all time and tell you a great story – but in a way that enables you to decide for yourself what that story means.

Roughly how long will an average playthrough of White Shadows be?

I’d say 3 to 4 hours, more or less the same length as games like Little Nightmares or Inside. But of course, play time is always hard to estimate. We are doing our best to make the game accessible to people who don’t usually play a lot of games – while keeping it challenging for everybody else.

Do you have any plans to launch on the Switch?

Yes, we have plans for that, but not right away. For the launch, we will focus on PC and next-gen consoles and then we’ll see if you guys like it.

"When I play a game, I don’t want to just feel one thing – I want to feel everything. And so “dark yet funny” is not actually a paradox for us. It’s necessary to tell the story in the way it should be told."

While most multiplatform games are choosing to launch as cross-gen titles in the early stages of the coming generation, White Shadows is exclusively on PC and next-gen consoles. Can you talk to us about how you arrived at that decision?

Well, you can’t always get what you want. Part of the reality of being a small team is that you must focus your efforts. Of course, we would like to make our games available for all players on all platforms at the same time. Every creator wants to get their stuff out there and we’re no different. We want to make it possible for everybody to enjoy our games on their preferred system. But we are a small team trying to build something extraordinary, and for that to have a chance, we must focus.

White Shadows depends to a large extent on big, detailed scenarios with minimal loading times, and that obviously needs enough hardware power to run fluently. Going PC and next-gen has its own challenges, but at least the hardware isn’t a big issue. And so, we don’t have to spend too much time on performance issues and can instead focus our efforts on where they should go: making the best possible experience for the players.