NecroVision: Lost Company

Gaming Genres: FPS
Story Genres: War, Horror, Historical, Fantasy
Graphical Styles: 3D, Realism, High Resolution
Series/World: NecroVision
Platforms: Windows
Pricing Model: Pay $
Developer(s): The Farm 51
Publisher(s): 1C Company
Initial Release Date:  Feb 19, 2010
Website(s): Homepage, Publishers Page, Steam, GamersGate
Description:
NecroVisioN: Lost Company is the prequel to original horror FPS shooter, taking place before the NecroVisioN story begins. It contains a bunch of unique levels, characters, weapons and gameplay elements as well as new main hero that presents the original game story from opposite perspective. Player is now one of WWI German troops that discovers the evil forces unleashed by the war, starts to fight against them and leads soldiers of all nations gathered on the front through the massive battles against the zombies and demons and finally he becomes a first Necromancer that will fight against Simon Bukner in NecroVisioN.

Opinion:
More of NecroVision but not nearly as good. It is really short, has a confusing story, mostly boring missions, and a horrible progression.

Images (+):

Related Media (+):

• Trailer

Hints/Tips/Walkthrough (+):

• Video Walkthrough

Indieness: Barely Indie
Play?:

DeadEnd: Cerebral Vortex

Gaming Genres: Puzzle, Exploration
Story Genres: Fantasy
Graphical Styles: 2.5D, Realism, High Resolution
Platforms: Windows
Pricing Model: Pay $
Developer(s): Membranos
Publisher(s): Membranos
Initial Release Date: February 18, 2012
Website(s): Homepage, Facebook, Indievania, GamersGate
Description:
DeadEnd: Cerebral Vortex is a first-person surreal labyrinth game.

The game threatens to break gaming conventions by throwing a player into a surreal world of subconscious, where reality mingles with illusion, and symbolism replaces traditional storytelling.

As a player, you must recover you shattered soul, piece by piece, by wondering around game's 20 levels, while the environment changes from claustrophobic to moody to sublime. Whilst roaming around, you see illusions that disappear when approached, while at the same time real obstacles appear to block your path. Things get even more interesting when you turn the world upside-down so that illusions become reality, and reality turns into illusion.

Key Features:

• 20 Levels set in 5 surreal worlds of subconsciousness.
• Unique and artistic concept of alternating realities.
• Elegant, streamlined interface.
• Multi-language (English, French, Italian, German, Polish, Russian, Lithuanian).

Opinion:
DeadEnd is a labyrinthine game, you traverse a series of beautiful labyrinths with a unique difference; These labyrinths contain many illusions and power-ups. Walls appear solid until closer inspection show that they are in-fact doorways and open areas get solid as you approach. There are warp gates, and inversion switches that switch the illusions; Power-ups that allow you to see clearly over longer distances, as well as a few others and many collectables.

At its best, DeadEnd had an absolutely beautiful open environment and complex labyrinthine puzzles that are a joy to solve; There might still be a big element of trial and error, but there is certainly strategy, memory, and loads of exploration involved. At its worst, Deadend removes this beauty for closed in boring corridors and repetitive visuals and this strategy and exploration for a complexity that is so far overwhelming that it reduces the game to randomly walking through identical corridors until an exit is found.

Images (+):

Related Media (+):

• Trailer

Indieness: Quintessentially Indie
Play?: Should Play

Deharmonized

Deharmonized

Gaming Genres: Arcade
Story Genres:
Graphical Styles: 2D, Pixel Art, Minimalist
Platforms: Windows
Pricing Model: Free
Developer(s): Elektron
Publisher(s): Elektron
Initial Release Date: February 10, 2012
Website(s): YoYo Games, Official Blog Post
Description:
Deharmonized is an abstract one-button game where you guide a ball through a unique environment. You must overcome various obstacles in order to progress through the game.

Opinion:
Both tranquil and sometimes frustrating. Deharmonized is rather enjoyable and charmingly minimalistic.

Images (+):

Indieness: Quintessentially Indie
Play?: Should Play