Playing
Quasimorph, an extraction shooter roguelite with a Doom/Quake 2-esque vibe. I've been wanting a grungy, immersive, sci-fi, top down shooter, and while this uses turns like a more traditional roguelike, it hits that spot well enough. You are a space PMC going around doing missions for the various mega-corps competing for supremacy in the galaxy, one that is under threat from malevolent forces from beyond. I normally avoid early access but this game has been calling to me, so I tried a "demo" and was hooked. Quite a bit of jank, but a whole lot of potential. Has that 'just one more mission' hook, it's wrought havoc on my sleep schedule.
Also,
Rain World. Fuckin-A man, indie is just straight mogging AAA these days. A visionary game crafted by what have to be brilliant programmers and graphic artists. Or maybe the bar has been so low for so long that they only seem brilliant by comparison. Either way, you're not going to get anything like this from the Industry. If you would like to know more, here's a link to another thread with a video talking about the game's ecosystem:
https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads/rain-world-the-most-complex-ecosystem-in-any-game.145851/
- I find some of game's locales and animation absolutely stunning, reminding me of classic, high level feature animation like Fire and Ice and some of Disney's work, if Disney worked in Darwinian apocalyptia.
Now, I'm playing an early version I found while out sailing and some of the frustrations people had with the game then have since been resolved, so while I am experiencing some tedium and rage, I find the game utterly compelling, challenging, beautiful, and refreshing.
While I like figuring things out myself, I think both of these games err on the side of too little information for how easily you can die, and dying comes with substantial setbacks. Still preferable to mindless AAA consumeroid detritus, but I want to see games like these blow up and being
too obtuse can stand in the way of that.