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Based on the launch trailer, Shines Over: The Damned promised to be a walking simulator with a dark atmosphere and horror elements, with a particularly gloomy atmosphere. Being a fan of this kind of game I couldn’t wait to try it. But after I have finished it I am still wondering where is the game that I expected.   There are short games out there. Some of them are lacking story or feature wise, some of them work as stocking fillers for the holidays and some of them are memorable experiences. And then there is Shines Over: The Damned, that would deserve its own category. I have played demos that lasted longer and were free. The shock was so big after finishing my first playthrough of the game that almost immediately I booted it up again. I was not sure if I missed something, if this production was so abstract and subtle that perhaps I needed more time to find the essence well-hidden by the developer. After an unusually long struggle I have arrived at the conclusion...

I’ll leave the green poison lobbers last, mainly because while their throws cover the distance to my avatar, they are actually hitting the cliffs above. So, I’m safely ignoring them as I move from a door to an open space, targeting two flying snake-like creatures and some robots with weapons where their heads should be. Their projectiles are pretty accurate, so I have to keep moving to avoid damage. Once I’ve finished them off, I go back to the tunnel I came through, picking up a vial of health to bring me back to 100 and a few shards of armor. I notice I haven’t explored one branch of this area and do so, wielding my shotgun to eliminate a few fast-moving fangs that burst out of sarcophagi to attack me. I could have used my trusty wrist blade to conserve some ammo. Unfortunately, blasting them at point-blank range just feels too good. I push forward over the ice bridge and enter another cramped section of tunnels, taking out enemies left and right. I don’t take ma...

It’s the laser beams that get me most of the time. I know there’s a color change that signals when they are about to fire but I often have my hands full with dozens of robot enemies, all ready to launch their own attacks. Often, I only spot the beam when the screen flashes because Mia, the character I’m controlling loses some of her precious health. So I do my best to focus on the laser’s origin, a fixed emplacement that typically spawns with the second opponent wave. I dash around it, keeping to the beat as much as I can, to clear some space and then launch a flurry of kicks and axe attacks. I could also deliver an Ultimate but that feels like overkill considering that this is just one enemy. Once it’s down I turn and face the melee group that quickly closes on me. Mia enters Tanzrausch while dealing with them, becoming a blur of robot-destroying attacks. Unfortunately, I whiff a dash and she’s out of the flow state, scrambling to move away from a series of area-o...

I pushed the tank too far ahead of my main force. Shermans might be plentiful and relatively reliable in battle but this one crumpled pretty fast when ambushed by both a Panzer IV and a classic anti-tank gun. I think I can save it next turn and replenish its crew after that but it might require drawing fire with other units, which might lead to losses that I don’t really need. Some good spotting from my own scouts means I can direct both my self-propelled artillery to strike at two Nazi infantry squads that were busy using buildings as cover to launch an ambush on my own advancing squads. A machine gun team then eliminates the first of them but my own G.I.s fail to take out the second. The Germans reveal a few surprises during their own turn. They push forward not one but two tanks, which is an issue given that I lack suitable defenses in that corner of the village. They also have some indirect fire, probably mortars, that accurately strike my infantry. So, I use m...

The cultists have been getting smart. They once stood out in the open and in groups, almost begging someone to end their chain-smoking misery. Now they tend to gather only indoors, with sentries on the perimeter, and they no longer have as many cars parked in convenient spots. It’s getting harder to fire just one bullet and take down eight or nine of them, even when that shot is powered by telekinesis. It now takes time simply to spot all the cultists, despite their shiny nature. Sometimes I have to fire a shot that I know will not reach its target to use as a way to scout a building or test whether I can bend around a certain space. I feel bad doing this because the entire ethos of the game is to fire one bullet and clear an area. But it is important to do whatever it takes to cull this cult. After a half dozen failed attempts, The Girl knows where all her enemies are, and I have a clear idea of the order in which they need to expire. I line up the shot to take ou...

There is a long running commentary on how most AAA games lost their soul and got rotten to the core. While the behavior of publishers and recent releases support this point of view more and more, the image of independent game as white knights with radiant hearts that will save the game industry have tarnished as well. Yet, with a bit of luck you can still find a few gems in the unstoppable wave of hundreds of indie titles released every month.  Monnglow Bay is such a rare find. It is not by any means perfect, but it is the embodiment of the indie game spirit that promises to swap you away to a place of dreams. Every day starts with the sun shining in the sky, with people putting their best feet forward and with every cast of the rod hooking a fish. And although underneath all we will find layers of lethargy and even tragedy, the inhabitants of Moonglow Bay are a resilient bunch who do not accept the idea of giving up. The best example is the character you choose to...

The pirates aren’t really a problem, but they keep trying to attack my trade routes. My trusty airship, along with its dedicated escort, quickly teleports to the closest friendly location and then destroys them quickly in aerial combat. I’d rather integrate them into our society and find ways to work together but some people can’t be reasoned with. Fortunately, most encounters on the Ursee are far more friendly. I follow an indicator under my surveyor to a neutral ship, recruiting another trade captain to the cause of the Free Houses. He gets a trade route that suits his capabilities and will contribute to the rebuilding process. Moving farther out, I find a refugee settlement, which I pick up and then rebuild on a nearby island with good space for docks. I switch to one of my settlements, expanding and upgrading some of the towers and creating connections that should make it easier for workers to move around. A commander watches over the island from the top of the...

The enemy fortress looks mighty, with the classic barricade backed by a watchtower filled with archers. Behind them stand two catapults and a big group of other warriors, some of whom are probably archers ready to fire at my forces over the walls. It will probably take two assaults to eliminate them all and finally win this battle. It would have been harder earlier when I did not have access to my own siege weapons and the big burly blacksmiths. But now I have a solid group, boosted by two mercenaries, and I’m not afraid of launching an all-out attack. We advance, I put everybody in a shield wall formation and then draw in the enemy forces. Some arrows find their target, but my hero quickly heals, gets back to his own lines, and helps slaughter all incoming enemies. One of them helpfully drops a run but I ignore it while I deal with another group of incoming fighters. Then I give my Vikings the order to advance while I equip the green upgrade, which gives me some h...

Recycling is a big issue on a spaceship that’s traveling through space to a habitable planet. People have PDAs to communicate and take down notes but a few specialized buildings, including a school, still use real paper. The idea is to recycle it all at the end of the week, making sure none of it is wasted, creating a closed loop that can be effective for years with minimal intervention. But someone has written a note on a piece of pilfered paper, threatening the very system that keeps this generation ship stable. The captain wants to know who’s involved with this and Stella is on the case, although she hasn’t dealt with anything similar before. I move her across the spaceship, talking to people who might have handled paper, gathering clues, and gradually getting an idea about what’s happening. The case is probably solvable, as long as I gather all the evidence and don’t make a significant logical mistake. But my dad, before finding himself crushed by a bulkhead, s...

The prequel completing a truly weird trilogy, initially available only as a Netflix title, has now landed on PC and consoles as well. Those who played Golf Club: Nostalgia and The Cub will be curious to find out how things started, but will the quirks of Highwater make it interesting to wider audiences as well? Read on to find out. The three games developed by Demagog, although are part of the same universe, could not be more different. While Golf Club presents the nostalgic elite who escaped to Mars and returns to an uninhabitable Earth to play decadent golf matches, and The Cub presents the journey of a post-apocalyptic Mowgli on the very same Earth after it was reclaimed by nature, Highwater is the origin story, the one that presents how it all started. Different both in visual style and game genre, the common element of all these titles is the unmistakable atmosphere. And, of course, the radio station, that this time around blasts its indie tunes, being known a...