This publisher together with local publishing partners will host developers from Rabbit & Bear Studios and ION LANDS at one of the Asia Pacific region’s premier gaming events this Jan. 25-28, 2024 at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center.
Any fan of the retro style Pixel Pulps series of interactive adventure, will be thrilled to hear Bahnsen Knights is now here! It’s available to play on multiple platforms, like the Nintendo Switch, PS4|5, X Box with support for English, Spanish, German, French, and Japanese languages. That is, if you’ve played either Mothmen 1966 (review) and Varney Lake, this next novel will be on the shopping list! This third work in the series looks promising, and for any fan of pulp fiction or that 80s digital style, this game is for you!
From the Press Release:
Follow Toni, the cult’s leader and former car salesman, to figure out what happened to Boulder’s friend and missing partner, Cupra. Learn just exactly what these “route exorcisms” are that everyone’s talking about before Boulder meets an untimely demise. Here, you’ll be driving through multiple outcomes of dark conclusions and explore a choice-based detective tale that branches into different aspects of humanity’s capacity for terror.
The ability to really immerse players in a proper fantasy world of fighting hordes of invaders in Ironstrike VR can be fun.
Ironstrike VR certainly delivers a fun mediaeval combat experience as a four player co-op roguelike adventure on the Meta Quest. It’s about what groups can do as they face off against AI opponents in a simply rendered open world environment where the elements meet. While photo-realism isn’t the goal in the design of these realms, what’s presented so far hints at the possibilities should developer E McNeill want to re-skin this game in a dungeon crawl environment.
For now, it’s limited to some stunning dawn and dusk renders, and as for the swing and parry system, I feel more work is needed. One should be able to move the body instead of shaking a joystick to dodge blows. I found that standing still to smack down enemies is an issue. I should be able to move the body around, and on the Quest 2, some of it tracked. While the authentic combat experience isn’t always there, I love the concept, and was fighting my foes in waves. The number of opponents faced steadily grows as you progress through the game. At the time of writing, I’ve encountered as many as three at one time. There may be more, but I haven’t gotten there yet!
Gamers who love to post speed runs on Twitch will find Wizordum to be the type of perfect shoot ’em up style game to parley with. While I prefer a dungeon crawl at a slow pace, this fantasy shooter is designed to be played fast and furious! That’s how most adventure games should be played. Sometimes, players spend too much time being methodical or are pouring through the books to insure encounters follow the rules, and while that’s okay in a pen and paper game, that’s not how it works in real life!
The fact players have to be on the ball in this videogame, that means being able to solve puzzles on the fly! There’s also being like Indiana Jones and escaping a room with the treasure without missing the beat of those arrows shooting at him! In this game, players better have that itchy trigger finger and nimble reflexes when blasting through a dungeon!
When there were times I wished I could pause the game to quickly sketch out a dungeon map, I suspect that would slow the game down. Thankfully, there is one provided in the game to show where the secrets lay, but it’s not as detailed as one I would make.
The potential for expanded world-building remains untapped, leaving players of Salt and Sacrifice yearning for a more intricate narrative.
Ska Studio‘s latest instalment, Salt and Sacrifice, follows in the footsteps of its predecessor, Salt and Sanctuary. The game plunges players into a dark fantasy world, with gameplay clearly inspired by the challenging Dark Souls series. While it delivers on atmosphere and gameplay, it comes with its share of drawbacks. This game is a 2D side scrolling dark fantasy that plays out in the style of the Dark Souls series. This means pattern memorization, dodge rolls, punishing difficulty, and many MANY deaths as the adventure progresses.
From the outset, players create their character, a convicted criminal who has been condemned to hunt rogue Mages. There are several job classes available, so players can choose skills based on what kind of play style they want to tackle the game with. After immediately being thrown into an unwinnable battle, the condemned is resurrected and tasked with continuing the mage hunts as a half-alive inquisitor, unable to escape their duty even through death. These corrupted magic-users have taken monstrous forms based on whatever form of magic they had practiced as humans, and the player will need to prepare appropriately to survive these battles.
Leading video game publisher 505 Games kicks off its 2024 calendar with a showfloor presence with Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes and Nivalis at Taipei Game Show 2024, and it looks to be good.
LCB Game Studio
Ironstrike VR certainly delivers a fun mediaeval combat experience as a four player co-op roguelike adventure on the 
Emberheart Games
Ska Studio