If there is one good thing about the worldwide pandemic situation is that it gave us – the gamers – more time to enjoy our favourite games or to catch up with any title we’ve missed so far. No kidding, the player database on almost every game has jumped and sales were soaring high last year. Social distancing goes hand in hand with gaming.
If you haven’t got a clue what to play to keep you company while social distancing or if you need something new, we got you covered. February is another month that will bring out some good titles, so with no further delay here are the games that we think will blow everyone away!
Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood by Cyanide – February 4th
Genre: Action, RPG
Enough with these sequels and re-releases! Would you like a fresh new IP? Well, here you go! Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood arrives in early February with a shot at the action role-playing genre. It’s not hard to guess that you will have the chance to be a blood-thirsty werewolf. As such you will be roaming the American Northwest terrorizing Pentex – a company that pollutes the environment. So if you ever wanted to be an eco-terrorist or a werewolf, now’s your chance!
Shapeshifting is what the gameplay centres around. Apart from human and werewolf form, you can take the form of a wolf as well. Werewolf form is your best pick for combat, the wolf form for stealth and exploration, and the human form can be used to blend within society without them knowing that you are a shapeshifter.
Needless to say that as a role-playing game, every form will have its own skill-branch tree and unique skills which provides a lot of ways to develop the main character. A game where you can play in three different ways? Sounds like a potentially interesting mess.
Platforms: PlayStation 5 / 4, Xbox Series X / S, Xbox One, PC
Blue Fire by ROBI Studios, Graffiti Games – 4th February
Genre: Platformer, Action
Embark on an extraordinary journey through the desolated kingdom of Penumbra and discover the hidden secrets of this long-forgotten land. Explore mystical temples, encounter survivors and take on strange quests to collect valuable items. Along your adventure, slash your way through daunting adversaries, roam across mysterious and abandoned regions, leap through deadly traps and ultimately master the art of movement.
At first glance, Blue Fire bears resemblance to what Hollow Knight might be reimagined in a 3D space. It’s got plenty of familiar ideas: quickly dashing between platforms in an all-but-abandoned kingdom full of dark monsters, piecing together your mysterious tiny warrior’s purpose in the world, and striking at foes while bouncing off their head with repeated aerial slashes.
Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC
Nuts by Noodlecake Studios – February 4th
Genre: Adventure, Simulation
“Spy on squirrels in the forest” is the tagline of this game and it’s not what you think. Or it’s exactly what you think. Nuts is a game with a wonderfully unique premise, and an art style just as distinctive.
The game begins with the player arriving at Melmoth Forest. Your task? To observe the squirrels for Viago University’s research. As you track the movements of the squirrels in Melmoth Forest, you’ll discover that they don’t behave as normal squirrels should. Sadly, that’s about as much as I can tell you without spoiling anything for you, but I’ll leave you with this: the story is somewhat short and simple, but also oddly moving.
During each day, you’ll set up your surveillance cameras to try and capture the strange squirrels on film. Sounds easy, right? Well, it starts off simple, and the complexity very quickly scales upwards. Placement of cameras, angles, night and day footage. Expect a lot of trial, error and mystery.
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PC, Mac
Little Nightmares 2 by Tarsier Studios – February 11th
Genre: Horror, Adventure
Little Nightmares was a game that could genuinely recreate the feeling that you get when you’re trying to hide from somebody, despite knowing that you will be found. And it is a side-scroller platformer…imagine how horrible it would be if it could be played from a first-person point of view. It could honestly out-match Alien Isolation in some ways!
Little Nightmares II is releasing this February and is going to give us a new taste of the horrific hide-and-seek game its predecessor was. This time we are given a new protagonist in the face of Mono. The guys from Bandai Namco are sticking to the working formula, but this time the scale is larger and the world is vastly expanded.
You’ve already met the Thin-man in the first game – the creepy man appearing on the TV screens. Well, now he is not just an on-screen picture but a real villain hypnotizing the population of a whole city with his transmissions. He is not going to be the only threat as you will be trying to survive the grip of the Bullies, the Teacher, the Ghost, the Doctor, and many more in this Tim Burton-esque landscape.
Truth be told, this game might give you flashbacks of your childhood fears, so be warned!
Platforms: PlayStation 5 / 4, Xbox Series X / S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC
