Indie

In Race The Sun players control a fast-moving hovercaft that speeds through an endless landscape of abstract geometric objects. Enormous cubes, cones, and walls fill the world as the player hurtles ever forwards towards a setting sun. The ship is unable to stop, only steer from side to side until the player makes an inevitable mistake and crashes in a shower of flaming pixels.

Survival games don't generally tend to be about survival. They tend to be about avoiding pitfalls and dangerous enemies. That's largely because, let's face it, actual survival - the drinking pee, eating rats, building shelter sort of survival - just isn't fun in a video game. Except it is. Don't Starve proves that, done right, simply making it through a week on your own can be incredibly rewarding, and addictive.

It's refreshing to see developers create a different kind of game then what they're typically known for. Starbreeze Studios is famous for their gritty shooters (The Syndicate, The Darkness), so it is a little strange to see them collaborate with Swedish filmmaker Josef Fares and create a thoughtful adventure game like Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons. It was certainly a risk, but it's a risk that paid off.

It's a bit odd that the Resident Evil games have become synonymous with Survival Horror. After all, they're about heavily-armed police officers who kill zombies by the hundreds. Real fear comes from facing an army of unstoppable monsters and not having any means to fight them off. Outlast locks players inside an abandoned mental institution, arms them with just a camcorder, then leaves them to creep around in the darkness, thus combining a horror storyline with stealth gaming mechanics for a genuinely terrifying experience.

These days, it seems like everyone is trying to breathe new life into the zombie genre. Most developers are looking for the angle that nobody has done before, trying to make zombies terrifying all over again and forcing people to sneak around in the darkness lest they find their tender brains being chewed. What happened to all the fun we used to have with zombies, where we were the ones with all the power and they were just rotten targets, ripe for the shooting? Splatter brings it all back.

While many indie developers are attempting to make old genres relevant again, there are those that are trying to create new ones. One such dev is Lucas Pope, with his latest game, Papers, Please, being labeled as "A Dystopian Document Thriller". The word "Dodocument" will no doubt throw some people off, but after spending some time cross-referencing passports and work releases as an immigration inspector in the fictional country of Arstotzka, I can safely say that stamping papers can definitely be thrilling.

Three things in this world are certain: death, taxes, and stealth missions in video games. Some games include stealth missions for variety or back-of-box feature lists, and others include them as an alternative to smash-and-grab gameplay. Few games really focus on covert gameplay as a primary mechanic, and that’s probably because making good stealth games are hard. Monaco: What’s Yours Is Mine from Pocketwatch Games proves that stealth doesn’t have to be a trudging experience for players.

Also known as Stealth Bastard, this quirky, charming puzzle/stealth platformer is filled up to the brim with personality. The developers make this incredibly clear through sarcastic, subliminal messages throughout the course of the game... and they don’t go easy on you. This is by no means bad criticism. On the contrary, messages likes ‘You’re not too bright are you?’ and ‘Was I not clear enough?’ spread very cleverly across the game making the player want to surpass the ingenuity of each level and strive towards that magnificently brutal ‘S’ ranking.

What happens when you blend a puzzle game with adventure and stealth elements, a pinch of comedy, and a dose of noir? The answer is Gunpoint, a unique indie game that is impossible to be tied down to a single genre. This concoction of various ideas may sound like it would create too much dissonance to be fun, but everything comes together in perfect harmony to create a one-of-a-kind adventure.

Defense Grid has been around for a few years now, but many gamers have discovered it because it's one of the free games that came with a Gold subscription to Xbox Live. Those who missed their chance to grab it for free should still take look at this old gem because, much like its main character, it withstands the test of time rather well.