New yr, new you. New you, new video games to play. In November, we introduced that we are going to rejoice the one-year anniversary of this program with a 2024 Anniversary Assortment. Annually, we’ll add 6 indie titles, not obtainable on Xbox Sport Cross, that we imagine are absolute must-haves to this assortment. Yearly we’ll add 6 extra, by no means eradicating the titles from earlier years, slowly rising our shrine to indie greatness. Consider it as our yearly “Indie Corridor of Fame” within the Xbox Retailer. We’ve got one other huge shock subsequent week, so keep tuned.
However earlier than all that, now we have a brand new record of titles to kick off your 2025, simply earlier than the occasion begins subsequent week.
Generally, wonderful indie titles that launch in December don’t get the visibility they deserve. This month, we rectify that with a loopy good record of long-awaited remasters, unusual puzzles, stranger puppets, and watery adventures, each chaotic and enjoyable. Right here’s what we’ve bought for you this month (in no explicit order):
“Craft a floating base out of trash to outlive,” they stated. “Who wants mates? Go it alone,” they stated. “What’s the worst that may occur?” they stated. Seems, sharks can occur.
Subsequent time, I’m positively gathering some individuals up for aquatic survival sport, Raft. The primary hours of this sport had been nerve-racking for me. My instruments broke a number of instances, I used to be all the time dehydrated, and I didn’t appear to understand steering. The sport gave me route, however I felt prefer it was all the time resulting in my loss of life. In some methods, I felt like possibly this sport wasn’t for me.
After which, I began to unlock blueprints. Then I began to enhance my instruments, the water turned drinkable, my raft bought larger. I can do that, I’m going to reside! Hours handed. I instantly was capable of steer and cease my now-giant raft. I used to be getting far more assured exploring reefs and following the particles. All of a sudden, I’m seeing a humongous outpost and I’m discovering puzzles to unravel, and now I’m occurring quests. Oh, and I fought a bear! I didn’t win, however I fought it. It turned extraordinarily satisfying to progress – even empowering. I haven’t tried this with different individuals but, however I’m very excited to share this sport with my mates. I’m nonetheless engaged on my raft and making it extra purposeful, however I now not really feel like Tom Hanks ready in the midst of the ocean for somebody to save lots of me, which is an efficient begin.
Raft
Axolot Video games
$24.99
Raft™ throws you and your mates into an epic oceanic journey! Alone or collectively, gamers battle to outlive a deadly voyage throughout an unlimited sea! Collect particles, scavenge reefs and construct your personal floating house, however be cautious of the man-eating sharks!
There are numerous tales on-line concerning the improvement of this collection and the way it was left unfinished, however at this time followers can rejoice on this remastered compilation of Soul Reaver 1 & 2, the crown jewels of the epic collection. The Legacy of Kain is notorious for its unyielding twists and turns, shaping the lore of Nosgoth and its story of People, vampires, corruption, and prophecy. In the actual world, these video games had a dramatic impression within the early 2000s sport trade in a few methods. Moreover the extremely deep lore and pleasant puzzle fixing, the environment-shifting gameplay mechanic they launched was completely new floor at this level. Although it’s not so uncommon to seek out lately, the thought of going backwards and forwards between two variations of an setting to proceed ahead had simply began to be explored in journey video games.
Remastering older video video games has now turn into its personal self-discipline, and even style. The restrictions, the legalities, the misplaced data, can current a myriad of unsolvable issues to each developer and writer. Nevertheless, the previous 5-10 years have seen some really impressed work to protect, reimagine, and generally rebuild from scratch the work of earlier a long time. That is a type of remasters. The fashions and environments are meticulously up to date to convey this title up-to-date by a number of generations. That features a trendy model of the in-game controls, up to date digital camera controls, and even a map (which might have been good 20 years in the past). There’s additionally behind-the-scenes footage, never-before-seen cutscenes, a lore map, and even minimize ranges that had been faraway from the video games, which is a formidable inclusion.
A number of the greatest and most well-known artwork items, literature, and music in human historical past are unfinished. Generally the damaging area or the useless air feels purposeful, haunting, as if it had been calling out to you asking what you’d put right here. Possibly it’s for another person to complete, or possibly it was by no means meant to be completed in any respect. Regardless of the case possibly, Soul Reaver was a masterpiece of its time and deserved the cautious restoration it obtained. As somebody who’s crushed these video games a number of instances, I can’t wait to have extra conversations with much more individuals experiencing it for the very first time.
Legacy of Kain™ Soul Reaver 1&2 Remastered
Aspyr
$29.99
Rejoice Soul Reaver’s twenty fifth Anniversary
Expertise the epic battle of Kain and Raziel in authentic kind or with remastered graphics.
Included Sport Titles
Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver
Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 2
Expertise the Legendary Narrative
Centuries after your former grasp, Kain, betrays and executes you, you rise once more and embark on a relentless quest for revenge.
Wield the Powers of a Wraith
Slay your former vampire brethren together with your claws, bolts of telekinetic power, and the fundamental Wraith Blade. Develop stronger by devouring the souls of your enemies.
Shift Between Realms
The Elder God has granted you the flexibility to shift between the Spectral and Materials Realms. Traverse the realms to unravel puzzles, reveal new paths, and defeat your foes.
Let’s be actual: who doesn’t need to gently reunite little misplaced ducklings with their moms? Or assist passing fishies swim into new waters? If that’s in your wavelength (it’s positively on mine), then Naiad is right here to ship what’s mainly a haven for very chill, generally extremely mysterious, puzzling that’ll have you ever drifting alongside streams, creeks, and rivers. On this minimalist, colourful exploration journey, you play as a stunning little mermaid-like creature who nudges across the waters, serving to, nurturing, and stumbling into new situations.
Every new physique of water contains what’s just about a dialogue-free toybox in which you’ll be able to full a bunch of very opaque goals that give little instruction – or just full a principal job to slide into the subsequent chapter. It’s a largely serene, subdued journey that permits you to select how deep you need to dive into the mysteries of every of those water-laden toyboxes. Created by a solo dev, Naiad scoots alongside like a quiet daydream however harbors simply sufficient complexity to fulfill the extra curious.
NAIAD
HiWarp
$19.99
Stream with Naiad throughout a mysterious river and work together with its fauna and flora to find little secrets and techniques.
Take pleasure in a healthful expertise with a dreamy and authentic visible type.
Be taught to swim like a duck, dive like a fish, sprint like a frog and meet different cute mates like butterflies, rabbits, turtles, snakes and crocodiles. Assist them discover their method and keep away from obstacles.
Navigate your method by means of 16 episodes that may take you thru lovely and unusual locations like a deep forest, a darkish cave, a joyful creek, a peaceful lake and extra – till you attain the ocean.
Naiad is really a private and distinctive sport created with love by a solo dev.
Every part about this distinctive puzzle sport is so charming to me. The character designs, their personalities, the world constructing, and the hilarious dialogue stored me entertained as I performed by means of this story of a mail-carrier for the gods in a world on the brink. Nice God Grove’s core mechanics revolve round gamers leveraging items of dialogue to work together with different characters and resolve puzzles, however in a method I’ve by no means seen earlier than – you actually simply suck the phrases straight from dialog containers together with your Megapon vacuum device and launch them in locations that make sense.
I additionally can not stress how foolish this sport is! Proper off the bat, you meet a captain who appears to know a lot concerning the Grove, whereas concurrently dropping his thoughts each second. Thus far, every character I’ve interacted with has finished or stated one thing that felt harking back to a cartoon I’d watch – whether or not it was a personality consuming a lacking seashore ball or a muscular girl threatening a person who’s too scared to profess his love for her. It’s enjoyable, it’s bizarre and it’s superior!
Nice God Grove
Fellow Traveller
$19.99
THE WORLD IS ENDING AND THE GODS ARE SQUABBLING! Suck up and launch speech bubbles in a wacky world of puzzles, puppets, and peculiar gods… or THE RIFT WILL CONSUME US ALL!!
As soon as in a technology, the gods come collectively to postpone the apocalypse. However this time, the god of communication began a bunch of heavenly fights after which went awol.
With the sky splitting and the gods in disarray, who’s gonna be a part of the Bizzyboys to assist SAVE DA WORLD FROM A-POCKY-LIPS???
• SUCK UP AND LAUNCH DIALOGUE! Because the gods’ new mail-carrier, you may suck up speech bubbles and fireplace them at anybody to speak! Resolve puzzles! Flirt! HURT GODS’ FEELINGS! Aww…
• DISCOVER BIZARRE GODS: The god of teamwork? The god of LOVE SONGS? Drain it, who’s in cost round right here…?
• Expertise speaking scarecrows! Cooking puppets!! THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT!!!
For as enjoyable and comfortable as this sport’s aesthetic is, I didn’t notice how tough, difficult, and chaotic working my very own airport community could be. This complicated administration sim’s true problem wasn’t opening airports, including new routes, or upgrading planes. It was managing the cash to finish goals and coping with random occasions that actually examined my strategic expertise. Followers of administration simulation video games will really feel proper at house with the difficult however rewarding nature of this sudden gem.
Out of the a number of modes, I discovered probably the most enjoyable in “Uncover The World,” the place you’re tasked with unlocking a brand new territory each 6 minutes, or your run is ended. This pressured me to shortly perceive the sport’s move – which routes are most cost-effective, when to improve and add planes and airports, and whether or not to just accept high-risk, high-reward occasions. Truthfully, this was a pleasant break from my typical action-oriented titles and has made me inquisitive about what else this style gives. Whether or not you’re an off-the-cuff gamer or a fan of technique video games, Fly Corp is a fascinating expertise value exploring!
Fly Corp
Klabater
$14.99
Develop your transport community!
Open new routes throughout areas and cities, purchase and improve planes, and broaden airport capacities as your community grows.
Handle passenger move with precision!
With a sophisticated passenger system, every metropolis has a practical inhabitants, and the bigger the town, the larger the demand for flights to varied locations. You’ll be able to’t afford to attach each metropolis immediately, so you may must strategize, create environment friendly hubs, and forestall airport overloads. If one airport reaches capability, it’s sport over.
The world is your playground!
Discover almost 180 territories and tens of hundreds of cities. Construct airports wherever and begin transporting passengers globally. Adapt your technique to completely different areas: shorter routes are simpler to handle in locations like Europe, whereas long-distance connections in huge areas would require cautious planning resulting from increased prices.
Select from a number of sport modes: Uncover the World, Free Play, and Challenges.
In Uncover the World mode, unlock and join territories as you broaden throughout the globe — however act quick, as you have to unlock a brand new area each 6 minutes otherwise you lose! In Challenges, tackle distinctive situations with particular objectives, comparable to surviving for a set interval or incomes a goal amount of cash. Every problem gives one thing completely different: some require connecting continuously unlocking airports, whereas others would possibly contain rebuilding your community after a coronavirus outbreak.
Keep engaged with random occasions!
Sudden occasions, from investments to disasters that disrupt flights, and even humorous conditions like a lawsuit over spilled espresso, hold the gameplay dynamic and unpredictable.
Compete with different gamers!
Face day by day situations and climb the leaderboard in each problem. Earn factors for transporting passengers, producing income, and constructing infrastructure. Are you able to make it to the highest?
Create your personal situations!
Use the feature-rich State of affairs Editor to create, share, and play user-generated situations for infinite new content material.
Concern and belief. That’s what The Factor is all about, and I adore it! In the event you haven’t come throughout this sport earlier than, it’s a third-person survival horror set as a sequel to the basic 1982 film of the identical identify – which was fairly modern in itself at launch, given that almost all film tie-in video games had been extra like variations than story continuations.
I completely loved taking a step again by means of time for a second whereas enjoying. Nightdive Studios did a wonderful job remastering the title – the digital camera orientation, the voice performing, and most, if not all, of the mechanics really feel precisely how video games felt 24 years in the past however with a contemporary sheen.
I couldn’t assist however discover how a lot this jogged my memory of Gears of Warfare as I used to be enjoying it. The grotesque creatures, the character relationship constructing, the tone, and ambiance are all very comparable in a method. Possibly that’s why I appreciated enjoying it a lot, however I received’t let that take away from how good this sport is by itself.
The Factor: Remastered
Nightdive Studios
$29.99
No One Survives Alone.
The 2002 third-person survival horror shooter that serves as a sequel to the genre-defining 1982 movie is again, remastered by Nightdive Studios to convey this modern mix of quick paced squad motion meets survival horror to the trendy period. Together with Antialiasing, Per Pixel Lighting, 4K Decision and as much as 120 FPS.
The place the film ended, the true terror begins.
You’re Cpt J.F. Blake, chief of a U.S. Particular Forces rescue workforce despatched to research the blood-curdling occasions and enigmatic deaths of the American scientific workforce that transpired on the Outpost 31 analysis facility situated within the frozen wastelands of Antarctica. Inside these inhospitable environment your workforce encounters an odd shape-shifting alien life-form that assumes the looks of those who it kills. Trapped by the weather and contaminated by this horrific entity, utilizing all of your workforce members is essential in the event you hope to perform your goals, not to mention survive. In the event you solely knew which of them had been nonetheless human…
These are our picks for January, however we’re removed from finished. Keep tuned subsequent week for our huge Indie Selects Anniversary Celebration!
