At this year’s E3, there were quite a lot of of the big named companies showcased as usual but there were even more indie games in this year’s E3 mix. One of the companies to look out for this Summer is Loot Interactive. Loot Interactive invited me to play three of their upcoming games that are coming out this Summer and all three of them were very, very addicting.
The first game I got my hands on was called Whispering Willows. Whispering Willows is a 2D adventure puzzle game which has a very interesting story and some amazing artwork. The story behind Whispering Willows is that you play as Elena Elkhorn, whose search for her missing father brings her to the haunted Willows Mansion, where she discovers she can transform into a spirit with the ability to communicate with the souls of the dead. What makes this game addicting is the fact that one, it looks amazing because all of the artwork was hand painted, two, the fact that you can change in and out between human form and spirit form. While in spirit form, you can float through certain areas in the mansion that you wouldn’t be able to do in human form, and three, it’s quite challenging. It’s pretty much like a maze. During this journey, you have to collect clues, solve puzzles and even speak to other spirits which will help you unlock different areas of the mansion. There is no mini-map displayed, so you have to memorize each route you took to get to a certain place so that you don’t end up in the same spot as you started. Now where the danger comes in is with some of the spirits. Not all spirits are there to help you, some can actually kill you at any moment.
Next up, was a game called Back to Bed. Back to Bed is a very unique strategy game which is inspired by the surreal artwork of modern artists such as M.C. Escher, Salvador Dali and René Magritte. In Back to Bed, the character Bob is a sleepwalker, and you play as his dog-like subconscious Subob, who tries to guide Bob to safety in his dream-like levels with the goal of getting Bob back to bed. This one is addicting because of the strategy behind these puzzles. There are 30 crazy dream-like puzzles where you have to block Bob from walking off of the edge by using objects like a giant apple and the trick is, Bob only walks in a counter-clock wise pattern and each tile has a different route for Bob to take. So you have to make sure that you set your object on the right tile and not get Bob killed in the dream world. If that doesn’t sound challenging enough, there is a mode called Nightmare Mode, which is more for the hardcore gamers. Nightmare Mode is more difficult and puts all of your skills to the test.
Back to Bed will be released this Summer as a 3-way cross-buy for PS4, PS3 and Vita and will be bundled with a limited-edition PS4 dynamic theme at launch.
Last but not at all least was a game that I played for less than a minute and I was instantly addicted and kept playing for another 5-10 minutes until my session was up. This game was called Velocibox. Okay, think of a game like Flappy Bird but not annoying, not having to tap a button over and over again and just having fun. In Velocibox, you have to guide this box through obstacles at a very fast pace. All you use is the analog stick and the X button to do so but each level gets more and more challenging by having more obstacles in your way and the pace speeding up. You really have to think quickly and it will test your decision making. Now if you get past these levels with normal difficulty, you can unlock uber-hardcore difficulty Super Velocibox.
Velocibox will be available as a 2-way cross-buy for PS4 and Vita and will be bundled with a limited-edition PS4 dynamic theme at launch this summer.
Make sure to go pick each of these up this summer and I promise that you will have tons of fun with these games.