Hotshot Roundup: 10 Indie Favourites From Virtual E3 2020 (Part 1)
We are halfway through June, and the hype is real! This year’s virtual version of E3 continues to be a blast, with news and announcements coming from everywhere. We’ve had Guerilla Collective, Wholesome Games, PCGamer, Escapist Indie Showcase, and that tiny Sony reveal. But it can all be a little daunting. There are too many titles to keep an eye on everything! I have a Steam wishlist and an Amazon one, and there are no listings for the PS5 games yet, so I can’t even keep track of them!
There are literally hundreds of Indies being announced, so here’s a Hotshots Roundup of the ones I’m keeping a trigger finger over the buy button for.
Haven is a narrative sci-fi fantasy that stars a young couple living alone on their own planet in something close to paradise. That is until the purple corruption sets in and threatens their blissful home. Featuring a wonderful hoverboot mechanic that has you literally gliding over the ground, this is an RPG with turn-based combat, a beautiful and heartfelt story and let’s not forget, music from D, D, D, Danger. Sorry, couldn’t contain myself. Yeah, he’s the one who did the Furi soundtrack, also by the same developer. Take note.
Haven is coming to PS4 and Steam and possibly more by year’s end.
Eldest Souls, hmmm, I wonder what type of game this could be? A top-down 2D souls-like, Eldest Souls has you explore the vast, forgotten Citadel, in search of the Old Gods. It’s a boss-rush game, with fast-paced and challenging action combat, hence the name, but hopefully more story than your typical Souls game. The art looks incredible and maybe, just maybe this will be a souls game I get into. It looks gorgeous, and I am a sucker for top-down pixelart dungeon crawlers.
Slay the Old Gods with Eldest Souls on Steam and Switch later this year.
Undungeon is another top-down hack’n’slash, but promises a deep involving sci-fi story about the meshing of dimensions into one. Reconstructing the shattered multiverse, you play as the Herald (he looks like the grim reaper crossed with a plague doctor), talk to NPCs, and take on that lightning-fast combat. With such gorgeous animated pixel-art, I’ve had my eye on this since its Kickstarter a few years back and it’s great to see it picked up by Square-Enix Collective.
Undungeon has a demo available on Steam as of now, and is coming to the platform later this year.
This one was also announced a while back, but this is its’ time to shine. Raji looks like a wonderful combination of both the 3D and 2D Prince of Persia games and is about a young girl living in ancient India, chosen by the gods to stand against the demonic invasion of the human realm. She must rescue her younger brother and face the demon lord Mahabalasura. Its an action-adventure with lots of Uncharted-like climbing and Prince of Persia-style combat. Expect a wonderful and exotic story.
Raji: An Ancient Epic comes to Steam later in 2020.
Now for something completely different. Lake is a peaceful delivery game set in 1986. Meredith Weiss takes a break from the big city to deliver mail in her hometown. Drive around beautiful Providence Oaks, with its iconic lake (I’m thinking its a lot more sedate than Ozark) and get very involved with its quirky residents. This promises a down to earth, slice-of-life story with branching narratives and real choice.
Lake comes to Steam in 2020.
If the last one was different, this one’s just ridiculous. Chicken Police is just like it sounds, only its also a noir detective story starring two tough roosters. Throw in all the hard-boiled anthro characters you can think of, gameplay set around building a case and actually drawing up the pins and wall array of your suspects, and it looks like a wild ride. The anthro heads and human bodies make this more Bojack than Backbone, but we are getting vibes!
Chicken Police is coming to PS4, XBX1, Switch and Steam, but no release date yet.
More beautiful pixelart. Star Renegades looks to be both a strategy RPG and a turn-based mech battler at the same time. The story involves toppling AI-led galactic empires but spans multiple generations. Your squad can pair off and their children become your new mech squad members years later. Because of this unique mechanic and evolving mech enemies every playthrough is different. Plus check out the amazing anime trailer below.
Star Renegades drops later in 2020 on Steam, PS4, Xbox One and Switch.
It was a blink and you’ll miss it on the Wholesome games roster, and also featured on the Escapist Indie showcase, but Keywe deserves attention. Coming from a tiny three-man team, it’s the story of two cute Kiwis, Jeff and Debra (proper human names for animals) who work in a whimsical post office. KeyWe is a cute, co-operative puzzler that requires you to jump, flap, peck and butt-slam across an interactive landscape of levers, bells and buttons and get those parcels and letters to the delivery Cassowary in time! I don’t know what’s not to love.
Keywe is coming to Steam, but that’s all I know.
I hope you’ve realised by now that I love good pixelart. Gestalt: Steam & Cinder is a 2D steampunk platformer and combat RPG in the vein of Castlevania, and promises an engrossing, twist-laden narrative. You play as Aletheia, exploring the city’s districts and meeting NPCs who you can interact with via extensive choice-driven dialogue.
It looks to be launching in 2020 on Steam, PS4, XBX1 and Switch.
More detectives. Gamedec is a single-player cyberpunk RPG that looks a lot like an isometric Deus Ex: Human Revolution. That’s a massive tick from me. You play as a detective who solves crimes inside virtual worlds, gathering info from witnesses and creating a web of suspects and causality. Each case looks to have multiple ways to play and decide an outcome, and it’s all up to you. It’s got more than a bit of Disco Elysium and Shadowrun to it as well, and that’s no bad thing.
Gamedec is coming to Steam and aiming for 2020.
That’s it for now, but look out for Part 2 in the coming days for more amazing indies you need to know about.
If you enjoyed this article or any more of our content, please consider our Patreon.
