John Wick as a DVD store operator, a roguelike take on Armored Core and other new indie games worth checking out

Primary Journalistic Dispatch & Direct Reporting

Welcome to our latest roundup of what's going on in the indie game space. There are a whole bunch of new games you can dive into this weekend that don't involve a certain gruff Marvel hero. We'll take a look at some of those, as well as several others that are on the way.

I recently checked out the first hour or so of Emberville from Cygnus Cross, a studio co-owned by Twitch streamer Ben "CohhCarnage" Cassel. This is a top-down action RPG that blends the dungeon crawling and looting of Diablo with the life-sim aspects of Stardew Valley .

I've made several attempts to play Diablo IV and thought Outriders was fine , but I've never been able to bring myself to care about hunting for weapons and gear with slightly better stats than what I already have. However, Emberville is more compelling than many loot-based games for several reasons.

In-Depth Developments & Factual Context

It's downright beautiful, for one thing. The lush pixel art and dense environments drew me in, while the animations look slick. There's a stellar voice cast that includes Baldur's Gate 3 narrator Amelia Tyler, BAFTA and Game Awards winner Jennifer English (who earned those honors for her portrayal of Maelle in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 ), Abubakar Salim, Matt Mercer and Ben Starr.

Combat feels good too. I switched between a sword, bow and fists - which can have a stun effect that was useful for the preview's main boss - and all were strong options. There's a nifty combo system too. I do not like having to manage stamina in any game and I'm glad I didn't encounter that here, even if the hero's dash is on a (thankfully short) cooldown.

The world that Cygnus Cross is building is captivating. It leans into the trope of your character waking up in a mysterious place with no memories and having to figure out what's happening. Since it's written on the Steam page, it's not too much of a spoiler to say you're in a large underground prison and your goal is to escape it. Along the way, you'll help out NPCs and rebuild a ruined town.

Industry Impact & Strategic Analysis

I encountered a ton of gameplay systems in my short time with Emberville , from the swappable classes, weapon and armor mastery, crafting, cooking, mining and so on. I didn't even get to the farming or base-building aspects. That's already overwhelming to me, but it might feel great to someone who really loves building out their own character and having a boatload of different things to do.

I don't know that Emberville is a game I'll play much more of, especially with such a stacked game release calendar over the next couple of months, but I enjoyed my time with it so far. It's coming to Steam in early access on October 27.

Developer: AttritoM7 Productions Publishers: IZilla Games, AttritoM7 Productions Platforms: Steam (Windows), with plans for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S at an undetermined date. Price: Usually $25, with a 10 percent discount until September 23. Includes access to acts two and three, which should both arrive in 2027

Forward Outlook & Market Perspective

The debut of Blackwood snuck up on me amid an extremely busy spell for game releases. Still, I managed to play a chunk of the action-life sim hybrid this week.

This game has an irresistible setup. It's 2012 and by day, you run a DVD store. At night, you become an ersatz John Wick. The first act, with around six hours of playtime, is out now and two more will follow next year.

This game caught my eye when a trailer popped up last October. I thought the gun fu looked neat and the DVD store used to be my happy place, so I was into that aspect too. It clearly wears its influences on its sleeve, not least because you can dive toward the ground to trigger Max Payne-style Bullet Time and slow down the action for a moment. I also dig that the game drops you into an action sequence to help you get to grips with combat right off the bat.

However, Blackwood is rough as things stand. Hand-to-hand combat is clunky, the audio mix is often out of whack and the car handling is atrocious. The action is just not as fluid as it ought to be for a game like this either. For instance, it takes far too long to pick up a weapon, which is tough when you're out of ammo. On top of that, the DVD store aspect can't really hold a candle to Retro Rewind .

It's a shame because there's real potential here. There are some neat ideas (like weapon customization and trying to balance the protagonist's double life) and cool takedown moments in there. I wonder if taking an early access approach rather than an episodic one would have been a wiser strategy. A buggy launch is more forgivable for an early access title.

At least the developers are responding to feedback quickly. They released a day-one patch that resolved a few issues. AttritoM7 plans to make further changes before releasing Act Two. Among other things, they're adding an autosave function, so you won't have to wait until you sleep to save your progress. More side missions are on the way too. I hope the studio can polish things up in the coming months, as I'd like to come back to this when it's in better shape.

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