Wireframe Magazine #65

You’ve seen Evil Dead, right?” one teen incredulously asks the other in Supermassive Games’ latest horror spree, The Quarry. His foot’s hovering above the step. Beyond, in the darkness, lies an unexplored basement that’s as likely to be filled with demons as it is cobwebs. But these kids are smart. They’re as in tune with horror conventions as Scream’s Sidney Prescott and pals were back in 1996. And The Quarry, in turn, is fully aware of how little separates it from the films it enthusiastically homages. There’s a little Friday the 13th-style pre-titles carnage, where a jock mindlessly bumbles into the lion’s den of a murderous bogeyman. And propping up the young cast are a handful of horror doyens, including Lin Shaye (Insidious), Grace Zabriskie (Twin Peaks), and David Arquette…

I’ve seen it written in several places – including a reader’s feature on Metro’s website – that 2022 is shaping up to be the worst year for games ever. The line of thinking goes that, the undoubted brilliance of Elden Ring aside, 2022’s otherwise been bereft of major new releases. Several big titles have now been pushed to 2023, including the much-anticipated Forspoken, Nintendo’s Breath of the Wild sequel, and Bethesda’s Starfield. With those games all gone, what’s the point in getting out of bed? Well, aside from the looming presence of God of War Ragnarök and Bayonetta 3 on the horizon (they’re due for release this autumn), 2022’s seen the arrival of a wealth of amazing indie games. Neon White is a breakneck delight (you can find our review…

Be it cards, stamps, or 1980s action figures, collecting is a pastime that humans can’t seem to escape from. That’s why, when we were first asked to “catch ’em all” some 30 or so years ago, we bought into the craze like wildfire and then never really stopped – Pokémon GO still has many of us seeking out cutesy monsters in the real world to this day. Cassette Beasts is an upcoming turn-based RPG that wears the influence of Game Freak’s classic series on its sleeve, hoping to tap into the same wholesome energy while offering some serious tweaks to the format. Fusing creatures together is at the core of the experience here, with Bytten Studio’s spin letting you record the essence of its capturable critters and get creative with…

Info GENRE Sandbox adventure FORMAT PC, PS4, PS5 DEVELOPER Awaceb PUBLISHER Kepler Interactive RELEASE Early 2023 SOCIAL @awaceb Is it possible to be too ambitious as an indie developer? Certainly, French studio Awaceb hasn’t taken the easy route with its sophomore project, Tchia. A physics-based, open-world adventure that takes in a diverse island setting, multiple modes of traversal, combat, and lots more besides, it’s a considerable step up in scope from the outfit’s first game, the 2D platformer Fossil Echo. Indeed, the sheer wealth of ideas in Tchia are of a scale you’d expect from a major studio – and yet the team behind it amounts to only a dozen or so members. “It’s fairly small for the scope of game we’re making,” admits game director and studio co-founder Phil…

Info GENRE Shared-world, crafting, survival FORMAT PC DEVELOPER Inflexion Games PUBLISHER Inflexion Games RELEASE Q4 2022 (Early Access) SOCIAL @PlayNightingale Following a 17-year tenure at BioWare working on storied franchises like Mass Effect, Star Wars: The Old Republic, and Baldur’s Gate, Aaryn Flynn is determined to get another game out the door. With a résumé like this, you might assume it a relatively easy prospect, yet already Inflexion Games has had quite the journey. Having originally secured funding from British tech start-up Improbable, which wanted to support studios working on cool things, plans quickly changed. Improbable went in a different direction with its Spatialize technology stack and, therefore, so did Inflexion, finding another investor in Tencent, which was happy to support its in-development survival game while simultaneously giving Flynn and…

Info GENRE Turn-based, adventure, strategy FORMAT PC DEVELOPER Demagog Studio PUBLISHER Rogue Games, Inc. RELEASE December 2022 SOCIAL @demagog_studio Contrary to how it’s presented in a lot of dystopian fiction, ecological collapse won’t see the Earth consumed in a ball of flame. Rather it’s wet. Really wet. So envisions Demagog Studio, whose upcoming game Highwater was one of the standout showcases during Summer Games Fest earlier this year; its vision of a world consumed by harsh flooding against a pastel colour palette was truly a unique sight to behold. Scenes of skyscrapers and islands engulfed by high tides were a regular occurrence, all as a lowly boating crew try and sail their way through it in search of safety. With small-scale indie hit Golf Club: Wasteland already under its belt…