The 12 most anticipated indie games of 2018

The 12 most anticipated indie games of 2018

There’s more to video gaming than highly polished, huge budget AAA titles like Call of Duty or Horizon Zero Dawn. Sometimes, it’s in lower budget titles where you’ll find true innovation, finely-honed mechanics and pure good old-fashioned fun – and 2018 is set for a healthy haul of new indie games promising great things. So, let’s dive into the release calendar to take a closer look at some of the upcoming highlights.

WARHAMMER: VERMINTIDE 2

Warhammer: End Times – Vermintide revived Left 4 Dead’s spirit of frenetic 4-player co-op, plonking it in Games Workshop’s grim fantasy world and replacing the hordes of sprinting zombies with hordes of skittering Skaven ratmen. Its sequel, coming very soon to PC, PS4 and Xbox One, doesn’t do anything to change up the formula too much – apart from giving players tons of twisted, disease-ravaged new adversaries to face.

PHOENIX POINT

With its development headed up by Julian Gollop – creator of the original 1990s X-Com games – Phoenix Point is shaping up to be one of the year’s biggest PC strategy games. Expect in-depth turn-based tactical combat with an overarching map-based strategic layer that sees you building bases and exploring a virus-ravaged Earth in search of allies and resources, all the while fighting off horrific creatures.

FROSTPUNK

Fresh from developing certified indie smash hit This War of Mine, 11 bit studios’ next project is Frostpunk, a city-building survival game set on an alternative history Earth in which the temperature has dropped, leaving the entire planet an icy wasteland. Players will have to manage both a city’s infrastructure and its inhabitants, balancing their wellbeing with the constant need to build, gather resources and explore further afield.

KINGDOM COME: DELIVERANCE

A game long in the making and hotly anticipated, Kingdom Come: Deliverance is a medieval open-world roleplaying game with a difference: it’s set in our actual world, rather than some dreamt-up fantasy universe. That means no magic fireballs flying about, no female knights smashing through the stained glass ceiling, no flesh-eating monsters roaming the wilds, and ultra-realistic (according to the makers) melee combat that can be over in a matter of seconds.

TWO POINT HOSPITAL

Developed by Two Point Studios – founded by former Bullfrog and Lionhead devs Gary Carr and Mark Webley, both of whom worked on Theme Hospital – Two Point Hospital is a quirky simulation very much intended as an unofficial sequel. With cartoonish 3D graphics and outlandish illnesses, the idea is to create an ageless, comic game that balances the pure number-crunching of a management sim with plenty of levity and warmth.

THEY ARE BILLIONS

Zombies and steampunk may be two of the most tired tropes in gaming, sure, but this steampunk zombie game (wait for it) is different. Starting out like a standard RTS in which you must construct buildings, recruit units, gather resources and venture into the fog of war in search of more, They Are Billions quickly adds a tower defence element into the mix: every so often, a vast horde of zombies arrives on the edge of the map and makes for your settlement, crashing into it like a tidal wave of rotting flesh.

VAMPYR

Vampyr is an expansive, third-person semi-open world action RPG in which the player takes on the role of Dr Jonathan Reid, a doctor in early 20th century London who has been turned into a creature of the night. Set during the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic, the game promises to explore the duality of vampire life – Jonathan’s day job as a doctor means he has taken the Hippocratic Oath, but at the same time, he needs to chug blood to survive.

NO TRUCE WITH THE FURIES

With a hand-painted art style and soundtrack from post-rock pioneers British Sea Power, No Truce with the Furies nails its presentation, but it’s the intriguing premise – part old-school isometric RPG, part police procedural – that’s got us hooked. You play a cop (and you get to decide precisely what kind of cop) investigating a huge open-ended case in the open-world city of Revachol, where you’ll fight via a dialogue system, take drugs to boost your skills and choose your clothes for their social effects.

PILLARS OF ETERNITY 2: DEADFIRE

Another isometric RPG coming this year is Deadfire, the sequel to 2015’s Pillars of Eternity. Players will be able to import their character from the previous game and venture out into the fantasy world of Eora once again – this time to pursue a reborn god across an archipelago of volcanic islands. While the AI, graphics and animation have been improved, expect Deadfire to stay true to its Infinity Engine-inspired roots, which means the mix of pausable real-time tactical combat, rich world building and detailed interaction with party members isn’t going anywhere.

INTO THE BREACH

Designed by the same tiny team that brewed up indie sleeper hit FTL: Faster Than Light and taking a similar permadeath-and-procedurally-generated-level approach, Into The Breach is a Pacific Rim-inspired turn-based strategy game in which you pit your mechs against giant alien monsters in 6 x 6 grids. It all looks very minimalist and simple, but the fact that failure will mean you can send help “back through time” to yourself in a new playthrough suggests that it’s going to be tough going – much like FTL.

OOBLETS

According to its developers, Ooblets is inspired by such beloved heart-warmers as Animal Crossing, Pokémon and Harvest Moon – gentle games that manage to fire the imagination without plunging the world into peril, spilling gallons of gore or putting the player in a deadly race against the clock. It also brings to mind recent indie smash Stardew Valley, blending a simple farming simulator with a rich town life and some lightweight adventuring and monster battling.

THE BANNER SAGA 3

With its intoxicating mix of rousing music, lore-rich Norse-inspired setting, old-school hand-painted visuals, decision-peppered story and tactical turn-based combat, The Banner Saga has already proved itself one of the most accomplished indie series around – and this year, creators Stoic are set to complete the trilogy with The Banner Saga 3.