A mad scientist has created you to wreak havoc on a world which has come to rely too much on electronics. You are A Virus Named TOM, and in this action puzzler, your job is to infect progressively more challenging electronic devices by connecting switches, dodging anti-viral programs, causing glitches, and stealing power from the system. The basics of the puzzle mechanics are Pipe Dream, but the additional powers and dangers make it more dynamic—and twitchy—than the classic puzzler mechanic normally allows. The game features lots of levels, fun graphics, a 4-player co-operative puzzle mode, and a versus mode.
Deadlight is a 2.5D run-and-gun platformer. The mechanics remind me of classic Prince of Persia crossed with Blackthorne, which sounds really cool and retro until you find out that it’s about zombies. I mean, zombies are cool I guess, but it seems like, lately, zombies have become the sort of de facto standard theme for unclever video games. Can’t think of an original story for your new video game? ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE TIME! I don’t know. Maybe once one gets into Deadlight, it will turn out to have a really deep, interesting take on the zombie outbreak story, but I doubt it. It still looks like some cool gameplay mechanics though. Perhaps I’ll just pretend that I’m a conquistador who found a crate of weapons from the future, and the zombies are actually infected Mayans, or something, anything other than more zombies.
This week’s Icrontic Spotlight crashes down upon Orcs Must Die! 2, the sequel that fans of first-person action defense games have been waiting for. If you played Orcs Must Die!, then you already get what this is about (and if you haven’t you should), but this game is even more of what made the first one so good. There are over 50 weapons and traps, 20 enemy types, 225 differnt upgrades to choose from in the upgrade trees, and two player types to choose from: the original Battle Mage with his guns and physics powers and the new Sorceress who uses crowd control magic. In addition, players can now go through the game with a partner. In addition, players who have both Orcs Must Die! games in their Steam library will gain access to a sequence of levels from the first game which can now be played cooperatively. All this means a lot more replay value than the first game, the only weakness of which was a lack of replay value.
Following is a full list of this week’s announced North American releases:
Windows
- A Virus Named TOM
- Orcs Must Die! 2
- The Host Holic
- The Political Machine 2012
- Total Recall
Wii
- WORLD HEROES PERFECT (VC)
DS
- The Lost Town: The Jungle
3DS
- 3D Solitaire
- Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance
Xbox 360
- Deadlight
PSP
- Growlanser: Wayfarer of Time
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