In Lucius players take on the role of a disturbed little boy, who must carry out the missions given to him by the devil. The entire game takes place inside a large mansion, where Lucius has been raised for the first years of his life. On his sixth birthday, it is revealed to him that the devil played some part in his birth, and that the first step to claim his birthright is to eliminate his mortal caretakers. Each of the people who live in the mansion—from the maids to Lucius’ parents—must be murdered one by one, but with a detective on the case, Lucius has to kill each of them in such a way that suspicion can’t be cast upon him. The gameplay is essentially that of an over-the-shoulder stealth action game. Each murder is a puzzle to solve: How can the room be set up in such a way that the person will seemingly be killed by accident or look to have committed suicide, leaving no evidence of the boy’s involvement. It’s by no means the first game in which the player must accomplish the tasks of a psychopath, but the concept taken in total is interesting. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look entirely well executed.
Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams is the Kickstarter-funded spiritual sequel to the cult classic, The Great Giana Sisters. For the uninitiated: The original game was intended as a sort of Super Mario Bros. clone. The game was a side-scrolling action game with a pair of siblings as stars. The two player mode saw the sisters trade off turns in attempt to complete each level, and the level design was very similar to the Super Mario Bros. levels. Unsurprisingly, it didn’t stay long on the market. Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams started as an attempt to modernize the long-abandoned concept, hopefully in such a way as to not violate Nintendo’s copyrights this time. What resulted is an original platformer starring one girl with two sides. Giana is trapped in her own dreams and must escape a series of chambers to wake (essentially, the same plot as the original game). She has the power to transform herself at will between two personas, labeled ‘Cute’ and ‘Punk’. When in the Cute persona, Giana is in her own nightmares. The world is dark and dangerous, but she has the ability to spin and float over obstacles. When she switches to the Punk persona, she shifts into her normal dreams, where she is the dangerous one, gaining a fiery charge attack to conquer foes. Switching between the two dream worlds changes the locations of certain obstacles and the strength of the enemies as well as more aesthetic things, like the character’s hair and clothes and the music, which switches between a symphonic and ‘metal’ version of each track.
Dungeon management fans will want to take a look at A Game of Dwarves. This game is a subversion of a genre which was itself originally intended as a subversion. For many of the original dungeon management games, the gimmick was that one got to play ‘as a villain’, designing and maintaining a dungeon ecosystem which would lure in and defeat heroes. A Game of Dwarves is odd because it’s a dungeon management game in which you do not play ‘as a villain’. Instead you take on the role of the King of the Dwarves. Intent on reclaiming the Dwarves’ homeland under a great mountain, the Dwarves are building one community after another under the earth, working their way towards a great battle. As each settlement develops, the player will order the Dwarves to dig out rooms and develop a sustainable ecology while also setting up defenses against the monsters who will invariably try to take out the denizens. The game boasts a focus on exploration, with each level being randomly generated to ensure that the player will have to adapt their strategy to a differently configured environment at each attempt. Some might claim that this was all done first by Dwarf Fortress, and that may be partly true, but we have to be honest here: Dwarf Fortress is not a game so much as it’s a set of ANSI thumb-screws for lovers of ludic pain. A Game of Dwarves is a bit more accessible.
Following is a full list of this week’s announced North American releases:
Windows
- A Game of Dwarves
- Cabela’s Hunting Expeditions
- Farming Simulator 2013
- Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams
- Hotline Miami
- Lucius
- ROSE Online
Wii
- Cabela’s Dangerous Hunts 2013
- Cabela’s Hunting Expeditions
- Just Dance: Disney Party
- Skylanders Giants
3DS
- Adventure Time: Hey Ice King! Why’d You Steal Our Garbage?!
- Liberation Maiden
- NightSky
- Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask
- Style Savvy: Trendsetters
- Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward
Xbox 360
- Cabela’s Dangerous Hunts 2013
- Cabela’s Hunting Expeditions
- Just Dance: Disney Party
- Skylanders Giants
PS3
- A Game of Dwarves
- Cabela’s Dangerous Hunts 2013
- Cabela’s Hunting Expeditions
- Dark Souls: Artorias of the Abyss
- Medal of Honor: Warfighter
- Skylanders Giants
- The Unfinished Swan
Vita
- DJ Max Technika Tune
- Smart as…
- Super Monkey Ball: Banana Splitz
- Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward
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