Here I am with a bit of a refresh on a few games I wanted to bring back to everyone’s attention. I spun the wheel of fortune in my wishlist (more or less at random), and these are the 10 RPGs that came out.
Partly down to it being rather random, partly because I wanted to bring some of the games I haven’t heard much about in recent times back into the spotlight and partly just because I didn’t want any of them to disappear off the radar entirely.
Every one of these projects is made better by each new wishlist. Some of it is down to the algorithms of course, some of it is down to the fact that wishlist milestones are a perfect excuse for the dev team to have a post to celebrate with and some of it is just down to the fact that visibility is visibility.
So if you understand what I wrote below, and if any of the 10 games below piques your interest, then putting it on your wishlist won’t be the least bit of a bad thing.
Scourge of the Reptiles
- Developer: Kyoti Games
- Release Date: 2027
- Platforms: PC
- Steam Page: Scourge of the Reptiles
Yes, forget warhorses, because Scourge of the Reptiles puts you in the saddle of dinosaurs, and honestly, that alone should be enough to spark at least a little curiosity.
It’s an isometric RPG set in an alternate prehistoric world where a massive meteor didn’t wipe out the dinosaurs. Instead, it gave them magical powers, because apparently giant teeth weren’t enough. In this world, these enormous beasts live more or less peacefully alongside humans and elves.
Over the course of the adventure, we’ll be able to befriend dinosaurs, ride them, and even control them during tactical battles. Add an old-school visual style that I personally love, plenty of skills, and a world I’m already very curious to explore, and you have a project that’s definitely worth keeping an eye on.
Call of Saregnar
- Developer: Damjan Mozetič
- Release Date: TBA
- Platforms: PC
- Steam Page: Call of Saregnar
Another old-school game I’m curious to try is Call of Saregnar. A game that expects you to read the dialogue and figure out where to go. A scandalous demand, I know.
Inspired by Betrayal at Krondor, this party-based RPG follows a knight, a young mage, and a roguish companion through a murder investigation that reaches far beyond local troublemakers.
Photographed actors inhabit its low-poly medieval world, while combat unfolds on a hex grid. Without quest markers, conversations and discoveries guide you. Between battles, preparing supplies and maintaining equipment matter; skills improve with use, which I love in RPGs, and earning the favor of twelve gods unlocks different spells. It’s a deliberately old-fashioned adventure, with plenty to do between sword swings.
UnderRail 2: Infusion
- Developer: Stygian Software
- Release Date: TBA
- Platforms: PC
- Steam Page: UnderRail 2: Infusion
The surface is uninhabitable, so you’re back underground, earning a living by picking through civilization’s leftovers. UnderRail 2: Infusion casts you as a scavenger whose dangerous line of work brings you to the hidden city of Solidon.
Combat progresses through short, alternating actions inspired by traditional roguelikes, with many NPC movements resolving simultaneously. Weapon stances, detailed equipment crafting, and computer hacking give you several ways to handle trouble.
Meanwhile, inhabitants follow their own schedules, and creatures can migrate between areas. A nice touch is the ability to remotely control doors, lights, and security systems. Letting the infrastructure handle a problem sounds considerably healthier than personally inspecting every gun barrel. I loved the first game in the series, but this one looks thousands of times more ambitious.
Vampire: The Masquerade – ETERNAL WHISPERS
- Developer: Flyos
- Release Date: TBA
- Platforms: PC
- Steam Page: Vampire: The Masquerade — ETERNAL WHISPERS
After decades asleep Gabe wakes up with shattered memories and an undead conspiracy waiting for him. Quite the bad time to be coming back. The new Vampire: The Masquerade Eternal Whispers appears to be drawing heavily on Disco Elysium.
The game sees the vampire through the supernatural underbelly of Montreal as he investigates a mystery tied to a forbidden religion and his own obscure past. It’s a narrative-driven CRPG, and so I suspect (as do many of us) that the lack of any traditional combat will be a disappointment. You can still use force or manipulation as one of your options within the branching story.
You’ll get the clues by exploring, talking to the inhabitants and eavesdropping. If you screw up a negotiation or make a foolhardy decision, the narrative continues and evolves rather than just terminating. That’s the bit I’m most interested in really, the way the game allows your bad decisions to impact the story. After all, if you’re immortal you should have loads of opportunities to make bad calls.
Rad New World
- Developer: Frontline: Games Series
- Release Date: TBA (Early Access planned)
- Platforms: PC
- Steam Page: Rad New World
Classic Fallout is the definitive reference point for Rad New World, an open-world CRPG set in a radioactive frontier. You can take a number of different approaches to your character through the creation and perk system, ranging from trading and lock picking to resolving disputes with ever more absurdly ridiculous weapons.
Combat is all about positioning, crouching and crawling. Radiation, addiction and injury are all things that your character can suffer from.
You’ll manage factions, craft gear, and drive vehicles that carry you and your increasingly dubious cargo. You’ll play poker, roll dice, and cheat. It seems that surviving the apocalypse in no way insulates you from someone who has a rather good hand.
The White Raven
- Developer: GatherRound Studios
- Release Date: TBA
- Platforms: PC
- Steam Page: The White Raven
The White Raven is definitely near the top of my wishlist. I have to say I’m a bit concerned the project may have actually died, though, given how sparse the updates have been for a while. We did interview the dev team quite some time ago so I’m very keen to see what happens now.
That said this is a very interesting shamanic themed TRPG. You play as Jin, a young spirit whisperer traveling through a world where the mundane and the underworld are very much intertwined, with a host of bandits, outcasts, and other assorted characters to join you on the journey.
Turn-based battles allow you to make use of height, and you can even set sections of the battlefield on fire, making the terrain itself an active part of your strategy. Between encounters you can build a sanctuary, recruit specialists and follow companion specific storylines.
Relationships can also go romantic which of course adds another layer of potential complications to a journey that’s already rather ambitious in itself. I hope for updates soon.
Last Solace
- Developer: Pale Colors
- Release Date: TBA
- Platforms: PC
- Steam Page: Last Solace
One last mercenary contract in the middle of a continent wide war? Surely nothing could go wrong with that. Last Solace sends you and your party across a shattered empire in a low fantasy CRPG with turn-based combat and a classless character system.
You can mix and match abilities, weapons, and equipment with very few restrictions, and armor is your first line of defense and requires upkeep. The environmental interactions are very good too (smoke can blind you, ice walls can isolate enemies, wind can blow away poisonous clouds).
The major bosses are designed as long drawn out multi-phase encounters which you have to adapt to as they go. Throw in shifting allegiances and various ways of resolving situations, and that retirement plan is looking pretty shaky.
Glasshouse
- Developer: FLAT28
- Release Date: TBA
- Platforms: PC
- Steam Page: Glasshouse
Bad roommates is one thing. Being locked in an apartment block with three dead bodies and a political conspiracy is quite another and would be a legitimate reason to withhold your rent.
Glasshouse sees you as the building’s deputy manager and you’re tasked with investigating the murders and managing the increasingly volatile residents as the world war looms. Your political stance acts as a class system, affecting how you talk to people and how you go about resolving disputes.
The turn-based encounters allow you to either go in with an improvised weapon or simply talk the opposition into submission, so an understanding of their beliefs can be very useful in a fight. You can also craft and have branching conversations which in turn gives you further avenues for investigation and survival. There’s already a Steam demo out to give you a taster of this rather unappealing form of accommodation.
Echoes of Aromia
- Developer: Studio Targa
- Release Date: TBA
- Platforms: PC
- Steam Page: Echoes of Aromia
The pixel art is very inviting, the corruption and the frankly questionable experimentation a bit less so. Echoes of Aromia is set twenty years after the Clockwork Revolution in a medieval fantasy world on the cusp of industrialization but still reeling from the effects of war.
You have grid-based, turn-based battles that take place directly on the exploration maps, with different classes, skill trees, and recruitable companions making up your party. Alchemy allows you to grow and gather ingredients to produce all sorts of useful items.
Looks like there’s a good deal of branching dialogue and interactions with the various local factions to explore how the cities of Aromia are getting on (or indeed how they’re finding new ways to make things worse). There’s a Steam demo available to take a closer look at its rather troubled little world.
Myths from the Maw
- Developer: Half Human Games
- Release Date: TBA
- Platforms: PC
- Steam Page: Myths from the Maw
I normally prefer my mercs to stay on my side but Myths from the Maw makes that a bit of a grey area. It’s a dark fantasy roguelike tactical RPG where you send your squad into a fortress that fell from the stars.
The idea is that you can sacrifice health at alien altars to gain powerful Bloodmarks. That same sacrifice brings corruption, which then affects your character’s behavior in events, at camp, and in battle. Combat is via a Battle Clock where actions use up time, and you’re presented with the choice of a more damaging attack or a faster move that allows you to act again sooner.
If you go too far down the corruption path then your merc can simply turn on you and join the enemy cult. They’ll then be available to you in a subsequent expedition (presumably without having their gear returned).
