Indie publisher Digital Uppercut Productions took the opportunity to unveil some new games during this year's E3. The studio is quite new and recently announced Unto the End, an atmospheric action platformer with vikings and trolls. However, the company's other two projects are a little different: To Azimuth is a surreal 3D adventure game dealing with addiction and abduction whereas Valfaris is a retro bloody sci-fi romp with heavy metal inspirations.
The first indie title comes to us via [bracket]games and it's definitely an interesting one. The story centers around an estranged brother and sister looking for their lost sibling. The police believe that the recovering alcoholic has had a relapse and is off on a bender. But the sister thinks that something more sinister, and extraterrestrial, is the cause of the disappearance.
The game will be coming to PC, Xbox One, and PS4 at some point in 2018. While we don't have a price and exact release date, Digital Uppercut provided information about specific features for the game:
- Surreal adventure game, inspired by 70s science fiction and alien abduction stories
- A character-driven narrative written both from a place of love for the genre and as a way of tackling personal experiences with addiction and mental illness
- Environmental puzzles based in real-world logic
- A unique art style featuring dynamic, surrealist environments
And of course, you can continue to admire the bizarre nature of To Azimuth with the screenshots below:
The second game comes from a studio I'm familiar with, Steel Mantis Production (formerly Andrew Gilmour), who brought us Slain: Back from Hell. The same stylistic influences are here including gore, pixel art, and a certain heavier musical genre. Heck, the tagline for Valfaris tells you everything you need to know: 'A Heavy Metal Space Saga'. This title is also coming out on PC, PS4, and Xbox One in 2018.
The story concerns a son returning to his home (which is obviously a citadel orbiting a dead star) years after it disappeared. Through some dark magic, the fortress has returned and only Therion can uncover the evil behind everything that has transpired.
Digital Uppercut is once again here to provide us with more details for this space odyssey:
- Savagely reduce foes to piles of gibs with an array of brutal weaponry
- Explore a diverse range of tainted environments as you venture ever deeper into the dark world of Valfaris
- Dominate ranks of deadly enemies and bosses, from the weird to the grotesque (and some that are just grotesquely weird)
- Gorge your eyes on devastatingly awesome pixel art hand-crafted by Andrew Gilmour
- Feel the power of a seismic soundtrack by extreme metaller and former Celtic Frost guitarist, Curt Victor Bryant
And of course, what would a glimpse at a gore soaked retro fest be without screenshots. Enjoy them while we wait upon more information on these two games.