Less than a month is left before the New Year, which means that most of the major publishers go into hibernation exactly until February – it is definitely not worth waiting for an avalanche of AAA releases earlier. However, this does not prevent lesser-known developers from releasing their bright novelties, while the market mastodons are calculating profits and thinking how to sell more copies during the holiday period. And among these new products there are several really unusual projects that are worth paying attention to even without taking into account the absence of serious competition. War in space, the best shooter of the year and survival on a dangerous planet – isn’t that what we’ve all been waiting for?
Wartales
December 1 on PC.
Usually in video games, developers try to show heroes saving the world or fighting for a great goal, but the authors of Wartales decided to go the other way. They created a huge open world, turn-based battles and role-playing component with a squad at the head of the corner, in which there is not a single hero, glorified warrior or avenger. Instead, the player is given completely ordinary robbers, crooks and cunning, who, in an attempt to cash in on someone else’s grief, are able to go through the entire map. And therein lies a certain charm of the project – it stands out against the background of everything that players in this genre usually get.
And the developers paid special attention to the diversity – in the open world there are plenty of interesting locations that you want to visit in order to study local stories, trade with merchants and battles with local bandits. Yes, and between large cities and settlements, too, they will not allow to move just like that – wolves, and robbers, and the same adventurers can attack the detachment. And if you just get tired of walking through abandoned villages, you can safely go on a bounty hunt, looking for villains around the world for a handful of gold coins.
Chorus
December 3 for PC (Steam), PS 4, PS 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series S | X.
A very unusual action movie in outer space, where there are two main characters at once – this is a girl named Nara and her warship Forsaken, which has artificial intelligence. Together, they will plow the vast expanses of space, fighting various enemies in a mad attempt to destroy a certain dark cult that created Naru as such. And given what is shown in the trailer, this cult has a lot of its ships, military space bases and influence throughout space, so you should not expect an easy walk – you need to fight often, a lot and almost always against a superior enemy.
This is, in fact, the main feature of Chorus – battles in space look incredibly impressive. The developers have drawn many unusual locations with obstacles, destroyed space objects, entire cities and other points of interest, between which the gamer will have to maneuver. And there is also a system for pumping Nara’s power – you need to visit ancient temples, go through quests and pump both your skills and the skills of a battleship, in order to then dazzle the enemies with your incredible skills. A very unusual implementation that will definitely suit space fans.
Icarus
December 4th on PC.
The authors of DayZ decided that their main project was pretty well polished (no), so it’s time to take on something new and interesting. This time from under their pen comes an online adventure action about the survival of astronauts on the unknown planet Icarus, which is full of various dangers and valuable resources. Gamers will need to descend from the orbital station to the planet, quickly extract resources, and then, at the risk of death and loss of these same resources, return back. And at every stage it will be possible to make a critical mistake that will lead to defeat, so you should not relax.
Also in Icarus, a fairly advanced co-op mode for eight players will be implemented – you can explore the planet yourself without the participation of other gamers, but if you want to spend time in co-op, then there is such a function as well. And there will also be battles in PvE, two trees of skill development, various features of game mechanics and the extraction of those very resources. They don’t say anything about the plot, so, perhaps, it will be added only in order to explain what is happening on the screen, but in general the concept is quite interesting and fresh. We can only hope that this time the authors of DayZ will bring the game to mind faster.
Halo: Infinite
December 8th on PC, Xbox One and Xbox Series X | S.
Microsoft has had a very successful year in terms of game releases, which should end with arguably the best shooter of 2021. Even at the release of the multiplayer component of Halo: Infinite, it was clear that the subsidiary studio 343 Industries has created something incredible – she managed to come up with a “shooter” that does not inherit competitors and looks quite distinctive. At the same time, the developers did not stop at multiplayer, because on December 8, a single player campaign will also go into release. Yes, the publisher is so confident of success that he calmly gave the competitive mode to the release, leaving the sweet storyline.
And while previously solo campaigns in the Halo universe were not something incredible, the writers have always been able to come up with something fun in their own fictional world. For shooter fans who are tired of secondary plots, the same mechanics and shooting gallery at every turn, this is a real outlet – gameplay trailers look very impressive, this is not at all what the audience is used to in AAA competitors. So fans of the genre will definitely not be able to pass by Halo: Infinite, except that the owners of the console from Sony were not lucky in this regard – they simply do not have the ability to evaluate a possible masterpiece.
Bleak Faith: Forsaken
December 2021 on PC and 2022 on PS 4 and Xbox One.
Developers quite often try to snatch the glory of hardcore Dark Souls by releasing their projects similar in theme or complexity, but it turns out, to put it mildly, not for everyone. However, sometimes finding a diamond among a pile of coal still comes out – in this case, it’s about Bleak Faith: Forsaken, which, apparently, is ready not only to compare with the cult series, but also to surpass it. For this, the authors drew a ton of monsters of different caliber, size and shape, came up with a good (judging by the description) plot and a gigantic virtual world. All this should absorb the player for dozens of hours of virtual adventures.
True, it is worth saying that the game is not suitable for everyone – those gamers who are accustomed to relaxing in front of the monitor will not be delighted with Bleak Faith: Forsaken. The combat system of the role-playing game is really complicated, the monsters hit painfully, quickly and sometimes with lethal outcome, plus the world itself is crammed with difficulties and obstacles. The result is dozens of hours of overcoming obstacles, fights without room for error and a gloomy atmosphere in the spirit of the cult Souls releases. For those who really enjoy hardship and pain, this is a real discovery for the current year.
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