Warning! This Article Is Full of Raw Fury!
If you check out my review of Atomicrops, then you’ll find out that it is the most recent game released by video game “(un)publisher” (their own words) Raw Fury.
Atomicrops released on May 28th for the Nintendo Switch, it’s available as well as on the Epic Games store. It was developed by Bird Bath Games, and it was an absolute delight to play!
So much so that, in the review, I had mentioned that Raw Fury has become like a favourite authour to me: I trust them, they are – in my mind – notorious for putting their resources behind great games. Therefore, I want to go out of my way to check out all of the games they have coming up!
You can learn more about Raw Fury here: https://rawfury.com/about/
They have an awesome list of their values when it comes to working with and helping out the people who want to make games. They are based out of Stockholm (and from what I’ve heard about Stockholm it is an amazing destination that everyone should visit at least once in their life, so it makes sense that an amazing publisher would be based there). Therefore, WHEN I make my way there, I think I may try to stop in and at least shake a hand or two.
But I digress, let’s dive into the upcoming games, shall we!
West of Dead
“Purgatory. Wyoming. 1888.” says the deep, grizzled voice as the trailer begins to play. “Live by the gun! Die by the gun!” sings the sexy female voice as the video continues to fill my eyeballs.
The cool human-esque form steps into the scene, and the main feature is that the head is a flaming skull. From what I’m able to deduce, you are sort of a “sheriff” of purgatory, and if a regular human old-west town needs cleanin’ up, then I’m going to assume purgatory needs it even more.
It is a “twin-stick shooter with tactical cover usage”, which, to me, means: “you’ll be swiveling your controls sticks all around while ducking in and out of cover”. Sounds like a lot of intense fun!
They also managed to score Ron Pearlman as the lead voice actor; for those of you who may not know (and don’t feel like a quick trip to IMDb) he has been in shows like Sons of Anarchy, as well as the iconic narrator voice for Bethesda’s Fallout games! Listening to his gritty voice in the trailer, I think they have chosen well.
It looks fun and artistic, you play a character who has a flaming skull for a head, you can get it on any current system (Xbox, PS4, Switch, and PC). Sign me up, ‘cause I wanna feel like the dead guy who’s here to clean up purgatory!
Night Call
A black and white, film-noir, murder mystery, investigation game. Not only are you trying to solve an attempted murder, you are trying to solve your OWN attempted murder.
There’s a serial killer on the loose, and they tried to kill you. You’re a late-night cab driver in Paris, and now you’re being blackmailed by the heat into helping figure out who the killer is. You’ll talk to all kinds of people in an attempt to catch the person who tried to kill you. If you don’t, the murders will be blamed on you.
According to the trailer, there are three different killers and five different suspects; depending on your choices the killer could be any one of them in any one of your playthroughs. On top of that, there are seventy-five different characters to meet and talk to. Listening will be the key to this game, as some may divulge key clues and evidence to the investigation. On top of that, you have to make sure you’re not recognized by the killer themselves, lest they try to finish the job!
This game sounds, and looks, absolutely thrilling! I love the art style already, and I have only watched the trailer.
It’s available already on PC; but if you’re like me, and the Switch is your gaming platform of choice, then you’ll have to wait. It’s coming to consoles, but the date is still TBA.
Star Renegades
A “tactical rogue-lite RPG”. Do these words already have your interest piqued? I know there are a lot of fans of rouge-lite games out there, and after having played Atomicrops, I think I can count myself among the genre’s fans as well.
… I suppose I also enjoyed the first Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, and after having a quick look on the Google, I noticed it’s listed as a rouge-lite as well. Makes sense as the dungeon layout changes every time. But I digress…
Looking at the info on the website, it seems – in a standard RPG fashion – it has a turn-based combat system. What intrigued me was the added information: …no RNG (random number generator). Every battle is a puzzle to be solved!”
As well, there is also a nice little friendship/romance portion to the game it seems. After defeating an adversary, the bonds between your rag-tag gang will deepen. These will give you special content, special combo attacks, or even the possibility of having a child that will join your cause!
Taking a gander at the gameplay trailer, it has an overworld map (a-la old-school Final Fantasy) that you and your team walk across; as well the battles do have your team lined up on the right and the baddies on the left.
I see characters piloting mech-suits, cute pixelated dogs, a lot of lovely shades of pink and turquoise (my absolute two favourite colours). At the end the words: “Resist. Reclaim. Revive. Repeat.”
SIGN ME UP RAW FURY! Thankfully, this one is coming out for all consoles as well as PC sometime in Spring of 2020 (which is, like, basically right now! So, for myself, I hope it comes out soon.)
The Signifier
Another game in the noir genre, as well as another game with a trailer voiced by a deep and gritty sounding male. I’m already making space in my heart for it (more for the noir than the gritty male though). This time it is a “tech-noir mystery adventure”.
The Signifier is a game where you will explore and interact with people in three realms: the real world, their “objective memories”, and their dream worlds. You will use technology to explore all three of these realms to solve the mystery. You need to move between these realms to solve various puzzles as well as to open up dialogue choices.
This makes sense to me; a character who might not want to divulge information in the real world might talk when asked a question based on something you saw in their dreams! “H-How could you possibly know that?!” they would say, surprised and fearful. The possibilities point to endlessness, and I can only hope for at least the feel of an endless, infinite universe.
Goodness gracious! The trailer for this game screams: “YOU WANT TO PLAY THIS!” … at least, that’s what it screams to me. The art looks amazing, and the vibe is fantastically creepy. Even just glimpsing some of the freaky creatures that are conjured in the dream-looking scenes (I’m looking at you freaky-double-hand-thing-with-an-eyeball!) gives me the shivers down my spine, and the excitement to get my hands on it.
Watch the trailer and see for yourself, I think (and very much hope) that this game is going to be a winner. It says the release for this game is 2020; sadly, for console-only owners, it currently says it’s only coming out for PC/Mac. I’m not opposed to the occasional Steam purchase, and I think this may be one of them for me. I love noir, I love mysteries, I love the infinite possibilities of exploring a dream realm… take my money!
Call of the Sea
The trailer for this game features our heroine Norah holding up a photo of her and her lost husband. Set in the 1930’s, Norah’s husband was on an expedition of some kind, and never returned. Now Norah, who was feeling lost, alone, and without purpose, is tracing the steps of her husband’s lost expedition in the hopes of finding him… or what happened to him.
From what I’m reading, seems like Norah will also be discovering a whole lot more about who she is on this beautiful isle in the South Pacific. “It’s an otherworldly tale of mystery, adventure, and self-discovery” says the promotional material.
Then the very last clip of the trailer flashed into mine eyeballs; a beautiful underwater scene where Norah’s hands push forward as she swims through the water. But no longer are these hands in the shape of a human’s, rather they are a lot more grey coloured as well as webbed!
A “story-driven adventure full of suspense and surreal surprises”. Well, let’s hope that the fact that you can become some kind of fish creature is not the only surreal surprise the game has in store (since they already kinda gave that one away in the trailer).
Call of the Sea says it will be out sometime in 2020, but it’s only releasing on Xbox Series X, Xbox One, and PC.
Sable
My first impression of the trailer for Sable is: that the art looks like a comic book, the vibe it gives me feels a little bit like Journey mixed with Star Wars mixed with Shadow of the Colossus, and I want the song on my regular music playlist.
Another game about a journey of self discovery, this time it’s via digging through ruins and uncovering the history of the alien inhabitants of this desert planet.
A lot of the trailer is taken up by the main character hopping onto a Star-Wars-esque-pod-racer-looking mode of transportation and then watching several scenes and pan shots of the racer blowing across the desert landscape, complete with comic-book-art-looking sand dust trails floating behind.
With how fanatic Star Wars fans can seem to be sometimes… well I’m sure those scenes in the trailer will tickle those people greatly.
BUT, I am a person who didn’t watch Star Wars until I was approximately 25 years old; and (don’t crucify me…) I found it relatively enjoyable, but nothing all that special.
MY POINT: even without the extreme nostalgia-love of Star Wars, I think Sable looks like a nice little video game treat. I do love a game with a quiet journey of self-discovery (like Shadow of the Colossus), and it looks like Sable is going to step up and provide that experience.
It says Sable is going to release for PC and consoles sometime in 2020. Looking forward to it!
Per Aspera
Has anyone read the book Ender’s Game? In the book, all these young people are given this “video game” to play where they strategize and use their resources to fight a war.
Of course, the twist is that it was never an ACTUAL video game. Rather they made the children think it was so they wouldn’t be horrified by the fact that they were actually controlling an army and killing things.
What does this have to do with Per Aspera, you ask? Well, this is a game that proudly states that it’s utilizing real maps and data from NASA, as well as “real-life engineering and scientific principals” to play as a super-intelligent AI that is tasked with terraforming Mars and turning it into a lush planet capable of supporting life.
So, I’m thinking, that this game is being developed so that NASA can basically use all of our combined play-data in order to figure out the best way to ACTUALLY, in real-life, terraform Mars so that we can eventually colonize it!
That’s what I think anyway. Either way, it is a really cool concept, and it sounds like a lot of deep-thinking fun; so if that’s the kind of video game experience you enjoy, then keep your eyes and ears peeled for the release of Per Aspera.
It’s releasing just for PC, and the release date currently only says 2020.
Backbone
Finally, we wrap it up with Backbone. Another noir roleplaying detective adventure! This time, our main character, and private dick, is a raccoon! A raccoon named Howard! KYA!
Okay Backbone, you had me at raccoon!
On top of that, it takes place in a dystopian Vancouver BC! That’s a city inside a province inside the country where I live! WHEE! The locations are, and I quote: “… a unique universe based on the real Vancouver”.
As well it describes itself as having a “stunning modern pixel art aesthetic and original dark jazz soundtrack”.
Call me old if you want, but I am a fan of jazz. So I am excited for an amazing soundtrack! The art of the trailer is awesome. I loved all of the cute animal characters (there was a big ole bunny and I squee’d).
The backgrounds look amazing, and there seems to be a really cool sneaking aspect where you are sneaking in the foreground of the 2D scene, and the animals who could see/catch you are in the background. It looked really interesting!
Very very luckily for me, this one is going to be releasing on the Switch, as well as PC and all other consoles as well. The release date is, sadly, the farthest in the future, as it simply says 2021.
I will definitely be getting this one for my Switch.
Wrap It Up!
Things that, it seems, Raw Fury likes: journeys of self-discovery, noir, and rogue-lites. If a game has one, or more, of these aspects, they are going to take a serious look at producing it.
Now, if I had to put each game in order from my most anticipated to least anticipated it would look something like this:
- Backbone
- Night Call
- The Signifier
- Call of the Sea
- Star Renegades
- Per Aspera
- Sable
- West of Dead
Please remember, this is just my personal list; this list is, of course, affected by the genres and types of games that I enjoy playing most. West of Dead is only last because shoot’em-ups are a lot less my jam than mystery detective noir things. ALL of these games look like they are worth a purchase.
Raw Fury, as I said before in my Atomicrops review, you are – to me – the equivalent of a favourite authour: I love the work you produce and will go out of my way to check out what you do.
Keep up the good work, gamers like me appreciate it!
Raw Fury is quickly becoming one of my favourite publishers. Love Gonner, Bad North and Out There. Looking forward to ALL the above
Right?! I can’t believe how good they are at spotting an amazing game and then making it happen!