October’s indie games are absolutely stacked. Seriously, the list this month is longer than usual because whittling it down anymore was causing us the kind of psychological pain you’d normally only endure when your two-year-old discovers the Baby Shark videos and throws a tantrum whenever the video ends. Is that good parenting? Maybe! Is it necessary to survive? Absolutely!
Along with loads of games, October brings along some of the best things of the year. An end to the summer (hopefully), Halloween, and also the constant reminder that even trees have a mortal lifespan as their leaves decay and fall off. Wait, not that last one. Look, games are good, most of you won’t read the intro anyway, so let’s just get into the list of October’s best indie games.
Battle Shapers – 3
We love roguelikes, and Battle Shapers is an FPS sci-fi roguelike which lets you steal powers from ruthless robot overlords and, if we’re being honest, it sounds a lot like an FPS Mega Man game. That couldn’t be more of a compliment if we tried, and the graphics, absurd abilities, and over-the-top guns are all going to carry you home. Or to our deaths. Or maybe to victory. It’ll be fun no matter where you end up though.
The Lamplighters League – 3
We just wrote about the best stealth games, but it could well be that The Lamplighters League ends up being on that list once it’s out. This game sees you recruiting a team of people with unique abilities and then guiding them through various levels trying to find the Banished Court and stop them being all evil and stuff. You get to do real-time sneaking, and if you’re caught, you then get to fight it out in turn-based combat. It just looks fun, and Harebrained Schemes, the developer, has a good pedigree of games behind them.
Worldless – 4
While we’re on the subject of pretty games, Worldless fits into that category very easily. You take control of a shape with some weapons that can jump (we’re not sure how else to describe it), and you need to explore two different realms as you continue on your adventure. Combat is actually turn-based, but exploitation is fairly free-form and looks more like a classic Metroidvania. The art style is also beautifully abstract, and the soundtrack is already incredible based on just the trailers alone.
Stop Dead – 5
Stop Dead is a game where if you stop you’ll die, and it looks like a mix of Psy-Ops, Neon White, and Mirror’s Edge. You take control of a telekinetic heroine who can use pretty much anything as a weapon in order to try and take down a rogue AI, who’s decided humans sort of suck and deserve to die. The game has 40 levels to blitz through, and we have a feeling this will be a good one for those who like to seek perfection in their speedruns, although the novel combat should make it good for those of us with other hobbies too.
Wizard With A Gun – 17
We’re not sure you’re meant to sing “Wizard with a Gun,” but we can’t help it. That aside, this game is a survival sandbox that you can play with a friend, and seems to mostly revolve around not just being a wizard, but then also having a gun. We’re not sure why nobody had thought to give wizards a gun before, but it definitely seems like a notable upgrade. Just imagine if they could curve bullets. Wait, they made a film about that, didn’t they?
Hellboy Web of Wyrd – 18
We’re not sure anyone would have thought a Hellboy game would be coming out that’s a roguelike brawler, but we’re pretty happy about it. This game’s actually being made in partnership with the creator of Hellboy, Mike Mignola, and aside from the promise of lots of pummelling, we’ve got to talk about the art direction. Lots of games get compared to comic books, but Hellboy looks exactly like a visual novel, and it’s absurdly pretty as a result, the block colours and minimalistic detailing make for a feast for the eyes, so even if it’s bad, it’ll still look good.
Cavern of Dreams – 19
Cavern of Dreams is an N64-style 3D platformer where you play as Fynn the dragon. Your mission is to save your unhatched siblings from the titular Cavern of Dreams, and along the way, you’ll get new abilities, solve loads of puzzles, and undoubtedly jump on a lot of things. Honestly though, we’re just here for the hit of nostalgia this game is offering us, because in our youths we very briefly didn’t have to pay bills, and that was great.
Dark Envoy – 24
Our second game on this list with both guns and magic is Dark Envoy, a new RPG with tactical real-time combat. It also has online co-op, and nothing’s better than playing with your friends on the one night a month you both find time to do so. As your party is battling it out, you can briefly pause time to unleash magical skills to take out groups of enemies, separate them from their friends, or cut off their escape routes. There are multiple classes too, which should make for some good replayability if the story is worth it.
Ghostrunner 2 – 26
Our penultimate choice for October’s indie games is Ghostrunner 2. This game describes itself as a “hardcore FPP slasher set in a post-apocalyptic cyberpunk future.” We’re going to describe it as a really fast-paced game where you get to control a cyberpunk ninja with a big old future sword who can do wall runs and stuff. The first game was magnificent, so we’ve got high hopes for this one too.
Headbangers: Rhythm Royale – 31
You might think that Headbangers: Rhythm Royale is going to be a follow-up to Brutal Legend, albeit with less Jack Black and more EpicFortniteGamer420, but you’d be wrong. Well, maybe not about dear old EpicFortniteGamer420, but about it being anything to do with Brutal Legend. Instead, this rhythm battle royale game has you and 29 other pigeons competing against each other in lots of rhythm mini-games to see who is the most rhythmic of all. It looks like a nice change of pace, and we’re up for becoming a master-level pigeon.
