These aren’t all the indie games Sony had on display at E3 2014 but they are some of the most notable or some that we want to highlight.
The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth
The hardcore niche roguelike shooter hybrid finally comes to new platforms! This isn’t a straight port though, there are new enemies, items, bosses, and more. The most notable feature to me will be the expanded rooms. Before it was simple single screen squares for all the rooms but now they are expanded to double the size. It’s a small difference but making this change allows larger rooms to have more dynamic challenges.
The same fantastic gameplay from before is still here but it did seem a bit easier. That could have just been done for the E3 showfloor though.
It’s a unique experience but one that has hooked many on PC with its bizarre humor and solid tear-flinging shooter gameplay.
La Mulana
Imagine a metroidvania that didn’t tell you anything, was brutally difficult, and featured mind bending puzzles. That game exists and it’s called La Mulana. The game is coming to Vita (it’s been on Wii and PC for a while now) and it looks to be a perfect fit for the handheld.
Something about the Vita’s screen makes the game look sharper than I recal and it looks great. There is a lot to explore in La Mulana and it is well worth the journey for those looking for a challenge.
Chasm
I may be a bit biased because I’m a Kickstarter backer, but Chasm is a very promising Metroidvania game. The key to this one are the procedural generated dungeons so no adventure is like the other. Also, there is a lot of loot to be had as you can equip various weapons and armor and use various spells.
The gameplay is solid but punishing and fighting enemies was fun but the ones shown off were a little basic. Still, exploration was a ton of fun as it should be in a Metroid type of game.
My only gripe was that pressing down to crouch was a little touchy. I ended up crouching all the time when I didn’t mean to. This caused me to mess up some jumps and even get stuck in some spike pits. This could have just been the controller or my hands betraying me but it happened enough to mention.
Murasaki Baby
This title is fully controlled via the front and back touch panels, so if you like those types of games, you’ll probably like this one. You must lead the baby around and protect it while solving puzzles. The back touch changes the background and then can be used to do various things to the environment such as: control the rain, wind, and make scary things jump out and scare enemies. It’s an interesting concept but it was a kind of confusing and while it looked good and has a cool concept, I didn’t want to play any more of it.
But there’s more! There’s one indie game the impressed me so much I highlighted it in its own article, check it out here!
