Beat-based dungeon crawlers, card-battling soccer sims and other new indie games worth checking out

Welcome to our latest roundup of what’s going on in the indie game space. As ever, we’ve got some new games for you to dive into this weekend, and a glimpse at some upcoming titles. But, first, a look at indie studio Albatross Interactive’s take on a multiplayer mode from a much-loved blockbuster.

Terminal War is a 4v4 third-person shooter and it seems like the small team of developers is trying to keep things grounded. Ammo and supplies are scarce, and there’s an emphasis on melee combat with the promise of “brutal executions.” The action is set in the late ’90s, a few years after a global war, with three factions battling for control and survival in a collapsed version of the United States.

Albatross Interactive isn’t shy about the inspiration behind Terminal War. “They canceled The Last of Us Factions 2,” the team wrote on X. “So we’re building it [sic] our version.”

In September 2019, nine months before the game’s eventual release, Naughty Dog confirmed The Last of Us Part 2 wouldn’t have a multiplayer mode. At the time, it told players “you will eventually experience the fruits of our team’s online ambition.”

That still hasn’t exactly come to pass. The studio formally announced The Last of Us Online in June 2022 and canceled it 18 months later. As such, the Factions mode in 2014’s The Last of Us Remastered for PS4 remains the franchise’s only remaining multiplayer mode.

Albatross Interactive, which says it’s building Terminal War from scratch, plans to reveal more gameplay soon. The game is slated to hit Steam in early access as soon as this summer.

The team expects Terminal War to remain in early access for around 12-18 months, though it noted that “we’re a small studio and we’d rather take the time to get it right than rush to a finish line. The timeline will ultimately be shaped by community feedback, the scope of content we deliver, and the standard of quality we hold ourselves to.” The studio plans to bring the game to consoles as well.

New releases

I’m into the current iteration of Acclaim as an indie publisher (albeit one with a plan to revive its own historic franchises). Its latest title, GridBeat from Ridiculous Games, is a rhythm-based dungeon crawler in which you’re trying to escape from a corporate network after pinching a trove of valuable data. Malware and security protocols are on your tail. Navigating the mazes, interacting with objects and boss battles are all synced to a beat.

GridBeat is available on Steam and Nintendo Switch. It typically costs $20, but there’s a 10 percent discount on Switch until April 2. It’s 15 percent off on Steam until April 9.

Given how much time I spent playing Football Manager 26 last year, Nutmeg is right up my alley. Getting veteran commentator Jim Rosenthal to pitch the soccer management sim in the launch trailer certainly doesn’t hurt.

This is a card-battler take on soccer management and it’s set in the ’80s and ’90s. You can start out in the lower divisions and can work your way up to the top of the English soccer system. You’ll hire and fire staff, and select your team and formation before taking on an opponent. Completing challenges and doing well in training will earn you more card packs.

The trailer reminds me of collecting Panini stickers as a kid as well as the smell of my friends’ Subbuteo figures. I would have said my favorite thing about this is that everything takes place at an era-appropriate desk with a TV that shows results and standings in the style of Teletext and an old computer that has some retro mini-games you can play. However, Sumo Sheffield and Publisher Secret Mode are donating a small portion of every sale of Nutmeg to charity, which is a nice gesture.

Nutmeg is out now on Steam. It’ll usually cost you $25, but there’s a whopping 40 percent discount until April 2.

Devil Jam is a metal-themed spin on the roguelite formula that Vampire Survivors popularized with a dash of Hades-esque characterization mixed in. It’s been out on Steam since November and it hit consoles this week. It costs $8 on PS5 and Switch, and $7.59 on Xbox Series X/S.

You’ll wield a cursed guitar as you battle demonic enemies and bosses. As ever with this type of game, it’s all about finding fun, powerful builds by synergizing abilities. You can put those together in a 12-slot gear system. I dig the art style and animation in this game from Rogueside too. I especially love that one character dashes by powersliding on their knees.

A couple of months after its debut on Steam, Space Warlord Baby Trading Simulator landed on Xbox Series X/S for $20 this week. The latest game from prolific studio Strange Scaffold is a stock market simulator in which you speculate on the “simulated lives of babies” and how successful (or not) said alien sprogs will be in the future. It takes aim at real-life prediction markets where people can gamble on everything from the Time Person of the Year to nuclear tests.

Upcoming

Here’s another game you can actually check out this weekend, as a playtest is taking place on Steam until March 31. Salvation Denied is a co-op construction sim/tower defense game from Firevolt and publisher Digital Vortex Entertainment.

You can get together with up to three friends to build experimental structures at the behest of a foreman who looks like he’s stepped right out of Team Fortress 2. You’ll have tools like a gravity gun, foam gun and jetpacks on hand to help you form these structures, along with heavy machinery that can move or recycle sections of the build. Coordinating with proximity voice chat could be critical as you and your buds deal with natural disasters like acid rain and meteor showers.

I’m almost always going to be on board with a game that’s all about chaos, so I’m interested in checking out Salvation Denied. It’s set to hit Steam this fall before landing on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S in 2027.

Someone has stolen the sun. Reclaiming it is your goal in Light Dude, which is from solo developer Ramy of Dergham Games. It’s an action game in which the lights go out when you move, so you’ll need to figure out your approach to each level and how to avoid hazards before moving forward. There’s a first-person mode here too.

Light Dude is slated to hit Steam sometime this spring. A demo is available now.

Solo developer Mateo Covic (aka ZoroArts) is looking to follow up on the success of Paddle Paddle Paddle with another friendslop game. Covic said it took just four weeks to create Cool Story Bro. Up to four players each have five minutes to write a short story that includes four words. These are picked at random or taken from a pool of player suggestions.

Special items appear throughout each round, such as a revolver, which can take another player out of the game for 10 seconds, and one that swaps everyone’s stories. If you’re the first player to type an item’s name, you can use it.

After everyone has finished writing their story, players take turns to read theirs out for the rest of the group. The others vote on whether they liked the tale. If you really hate someone else’s short story, you can blow them up with a rocket launcher. If only I had that option at some of the poetry readings I’ve been to.

This seems fun and silly, and the kind of thing that could easily blow up on Twitch (there’s an integration that allows viewers to suggest words). Cool Story Bro is slated to hit Steam sometime in April.

Fittingly enough, it’s been a long time since Third Shift announced its debut project, Forever Ago. Six years, in fact. The game re-emerged this week during the Xbox Partner Preview showcase. Publisher Annapurna Interactive is bringing it to Xbox Series X/S, PS5, Nintendo Switch 2, Xbox on PC, Steam and Epic Games Store this fall. It’ll be available on Xbox Game Pass (and Xbox Cloud) on day one.

This is a road trip adventure in which you take on the role of Alfred. Following a personal tragedy, he ventures north in his minivan to seek redemption. With an instant camera in hand, Alfred will meet new people and explore forests, deserts and mountains. It’s another narrative-heavy game from Annapurna, which appears to be leaning heavily into nostalgia this year given that Mixtape is only a few weeks away.