Gaming | WOBFU
Weekly Overview of the Bundle For Ukraine: Page 1
Every journey involves a single step — and also a lot of video games, somehow.
Starting off our foray into the bundle, we’re going to do a quick overview of the entire 30 to give some context on the page, before splitting off into the categories of Video Games, Software, and ending on Duplicates. This means that the Overview will mostly be a quick summary of the page, highlighting anything hyper unique, but the meat of the conversation will be within the first two sections.
This does mean this page 1 will be longer than normal, since explaining everything takes words. Hopefully not too long (hindsight has failed me, apparently).
But before we do that, allow me to bring your attention to the new spreadsheet:
Similar to before, this will be where all of the games are split into their respective categories, as well as anything else that can be used to filter out any information needed. Updating this one will be a bit more challenging since it will be every week rather than previously needing to do it every 2 weeks or so, but I’m confident that I will only fall behind on doing so twice. Probably.
Overview
The first page of the Bundle for Ukraine features a 20/10 split, or 20 video games to the 10 pieces of software. As noticed in the past this is a common way that these bundles start, as mixed bundles steer more towards video games than they do other pieces of content. This will more than likely change, but by how much is up to speculation.
As expected, the first page is chocked full of heavy hitters in both software and video games. One thing of note is that the games on this page are large. After playing through over a thousand in the previous bundle I estimated that the average game size was about ~100–200 mb large. Majority of the titles on this page are above 500MB, with many clearing a gigabyte. Whether or not this has to do with them being ‘heavy hitters’ — a loose term at best — is unknown, but it is worth pointing out.
Unlike last time, all links to the games will be in their titles to keep things clean and compact to avoid lengthy posts. The format will also have the games I wanted to highlight ‘first’, and then the rest will follow, meaning that they won’t necessarily be in order here.
Quick Links to Each Section
Video Games
Software
Duplicates
Video Games
We’ll always start with the recommended.
Backbone
Stop me if you’ve heard this before: a post-noir narrative adventure in which a grizzled private detective takes on a case that starts out small and inconspicuous but slowly balloons into an epic, involving them with dangers they’d rather not be a part of and near-death run-ins with the underbelly of the city.
Backbone is one of these tales by Eggnut Games, a curiously named studio founded in Canada with members all over the world, and published by Raw Fury. Step into the shoes of the raccoon P.I. Howard Lotor as he takes on the simple task of proving infidelity before finding himself engrossed in Vancouver’s darkest areas while coming to grips with who he is and what it means to exist.
Backbone takes a different approach to its systems in order to explore the interactions that the players have as Howard and how they shape his personality and appearance to the world. Conversations are snappy, with back-and-forth dialogue being the norm. Each dialogue contains many decisions to make, but rarely do they give off that traditional ‘THIS WILL IMPACT THE GAME’ vibe.
This is thanks to how many of the responses can loop back to other conversations, but can also be altered by a simple decision. One moment Howard is buttering up a kid running a seed stand to convince him to leave the street for the night, then suddenly threats get thrown around as Howard starts to get impatient and takes a singular ‘direct’ response.
My point is that the conversations feel natural, especially since many of the people Howard talks with are strangers. You’re trying to probe for information and favours, but this grim dystopian Vancouver is not friendly to anyone. Especially when it comes to race — or species, in this case.
Backbone tackles a lot of topics within its adventure, yet many of them feel like set pieces for the discussion about what it means to be alive. The beautifully sombre Vancouver is full of hopes and dreams, yet they mean something wildly different for the city and its inhabitants; Howard included. I can hope for the better, but I cannot help but expect the worst.
CrossCode
Retro seems to be in style, because Radical Fish have created an SNES-inspired game tailored in CrossCode. Inspired by the adventure dungeons and RPGs of the time, CrossCode puts its setting in a slightly more modern-era concept; getting stuck in a video game. Well, sort of.
Many may mistake our blue-haired protagonist Lea for the ‘isekai’ed’ trope due to being stuck in a sci-fi fantasy video game with no way of escaping. I’ll admit that it caught me for a second, but there’s a bit of an odd twist that dragged me into its narrative clutches: she lost her memories to the game. The person outside of Lea’s avatar cannot leave the game, for she has no recollection of who she is inside or outside of the game. She can’t even speak due to a malfunction, and her level has been reset to 1.
Her assistance comes from the maintenance crew, characters that sail a ship across the code-sea maintaining the infrastructure of the game to ensure the players are none the wiser. Instead of being a plot about being trapped in a game, she instead is looking for that which has been stolen from her within it while uncovering past and new relationships.
Smashing together genres might just be the best way to describe CrossCode, since in gameplay it does the same. The layout is reminiscent of Legend of Zelda, giving dungeons for players to explore and bosses that require weak spots and careful maneuvers. Lea’s a Spheremancer, meaning that she can manifest ‘balls’ to launch and solve puzzles and initiate combat.
Speaking of which, the combat is a much faster paced action-brawler, mashing buttons to string together attacks while using upgraded equipment and new toys to get all off the jobs done. I found myself favouring the brawling as it felt more fluid, but weaving the ranged and melee together works best to solve the combat-centric puzzles as they come.
Everything about it feels like a video game, and I don’t mean that just because it is. The game’s entire atmosphere gives off the aura of a single-player MMO, from the different regions with people spamming all-chat to random strangers getting up in your business.
The customization tree is extensive, and loot drops are plentiful meaning that the grind can keep on going even as you learn about how that terrifying blue man knows Lea. One day you’ll find a way out, but for now enjoy the time you have.
Lucifer Within Us
Time to make an admission of guilt; this may have been the game that lured me into the bundle. There’s always one, y’know?
Lucifer Within Us is a detective narrative by Kitfox Games and the second game spearheaded by Jungwoo Kim after ‘The Shrouded Isle’. Players follow a series of deductions made by Sister Ada of the Church of Ain Soph, a future religion that mixes spirituality with the digital age. Daemons are a mix of AI and spirit, able to enter individuals to coax out their wildest fantasies. It is up to Ada to ensure that they cannot run rampant for too long, but a single thought lingers: why now, after 100 years?
As a inquisitive tale, players will be called upon to investigate a crime scene to determine who is responsible and exorcise the daemon swaying their judgement. Each suspect recounts their tales, and it is up to Ada to scrub through the timeline and find inconsistencies across the evidence and testimonials.
The true ‘exorcism’ work however revolves around unmasking lies, which in turn allows Ada to enter their Inner Sanctum through their third eye and reveal a truth about the suspect. It’s a fantastic way of rewarding players for uncovering truths while pushing the interrogation further through new information and giving more context to each suspect. Even accusations can reveal new details, and while it usually doesn’t harm the investigation there is always a chance that you’ll be lead astray.
Compared to many of the other detective narratives I’ve played — in and outside of the bundle — Lucifer Within Us isn’t that difficult thanks to its intuitive interface and helpful tools. What makes it so immersive, however, is its world.
This amalgamation of digital spirituality oozes out of every design decision, from the aesthetics mixing old pillars with aether technology to the Inner Sanctum’s revelations of truths. You get discussions about the falsehood of utopia through ‘purity’, where a single daemonic virus can cause a person to become wiped clean of their entire personality.
It’s terrifying to think about, making it all the more exciting to uncover its secrets. You may not have your brain picked apart, but the scariest thing is that this might be exactly what Lucifer is hoping for. Stay vigilant, and purge them all.
INMOST
I wasn’t expecting to talk about this one, but sometimes you come across something you just need to talk about. And that’s the problem; I can’t.
INMOST is a game by indie duo Hidden Layer Games and published by Chucklefish. In it, players will journey through a strange and decrepit land full of dark and twisted creatures in search of… something. The story splits between three different yet interwoven characters: the knight speeding through a derelict castle, the child playing around their house, and the wanderer searching for something unknown.
Their playstyles vary, but their atmospheres do not: a choking miasma of darkness and anxiety that is broken by checkpoint lights and gorgeous backdrops, only to be smothered as a new horror emerges at the quietest of hours. The level design — especially in the wanderer — is a perfect maze of puzzles, as you loop back to similar places over and over again to find something new.
That’s all I can say. There’s so much I want to say, but I cannot. This is a game that is designed to be played in its completion in a single sitting as it mysteriously unravels to a completion. There are so many hidden moments scattered about to give contextual plot points, but even they aren’t necessary to understand the weight.
It’s almost more a feeling than a narration, a sense of dread that wells inside you that cannot seem to disappear no matter how well you think you know the plot. It buries into your mind and sits there until you finish it, because it knows it has you hooked.
I’ll stop now before my vague ramblings turn into spoilers. If you love atmospheric puzzle/platformers designed to bend your mind and unsettle your mood, you’ve found your gem.
SUPERHOT
The first game in the bundle that I’ve technically played already, and for a good reason. SUPERHOT is a banger of a game, quite literally. Thanks to its permanent ‘bullet time’, movement is the only way for time to move outside of a snail’s pace. This means every movement counts towards completion, no matter how small.
Each level becomes a dance of bullets and flying weapons, ensuring that nothing ever hits the player while hitting every shot no matter what. Completing each level sometimes unlocks conversations, either between the fellow player that you the unlock in to the game or a mysterious voice.
Whether or not you wish to engage with the context is up to you, because we all know why we’re playing it and there isn’t really much else to say. After all, SUPERHOT is the most innovative shooter I’ve played in years.
Sundered: Eldritch Edition
The final entry of the page, and another game I technically already knew about. I came into contact with Thunder Lotus thanks to Jotun, and got the chance to try out Spiritfarer during a conference back in 2019 — somehow, this game evaded me, but I had heard about it.
So what is it? Well, Sundered is a Metroidvania in which Eshe attempts to escape the constantly shifting world that she was dragged into by strange, eldritch beings. The only one that is willing to help her is Shining Trapezohedron, and even then the course of the game proves that nothing from the chaotic realms can truly be trusted.
Exploration reveals more upgrades, abilities, and shortcuts, but everything found may come at a price. Whether or not you as Eshe are willing to pay that price is up to you; do you submit to that which you cannot understand, or do you resist?
Gracefully Thunder Lotus have donated the Eldritch Edition, which mainly includes local co-op for up to 4 players and the Magnate of the Gong update (new area + quest). This adds to the already large worlds that players will explore to uncover the Elder Shards, along with the lore of why this place even exists in the first place.
For those that adored the many Metroidvanias that came out in the mid 2010s but were hoping for something a bit more Or’azath ng mgepog’drn, this is the game for you.
The rest of the page, in order of appearance:
Evergate
Created by Stone Lantern Games in the USA and published by PQube, Evergate is a gorgeous puzzle platformer centered around a small soul named Ki who delves into memories not their own. It introduces the ability ‘Soulflame’, allowing Ki to target objects with a tether to activate them — create platforms, launch themselves, and generally be the main puzzle solving mechanic.
The 85 levels get brutal though, so if you’re bad at platformers like me, try using artifacts and assist modes to see the end.
SkateBIRD
A game about getting your turbulent tube on. SkateBIRD by Glass Bottom Games features customizable birds doing knarly tricks across pizza boxes and straws. Unfortunately their ‘Big Friend’ has hung up their board, so it is up to these little fellows to skate their hearts out and maybe clean up the room to help that Big Friend turn their life around.
There are tons of assistance tools and cute little phrases to go around, giving it a fantastic vibe for those that love free-roam skating games. Also, pet the bird, okay?
Fuzz Dungeon
Let’s get our obligatory ‘what in the heck is going on’ title out of the way; somehow, there’s always one on the first page. Fuzz Dungeon is the culmination of 2 years of Jeremy Couillard’s life, where players will play through 15 levels as a rat dog in order to find the lost sasquatch sex amulet that contains the well back to the player’s job.
Oh, and each of those 15 levels is an allegory on human history and evolution over the past 5 millennia. Do I get it? No. Do I need to? Also no. Good luck!
Cloud Gardens
Gorgeous sandbox game by noio featuring Amos Roddy’s soundscapes, this title is about ‘gardening’ in the post-apocalypse. Seeds will be given to place on destroyed and decaying objects, and by adding more pieces the plants will grow to overtake the objects entirely. It gives a strange sense of serenity as nature slowly takes over everything that we built, only now you are actually building it.
Gunmetal Arcadia Zero
Retro funtimes return with this side-scrolling adventure by J. Kyle Pittman and Minor Key Games. Some may recall their previous work ‘Super Win the Game’ from the Racial Justice and Equality bundle. This time players will step into the shoes of a young elf setting out to save his people from the dangers of Arcadia.
If you are a fan of Super Win the Game, or really like adventures that bring back the CRT days, this is a fantastic game to try.
Kingdom Two Crowns
A 2D side-scrolling strategy game. That’s not something you hear every day. The third installment in a series by noio and published by Raw Fury, players will build their kingdom slowly over time, expanding their reach while fighting against these strange monsters that appear at night.
There are also two extra settings in ‘Dead Lands’ and ‘Shogun’, the latter being the advertised aspect of this installment. Do note that this version is wholly unique: the game was added to itch.io for the Ukraine Bundle, and will not be updated nor have the DLC. Check out the Steam game if you want more.
Wandersong
Solve the world’s problems with the power of singing, because otherwise the universe will end. Utilizing a radial to simulate the 8 notes of Western music notation, our little bardlet will sing to everyone and everything in the hopes of solving puzzles and aggravating the neighbours.
The humour is on point for a silly, over the top game, and you’ll be hard pressed to find anything that is as colourful and dynamic. ‘banov’ even has an audio engine for the game that you can download for fun!
GoNNER
The first of two chaotic shooty platformers, you’ll be following a strange little fellow named Ikk whose sole mission is to cheer up their friend Sally by finding strange doodads throughout the world. Advertised as ‘tough as hell’, its difficulty comes from the roguelike levels packed full of so many enemies that it’s hard to see. This means a lot of dying, but there are heads and upgrades galore to help you go again.
It’s beautifully stylish with his morphing colours and ‘blobby’ aesthetic, especially when you die as many times as you do. Don’t give up; do it for Sally.
Figment
Originally thought to be a duplicate as another game shares its name, this is an adventure created by Bedtime Digital Games that journeys through a child’s mind. The player pilots the original champion of Courage named Dusty as they navigate through representations of the brain and psyche, fighting off nightmares through puzzle combat while solving area-centric puzzles to continue forward.
It gives off a ‘point and click adventure’ aura thanks to how it handles item collection and narration, but you’re most definitely here because of its gorgeous painted set pieces.
Fatum Betula
From Bryce Bucher, the solo dev who made Location Withheld and its demake, comes this strangely atmospheric PS2-era adventure in which you nurture a birch tree. Sounds too simple, especially if familiar with Bucher’s works, and that’s because it is.
This is a haunting game that invokes the specific feeling of PS2-era atmosphere through its empty, polygonal regions and droning soundtrack. The regions are both massive yet small, containing few individuals that may reward players for performing certain actions. These rewards are liquids to feed the tree, and depending on which is chosen one of the many endings may appear. But how can you be sure it even is a tree?
Dumpy & Bumpy
Adorable co-operative puzzle game by Programancer in which Dumpy goes from world to world solving puzzles with his jaws and brains. Puzzles range from Sokoban to ‘the ice puzzles from pokemon’ to destroying everything on the screen; all are only told through context clues based on the level layout itself.
If you want some assistance in defeating the Ghostlord, grab a friend and get Bumpy in there with Dumpy to ensure that nothing can stop these colourful critters.
Summer Gems
An adorably small game about making a friend on the beach by 3ofcupsgames. Playing as a small octopus girl, you befriend a frog and collect random objects on the beach to show them. Over time, the friendship turns into letters that are sent back and forth. Sometimes you’ll hear back, other times not.
Regardless, its a comfy experience that can remind you of the purity that is simple friendship.
ZeroRanger
Our first bullet hell of the bundle, but one that decides that the traditional route is boring and lame. system_erasure has crafted a standard premise of alien invasions, and a lone pilot gaining power-ups and abilities in order to fight back. Yet there is an underlying plot to it all, from the ‘enlightenment/relentless’ actions to the subtle hints at more being at stake.
The biggest clue arrives in death, in which a moratorium will be played; but one that implies that this cannot be the end. Unraveling the mystery might take just as much prowess as the bullet hell itself. Good luck, pilot.
Software
Just as a reminder: Many of the pages linked below have their own reviews, especially TTRPGs, in the comments. Check them out for more information.
Thirsty Sword Lesbians
A ‘Powered by the Apocalypse’ game about… sword lesbians who may or may not be incredibly thirsty. It’s pretty explicit. Joking aside, it has a lot of tools to customize the adventure and import settings, and even accessibility options. What’s not to love?
Acid Death Fantasy
The most visually evocative of the bunch is a Troika! adventure and chapbook. It includes extensive information on different backstories and enemies, introducing a more ‘acid stained’ world to your current campaign.
Liminal Horror
I’m scared easily, and this looks terrifying. Utilizing a ‘fail forward’ progression system, Liminal Horror is all about bringing truly indescribable horrors to life. See more reviews for a more indepth analysis on it, because I got scared halfway through reading.
LOST EONS Core Books
Mashing together Blades in the Dark and 24XX, and sprinkling in some solarpunk aesthetics and you have this iconic core bookset. I’d actually heard of this system prior to the bundle, so you can imagine my joy upon seeing it. Everything is open source to boot, so hack away.
PROLE
Ever felt dice rolls felt too much like coin flips? Well here is PROLE, where you actually flip a coin. If something is uncertain, flip a coin. If you think one of your stats is relevant, flip that coin again. Truly live on the edge while also commanding a short adventure.
.dungeon
A TTRPG masquerading as a book, with one person playing as the world and the rest exploring it. Health is shared; damage dealt represents the connection players have with each other. Once it reaches 0, the game ends indefinitely. It’s artistic, and you’ll know right away if it is for you.
Anamnesis
A game about self reflection as you journal your efforts to combat memory loss. Split into acts, each section will have you confronting your lost past while coming to grips with your present. Good luck in there.
Phanta
Based on a song by Le Tigre, this is a tabletop game that sees a doomsday prophet correctly predict global annihilation. The setting, known as ‘the Periphery’, is the only safe haven known, but it begs the question: what happens when the doom of the world starts to lift?
The Magus
Finally we have a solo journaling RPG about trying to save the kingdom you hold dear while achieving personal glory. It’s an extremely crunchy RPG compared to most solo RPGs I’ve seen/played, with multiple dice and stats to keep track of.
Duplicates
Only two entries are duplicates for this starting page, split between a video game and a software (novel). The first — and also the first entry of the entire bundle, interestingly enough, is
- GNOG
An adorably quirky puzzle game. Found on page 4 of the Racial Justice Bundle, with my overview here. - Avery Chase — EP1 : Apparition
The other duplicate is the first episode of a comic series set in space. It’s gorgeous and it might hook you in — more info about it here.
