Great walk
Promoter: Maison Maison
Publisher: Panic
Platforms: Steam (Windows, Mac; Steam Deck verified), PS5, Nintendo Switch 2
Price: Usually $20, with 25% off on Switch and Steam until August 18. Available on PlayStation Plus
The latest project of Untitled Goose Game Developer House House is a cooperative puzzle and exploration game that makes extensive use of proximity chat. Great walk sees you go on an adventure with up to 11 of your friends across an open world.
You won’t get far if you’re playing solo and there’s no matchmaking, so you’ll need to recruit at least one friend or find new friends to join you. There is cross-play support on all platforms, which will help you gather enough people.
You will need to communicate well with each other to solve puzzles and move forward. Besides voice chat, gestures are also important, especially when solving puzzles that make it difficult for you to hear each other. When you are separated from your friends, you can stay in touch through walkie-talkies, notes, flares, doorbells, etc.
Reviews for Great walk have been absolutely brilliant so far. I’d like to check it out, although I don’t particularly like using a microphone when playing games. I’ll have to get over it if I want to make the most of a long walk with a few companions.
ReStory: relaxing electronic repairs
Developer: Mandrake
Publisher: tinyBuild
Platform: Steam (Windows, Mac)
Price: Usually $20, with a 10% discount through August 20
ReStory has been on my radar for quite a while and I can’t wait to dive into the full game. This is a repair shop management simulation where you clean and restore retro gadgets. Many of them clearly take inspiration from real-world gadgets like the Tamagotchi, Nokia phones, the Playstation Portable, and the original Xbox. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news: devices from the 2000s can certainly be called “retro” at this point. The names of many of these products have been changed, but there are some officially licensed Atari devices in the mix.
Sometimes you won’t have what you need on hand to repair an item. You can scour the web for components or other devices that you can take apart to get parts. Customers will sometimes ask you to customize their gadget and you will have to manage your store’s finances. There is a branching story that plays out based on your choices.
I loved the demo and it’s an instant buy for me. I’m far from the only one interested ReStorysince more than 750,000 people wanted it on Steam.
Echobreaker
Developer: Arcade upstream
Publisher: Weekend Games
Platform: Steam (Windows)
Price: Usually $9, with 15% off until August 20
Echobreaker it’s about moving quickly. It’s an isometric precision platformer in which your character is hired by a company to put armored weather-altering equipment to the test.
You will need to eliminate all enemies before you can complete a level, similar to Neon White. Finding ways to do this while maintaining as much momentum as possible is key. You can slow things down, then speed up after taking out an enemy. You can sacrifice health units (or “echoes”) for special abilities. In some cases, you can use them to gain more echoes.
To progress, you’ll need to complete a level within a certain time limit – you can go back and redo them for better times and rankings. Determining the ideal routing and executing executions cleanly are key here.
I played a little Echobreaker and while I’ve largely enjoyed it so far, it doesn’t really work for me in the way games like Rollerdrome to have. It looks and sounds great, and running through the courses is satisfying. My lack of engagement comes more from lacking the patience to optimize runs than from an indictment of a well-designed game.
Akatori
Developer: Contrast Games
Publishers: Games Harbor, Esprit Games
Platforms: Steam (Windows). Available on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S on August 12 and on Switch 2 later this year
Price: Usually $15, with 15% off until August 12
Akatori this has been a long time coming. I first saw this at E3 2021 and it’s been on my Steam wishlist ever since. This is a very nice Metroidvania where you use a staff for traversal and combat. It can even transform into a bird that you use to glide. There are over a dozen skills and abilities to use and seven biomes to explore.
You play as a teenager named Mako who sets out to save all these worlds from the storms that poison all life. Steam reviews suggest Akatori is tough, but I might be willing to let it kick my butt if I can drink in these visuals.
Pigeon: a love story
Developer: Wrist Work
Publisher: Bracelet, Tiny Dragon
Platforms: Steam (Windows, Mac, SteamOS/Linux; demo available), iOS, Android
Price: Usually $8 on Steam, with a 20% discount until August 20. Mobile versions start at $3 for the London card, with additional cards costing $1 each.
I love the concept of this game. You play as a pigeon searching for his true love among hundreds of thousands of birds in a life-size city. The developers used real map data to create their versions of London, Paris, Amsterdam, Tokyo and New York. Once you’ve completed the main game, you can move on and explore a procedurally generated world.
Players submitted rejection messages which Wristwork began adding to the game. Alternatively, birds that aren’t The One might give you a clue on how to find the pigeon you’re actually looking for.
There are two ways to play Pigeon: a love story in cooperative. You and up to eight friends can race to find your lover or split up and look for each other. You can “coo” into your mic to help you locate them, if you wish.
Another thing I like here is that you can play the Steam version of Pigeon: a love story like a useless game. Your pigeon can search for its true love in the corner of your screen while you do something else. Although Valve has yet to verify the game for its portable system, it appears that there is support for Steam Deck.
