Eurogamer Expo 2011: Best indie games
We take a look at the best new games you've never heard of at this year's Eurogamer Expo.
Alan Hazelden’s These Robotic Hearts of Mine proves that a beautiful game is about far more than glossy graphics and high-end spec requirements. This puzzler wrapped in a narrative is remarkable for both the elegant simplicity of its gameplay and the haunting promise of the story that frames it. While the puzzles themselves require a good grasp of spatial awareness and movement dynamics as you rotate hearts around cog-wheels to bring them to life, it’s the story as much as anything else that keeps you playing.
Boss Baddie Games’ Really Big Sky plays like a modern take on forced side-scrolling shooters such as Gradius, with glowing, multi-coloured graphics that do a good impression of the liquid light display from a psy-trance night, game events that alter in response to your actions and – most important – frenetic, fiercely hard gameplay.
Like Waves, Really Big Sky uses dual controls – one for movement and the other for tageting your fire. You don’t have to hold anything down to keep firing – it’s all automatic – but it’s up to you to trigger special attacks and switch from laser cannon to a drill bit when you need to burrow through an inconveniently positioned asteroid.
There are multiple play modes, loads of stats (if you’re that way inclined) and the game even allows up to four players to work together to put some serious firepower into blasting the enemies out of your Really Big Sky. It’s out now for a mere £4.95 at Greenman Gaming.