Top 5 Best Indie Games of June 2016

Anima: Gate of Memories

Anima: Gate of Memories is a third-person action RPG that has you switching between two characters on the fly. On top of this, it’s also an open world game that lets you explore at your pace and advance the story at the same time. You play a young girl known as “The Bearer,” who ten years ago awakened and formed a pact with the demon Ergo Mundis, the other main character of the game. Combat lets you change out these two characters at any time, even linking their skills together to form combos.

Gate of Memories is based off of the Anima Beyond Fantasy license, which makes up a series of role-playing books, miniature, wargames and card games. Here’s a quick rundown of the story of the game:

“The story of Anima Gate of Memories is one of the most absorbing parts of the project. The game is focused on The Bearer and Ergo, agents of an ancient society called Nathaniel, which for centuries has protected mankind from the darkness. At the beginning of the story, both receive the order to recover an old artifact called The Byblos that has been stolen by a renegade of the order. After a long pursuit, crossing areas ravaged by war, they are able to corner the fugitive in the middle of an ancient construction. However, suddenly the whole area is swallowed by light.

Soon our protagonists awake inside a strange structure where they are no longer alone; strange beings are also summoned there. Soon, both will discover that something darker than they could imagine is about to start, a war in the shadows in which they will have a leading role.”

Anima: Gate of Memories costs $19.99 and is currently available for download on the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC via Steam.

Asemblance

Asemblance has a unique take on storytelling, where rather than telling you the story, the game wants players to uncover bits and pieces and put it together themselves. It’s made by a small team made up of former Bungie, Monolith and Visceral developers.

In Asemblance, you’re running through various memories of the protagonist in something akin to a virtual holodeck run by an AI. As you move through these memories, you’re trying to find items or information that connect them to each other. It’s a short game by standard, with everything clocking in at around two hours. However, take one look at the Steam forums for the game and you can see how people are trying to piece together its narrative.

Obviously, if players don’t manage to uncover the game’s secrets, it could end up being an interesting experiment that didn’t really hit. But for $9.99, it may be worth it just to join the conversation and see what you can find. Asemlance is currently available via Steam on PC, and the PlayStation 4. 

Heart&Slash

Heart&Slash is a Kickstarter project pitched back in 2014 that has finally come to fruition. The game is a 3D brawler/roguelike with gameplay similar to Devil May Cry, and even has cute robots to boot.

Our heroic robot Heart struggles to escape the grip of an all seeing machine QuAsSy (Quality Assurace Systems) and is forced to fight against his rival the robot Slash as well. The game has 75 weapons to uncover, hundreds of combos to unlock and a few items like dash boots to help you along. The smooth controls of Heart&Slash make it a breeze to play, but be warned the game throws permadeath into the mix.

Every time you die means a new randomly generated level for you to start over with, a different set of weapons and items, and new enemies and secrets to uncover. Normally a permadeath feature might feel a little harsh to implement, but Heart&Slash gives you a brand new area to explore every time you have to start over.

Heart&Slash is available for $19.99 on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and Steam.

Dead by Daylight

Dead by Daylight is essentially the multiplayer Friday the 13th game people have always wanted. Its asymmetrical gameplay puts four players as humans desperately trying to escape from an unstoppable killer, controlled by one other player. Playing as the humans can be a terrifying and harrowing experience, while the killer is an unstoppable juggernaut. There’s even three different types of killers to choose from, each with their own skills and weapons to use.

It goes without saying that teamwork is the key for the humans to stay alive, and there’s no fighting back against the killer, making the only option to run away, hide, or try and slow the enemy down. Dead by Daylight is a uniquely fresh idea that could use a bit of polish, but it can be an engaging experience for any slasher fan.

Dead by Daylight is currently available on Steam for $19.99, although it’s on sale at the moment for $17.99.

Inside

The talented team at Playdead created one of the most artistic and well regarded indie games with Limbo. Somehow, the team seems to have outdone themselves with their second outing, Inside. Very much like Limbo, a lot of Inside’s story and setting is ambiguous. The game drops you right into the shoes of a young boy, alone in the forest and on the run from an unknown group of people.

As you make your way out of the opening forest and into a city, things like mind control helmets, parasites infecting pigs, and a general dystopian tone show that things are not well. Inside is an incredibly atmospheric game that makes its players feel the tension the entire time. Combine the tone with some smart physics based puzzles, and you have a bizarrely fascinating Indie platformer.

Inside is available exclusively on the Xbox One right now for $19.99. If you need any more incentive, here’s our review.

Have you played any of the indie games from June? Let us know what you think of them down in the comments below.