There is combat, but it rarely evolves beyond keeping some distance from your foe and smacking them with a pick axe, drill-arm, steam-powered fist, or perhaps some lobbed dynamite mobility and positioning is important for some foes but it's not the focus of the game. It’s also described as having randomised levels (excluding the aforementioned caves and town), but there’s a limit to how varied you can make a stack of dirt and rock I've never noticed any obvious differences after several playthoughs. The game is described as having Metroidvania elements, but the skills you unlock are only ever useful for pushing farther downwards, making for a mostly linear experience (aside from one late-game task). Thankfully, these mechanics are rarely punishing and never impede your progress. There are some light survival-ish mechanics, like keeping an out for pools of water to recharge your steam tank or coal for your lamp, and you can collect any dropped ore from your corpse location if you die. Gameplay, at its simplest, revolves around digging through the earth, recovering ore that you can sell in town for the currency needed to upgrade your gear, while keeping an eye out for unique caves that contain devices which grant Rusty new steam-powered abilities (like a sprint, double jump, and drill-arm). You progress from simple dirt and rock caves, to the toxic ruins of the former human civilisation (all mutated into “Shiners”), and finally into the high-tech realm of Vectron to defeat the final boss. After finding his uncle long dead, he sets out to explore the depths below the town and discover what mysteries lie below. Rusty, a mining steamboat, strolls into the town of Tumbleton to discover why his uncle has sent him the deeds to his mine. The premise is simple and there’s very little in the way of direct story-telling outside of the intro and outro, but the satisfying gameplay loop and charming presentation will keep you hooked. This fantastic steampunk/western-flavoured 2D-platformer, from small Swedish developers Image & Form Games, initially emerged on the Nintendo 3DS, before getting several HD ports to the other consoles and PC. This weekly post aims to highlight some of those games we’ve got around to playing but never got around to reviewing. Unfortunately, that often means far too many good indie titles fly under the radar without the recognition they deserve. Simply keeping on top of the steady release of “AAA” game is challenging enough these days, with a larger market than ever before, and a massive number of devs and publishers trying to sate that demand.
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