Indie Games News/Previews #15

Battle Axe by Henk Nieborg (2021) - PC, PS4, Xbox One, Switch

A lot of indie games originate from Kickstarter these days, and while many of them look fantastic and have ended up in my collection, I've never actually pledged to one before - until now! I first saw Battle Axe when someone was spamming it on Facebook. I was initially drawn in by the art style but it didn't take long for other aspects of the game to look appealing to me as well. It struck me as looking like a cross between Golden Axe and Gauntlet, for example, and since they are two of my favourite games, you can probably imagine my enthusiasm! The action is set, appropriately enough, in a mystical land too. This one is known as Mercia (presumably not the one in the UK's Midlands) which has grown dark since an evil sorceress called Etheldred came to subject all inhabitants to her dominion.

That means there are tons of evil monsters to smash which appear to be produced by Gauntlet-style generators and there are numerous atmospheric locales to explore too. These are viewed from an isometric perspective, and there are also three characters to play through them as, which look like they came straight out of the Hobbit movies! I can't tell you too much more about it yet but I'm sure you'll agree it's looking great so far. It's definitely shaping up to be a corker in my eyes, and just the sort of game I will spend ages playing over and over. Henk Nieborg and his team are still working away on it and it's not due for release until early 2021. I will have a physical PS4 copy heading my way around then though, so check back for an update around then, with a review to follow.

Check the publisher's official site here for more info, more screenshots, gifs, and various other stuff :)