TheEpic Games Storecontinues its trend of having multiple free games at once for players to claim, with the current ones beingBridge Constructor The Walking Dead, andIroncast, which will be available until this Thursday. The former is a game of theBridge Constructionseries based in the universe of the award-winning comicsand TV series where players are challenged by complex puzzles, all while using movable objects and taking care of zombies with various items or distractions.Ironcast, instead, is a game set in an alternative Victorian era of the British Empire where soldiers take control of giant moving vehicles, and players are tasked with handling resource nodes and fighting turn-based encounters.
This week’s freeEpic Games Storetitles offer quite a lot in terms of gameplay and combined with their predecessor,The Spectrum Retreat.It was available from July 1 to July 8, making up for a consistent sci-fi theme that will continue with the new batch of games. In fact, both titles available starting this Thursday share a heavier sci-fi setting and background compared to the previous free games of the past two weeks. These games areObduction, created by the developers ofMyst, andOffworld TradingCompany, which instead is from Soren Johnson, Lead Designer ofCivilization 4.
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Obduction Explained
Obductionis a game designed by Rand Miller, meant to be the spiritual successor to one of the earliestbest-selling video games for PC,Myst, before it was surpassed in sales byThe Sims. Myst was conceived as an adventure game that allowed players to interact with a strange world where there was no indication of the game’s objective nor what the mechanics were, thus inciting exploration in order to understand the surroundings and the ultimate goal. Some ofMyst’s elements eventually carried over intoObduction, such as the game requiring plenty of patience and observation to uncover its secrets and learning how to navigate different areas.
The premise forObductionis not too different from that ofMyst, where players were transported to the titular Myst Island, whereas inObductionthe main character witnesses strange lights in the sky, later revealed to be aliens abducting the players. The game is set in an alien world that features mixed bits of Arizona, United States, creating surreal landscapes of otherworldly elements that blend together with familiar places, like an old west frontier town and a ’50s gas station. The setting is interesting and uncanny, and players soon find out that there are plenty of puzzles to solve in this foreign world, each leading to more puzzles or some confusing clues as to what is happening and why.
Obduction’s atmosphere is unique, and while sometimes its puzzles can feel frustrating because of the sheer amount of details and combinations at the players' disposal, solving them makes for a very rewarding experience that never holds the gamers' hands. Patience is key in this game because there will be backtracking, lots of traveling through strange places, hidden places or important clues that must be found to progress, and more stuff of the sort. The end result is thatObductionmakes for an excellent experience where immersion reigns supreme and trying to understand why the main character was taken to this planet is a very interesting journey on its own.
This title holds its own against its predecessors, likeMystandRiven, and doesn’t feel unlike other games with similar vibes, such asThe Vanishing of Ethan CarterorGoneHome. The puzzles are also very “physical,” meaning that there will be buttons to press or levers to move in order to progress, all while surrounding mysteries overlay and branch out.Obductionalso takes advantage of full 3D exploration of objects because some key secrets happen to be hidden in plain sight and to find them, the game challenges players to observe the world from different points of view.
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Offworld Trading Company Explained
Offworld Trading Companyis a very interestingreal-time strategy gamewhere players have to keep an eye on thirteen different resources while trying to make profits as one of four main factions. These include Yoshimi Robotics, Seneca Development, Reclamation Inc, and New Meridians, each with their own playstyle and modified in-game goals. Selecting either of these factions is what sets the game in motion, and players can then try their hand at climbing the social ladder by acquiring goods and trying to monopoly the market in different ways.
While it may not be one of thetop RTS gamesout there,Offworld TradingCompanyis very rich in terms of information and things to learn, so much so that the user interface takes up around half of the screen. This is further emphasized by how long playing the whole tutorial can be, but for successful runs learning the ropes instead of winging it may be key. Apart from all the resources found in the game,Offworld Trading Companyhas yet another thing that players have to constantly monitor, and that’s land plots where buildings and structures need to be placed.
At first glance,Offworld Trading Companymay seem likeStarCraftwith more resources to manage and no combat whatsoever. The main campaign of the game can often be completed in under 6-7 hours, but one of the most fun things players can experience isOffworld TradingCompany’s multiplayer system. That’s where other gamers will send pirates out to try and EMP the players' buildings to steal their resources or try to buy the players' establishments out and make them their subsidiaries, thus ending the game for whoever is forced to sell.
There is a lot of fun to be had while playingOffworld TradingCompany, andObductionalso offers great moments for players who dare to explore all its secrets. Overall, these new additions to the list offree games in the Epic Games Storeare very welcome, and players who don’t own these games yet should tune in on Thursday to grab their free copy.
TheEpic Games Storewill feature free copies ofObductionandOffworld Trading Companyfrom July 15 to July 22.
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