Holiday Playlist: Katrina Filippidis

Season’s Greetings, dear IGM readers, and welcome to our official guide on the best indie titles to keep you entertained over the Holiday break.

Season’s Greetings, dear IGM readers, and welcome to our official guide on the best indie titles to keep you entertained over the Holiday break. Much like our famous Screenshot Weekly segment, this will be a very special series of posts. Just like the rest of the IGM staff,  I’ve selected some games I think are pretty awesome, and done extensive ‘academic research’ on them so I can share their greatness with you. These are my findings.

Similarly to games like Thief, Styx will have the opportunity to steal loot that is scattered around rooms or directly from guards, pick locks, complete dangerous yet exciting sidequests, and upgrade abilities via six unique skill treeswhich include: Stealth, agility, cloning, amber, equipments, and assassination. What makes Styx most exciting for me are the creative stealth kills. Once you unlock a few abilities using the experience points you gain from each mission, Styx can perform specialized attacks like aerial kills, hanging kills, and set a trap with his clone to get rid of any pesky guards that are in the way. Another feature that makes Styx stand out for me is the smooth control system and the ability to literally latch on to nearly anything in the environment from hooks on the walls, to ledges, to bookshelves, and more. The movement system isn’t overly automated, meaning you have an excellent sense of freedom, and simply running and jumping around the beautiful, nineties style environments is pure bliss.

This War of Mine was inspired by the real life events that occurred in the 1992-1996 Siege of Sarajevoduring the Bosnian War, which has been reported as the longest siege of a capital city in the history of modern warfare.Perhaps the reason I am most looking forward to playing this game, however, is the music that accompanies the official game trailer, which comes from Polish musician, composer and vocalist Tadeusz Woźniak. The song used in the trailer is called “Zegarmistrz światła” and comes from the 1972 album Zegarmistrz światła. If you were ever curious about what the lyrics mean, like me, then you can check out the translation right here. There is just something that is so raw and powerful about it that I can’t express it in words. The other reason why I’m so eager to try this out is because of its realism. Many digital games are about escaping the consequences of everyday life and we turn to them for the fantasy and adventure they offer us, but This War of Mine is about anything but escaping reality-it’s about facing it.

And last but most certainly not least, I wish you all a very Indie Christmas and a wonderful New Year. Happy Holidays!