Swedish video game publishers Thunderful are selling some steam, which is terrific news for those of us who don’t live near saunas and are thus cruelly deprived of their widely-accepted health and wellness benefits, which date all the way back to the ancient Mayans. Oh wait, I read the press release wrong. Thunderful are actually having a Steam sale, with up to 90% off such well-regarded games as Laika: Aged Through Blood, Swordship, Viewfinder and, just to confuse me further, several SteamWorld games.
Of the games on discount, I would focus on Viewfinder, now 45% off, in which you get a camera that can turn photographs into bits of walkable terrain. In our Bestest Best review, Rachel (RPS in peace) enthused that “its reality-shifting, mind-bending hook is constantly fascinating, and the directions it takes will leave your head spinning in the best way possible”. To that, I’m going to add Swordship – 70% off – which Matt Cox (also RPS in peace) hailed for its “purity of purpose”.
There’s also The Gunk, which Katharine (RPS in Eurogamer) called “a safe but stunning adventure from the SteamWorld devs” – it’s 75% off. Kaan Serin (RPS in Gamesradar, at the minute) was similarly keen on the demo for Laika: Aged Through Blood, though we never commissioned him to review it: he remarked that it “seems to be mashing My Friend Pedro’s bullet violence and Trials’ motorcycle-spinning physics into a Metroidvania formula”. The Steam user consensus is that it sticks the landing.
Kaan did review White Shadows, currently 85% off, summarising it as “two hours of creative, chilling designs, joyous musical set pieces and enough screen-shottable sights to fill your hard drive”. You can get that one for about the price of a family-sized bag of chips. Alternatively, reserve your pennies for Somerville, now 65% off, which Malindy Hetfield summarised as follows: “Mechanically simple but visually engrossing, Somerville offers an interesting, if not particularly deep, sci-fi adventure.”
Thunderful have published some good stuff, though they are also one of those publishers who wildly over-invested during the pandemic lockdown years. In January this year, they announced that they would lay off around 20 per cent of their staff in order “to reduce costs and focus the business on areas with the best future growth and profitability prospects”.