Gamebox 2.0: Games of December 2024

As 2024 is coming to a close, we played the latest releases of December to keep us gaming into the New Year. We returned to Antarctica to survive against terror in The Thing: Remastered. We crashed and bashed our way through whacky levels in Antonblast and became a space ace frog pilot in Entropy Survivors. We also explored virtual spaces in Exercise Your Demons and the House of Da Vinci VR. Read our reviews for this month of the Gamebox 2.0. 

The Thing: Remastered (Zach): The latest remaster from Nightdive Studios, the cult 2002 game The Thing created by Computer Artworks, is back on modern consoles as The Thing: Remastered. Picking up from the end of John Carpenter’s 1982 masterpiece, you play as Special Forces Captain J.F. Blake, whose team has been sent in to find out what happened at the US Outpost 31 in Antarctica. Discovering the horrific aftermath of the movie, the military teams start to experience their own nightmare as “The Thing” is still alive and now infecting members of the rescue team. The game does a great job of capturing the frigid and isolating environment of the movie, incorporating a temperature meter that goes down when you are outside in the elements. If it drops down too low, you start to take damage and eventually freeze to death. You make your way through 11 stages, fighting increasingly dangerous forms of alien lifeforms across Outpost 31,  the Norwegian research station, and some new locales for the game.

The game is a squad-based, third-person shooter where you control Blake, and you can issue orders to the other squad members to do specific actions. The main one will be having your engineer repair power consoles and other mechanical devices so you can proceed further into the level. The game features a “fear” mechanic where the more scared your squad members become, the more erratic they become. At the highest level, where the character is “cracking up,” they can kill themselves, attack you and the rest of the squad, or do other things that are incredibly detrimental to gameplay. You can give them adrenaline shots, leave a particularly horrific location, or kill enemies to lower their fear. There is also a trust system where if your squad members don’t trust you, they won’t perform specific actions until they do. You can gain trust by giving your team weapons and ammo, using a blood test on yourself to prove you are human, or fighting the various alien forms in front of them. There is the possibility that your squad member is an alien in disguise, and they could transform into the second most powerful form of The Thing, a “Walker,” and attack you and the surviving squad members.

The game was never quite able to make this mechanic a fully dynamic feature, and there are specific points where a squad member will transform, even if you just did a blood test on them to prove them to be human. That minor issue aside, the game has enough going on that makes it much more interesting than other similar games that came out in the early 2000s, and they are still cool and fun to explore today. This remaster of the game has upgraded textures and animations, enhanced lighting, and atmospheric effects. The lighting is especially excellent, like when you are doing things like lighting an area with a flare or using a flame-based weapon in a darkened room. The shooting is pretty solid overall, but the camera can be weirdly floaty and constantly wants to readjust back to the center of the screen. The story is cool for fans of The Thing, as you get to explore the movie’s locations and get answers to things like what happened to Kurt Russell and Keith David after the movie ended. This is another excellent remaster from Nightdive, and if you played The Thing back in the day or heard about it but never played it, this is a great way to check it out. It’s now on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Steam, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S.

AntonBlast (Chris): In today’s market of games, it’s refreshing to play an indie title like AntonBlast that focuses on slapstick designs and gameplay that’s loud and proud. Developed by Summitsphere, Antonblast is a retro platformer full of chaotic charm. Inspired by Wario Land 4, Crash Bandicoot, and Sonic CD, AntonBlast mixes fast maneuverability with pinpoint platforming controls. AntonBlast stars Dynamite Anton, a demolitionist with a temper. Satan has discovered that Anton has the reddest skin. Jealous of Anton’s red hue, Satan sends his minions to steal Anton’s collection of spirits. Awakened to find their apartment ransacked, Anton and his roommate Annie set off to get revenge.

AntonBlast embraces chaos and destruction. The gameplay is reminiscent of 90s platformers, which strongly emphasize fast-paced action. You can play as Anton or Annie; both characters control the same but have slightly different interactions with others.  Players will guide Anton and Annie through levels, smashing obstacles and defeating enemies with either Anton’s mighty hammer or Annie’s menacing mace. Anton and Annie use their weapons for attack and mobility, as charging the weapon up gives their movement a speed boost or height to their jumps. With enough momentum, they can roll into a ball and squeeze into tight corridors.

The goal of the regular levels is to reach a detonator and cause a “Happy Hour,” a countdown to a complete demolition of the area. When this happens, new pathways of the areas are unlocked, or a level is dramatically altered. But the countdown will tick away, destroying everything caught in the blast. Failing to reach the escape point results in Anton or Annie having to redo the last checkpoint again. The other levels are straight boss fights that will test your mastery of the controls a bit. Hopefully, you can dodge, duck, and blast correctly at the time of the first boss battle.

While chips and collectibles are scattered throughout, many secret areas and challenging jumps will require multiple attempts to uncover every collectible on each level. It’s easy to pass up areas or collectible opportunities when moving too quickly or breaking the wrong block, making some jumps impossible. A few checkpoints at a level are close to difficult precision jumps, but you must know when to claim the checkpoint to avoid restarting an entire level again.

Another standout feature is the erratic visuals, which are straight from the early era of Newgrounds animation but way more polished. Character and level designs are full of charm and wacky humor, like a Tex Avery cartoon for the internet generation. The fun visuals help keep gamers engaged as they wait to see what new mess Anton and Annie will face next.

AntonBlast perfectly addresses the fun and tone of those wacky and not super punishing games that want you to be fast but curious to explore every inch of a level. Levels are big mazes but are short enough to have replayability. There are additions to each level with a time trial and combo challenge so you can focus on different gameplay elements when the mood strikes.  If you are a fan of that era of platformers that cranked up the attitude and pace, then AntonBlast is a must-play for you. AntonBlast was released on December 3rd for PC and December 13 for the Nintendo Switch.

Entropy Survivors (Zach): A prequel to the game Shoulders of Giants, Entropy Survivors is a standalone, top-down roguelike from Moving Pieces Interactive and First Break Labs. You play as the combo of gunslinging frog and sword-wielding mech fighting their way against alien hordes across various planets in the galaxy. It combines twin-stick shooting with the more auto-attack gameplay of Vampire Survivors, and you can customize if both, one, or none of your attacks are automated. The best combo I found for myself was having the mech auto-attack and then focusing on moving, aiming, and shooting. Like in Vampire Survivors, the hordes of enemies you are fighting jump items that build up a level bar. When it maxes out, you get to choose a new upgrade, weapon, or perk, and the longer you survive, the more insane and powerful your various powers and weapons become.

One thing that sets Entropy Survivors apart is the sheer wackiness of some of the special abilities, as you can have things like a fleet of garbage trucks driving across the screen damaging enemies. Also, like other recent “bullet heaven” games, the longer you survive, the more powerful enemies become and the harder it is to level up and earn new upgrades. There are also bosses that can appear, and if you can defeat them, you’ll gain powerful perks and weapons. When you die, you return to a central hub where you can permanently use currency earned in the stages to upgrade your weapons and abilities. Something I believe is unique to Entropy Survivors is that you can also spend currency to increase the likelihood that a particular power or perk will appear in gameplay, so if you love a specific ability or power, you can spend to make it appear more often.

You can tackle several different planets in whatever order you choose, but each one has a set of missions you need to complete to clear them. Most of them are time-based, with you needing to survive for 20 minutes, for example, but there are a few other mission objectives to complete. You can tackle the game solo or with up to 4 players in co-op, and there are various classes for your mech and frog that you can unlock that give them different starting weapons and perks.

The game has a colorful and fun art style, and the other worlds offer unique environmental and design challenges. With things like the killer garbage truck summons and bee-launching weapons, the game also doesn’t take itself very seriously and provides a lighter and funnier spin on the roguelike/bullet heaven genre. This is a solid and fun entry in the roguelike/bullet heaven(or hell) genre that offers plenty of options for upgrading and customizing your playstyle, as well as a light and fun tone and co-op. If you want to check it out, you can now play it on Steam (and SteamDeck), PS5, and Xbox Series S/X.

10 Dead Doves (Chris): Marcus Stetson and his pal Sean went on one more grand hike to discover the unknown in the Appalachian Trail. Could a mysterious rumor about the strangest sights of the mountains be true, or is it just an urban legend made to scare people in the dark? But when Marcus gets visuals of a giant bird figure, he gets pulled further into a shocking reality in 10 Dead Doves. Developed by Duonix Studios, 10 Dead Doves is a 3rd person psychological horror title. Inspired by games like the original Silent Hill, 10 Dead Doves uses fixed camera angles and centers around survival horror. However, you are an ordinary person with no combat ability, so you’ll try to outrun whatever creatures come out of the dark. Moreover, there are some dreads you cannot outrun.

10 Dead Doves is an atmosphere game where cutscenes take their time to explore Marcus’s backstory, and there are lots of notes to pick up to reveal deeper subplots in the background. Marcus and Sean’s urban exploration trip quickly sprawls into cosmic horror. You spend most of the game on a fetch quest for items to help explore mountain landscapes and nightmarish habitats. A few light logic puzzles give the player a little brain tease. This comes in the form of figuring out the exact path to take in a loop corridor or toggling grid pieces in a certain order to restore power to a generator.

There will be some backtracking to open up new areas on a map, but the game is structured in chapters that will lock the player in new selections. Since there is no combat ability, you must escape whatever horrors appear. You can’t exactly reason with Lovecraftian entities, but it’s not a bad choice to flee as best you can.

These elements maintain the flow of the uneasy tension in the plot. The story is slow-burn and unfolds cryptic clues about a giant bird figure, drawing Marcus closer to a shrouded mystery. The game uses odd visuals and blocky character designs to keep players on their toes once the cosmic events occur. The decision to use the retro polygon of a PS1-era model gives the game an amazing presentation that pays homage to the experimental storytelling of that era.

This game is made for a passion for cosmic horror, and I think the Duonix Studios did a great job of keeping the game delivering on its premise. Like other Lovecraftian stories and cosmic horror tales, 10 Dead Doves strikes on unsettling natures and the unbelievable. It takes some creative approaches to its limited game mechanics but doesn’t overstate its intended goals. The game has a simple but eerie tone and maybe a few jump scares that will catch you off guard. If you love indie horror games and don’t mind a few rough dialogue scenes, play 10 Dead Doves today. 10 Dead Doves was released on December 13th for Steam.

The House of Da Vinci VR (Zach): Blue Brain Games has taken their puzzle/escape room game, The House of Dav Vinci, into VR for Meta Quest and Steam VR. Like games like The Room series on PC and mobile, you play as Leonardo Da Vinci’s apprentice, who is trying to solve the mystery of why the famous inventor and painter has disappeared. The Renaissance master left clues in Florence via puzzles that would keep the wrong hands from getting the information he had gone to great lengths to protect. You proceed through multiple rooms and workshops, solving puzzles and then to the next stage. The puzzles are a mix of mechanical, where you need to manipulate gears, switches, and other features to turn on or manipulate machinery or logic puzzles and solve some math or word puzzles to proceed.

All the various gadgets and objects have a great, chunky feel, and the game does a great job of making you feel like you are pulling, rotating, or moving the object around the environment. There’s usually always some supremely satisfying twisting of gears and transformation of some mechanism when you completely solve a puzzle. Early in the game, you get a pair of gloves that will help you solve later puzzles. One glove will show you hidden features in the environment and on the puzzle objects, like hidden switches or instructions, and the other glove shows past events that you need to observe and get clues for how to proceed in the present. For instance, you might see a vision of Da Vinci moving to a wall and using a hidden passage, and you’ll be able to see what book he pulled to activate it. You can move the visions forward and backward using a dial on the glove. There is also a hint system where you can press a button, and the next step you need to take will be circled in the environment. The environments are great, combining the classical Renaissance look with more steampunk elements, although the game uses a teleportation system where you can only move between specific points in each room, as opposed to a more free-moving locomotion mode where you can use the sticks on your controller or physically walk around your room to navigate. This doesn’t affect the game that much because the focus is on the puzzles and each “station” you can move to contains one of the puzzles for that area.

The puzzles are mostly pretty intuitive, but a few feel like it’s more luck than skill to solve them. There’s a puzzle where you play a game Da Vinci created for a high-ranking aristocrat that involves moving pieces representing armies around a board of Europe, each piece having a specific numerical value. You need to “attack” enemies with a smaller number but I couldn’t quite figure out the math or mechanic that made the numbers go up or down and just had to memorize and trial and error my way through it. In that same stage, there was a catapult puzzle that I was confident I was doing correctly, but it seemed more like luck when the solution finally happened.

Most of the puzzles are fun and creative, and VR makes them much more fun to interact with as you are sliding things around, spinning dials, etc. I never played the original “flat” version, but it feels like it was made to be in VR. If you’re looking for a fun VR puzzle/escape room experience, check out The House of Da Vinci.

Exercise Your Demons (Zach): If you’re looking to work up a sweat while playing in VR, you can enter the gym of Exercise Your Demons! from VYERSOFT. Out now on Meta Quest, you accidentally sign a demonic contract and open up a portal in your house to Hell. Fortunately, this particular portal leads to the Infernal Gymnasium with demonic trainers Zephyr and Ash, who are more interested in helping you burn calories than invading the human realm. The game utilizes Mixed Reality, so you will see whatever environment you choose to experience VR in the characters from the game incorporated into it. The demonic portal will be on your wall, and you’ll face the various demonic enemies that come out of it, fighting them with the encouragement and help of the trainer you choose to assist you.

The game is focused on boxing, so you’ll be dodging and ducking attacks and then punching the enemies to defeat them. There are different styles of targets to hit, with some requiring you to time your punch to hit them at a particular time and others allowing you to do whatever punch you want to break them but set up in a way to encourage things like hooks and uppercuts.

You’ll face several different enemies and learn what their pattern is and how to defeat them as you face them. If you take a hit, your life meter drops, and if it goes down, you lose that run. On the opposite side of the life meter is a meter you can build up to get assistance from your trainers. Ash will perform a screen-clearing attack that will eliminate, while Zephyr will give you a temporary attack boost that will let you take enemies down in fewer hits. You’ll navigate through the netherworld/limbo between stages, collecting coins and dodging obstacles. You can use the coins for upgrades and cosmetic items, like different onscreen gloves. The game will give you a workout, as you will constantly be ducking and dodging and performing combos of punches that will get your heart rate up and get the sweat flowing inside your headset, so it succeeds as a workout. One issue I had was that I didn’t think the hit detection was as precise as other fitness or boxing games in VR. I use the FitXR app a few times a week, which is entirely built for fitness, and I’m used to the boxing mode of that, so this felt unprecise or that my punches weren’t being registered at times. It was primarily an issue with the swarms of smaller enemies that you need to use rapid punches to take down. The timing-based punches also felt like they didn’t register all the time.

The game also doesn’t have that much of a story, so if you were expecting more of a whole Ring Fit Adventure-style adventure, you might be disappointed. Exercise Your Demons! is more run-based, letting you choose a starting environment and then taking you through a series of stages to complete a run. You can also completely customize a run if you want more control over what you are doing. If you want to work out more in VR, Exercise Your Demons! is a fun way to get moving, but I prefer more specifically designed fitness apps like FitXR. You can check it out now on Meta Quest.