It’s 2026, and we’re back to start off the year with a Gamebox 2.0! This month, we’re solving murders in Confidential Killings, searching for evidence of aliens in Ufophilia, entering the dungeons of The Fortress, and rewinding time as an alcoholic superhero in Hank: Drowning on Dry Land. Check out this month’s reviews below.
Confidential Killings (Zach): Enter the seedy world of 1970’s Hollywood in the new detective game Confidential Killings from developers BRANE and Lorenzo Boni and publisher Surefire.Games. You play a detective called to various crime scenes, presented as comic-book-style tableaus. You need to search the environment and question witnesses to gather enough clues to piece together what happened. There are highlighted words on pieces of evidence or in witness statements that you click and add to a pool of clues available for your final deduction of the case. After gathering all the evidence, you have a final report on the crime, and you need to fill in all the missing details to correctly identify the victim, the murderer, and the motive. As cases go on, you may be asked to complete other objectives along with the final report, like correctly identifying who is playing the roles in a play at a murder set in a theater. While the gameplay is fairly simple, the way the game makes you use deduction and using all the clues to piece together what transpired is interesting and engaging.
The cases grow increasingly complicated as things progress, going from three or four characters involved early on to close to a dozen in later cases. There is an overarching narrative in the background, and characters from previous cases reappear in later ones, so you can quickly identify them and have an understanding of their backstory and motives. The game does a great job of layering in background elements, and you can really dig into the story playing out between cases, like the rise of actress Kady Keller and the producers trying to push her to be the next big thing. The game also clearly has a love for old-school crime movies and noir. As you can see in the screenshot above, there are references to classics like Sunset Boulevard, as well as some of the grittier 70s crime movies. The comic book-style scenes are well-detailed and feature unique and interesting locales as you progress through the game. It’s not hard to figure out what you can click and examine, as selectable elements are highlighted in red when you hover over them, but there is a way to get a hint and see what you’ve clicked and what still needs to be looked at. That can be useful when you feel like you’ve clicked everything, but the game is saying you have a few clues left to find. If you’re looking to test your investigative skills, Confidential Killings is worth checking out now on Steam.
The Fortress (Chris): A Lich has waged war to conquer the land, killing or imprisoning anyone who dares oppose his rule and condemning them to a torment of despair. At the bottom of his fortress, a nameless prisoner fights to break free, earning their freedom one room at a time within The Fortress. Developed by Baryonyx Games and Stratos Gaming, The Fortress is a homage to classic roguelike dungeon crawlers, blending simple turn-based combat with moody visuals and gothic, atmospheric music. Players begin each run as a new prisoner cast into the lowest depths of the Lich’s stronghold, navigating its many rooms and layers while encountering uneasy allies and deadly foes. Survival is never guaranteed; a single unlucky roll can end a run abruptly, sending yet another prisoner to take their place and attempt the escape all over again.
The Fortress leans heavily into roguelike design, with procedurally generated levels, enemies, and items shaping each run. Exploration is limited to following a largely linear path, where players move from one encounter to another, facing randomized events that may pit them against hostile enemies, present a helpful ally, or offer a brief moment of recovery. However, the game emphasizes a single perfect run, as defeat wipes all progress, with no experience or weaponry carrying over to the next attempt. This puts the game closer to a one-shot campaign than to a grindable epic like a modern Souls title.
Combat is entirely driven by a dice-based mechanic. Players roll a set of differently colored dice, each corresponding to colored tokens used by enemies, and the value rolled determines how many tokens can be removed. For example, rolling a red die with a value of four allows the player to remove up to four red points from a single enemy or one point each from four separate targets. Some dice may roll no value at all or trigger a guard action that instantly blocks an incoming attack. Any unused dice values are stored toward a special attack that unleashes a powerful area-of-effect strike on all enemies. At times, the special feels like a carefully planned tactical maneuver, while at others it serves as a desperate last-ditch attempt to finish off enemies before they deliver the killing blow.
Since combat is straightforward, the only major demand is for the player to carefully prioritize which enemy to take out first. Enemies have an indicator of their attack damage. Weaker enemies have one or two attack values and token counts, while tougher enemies will have more color tokens and deal heavy attacks. There is a small risk-and-reward strategy that the game seems to hint at: you can try to grind through a fight and build up the special attack, but you risk losing health points that may not be recovered in time for a bigger fight. Due to the nature of RNG, it is entirely possible to clear an entire section with only one opportunity to restore some health before a boss fight.
There are nine playable classes, though only three are available at the start: the Fighter, a well-balanced class; the Sorcerer, which favors high attack potential at the cost of low dodge; and the Assassin, a highly evasive class with weaker attacks. The remaining classes must be discovered during runs and become permanently unlocked only after defeating a level’s boss. Each class alters the odds of rolling high-value attacks, successfully blocking or dodging enemy strikes, and landing critical hits. No class is designed to be better than any other; the player still has to make the best choices from the dice rolls and hopefully not get a string of unfortunate events.
At the end of combat or in safe rooms, the players have a chance to obtain recovery items, equipment, or weapons that boost stats and influence dice rolls. Some recovery items restore health at the cost of stored special attack points, while certain equipment ensures that the lowest values of a specific die receive an additional point. On the very rare occasion, you can find a relic item that will be unlocked, which will give the player a slight boost in combat. These small tweaks help the combat flow better on the run and support the player’s chosen character class.
The Fortress sets itself apart is its distinctive retro presentation. The visuals rely on gritty digitization of live actors, color-graded and composited into the game’s world, resulting in deliberately blocky, pixelated character designs. While this style may not appeal to every gamer, seeing old-school motion capture feels like a thoughtful and fun tribute. Cutscenes explore the characters and the Lich-corrupted world, serving as small rewards for progressing further in a run and reinforcing the sense of escalating danger as the player ventures further toward freedom.
Baryonyx Games has created something that feels like a lost title from the 90s, thanks to its strict mechanics and retro charm. The Fortress is challenging, not because of enemy difficulty, but from its reliance on pure RNG mechanics. Luck repeatedly dictates outcomes, which can sometimes undermine player skill and make progress feel out of their control. I had a few runs where I failed before defeating the second level boss simply because my dice rolls were too low and my health severly depleted to survive any longer. It only takes a few attempts to understand the main loop of the gameplay, but then you either love or hate it. If the game offered ways to strengthen equipment or backtrack a few rooms to recover health, the frustration from bad luck would shift to tactical decision-making. Nevertheless, The Fortress is rewarding for certain gamers who enjoy an undiluted roguelike experience. Every dice roll carries weight, and there is tension when entering the next room that can end a run. Its mix of high-risk gameplay and strategic dice combat delivers a solid roguelike experience that will delight and demoralize players for a while. The Fortress was released on Steam on January 23rd.
Ufophilia (Zach): The Truth is Out There in the new alien horror game Ufophilia from developer k148 Game Studio and publisher JanduSoft. You play as a UFO investigator who heads to different locations where potential alien activity is occurring. You have a variety of tools at your disposal, and your objectives are to determine which kind of alien is active in the area, where its “spawn area” is, where the activity first occurred, and, finally, to obtain photographic evidence of the alien. If you played games like Phasmophobia before, Ufophilia should feel similar, as you use devices like EMF readers, temperature readers, and spirit boxes to gather your evidence. The different alien species all have different indicators, like some causing radiation while others cause objects and doors to move on their own. You need to use multiple tools to gather enough information so that when you activate the final stage of the mission, you are able to know how to properly gather evidence. Some aliens, like Grays, for example, require that all the lights in the area be turned off and that you crouch when approaching them. If you are discovered by the aliens, you risk getting abducted, and you’ll fail that mission.
If you’re able to successfully capture the evidence of the alien and get back to your mobile RV base, you’ll gain “Roswell Points” that will allow you to unlock new, harder missions and upgraded tools. The game has a great, creepy atmosphere, and you’ll often need to slowly explore dark environments with just your current tool and your flashlight. There are flickering lights, whispering sounds, and doors slamming in your face that add to the spooky factor, and the final stage is especially creepy as you need to rely on the night vision of your camera and slowly approach the alien, which can suddenly move in an otherworldly fashion and chase you and mess up your vision. The way you gather evidence and compare it to the potential alien species also feels “realistic” and makes you feel like an actual paranormal investigator. There’s also a good deal of experimentation, as each mission is procedurally generated with a different alien species and environmental effects, and you can also figure out synergies between your tools that can make them work much better than if you used them separately. The one downside for some players is the fact that the game is single-player, so if you were hoping to find aliens with some friends, you won’t be able to. If you’re looking for a spooky game that lets you live out your X-Files dreams, Ufophilia is definitely worth checking out now on Steam.
Hank: Drowning on Dry Land (Zach): We checked it out last year at PAX East, but now Hank: Drowning on Dry Land is available on Steam. Developed and published by My Next Games, Hank: Drowning on Dry Land is a short, time-bending experience where you play as the alcoholic superhero Hank, who is almost constantly drunk. When his drink gets poisoned by his nemesis, The Unraveler, he’s caught in his own subconscious and has to foil The Unraveler’s fiendish plot before his brain withers away. Hank’s main power is the ability to “Time Jump,” where he can enter special doors in the level and be in multiple places at the same time, and he can also rewind and fast forward time. The Unraveler has captured one of Hank’s “friends” and strapped him to a massive bomb that requires 3 buttons to be pressed to deactivate. There’s not enough time to get to all of them by himself, but multiple Hanks can do it. The Hanks cannot encounter each other, however, as it causes a paradox.
If you can complete the first section of the game, you’ll enter the final sequence, which is a breakneck roller coaster section where you need to dodge laser blasts and lean in the proper directions to avoid missing sections of track. The entire experience can be completed in about 20-30 minutes. There’s some replayability if you want to try and complete the main portion quicker to get a better grade after knowing what you need to do. It’s more like an interactive short film than a full game, so adjust your expectations accordingly. The game looks great, with a dynamic, colorful comic-book style inspired by shows like Batman Beyond, and is fully voice-acted, featuring some excellent performances. There’s also a hilarious theme song for the villain that you get to experience before getting thrust into the main section of the game. Hank: Drowning on Dry Land is a great proof of concept, and hopefully, My Next Games can expand on it in the future into something bigger and more substantial. If you dig the art style and want a quick but interesting experience, you can check out Hank: Drowning on Dry Land now on Steam.
