The Epic Games Store continues its trend of having multiple free games at once for players to claim, with the current ones being Bridge Constructor The Walking Dead, and Ironcast, which will be available until this Thursday. The former is a game of the Bridge Construction series based in the universe of the award-winning comics and 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 free Epic Games Store titles 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 are Obduction, created by the developers of Myst, and Offworld Trading Company, which instead is from Soren Johnson, Lead Designer of Civilization 4.
Obduction Explained
Obduction is a game designed by Rand Miller, meant to be the spiritual successor to one of the earliest best-selling video games for PC, Myst, before it was surpassed in sales by The 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 of Myst's elements eventually carried over into Obduction, such as the game requiring plenty of patience and observation to uncover its secrets and learning how to navigate different areas.
The premise for Obduction is not too different from that of Myst, where players were transported to the titular Myst Island, whereas in Obduction the 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 in order to progress, and more stuff of the sort. The end result is that Obduction makes 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, like Myst and Riven, and doesn't feel unlike other games with similar vibes, such as The Vanishing of Ethan Carter or Gone Home. 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. Obduction also 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.
Offworld Trading Company Explained
Offworld Trading Company is a very interesting real-time strategy game where 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 the top RTS games out there, Offworld Trading Company is 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 Company has 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 Company may seem like StarCraft with 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 is Offworld Trading Company'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 playing Offworld Trading Company, and Obduction also offers great moments for players who dare to explore all its secrets. Overall, these new additions to the list of free games in the Epic Games Store are very welcome, and players who don't own these games yet should tune in on Thursday to grab their free copy.
The Epic Games Store will feature free copies of Obduction and Offworld Trading Company from July 15 to July 22.