Review Game Death's Gambit

As Old Father Time grabs his sickle and prepares to take ailing 2016 around the back of the barn for a big sleep, we’re looking to the future. The mewling pup that goes by the name 2017 will come into the world soon and we must prepare ourselves for its arrival. Here at RPS, our preparations come in the form of this enormous preview feature, which contains details on more than a hundred of the exciting games that are coming our way over the next twelve months. 2016 was a good one – in the world of games at least – but, ever the optimists, we’re hoping next year will be even better.

The games are grouped into categories by genre, but genres aren’t quite as neat and tidy as they were in the days when games were all shooters and divided into the sub-genres “War” or “Aliens” easily enough. Our categories are broad so if you click the links below to peruse each of them, you should find what you’re looking for easily enough, and of course you can read about all of the games by clicking the arrows next to the image above, or using your cursor keys.

The list isn’t comprehensive. Given how quickly things move in this future age, a hundred games have probably been released since you started reading this post. If we’ve missed something you’re particularly excited about, do let everyone else know in the comments below. We’ve almost certainly missed something we’ll end up being excited about, and who knows – maybe this’ll be like last year, when our eventual game of the year wasn’t even on our radar when we compiled our preview. That’s a splendid thought, isn’t it?

• Play now Fruita Swipe
• Hot new Jelly Jumper

Death’s Gambit [official site] wins because the ‘D’ in its logo contains both a skull and a scythe. It wins because it’s not on Kickstarter after being picked up by Adult Swim Games. It wins because it’s a side-scrolling slasher which depicts Shadow of the-style colossi with crisp pixel art. Come see the first trailer below and a curated selection of GIFs from the game’s development blog.


It’s nice that Dark Souls exists now so people don’t have to describe gothic-medieval combat games in relation to Castlevania alone. I’m going to go elsewhere with this and say it is Golden Axe to Titan Souls’ Gauntlet.

Described as an action-RPG, the game’s site sums up the three tenets of the experience: “Climb big creatures that will test your resolve. Fight dangerous monsters that will make you think outside the box. Give up everything for glory.” There’s a little more information on the game’s development log but not much, although you might be able to glean a little more about the rhythms of its combat from GIFs showing its blocking, dashes, rolls, and health bars.