Doomblade is free on Epic

Monday, Puzzle Bobble Everybubble! and Arma/Rising Storm-like ’83 are both now on Steam. Tuesday, the delightful swordsmithing game, Bladesong, got its second chapter with new story elements, gameplay, and quality of life features, while Forza Horizon 6 got gaudy controllers and headphones. Thursday, The Blood of Dawnwalker is set to get a stream detailing gameplay and a release date soon.

Moving on to the Epic Games Store, it is an easier week for us with Doomblade. Released in 2023, Muro Studios’ 2D action Metroidvania is certainly unique in one way or another. I won’t say that I’m not a whore when it comes to unique or interesting art styles, but something about Doomblade‘s style doesn’t exactly excite me as much as I think it should. Quite possibly because, for all Doomblade‘s striking locations and interesting character designs, the bright and bold colors are limited in favor of a darker theme throughout.

Heavily praised both on Steam and in reviews, Doomblade is one of those Metroidvania games that may be flying under the radar. That radar is being bombarded by the endless onslaught of games desperately trying to be the next Hollow Knight or other Souls-like with the 2D world. Doomblade is none of that; it is closer to hack-and-slash or twin-stick shooters in its rapid and constant movement.

Onto the mobile offering for this week, and it is a repeat of something we’ve covered generally. America’s Phone Number: The Game, 2017’s 911 Operator is praised for emulating the experience of being a 911 dispatcher in several cities, including some custom ones around the globe. However, as much as that sounds like a good concept, I’m not exactly sold on a phone version as I am for tablet or PC. You have a top-down view of a general-purpose map with occasional incidents popping up alongside what I’ll call “assets” to deal with those incidents.

Being a 911 operator means you can dispatch police, fire, or ambulance services to incidents, and you’ll go through dialog trees to deal with several incidents. It is a simple concept, but it is also a hectic one that can easily get overwhelming for one reason or another: Calls can be harrowing, but you need to be quick and focused. Stabbing at a small screen on a phone, listening to phone calls, and doing all of this at a reasonable pace seem like three disparate things entirely.

All this week, you can pick up Doomblade on the Epic Games Store for PC and 911 Operator on the Epic Games Store for mobile, until the 30th of April. Happy birthday to me, as I want to Doomblade my wrists with the look of next week’s offerings. Wow, I’m so excited for a limited skin and guff “valued at $100” in Firestone Online Idle RPG, which I am always so kind about every time we cover it. While the better offering is Massive Miniteam’s Oddsparks: An Automation Adventure, a cozy factory thing released last year, and you didn’t know about it.