Steampunk Gamery

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Very little changes in the gaming industry over the  expanse of years. And few titles ever see the light of day which are truly 'Steampunk' in flavor. Even the ones that do manage to hit the market tend to have things in the which detract from the overall experience.

There are MMOs like ARGO and a whole slew of micro flash games. Even Borderlands and the Sherlock Holmes 360 titles had enought to keep us engaged. 

But Supergiant Games' Bastion is quite possible the first title I've ever had the fortune of playing which is truly...TRULY steampunk at its heart.

It has a solid, Arcade feel to it. But as you play, you don't feel like you're reaching around the edges of the game to find the seems. It's the first title I've played in a long time, which I feel playing in windowed mode would have been an injustice.

In the style of Diablo, it's a 3rd person, fixed perspective 2D/3D hybrid. You control your character by way of the WASD function, and use sister keys to use items and heal. The mouse clicking is reserved for weapon usage. 

This game is the love child of Diablo and Legend of Zelda, all themed in a Six-shooter Steampunk universe. The score is unbelievably perfect, but not the thing which makes this title ground breaking...

The narration is alive. The game reacts to what you do with a real time narration that dictates your actions in the style akin to the old Dixon Hill detective stories.

My only hope is that this game has continued DLC story packs. At 20.00 on steam, this game was/is a must have.

Abney Park: Musicians at the Core

Reviewing the Review-able

One of the cores of true culture is it's music. It's not too challenging to find the non-broke style of classical that suits the Elizabethan brand of punkery. And thanks to the beauty of Darren Korb's soundtrack for Basion the 6-shooter-esque Dessert Punkers have a few solid tunes to pass the time with. But there's a brand of Steam followers out there you don't don the Suit and Tie or the Gunbelt and Sword, but instead wield the wrench and leather apron.

Abney Park has been around for a while. But their earlier works hadn't quite settled into a solid style. Lead singer Robert Brown (Seattle) formed the band back in 1997. 'Abney Park' and 'Return to the Fire' were a well formed, but empty neo-goth style creations. And then, somewhere along the way, they made the turn for Steampunk and the sound just sort of solidified. 

In 2008 we we treated with Lost Horizons, followed up with Aether Shanties in 2009. Though the music expands into some pretty profound undertones, the sound remains consistent across the albums from then on.


If you have a chance, pop over and take a look at their site. And, should you like, grab an album. After all, we own them all.