Featured Image Credit: Narko Games
Narko Games is a Polish developer comprised of one single man, according the description on their latest game VLADiK BRUTAL.
Now whilst the developer hasn't had the most illustrious of careers, as all of their titles are relatively poorly reviewed and cost a maximum of 89 British pence, it has been almost 5 years since their last release - and clearly they've been hard at work on improving their craft.
VLADiK BRUTAL, set to release next month on Steam on the 8th of August, looks absolutely phenomenal considering only one man is responsible for the entirety of its development.
Admittedly, there are some cracks here and there. The story is apparently about an evil dictator who "built a Big Research Centre to strenghten his assassins", so perhaps the developer could have benefitted from hiring a writer somewhere down the line.
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Outside of that though, the gameplay on display here looks pretty satisfying and relatively tight. The gunplay definitely has some DOOM 2016 vibes to it, in the sense that the protagonist's shotgun will rather satisfyingly eviscerate anything in comes into contact with.
The mood and the setting also seems to be taking a few pointers from the Metro franchise as well, as you traverse dilapidated, Soviet-looking buildings with only a shoddy looking flashlight to help guide you to your next location. Alternatively, the developer may have also taken inspiration from a recent trip to Scunthorpe.
Personally, I'm always a big fan of supporting solo-developed games so I think this one at least deserves a look. It's pretty easy to make a good trailer for a bad game, but if the end result does end up playing as well as it looks then this developer could be one to keep an eye on.
Narko Games and their one-man team have clearly been putting in the hours over the past five years in an attempt to improve, so hopefully the release of VLADiK BRUTAL will prove successful and inspire them to keep at it in the future.
