I’ve been excited about Roman Sands RE:Build since the moment I laid my eyes on it, particularly because it’s from the same studio behind the ever-haunting Paratopic. Roman Sands just has a ridiculously strong art direction to it, very much one that could easily be dubbed Y2K, but I think more accurately should be seen as an evolution of the aesthetic/ era. Almost as if this is the direction it could have gone in.
Just great stuff, not even counting the oddball gameplay, and as revealed in a new trailer, it’s got a release date now too: September 12th. That’s close enough for me to count down the days, but far away enough for me to think “I’d like to be playing this right now actually, ta very much.” The trailer offered a new look at its strange, puzzley hotel and all of its guests, as well as a tease for the things you’ll be getting up to (all of which seem quite ominous.
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The gameplay itself sees you attending to the demands of said guests as outlandish as they all are, but the clock is working against you. Specifically, a clock that’ll see the sun swallowing up the world. Terrifying! And a great hook. There’s a demo you can check out on Steam too, or you can just wishlist it if you want to wait for the full thing.
Excitingly, the release date trailer also had a mysterious tease for Paratopic: Overdub, seemingly an anniversary edition of the game. Over on its Steam page it’s described as a remaster/ remix/ sequel, and look, it could be none of those things and I’d still be in. Paratopic is a peak example of the modern trend of PS1-inspired games, using the aesthetic to really hone in on its subtle horrors. Whatever this new thing contains, I’ll take it. It’s coming September 12th too, so I’m sure like me you’ll be plenty busy that day!