It’s Thursday, and that means it’s time for your regularly scheduled round of free PC games, courtesy of the folks at the Epic Games Store. Its weekly giveaway this time includes an extremely slick and satisfying roguelike, and a noir-styled surrealist whodunnit, both of which can be yours without spending a thing.
Shogun Showdown is a turn-based strategic roguelike with a splash of deckbuilding and a ton of style. It’s effortlessly simple and yet hopelessly addicting, quickly dragging you into one-more-turn city with its smart blend of positional action and run-by-run randomization. Combat takes place in a line, and you move left and right to outmaneuver your foes while lining up various tiles that determine your actions. The result is a system that’s very simple to grasp the basics of, but with a ton of depth as new actions and enemies are introduced.
You’ll quickly start setting up smart combos to deal with multiple foes at a time, gradually upgrading your ability tiles as you prepare to take down the eponymous Shogun. As you play more, you’ll unlock a wider variety of characters, attacks, and other tricks. Combine that with developer Roboatino’s striking pixel art and a fantastic soundtrack, and you’ve got an experience that more than earns its ‘overwhelmingly positive’ Steam review score, with 97% of players giving it an enthusiastic thumbs up.
This week’s other freebie is Mindcop, a noir ‘whodunnit’ detective game from solo developer Andre Gareis. A murder has upended the quiet village of Merrylin Crater Camp, and you’ve got just five days to find out who was responsible. That plays into the gameplay, giving you a limited amount of time, as every action ticks the clock forward – consider this the spiritual precursor to The Blood of Dawnwalker in that sense.
As the titular Mindcop, you have the ability to delve into character’s brains and surf their ‘Sea of Thoughts’ – it’s a little Psychonauts, albeit played out through just one particular match-three minigame. Spend too long pursuing dead ends and lost threads, however, and you might find yourself unable to pin the blame on the true culprit in time. The style and writing goes a long way here, meaning that even if you find yourself signing up for a second playthrough to discover what really happened, you’ll likely have a good time doing so.
Both Shogun Showdown and Mindcop are free to claim via the Epic Games Store between Thursday September 17 at 8am PT / 11am ET / 4pm BST / 5pm CEST and Thursday September 24 at 8am PT / 11am ET / 4pm BST / 5pm CEST. They’re yours to keep once claimed. Head here to get them while the offer lasts.
I’d highly recommend giving both of these a shot – Shogun Showdown only takes a couple of minutes to get a feel for the basics, and yet once you get started you could well find yourself still running it back long into the night. Mindcop, meanwhile, is a slightly more experimental adventure but one that will certainly click for some – and with no entry fee, you might as well find out if you’re one of them.
