Beyond blockbuster video games is a world of original ideas from smaller studios. We’ll regularly highlight some of the newer options.
Ultros
Far, far away in the vastness of deep space, an ebony spaceship awaits. Inside is a lush, lurid botanical expanse of plants, trees and fungi, species that have never before been seen. Vibrant vegetation sprawls everywhere, through tunnels, crawl spaces and gardens. It’s not simply a bucolic environment. About five hours into Ultros, you realize this heady biome is both a sarcophagus and the place of birth for something dark and unknown.
In the varied universe of video game concepts, perhaps the most important attribute is the idea of being rooted in place. Long-running series like The Legend of Zelda tout the Hyrule kingdom’s mysteries, rife with dim dungeons and vast wetlands observed from mountaintops.
It’s different for indie games like Ultros, the first title by the Swedish studio Hadoque. Within their newly imagined worlds created by a few people, place is not so familiar to players. Often, there is no franchise history on which to fall back, just a carefully conceived first take — Ultros’s is stirring, its environment sometimes homey and sometimes dangerous — that game makers hope will catch on.
Yes, Ultros is part of a genre of 2-D side-scrolling games known as Metroidvanias. There’s even a silent protagonist, called Ouji, who evokes Metroid’s female warrior, Samus. The quest is to search nooks and crannies, repeat your paths, battle with insane precision, slowly uncover hints of story — and find a way out.
The similarity ends there, however, because this scrupulously detailed world has never really been imagined before. The set pieces are somewhat inspired by the Art Nouveau posters that Alphonse Mucha created for the stage actress Sarah Bernhardt and others, along with 1960s psychedelic fantasy art.
Ultros’s compelling nature is especially remarkable. Because of the risk-taking brilliance of the artist Niklas Akerblad (known as “El Huervo” and for his work on Hotline Miami), the flat environment’s long, twisting flourishes are so affecting that it’s easy to imagine a deeper 3-D world.
The Mucha influence is mashed up with claustrophobic passageways that give way to soaring, wild-looking atriums and altars. You would think that adding a moving science fiction plot may be too much. Instead, germinating giant seeds into trees with body-size leaves is more than just a chill endeavor. Eventually, the sprouted flora offers access to previously unreachable pathways. In an area reserved for upgrades, combining seeds makes Ouji stronger, more agile and versatile.
As the hours pass, stopping to view Ultros’s bright background art is as essential as learning how to slip under enemies. Those backgrounds pop from behind black foregrounds to change over time, giving clues to what’s going on. So do memory chips you find along the way. So do unpredictable characters like the cloaked Huntress Vasa, who mentors you early on.
So much meticulous attention is paid to detail that even the deaths of minor enemies feel surprising. Take a sword to the leering Puppaluppa; it explodes in a fountain of pink blobs of lava and what appear to be small, blue souls with three eyes.
Defeat a substantial enemy like a multicolored, bomb-shooting fly and the game begins again. Ouji wakens, weaponless and alone in a colorful field of flowers. She moves through the ship again to attack a giant crab, one that beckons you to attack with its smaller claw like a boxer taunting an opponent during the weigh-in.
Ultros provides a place that feels like home, especially when characters begin to recognize Ouji during the loop of waking, exploring and battling. You don’t want to leave this unusual gaming abode. The journey has been like adventuring within a living art museum.
Pacific Drive
Pacific Drive begins on a seemingly deserted Olympic Peninsula with little context or introduction. After arriving by car on a ferry, you drive along twisting roads and past towering pine trees that obscure what daylight remains. The environment becomes darker as rain falls. A moody power ballad plays on the radio, where the words “You might have to hide behind these dead eyes on the highway” portend the future.
Then a wall topped with barbed wire becomes visible in the distance, part of something the government wants to keep secret.
Here, the laws of physics become unpredictable. Parts of the road become rubble; elsewhere, towers of stone rise like massive core samples. Via some kind of whooshing fire-red vortex, the car is sucked into an earlier time and becomes an old station wagon. This mélange of metal, duct tape, bungee cords and rust is almost junkyard ready. A healthier mode of transportation is required to deal with damaging green-yellow waves of energy that try to deter outsiders from discovering the truth that is out there.
Fuel must be siphoned from an abandoned vehicle. Soon, a tire needs changing in a rundown garage. It’s there that human life is heard through the radio.
Tobias and Francis are a bumbling duo gobsmacked to encounter another person. You’re a Breacher, they say, someone who shouldn’t be there. With banter reminiscent of the happy-go-lucky hosts of NPR’s “Car Talk,” they joyfully peck at each other while giving instructions. First you must head east to meet Dr. Ophelia Turner, a.k.a. Oppy.
But which way is that? I drove far in the wrong direction before noticing a tiny dashboard compass. The device should have been made bigger, or noted by a blinking light. But perhaps it didn’t matter. On arriving at Oppy’s garage, the compass reads west. Confusion reigned.
Inside the dark work space, Oppy wants no part of a stranger until Tobias and Francis check in, begging her to help you soup up the wagon so the adventure can continue. Told again to put on tires, I move the car to a bay. It’s not exactly the right place. Realizing much persnickety precision is required, I drive it forward a tad. Finally, it can be upgraded with panels, putty and gas.
That’s the way it goes with Pacific Drive, the first game by Ironwood Studios, a Seattle company. As someone who doesn’t mind getting dirty when installing auto parts, I wanted to enjoy the game. But it is difficult to do so because of the clunky methods of repair.
The inventory system is complex, requiring too much searching to find tools. The same goes for a GPS system that’s unintuitive. There are also complex blueprints that make crafting car parts a chore. Ultimately, the item management and crafting make Pacific Drive longer and more difficult but not particularly richer and rewarding.
During an early mission to fix a hilltop radio antenna, the car was frequently dragged into trees by an ominous drone with a large magnet. While this was frighteningly exhilarating, the vehicle was so banged up as it made its way back to Oppy’s shop that I felt bruised and exhausted, too.
Ultros is available on the PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4 and PC. Pacific Drive will be released for the PlayStation 5 and PC on Feb. 22. Each game can be beaten in about 15 hours and was reviewed on the PlayStation 5.
