What’s indie news?

Hello and welcome back to another of our Indie News Roundups. It’s our, erm, weekly roundup of stories from across the vast indiescape from the last seven days – it’s actually pretty self-explanatory. And with stories about Early Access releases and free games, this week’s roundup is well worth a read.

Hell Let Loose arrives on Early Access

Hell Let Loose, the World War Two shooter from Black Matter and Team17, is available to play through Early Access. The game has raised a few eyebrows during its development thanks to its 50v50 matches and maps that give way to sweeping battles that move all over the place, taking you through forests, towns, fields, and bridge (who doesn’t love a good bridge fight, eh?)

It’s been a fairly long journey for Hell Let Loose, having stared its development in 2016 before reaching its Kickstarter goal in 2017, and finally launching on Early Access today. Co-founder of developer Black Matter, Maximillion Rea, said that he “began Hell Let Loose as a tiny hobby project back in late 2014, when World War Two games were very much in drought. We wanted to create a game that mixed the intensity of frontline combat with the depth and strategy of more realistic team-oriented shooters. From there Hell Let Loose has gone on to become the sole focus and passion of our team of 10.”

The team plan to have Hell Let Loose remain in Early Access for a year, with major updates arriving every six to eight weeks alongside quality of life updates and bug fixes.

You can pick up Hell Let Loose on Steam Early Access for £30/€30/$30. At the moment, no console versions of Hell Let Loose haven been announced though Black Matter hasn’t ruled out the possibility later down the line.

It Lurks Below is a 2D ARPG from Diablo’s David Brevik

David Brevik, who played an influential role in the creation of Diablo and Diablo 2, has released a new ARPG through his indie studio, Graybeard Games. The title, It Lurks Below, shares a fair few features with Blizzard’s iconic dungeon crawler albeit with a noticeable shift in design.

It Lurks Beneath moves away from the isometric design of Diablo, playing out as a 2D romp that has you playing with eight different character classes, randomly generated levels and stats on items, It Lurks Below looks like it’s well worth a go if you’re a fan of Diablo.

You can pick up It Lurks Below on Steam for £16/$20.

You can get Kingdom: New Lands for free on PC

Raw Fury is giving away copies of Kingdom: New Lands for free through the Epic Games Store. You’ll be able to get a free copy of the game until June 12.

The freebie comes after publisher Raw Fury bought the rights to the Kingdom series following the departure of the game’s creator, Thomas Van Den Berg, who’s now working on a new (as yet unannounced) project. Thomas said that his time with the Kingdom series has been “a long and interesting time working on something so dear to me. But now, I’d like to continue challenging myself and explore different kinds of projects.” The series will now be handled by Raw Fury, and Thomas reckons it’s in safe hands even going so far to say that Kingdom: Two Crowns was “thought out almost entirely by Gordon (Raw Fury’s co-founder), with great success.”

You can get Kingdom: New Lands for free through the Epic Games Store until June 12.