Happy Volvy’s birthday, I guess? Devolver Digital just wrapped its annual Devolver Direct which, among plenty of weirdness, included a number of big game announcements. We got two new game reveals, including one from the devs of Hyper Light Drifter, new DLC for games like Cult of the Lamb, and release dates for The Crush House and Anger Foot.
A time was certainly had by all, but if you missed the show and don’t want to go back and watch a 30-minute video of a lonely man trying to prepare for a birthday party, here’s a quick recap of the announcements:
The first of two brand new games announced during the event, Tenjutsu comes from Dead Cells designer Sébastien Benard. It’s a “rogue-jutsu” game set in a crumbling city, where you play as a renegade yakuza taking down her former colleagues. Tenjutsu looks to be something like a combination of Dead Cells, Streets of Rage, and Sifu — your goal is to take down four crime syndicates, which you can tackle in any order as you slowly improve your skills at a complex brawler fighting system. You can also use resources you collect to build up the city with shops and restaurants, but spending too much time preparing will result in stronger enemies. Tenjutsu is coming to PC and consoles, but no release date just yet.
In Devolver’s second game announcement of the evening, we took a look at Possessor(s). Art style look familiar? Yup, this is from Hyper Light Drifter and Solar Ash developer Heart Machine. It’s a side-scroller action game with sci-fi horror elements where you play as Luca and her counterpart Rehm. The two explore a city wrecked by an interdimensional catastrophe. Possessor(s) has an open-ended world structure with multiple possible paths available at any given time, and focuses on tight combat, challenging bosses, and exploration. Possessor(s) is coming to PC and console in 2025.
I’ve been obsessed with The Crush House since it was first revealed earlier this year. It’s a novel premise for a game: you’re a producer on the titular reality TV show set at a Malibu mansion. Every week, you select a four-person cast from 12 total actors and let them loose in The Crush House, filming spicy moments over several days to satisfy your drama-loving audience. When you’re not filming, you’ll likely spend your time obsessing over details like decorations, props, or other ways you can capture different audience segments…though you’ll also quickly realize there’s a deeper mystery going on beneath the brightly color veneer of the house. During today’s Devolver Direct, we saw a new trailer for The Crush House capped with a release date: it’s coming out on August 9 on PC, with a Steam demo available now.
Free Lives, developers of Broforce, Gorn, and Terra Nil, were also at the Devolver Direct with their upcoming game, Anger Foot. We actually went hands-on with Anger Foot not long ago, and really enjoyed its compelling take on the stylings of Hotline Miami, but with a lot more kicking. It’s a first-person…shooter? More like kicker. You kick your way through a place literally called Shit City, bringing down enemies, replaying levels with different types of kickers, and upgrading your weapons and sneakers as you go. Anger Foot is coming soon — it’ll be out on PC on July 11.
The Talos Principle 2 came out late last year, and we praised its simultaneous exploration of both puzzling and philosophy in our 8/10 review. But Croteam showed up to the Devolver Direct to expand on what it established in the base game with the Road to Elysium DLC, now with a release date of June 14. Road to Elysium takes place after the events of The Talos Principle 2, bringing back familiar characters and expanding on certain major moments from the game. It takes place over three distinct chapters, each with a different vibe and a different character perspective.
Finally, Cult of the Lamb stopped into the birthday party to share some news about an upcoming free update, Unholy Alliance. Unholy Alliance brings a new playable character, the Goat, to the game for the addition of local co-op. Local co-op brings with it certain new challenges, such as twists on existing minigames, the ability to swap weapons between the two characters, deal extra damage if fighting back to back, and plenty more. There are also new rewards being added to the game for solo players, so don’t worry if you don’t have a Goat buddy. Unholy Alliance will release on August 12 for PC, PlayStation, Xbox, and Switch.
That’s it for Volvy’s Birthday the Devolver Direct! You can catch up on everything from Summer Game Fest and Day of the Devs earlier today with our round-ups here and here, and stick with IGN for everything else Summer of Gaming all month long.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to [email protected].
