Thea Gregory Archives - Forget The Box

I’m a huge fan of indie productions. Books, movies, music, video games–indie just screams innovative and against the grain. Indie doesn’t necessarily mean lower quality, but it does mean that it doesn’t employ the proven “formula” used by industry giants. Personally, I’m very anti-formula, both in what I create, and what I enjoy.

Want to start enjoying some indie games? Fortunately, Steam is swarming with them. Inexpensive, cross-platform (some will even run on Linux!) and with great replay value to boot.

Defense Grid: The Awakening

I’ve logged almost 200 hours on this simple to learn, yet difficult to master tower defense game. Defeating waves of aliens with high-tech towers has never been so fun. The AI helper is decidedly British and amusing, while the game play is intuitive and captivating. Did I mention that they recently raised a metric crapton on Kickstarter to make a sequel?

Sanctum

Imagine a first person shooter and a tower defense game got married and had little game babies. Sanctum is that baby. The player character is female, which is a huge plus. While the graphics are a little primitive, there’s good fun to be had, and a great deal of replay value. If you make it to the Yogscave map, prepare yourself for being mercilessly mocked by the game. Nothing says “I’m a screw up” like a pre-recorded message taunting you after a particularly disastrous wave.

Orcs Must Die!

There are so many kinds of love I have for this game. The amazingly stupid main character. His constant idiotic vocalizations. The voice in his head. Lots and lots of orcs to kill. It’s a cross between tower defense and an over the shoulder shooter, with plenty of traps, weapons and abilities to keep you playing. “It’s like catnip, but for orcs!”

Nation Red

There are a few maps, lots of guns, power-ups, and even more zombies. A simple, straightforward way to blow off some steam. While it’s a top-down shooter and the gameplay options are limited, coop is a great way to spend time with technologically limited friends and family while still getting some quality zombie killing time.

It’s the zombie killing that matters.

Because I’m a zombie horror writer, other up and coming zombie horror writers always want to give me their books. As a consequence, I’m well-versed in many of the undiscovered literary gems pertaining to our cannibalistic, undead friends. World War Z catapulted the zombie novel into the literary stage, but many more have followed in its wake. In addition to shock and gore, zombie stories can tell us about the primal struggles and hunger endemic to human existence. Zombie stories tell us about our hopes and dreams, our need to come together and our need to self-destruct.

#1. The Zombie Bible (Stant Litore)

An ongoing series, The Zombie Bible seeks to retell Bible stories with a twist: that our saints and prophets also fought the undead. Litore’s elegant prose shows both the horrors of an undead apocalypse in Biblical times, and the beauty of the enduring human spirit. The religious element is kept tasteful and does not seek to judge its reader, but rather to fuel the spirits of his characters.

The writing style is very literary and flowery and the stories themselves are painstakingly researched. Some may find the language used tedious or object to the lack of chainsaws, but these books are worth a look if you want something other than the usual urban nightmare.

#2. The I Zombie I Series (Jack Wallen)

I’ve been following this series for over a year, and I Zombie I is one of the most inventive zombie series I’ve ever read. The pages keep flipping and the plot twists and turns. By the end of the third book, I had no idea what to think. That’s a good thing.

What’s especially noteworthy about Wallen’s work is that he doesn’t shy away from strong female protagonists. No longer having to suffer the tired cliche of ditz-who-gets-everyone-killed, his character Bethany is a nerd girl who uses Linux, some common sense, and her mechanical aptitude to save the world. It’s not all high-tech geekery, though. All of the hallmarks of a great zombie story are in this one. Weapons, stealth, mystery, evolving zombies and intrigue are included with admission.

#3. The Zombie West Series (Angela Scott)

Zombies in the Wild West. I’m not usually a fan of the Westerns, but when done properly they do make an excellent venue to explore the mass slaughter of the walking dead.

It’s bounty hunter meets the-girl-in-the-wanted-poster. While there is a romantic sub-element to the story, it’s done in a way that isn’t absolutely annoying. The rest is standard Western fare. Saloons, shoot-outs, caravans filled with zombies and utter lawlessness are the name of the game. It’s all about a struggle to survive in a world gone horribly wrong, while trying to solve the mystery of a girl who is immune to the bite of the infected.