DNF Duel and Cygni are free on Epic

Monday, Prison Architect 2 was delayed to Christ knows when, and another indie horror title promised to be the refreshing idea to the genre. Tuesday, a not-Flash game that likes referencing things on the internet is out now like it is 2000s NewGrounds, Lollipop Chainsaw RePOP was reverse delayed a little, and A Hero’s Rest got a release date. Wednesday, THQ Nordic did a showcase, not that anyone cares, and Adult Swim is doing their BS again. Thursday, Freaked Fleapit has a demo, and Megical Delicacy is coming to the Nintendo Switch soon. Oh and that Paris Olympics game the other week, that has NFTs and killed Mario and Sonic.

With Epic’s goodwill emptying into the drains after that last bit of news, let’s talk about the Epic Games Store‘s free games for this week. Or rather, it’s a free game if you’ve been hanging around for long enough and some cosmetic tripe for a game I’ve not heard about in two years. We’ll start with Respawn Entertainment’s newest release to the Epic Games Store as of this week, Apex Legends, a free-to-play hero shooter and battle royale. Right now you can pick up the “Conduit Free Unlock Bundle” which includes a woman calling herself Divina but that isn’t how you spell the Big Brother presenter’s name.

Fine, I’ll be boring and serious. With the bundle, you can unlock Rowenna “Conduit” Divina straight away and get the “Aqua Flow” Flatline Epic Skin. You’re right, I’m far too old to know the words I’ve just said, maybe I’ll get my niece to ask my nephew what any of that means.

If you haven’t been around Epic for a while, one of the two full, proper, none-free-to-play games currently available is DNF Duel. Launched in 2022, the Japanese-developed and Korean-published title fighter is certainly spoken about, but for the life of me, I can’t tell if it is good or not. I tried learning “rollback netcode,” but I tried to do it before I had coffee and quite frankly I don’t care enough. There’s pretty art, I think that’s a given now as we move away from the MK-era of fighters but I can’t tell more than that.

Speaking of pretty – the newest game you’ll maybe ever get to pick up on the Epic Games Store that’s possibly worth something, which is a credit to Konami’s publishing division. I know, I feel sick saying it too. Nonetheless, if there is something nice to say about KeelWorks’ Cygni: All Guns Blazing, then it would be the very nice-looking visual style that harnesses the power of modern hardware over the tried and tested pixel-art style of yesteryear. According to the team, Cygni isn’t a game for the Shmups players of yesteryear either, supposedly something aimed at new players.

Having a quick look around at the gameplay and the controls, I have to say that may not be the case once you stick your head above the parapet of your development echo chamber. Not everyone is going to love Cygni – I’m not but that’s because I don’t care for Shmups in the first place. I think what KeelWorks has done is make something very niche and given the state of Steam reviews, I think it is rather obvious what subtlety and being niche gets you: “MIXED!”

All this week you can pick up DNF Duel, Cygni: All Guns Blazing, and the “Conduit Free Unlock Bundle” for Apex Legends on the Epic Games store until the morning of the 15th. Moving on to what is available next week and it is another one of those weeks where I need to talk about a free-to-play thing I genuinely don’t care about, World of Warships will be offering the “Starter Pack: Albany.” Thankfully I’ll get to talk about White Rabbit’s 2018 Metroidvania, Death’s Gambit: Afterlife instead.