Prime Gaming – April 2025

I guess the positive is that I’ve saved myself a bit of money by not buying the third game of a series in a recent sale on Steam. Indeed, it’s another month and I get to complain (putting it lightly) about Amazon and Prime Gaming: Jeffrey, can you stop sending emails about Amazon Music? As usual, Lost (t)Ark is offering some free-to-play style cosmetic/boost guff alongside the more sensibly designed logo for Throne and Liberty. Lost (t)Ark is also offering the Legendary Rapport Chest, and Throne and Liberty is offering the Talandre Bundle. No one cares, we’re just bothered about the games you can download and keep.

We’ll start the month with what’s available now on Xbox and PC via the Microsoft Store, Minecraft Legends. Going by the recent film, the IP is spreading itself thinner and thinner these days. Released in 2023, Legends is a real-time action-strategy title that I confuse for Dungeons all the time, with Legends being less about Diablo‘s dungeon crawling and more a My First Age of Empires, but maybe not as good. It looks stunning and is probably quite enjoyable, but I don’t think a crap Jack Black film with awful CGI will pull me back to Minecraft of any flavor.

Also available now is what I referenced in my opening line, Mafia III: Definitive Edition. Available through GOG and released a bit too late to be a decent sequel to II, Mafia III has you playing as Lincoln Clay, a Vietnam veteran in 1968 in fake New Orleans (New Bordeaux) and if the name didn’t give it away, Lincoln Clay is Black. Given the propensity of people moaning about Black/Brown characters in games, I’m sure the fine/typical open-world gameplay and Clay’s liking to firebombing the likes of the “Southern Union” in their bed sheets will go off well. Mafia III: Definitive Edition will likely be loved by all…right?

I swear this next one is a repeat but I can’t find it, Gravity Circus. Released in 2023, the 2D platformer from Domesticated Ant Games and PID Games is exactly what you think of when you hear that there is a new retro-inspired platformer. There is a bit of Mega Man, a bit of Sonic, and in my perspective a bit of “Why do you people always marry anything retro with a touch of Kamen Rider or other Japanese things?” If you haven’t gotten enough of the retro-inspired pixel graphics platformers, it’s certainly another one.

Next is a sequel to a game we’ve seen previously back in 2022, you can get Clouds & Sheep 2 on the Amazon Games App, which is a… honestly, I don’t know. The tags on Steam suggest a casual simulator, but any description fails to add context, talking about solving quests like it is Skyrim or something. The best I’ve come to understand is that you manage a field with a flock of sheep and you need to keep them happy with hijinx that would be unbelievable for a sheep named Shaun.

Going back to 2023 now, I think beyond Minecraft Legends and Mafia III, Paleo Pines is in the top options for what to play this week. A dinosaur-based (Paleo) life-sim farming thing that’s cute, colorful, and generally delightful. If you’re the type of person who plays Stardew Valley or Animal Crossing, then I’ve got a feeling you’ve got a lot of hours ahead of you in Paleo Pines, available now through the Amazon Games App.

Onto next week, the 10th, and I swear that these repeats come up months later just to annoy me. The last time I spoke about DreadOut 2 was only last October, and in it, I said that it is: “[a] third-person horror adventure about a young woman in Indonesia, [and] of course, she’s old enough to be in this horror set piece and have a chest built like a bookcase, but young enough to be in a school uniform and be vulnerable.” Digital Happiness’ 2020 horror title is fine if you’re the type of person that buys games YouTubers scream at, but it is never going to be properly scary.

See, the last time I spoke about God’s Trigger I was thrown out of church for protesting after he told Abraham to kill his son. Released in 2019, One More Level and Techland Publishing’s God’s Trigger is a top-down gore ’em up where you shoot enemies and a whole lot of Tempranillo comes out. Available through GOG, God’s Trigger is very much something like Hotline Miami if it was trying to strip away the 80s and become a Tarantino film.

Ok, I’ll rip the Legacy Games Code scab off before it ruins the latter half of the article. Once again the answer to “Could you make a Big Fish Games game without being published by them,” New York Mysteries: Power of Art Collector’s Edition is a hidden object game that is about as consistent and intriguing as a politician’s breath. I would like to skip this puzzle of trying to say something nice.

I would also like to skip talking about repeats that were difficult to say anything too nice about the first time I covered them. Also available through the Amazon Games App on the 10th, Projection: First Light is a puzzle platformer that uses some creepy shadow-based art and the unique mechanic of not just controlling a character, but also the light in each scene. Based on Indian mythology, the shadow puppets that Greta encounters look very menacing.

I’m making a new rule: If you do something enough times to make it a third repeat, I get to walk to your house at 3 AM with a bucket of red paint and a heavy rope. Available (once again) through the Amazon Games App from the 10th, Faraway: Director’s Cut, or as it is called on Steam Faraway: Puzzle Escape. A Jonathan Blow-style puzzle game along the same lines as The Witness. It is dull and disinteresting, and I never want to speak of it ever again.

Let’s go back to 2012 when you could do a turn-based 4X strategy before Civ became popular again. Available through the Amazon Games App from the 10th, you can pick up Endless Space – Definitive Edition. A sci-fi 4X strategy that certainly does a few things good, but I think I’d be remiss to say that the Endless Space series, and particularly this first one are the first option of 4X space strategy titles. Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion – Star Trek: Armada 3 mod is right there, though that’s a real-time strategy for sickos like me.

We’ll start with some oddities or things not lighting a massive fire under me, but the 17th of April seems to be a pretty decent week. I think we’ll start with Ishtar Games’ (there are too many publishers to list) The Last Spell, a dark-fantasy sort of city-builder mixed with tactical RPG and Rogue-lite gameplay. Released in 2023, you can pick up The Last Spell on the 17th with a GOG code, and the more I speak about it or give it a look, the more I’m willing to give it a try.

This is going to get me beaten to death with sticks: I’ve tried a little bit of Flaming Fowl Studios and Saber Interactive’s Gloomhaven, but I can’t enjoy the PC release. Maybe the tabletop version might be more my thing, but I’ve also heard annoying things about that. Available from the 17th via Epic, chances are you already have a copy if you follow our weekly Epic Games Store articles. Which are getting darker and more aggressive the more I have to deal with bland or repeat offerings.

The next one on the list is one I didn’t know I had and it’s been out since late 2020, The Last Show of Mr. Chardish. Punk Notion and Anshar Publishing’s title is available through the Epic Games Store from the 17th, but I’m honestly surprised this one passed me by. A bit on the “casual” side, there is a bit of that walking sim-style exploration and mystery, but the idea of going back to a friend/mentor’s abandoned theatre, exploring memories of a friend that’s passed. It all makes The Last Show of Mr. Chardish interesting.

If the arty-farty isn’t your thing, GOG might be your option with BerserkBoy Games’… Berserk Boy. A “high-speed action-packed Platformer” that also has a few Metroidvania elements, this is a platformer that is maybe going more for the early 2000s than the late 80s and early 90s. There isn’t much to say about this one, it is what you think it looks like before you see it, right down to the mix of Shark Boy and Lava Girl as the main character.

Released in 1996, the next game is going to be a strange one you’ll be able to pick up through GOG, to say the least. Developed by a studio that was sued by Epic (which eventually killed the studio in 2014) Silicon Knights’ Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain was the first in the series that is actually called Legacy of Kain and not Soul Reaver for no reason. Yeah, I’m not counting Raziel’s second entry as part of the main series. Dated in so many ways, the first thing you’ll notice about Blood Omen is the HUD is on the right, a fossil of the 90s and action/RPG titles.

Sticking with the retro side of things, we’ve got Mopeful Games and No More Robots 2022 title, Fashion Police Squad. This is a fabulously designed FPS (I see you) where you have to take a guy’s ill-fitting suit and turn it into something less Nate Shelly and more Roy Kent. Taking a lot of the retro stylization with 2.5D art and the “boomer shooter” sense of FPS games, Fashion Police Squad is exactly what it needs to be which is fabulous darling! Available through the Epic Games Store on the 17th, this is absolutely one to pick up.

Before we get to the best of the 17th, we’ll talk about Lost Native and The Interactive Collective’s “cozy-competitive card game with city-building elements,” Wild Country via GOG. Colorful and somewhat interesting art aside, the 2024 title is a niche one for sure. I want to say I like the look, but the card-based competitive city-building feels like too much for me to really care. I like a city builder for style and functionality, not competing with someone else for points. Maybe I’m just weird.

This is why I’ve held off the final offering for the 17th of April via the Amazon Games App for all this time. Feral Cat Den and Fellow Traveller’s 2021 psychedelic Jazz-based detective ’em up about the creation of the universe, Genesis Noir. If that description alone doesn’t entice you, I don’t think you have a soul that will tug at your watch-maker heartstrings to save your partner who’s going to be killed by a gunshot, The Big Bang. A touch outside of gameplay land to do what it is doing, the art direction and overall style are stunning in every and all regards.

Less stunning is what’s available from the 24th (and final Thursday) of April via the Epic Games Store, Priest Simulator: Vampire Show. Not a game about exorcising the spirits of what the other priests keep under the floorboards for years, Asmodev and Ultimate Games S.A.’s Priest Simulator: Vampire Show is one of those “Aren’t I so funny internet, look at my memes!” games. With almost every character looking like the gays infiltrated and styled a certain group of men in robes, Priest Simulator: Vampire Show is a repeat and one for the youth I hear (and hate) so much about.

Have you ever wondered, “What if Yakuza was set in a school?” Well, maybe you should go look at a school in Pollokshields, which might actually get you stabbed for not supporting the right football team. Available from the 24th via the Epic Games Store, Troublemaker is a 3D beat ’em up set in a high school and I don’t think I need to explain any better than I have. You play as a kid, your problems are if someone likes you, getting a decent score on a test, and not being beaten to death by the kid who’s being beaten within an inch of their life at home and takes that out on you.

Again we’re back with another repeat of something that was offered only a few months ago. Ok, August doesn’t feel like it was a few months ago. It feels like it was 17 years ago and we’ve just been on a perpetual loop of wanting to throw ourselves at brick walls in high-speed cars, but it was 8 months ago. That and the only “high-speed” car we’ll afford now is a 2001 Skoda.

Nonetheless, Happy Broccoli’s Kraken Academy!! is available through the Amazon Games App from the 24th, again, and is still something I have so little to say I spoke more about when it was last available. That and I want Happy Broccoli Games to hurry up and announce the release date of Duck Detective: The Ghost of Glamping.

The final game of the 24th and the month of April – Oh, I’ve just realized Jeffrey wants to ruin my birthday next month – is available through GOG and is older than most of you, probably. Developed by Looking Glass Studios and aged about as well as most things from 1998, Thief: The Dark Project is one of those shining beacons of the stealth genre that was so good it spawned five sequels: The Metal Age (the best one?), Deadly Shadows, Dishonored, Death of the Outsider, and Dishonored 2.

You’ll be picking up the re-release of The Dark Project, called Gold, because in 1999, the best way to solve bugs was to sell the game again but this time polished with some extra levels on top. There is a reason the 2014 reboot of Thief died a death greater than that of the plague. You can’t make a Thief game now without being called archaic because everyone wants their stealth gameplay to be accompanied by the hand-holding of overpowered combat.