Wacky space station management sim Startopia and wacky hosptial sim Theme Hospital are two of my favourite older games, so I was very pleased with the concept of Galacticare, which is a wacky space station hospital management sim. And you know what? It's great! From early reveals and previews I thought it might veer into being too wacky, but it nails its tone, has some really striking levels, and bugs in earlier builds have been squashed (much as you can manually splat small parasites that make their way into your hospital). I can see this becoming a go-to comfort game for me.
Welcome to Next Week on Xbox! In this weekly feature we cover all the games coming soon to Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Windows, and Game Pass! Get more details on these upcoming games below and click their profiles for further info (release dates subject to change). Let’s jump in!
Neptune has been missing since her mission to the PC Continent, and in the absence of its Goddess and Candidate, Planeptune was ravaged by a strange new phenomenon, the Trendi Outbreaks. Suddenly finding herself robbed of home and family, Nepgear falls into a deep depression. This is a story about finding hope in the midst of despair, and the rebirth of a Goddess in the wake of destruction.
Paper Trail – May 21 Optimized for Xbox Series X|S / Smart Delivery
Paper Trail is a top-down puzzle adventure about leaving home, set in a foldable, paper world. You play as Paige, a budding academic, leaving home for the first time to pursue her studies. On the journey, you learn to fold the world, merging two sides to solve puzzles, explore new areas and uncover long-lost secrets. Try the free Demo today.
The sequel to the award winning Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, Senua returns in a brutal journey of survival through the myth and torment of Viking Iceland. Intent on saving those who have fallen victim to the horrors of tyranny, Senua faces a battle of overcoming the darkness within and without.
The fully fledged remake of the groundbreaking original from 1994, combining cult gameplay with all-new HD visuals, updated controls, an overhauled interface, and all-new sounds & music; it even has the original voice actor of SHODAN, one of gaming’s most iconic villains. Witness the rebirth of one of the greatest and most influential games ever created.
A free-to-play, first-person online arena shooter where you compete in fast-paced clashes. With cross-play available at launch, you will be able to play with friends on a variety of platforms. Choose from a large arsenal of weapons, attachments, and devices to optimize the way you play. Combine any weapon with any Faction and unlock new options as you play to perfect your playstyle.
A cartoony, hand-drawn bullet hell where your job is to help Doug the banana overcome his worst fears by pounding them into oblivion! Part top-down twin-stick shooter and part beat ’em up, Doug’s Nightmare pits you against swarms of bugs, mushrooms, floating brains and more!
A terrible plane crash took the lives of all the passengers and crew… except for one. You survive in the middle of the endless ocean and now you must challenge fate and fight for your life. The burning sun, terrible thunderstorms, and a hungry shark are ready to challenge you and your raft.
Grab your controller, and if you want, bring up to three of your friends — you’re going on a tasty, chaotic, and fun trip around the world! Everyone’s favorite foods are back in an even more epic competition – now with an extra spicy dash ability to shake things up!
A game that will challenge your mental skills as you help adorable cats find their way through soothing and captivating puzzles. Rotate the pieces and create the perfect path for the cats so they can reach their destination.
Knights and brigands run rampant throughout the land, sowing destruction. But an even greater evil is lurking and plotting in the shadows. At the helm of your domain, lead the fight against the forces of evil in this turn-based tactics and strategy game.
A single-player, first-person story-driven puzzle game of time manipulation, choice, and consequence. As an operative tasked with fixing corruption in the timestream, you have been sent to the North of England in May 2015, where six people died in a house fire. Prohibited from simply stopping the fire, you must instead manipulate the choices made by the housemates in the week leading up to it so that they all survive the event.
You are the Director of Galacticare! Manage your own interstellar healthcare company, and (try to) save the Galaxy. Galacticare takes you on a colorful and bizarre journey, from humble beginnings orbiting 23rd-century Earth to the internal world of an extra-dimensional deity. It’s time to save the galaxy – one patient at a time!
Hauntii – May 23 Optimized for Xbox Series X|S / Smart Delivery / Xbox Play Anywhere
Play as Hauntii, a naive but brave ghost on a relentless quest for answers. A mysterious race of glowing creatures, known as Eternians, guides lost souls to an ominous central tower where they appear to ascend to a higher plane. Unleash ghostly powers to possess both inhabitants and environment, unveiling various solutions to combat and puzzle challenges.
Rocket Rumble is a 1-4 player party racing brawler. Pick your favorite animal, blast off in a jetpack, and compete across 7 ever-changing obstacle courses. Compete for points by racing, brawling, and using items all on one screen. Earn coins and collect customization items and make your character look fabulous. Play online or on the couch in the ultimate party game.
The first party-based RPG video game ever released, Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord was a direct inspiration to series like Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest. Digital Eclipse’s revival preserves the appeal of the classic, with many upgrades for modern role-playing game fans.
An unusual puzzle game that tells a story about a beautiful world, full of life and colors, which changed beyond recognition after a series of unexplainable events had taken place. Uncover the truth, help restore the world, and save its inhabitants across five chapters and 100 carefully crafted puzzles waiting to be solved.
The Glass Staircase is a homage to retro-console survival horror and Italian zombie movies. Uncover the horrible secrets of the manor as your friends disappear one by one.
Start an adventure as a courageous paper plane that hunts evil ghosts across vibrant worlds. Soar through mystical forests and scary mansions, utilizing your flying skills and reflexes to shoot evil entities.
As a secret agent marksman, you are the only hope against the evil Skeleton King and his minions who attack the city in this puzzle platformer where you need to shoot your one shot to solve each puzzle and clear the level.
Management and tycoon games, from Tropico 6 to Planet Zoo, are a good time. As entries to the genre like Jurassic World Evolution 2 show, they can be an even better time when part of the player's management duties involves taking care of strange creatures. Galacticare is a game that understands this, offering a combination of the healthcare simulation aspects of Two Point Hospital and the sci fi creativity of Stellaris. It's looked like a smart idea since we first saw it announced last year, and now we're happy to see it's just received a launch date that's much closer than we anticipated.
There is often no greater time sink than a good management simulator, and when they come as witty and delightful as Galacticare, it’s even harder to put them down. Galacticare is a bizarre and brilliant strategy game where you’re tasked with the running of an interstellar health company, managing hospitals, discovering weird, alien ailments, and finding ways to cure them. Xbox Wire was fortunate enough to get our hands-on a never-before-seen level, and speak with Galacticare Creative Director Josh Bishop about the makings of this wacky adventure.
Bishop tells us that crafting a hospital game was developer Brightrock Games’ vision from the outset, but they wanted to build more than a management simulator. The team wanted to push the boundaries of the genre’s mechanics, while putting a fun, unique narrative at the forefront of the experience.
“The backdrop that gave us the most freedom to explore was the choice to set the game in space,” Bishop says. “Being able to create a whole galaxy with eccentric alien species, unusual diseases and out of this world technology would not have been possible without a setting of this kind.”
The space setting also makes way for this cast of quirky, non-human characters to engage in similarly wacky stories, which was important for the team. This shines through in Galacticare‘s clever dialogue; the recurring characters are a cast to get to know, not just an aimless NPC to prop up the gameplay.
“Often with simulator games, narrative is secondary. For us, it was one of our primary goals: to give the game, the world, a story that the player will remember,” Bishop says.
Often with simulator games, narrative is secondary. For us, it was one of our primary goals.
“As the main character, we want you to feel a part of this episodic journey through the stars. The dialogue is a huge part of crafting that with our players, immersing themselves in a colourful galaxy that they play one of the most significant parts in.”
We got a taste of this during our playthrough of Many Me, the sixth level of Galacticare‘s story mode. Here your job is to organise and treat clones of a single character, the villainous geneticist Dr Ohdious. The plot twist? This is not a hospital, it’s a prison, built to house Dr Ohdious and his many illegal clones. Due to security issues, you’ll need to create more clones to help cure the inmates, rather than hiring outside talent for the jobs at hand.
“Dr Ohdious, the consultant for this level, was actually one of the first consultants we designed, knowing that we wanted to create a level focused solely around him,” Bishop tells us. “His maverick approach to cloning gave us a vehicle to twist the gameplay into a unique experience mechanically and narratively for players: clone your own doctors.”
Fortunately, Dr. Ohdious has seen fit to share his knowledge of cloning with us, at least. This level also opens up the Cerebral Rehab, alongside the ability to clone your staff, or wipe the minds of existing employees, so they can re-train in whatever discipline you need. I get very attached to my subjects, to the ability to sculpt them to my precise (and often chaotic) needs was an extremely welcome change to Galacticare‘s formula.
Many Me isn’t alone in being a unique gameplay experience, either. Bishop tells us that many of the levels in Galacticare alter the core gameplay in various ways, which will keep you on your toes, and stop you from following the same pattern when you enter a brand new scenario.
Dr Ohdious is one of Galacticare‘s Consultants – one-of-a-kind doctors that can be unlocked as you progress through the story, and will remain on hand for recruitment in future levels. Each Consultant comes with their own unique personality and story, as well as their own abilities, which makes them both useful and memorable as you progress.
“Consultants play a vital component in guiding you through interesting gameplay choices and moment-to-moment decision making,” Bishop adds. “In a genre where choices can sometimes start narrowing once you’ve committed to a path – they aim to give flexibility and support.”
Many Me is just one of the extremely fun scenarios that Galacticare places you in, and I can’t wait to get fully stuck in to this zany universe. Scrub up for a truly out of this world experience when Galacticare launches on Xbox Series X|S later this year.
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