It Returned To The Desert
Tim Rachor · 2023 · Adventure, Turn-Based Tactics, Retro, Mystery, Interactive Fiction
PC
Positive95% · 19
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About It Returned To The Desert
✦ AI summary
Lead Dr. Mill through a desert town investigating a meteor crash and recruiting allies to fight off mutated giant ants before they overrun Glint Rock in this turn-based tactical adventure. Permanent character deaths reshape your story, with non-linear progression and mini-games ensuring every playthrough feels fresh in a charming retro pixel art experience with modern design sensibilities.
It Returned to the Desert is a unique mix of turn-based tactical combat and story-driven adventure game.
Welcome to the lively desert town of Glint Rock! As Dr. Mill - Geologist - It's your job to find out what happened with the recent meteor crash and convince the towns folk of the imminent danger of mutated giant ants. Recruit a party to fight those six-legged freaks before they overrun town.
Prepare for combat with a variety of arms and consumables. Use your time well and collect evidence to convince the local authorities. This is not a fight that you can win alone! Gather a party of supporters and take good care of them, as death is permanent and has far-reaching consequences.
A large variety of characters and non-linear progression allow for great replayability. And a few mini-games and surprises mix up the experience every time.
The game features a charming retro pixel art style and an atmospheric soundtrack, free saving and multiple difficulties.
Even though the game looks like it's straight from the 90s, it boasts modern game design principles and no dead ends or overly high difficulty.
Welcome to the lively desert town of Glint Rock! As Dr. Mill - Geologist - It's your job to find out what happened with the recent meteor crash and convince the towns folk of the imminent danger of mutated giant ants. Recruit a party to fight those six-legged freaks before they overrun town.
Prepare for combat with a variety of arms and consumables. Use your time well and collect evidence to convince the local authorities. This is not a fight that you can win alone! Gather a party of supporters and take good care of them, as death is permanent and has far-reaching consequences.
A large variety of characters and non-linear progression allow for great replayability. And a few mini-games and surprises mix up the experience every time.
The game features a charming retro pixel art style and an atmospheric soundtrack, free saving and multiple difficulties.
Even though the game looks like it's straight from the 90s, it boasts modern game design principles and no dead ends or overly high difficulty.
About Me
It Returned to the Desert is developed solely by one Indie Developer... me... Tim Rachor. Though, I'm using some licensed third party assets. This will be my 9th game on Steam and the biggest yet, I'm very excited and hope you'll enjoy the result as much as I enjoyed the development!What Steam players say
Recent verbatim reviews from Steam — separate from playze.io community reviews below.
Came here due to nostalgia and discussion of the game in "Stay Forever" podcast. Loved the game, I really enjoyed this and it certainly brought back quite some old memories (although many things really play quite differently). Thanks for putting the work in this, I would recommend. Final battle was quite challenging though, that almost drove me nuts :)3 found this helpful
Wonderful little game, no doubt. It's inspired by a similarly named title for Amiga/MS-DOS called It Came from the Desert. The game follows a scientist sent to investigate a meteorite that fell near a town, and of course, it will all unfold with giant ants. We have a limited number of days to complete various tasks like investigating, recruiting civilians, gathering equipment, etc. The gameplay is based on time management, with turn-based combat and several minigames relevant to the story. It's great and well worth playing. I ran into some bugs, but nothing that saving frequently couldn't fix. EDIT: Game received an update about those bugs. [quote] [i] Check [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/44959158-Critiques-Sans-Frontiers/] our curator page [/url] to discover more underated games like this one. [/i] [/quote]3 found this helpful
A fun little indie game remake/spiritual successor to the Cineware classic 'It Came From the Desert', with some needed tweaks. A little rough around the edges at times, but still fun. The only 'con' I can think of is the limited storage space, and seeming lack of terrain variety when it came to combat scenarios. For what it is, I enjoyed.2 found this helpful
Really enjoying it but I can’t get the controls on the driving sections to work properly on steam deck 😭1 found this helpful
A bit rough round the edges but overall a good homage to the Cinemaware originals.1 found this helpful
It Returned To The Desert is a fun romp that takes you back to the Cinemaware days of classic gaming. It's done with a modern engine but has the retro look of the old game. Instead of hand made pixel art it's 3D scenes with a filter. Not as effective but it's a nice touch. You play as a new scientist arriving at the town of Glint Rock to study a meteor that's fallen and through interactions with the people of the town uncover the secrets. This is a spiritual successor to the classic It Came From the Desert by Cinemaware made in 1989. The game has all of the elements of the original being a point & click adventure game with FPS and overhead elements. Tim Rachor does a great job evoking the original game but with his own twist. It's a great adventure to visit the town of Glint Rock and discover what's going on in the town.1 found this helpful
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