Try the demo for promising 2D brawler Flynn: Son of Crimson

The dynamic combat and beautiful sprites of Flynn: Son of Crimson convinced us to feature it in our Indie GIF Showcase, and judging from Flynn's now-successful Kickstarter campaign, have caught the attention of a few others as well. So it's fortunate that players can now sample Flynn for themselves by way of the free demo available via Itch.io.

It's a short demo, but an enjoyable and informative one. Crucially, you get to try Flynn's main four weapons: a versatile sword, a heavy axe, fast claws and a bow. You can swap between these weapons mid-combo and mid-air, and it's fun stringing attacks together and learning what flows into what. The special moves seen in the Kickstarter promo art are absent, and will presumably be unlocked throughout the main game.

A few flavors of gameplay are also seen in the demo. Flynn is a 2D action game at heart, but it also sports some nifty stealth sections which use lighting and the foreground art creatively. Exploration is central as well, and aided by classic abilities like wall climbing and items like a grappling hook. It seems there are also some 2D running sections featuring Flynn's enormous canine companion, which are a neat change of pace. I didn't run into any crashes or performance issues throughout the entire demo either.

Flynn: Son of Crimson will release early- to mid-2019.

Austin freelanced for PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree, and has been a full-time writer at PC Gamer's sister publication GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize that his position as a staff writer is just a cover-up for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a focus on news, the occasional feature, and as much Genshin Impact as he can get away with.