The Epic Games Store has made it one thing of a practice to provide out tons of freebies over the vacations. In truth it’s change into so dependable that I now not seize every one — my Epic library is overflowing with video games I’ve by no means touched, in any case. But at the moment’s free sport is one I have performed, as a result of I purchased it final yr. 20 Minutes Till Dawn was price each penny, and since you’ve got the chance to snag it for exactly zero, you shouldn’t miss out.

The setup is that this: You’re a scared Little Red Riding Hood-type in a top-down forest. You’ve obtained a gun, you’ve obtained an more and more dense subject of monsters attempting to kill you, and also you’ve obtained 20 minutes till they disappear. Progression is clearly impressed by smash indie hit Vampire Survivors, with every killed monster dropping a tiny quantity of XP and every stage unlocking a brand new survival software or improve. Unlike Vampire Survivors, you possibly can purpose and shoot manually, although should you broaden your construct proper your assortment of useful critters may be dispensing much more punishment.

The sport’s four-color pixel artwork is straightforward however efficient, making it simple to distinguish quite a lot of monsters and bullets always heading your method. Boss fights present up at common intervals, however you’ll quickly develop methods on the best way to cope with them. The actual enjoyable is discovering the fitting mixture of beginning woman (each has a distinct particular energy), gun, and upgrades to change into a whirling dervish of demise, slaying dozens and even a whole lot of crowded baddies with each pull of the set off by the point every run ends.

There’s a restrict to the replayability of 20 Minutes Till Dawn. You’ll inevitably gravitate in direction of sure combos of character, weapon, and technique, and from that time on it’s only a matter of time earlier than you’ve unlocked your entire most well-liked everlasting upgrades. But it’s a trendy and satisfying little sport that actually hit the spot once I was searching for some crunchy fight. The developer is engaged on a extra advanced model of the sport, Emberpath, and it’s already on my Steam wishlist. As with all Epic freebies, you possibly can declare it within the app (or on the internet) and hold it related together with your account without end. Go get it, as a result of it’s solely free till 11 AM US Eastern time tomorrow.