Your umbrella is a gun in this noir indie, and you can try it right now

Steam Next Fest treated us to all manner of indie delights over the past week, thanks to a jam-packed schedule of streams and hundreds of demos of upcoming PC games. With trials for so many great titles on offer, figuring out what to play and what to pass on was no easy task. Thankfully, if you didn’t get a chance to try out the brilliant and equally bizarre Gunbrella, fear not, as the demo isn’t going anywhere.

The game’s publisher Devolver Digital took to Twitter to share the good news, writing, "Due to popular demand (our demand), the Gunbrella demo on Steam will remain beyond the Steam Next Fest!"

If you’ve not yet heard of Gunbrella, it’s a side-scrolling action adventure with a noir-punk style. The game sees you play a surly woodman on a quest for revenge in a world gone to pot. What really sets this apart from other titles is that you’re armed with an umbrella that also acts as a gun. This quirky invention isn’t just good for blasting foes either; it can be used as a shield, and for gliding and swinging your way around the game’s charming 2D levels. 

To top it all off, the story is set to be an intriguing one as you find yourself mixed up in the affairs of everyone from cops and gangsters to cultists and ghouls. Gunbrella will be making its way to PC and Switch in 2023, and don’t forget to head on over to its Steam page if you fancy giving it a whirl before then.

Some fantastic indies have been released this year, and more are still to come. See them all in our guide to new indie games 2022.