I started playing Vintage Year while traveling for work. It was a quick game that could run on my slightly out of date laptop so I started firing it up between meetings, which quickly became during meetings and before long I wasn't even paying attention to what I was on the trip for and was just thinking about how to improve my runs through the game's randomly generated levels. Yes, this little known indie game did what very few games have done and commanded my full attention even hours after turning it off. Like games like Super Meat Boy and Hotline Miami before it, Vintage Year is an incredibly rewarding and addicting game that you won't expect to love as much as you will.

"...mow down bad guys all in the name of a bottle of wine."

In Vintage Year you play as the owner of a wine cellar containing a rare and ultra expensive bottle of wine. Just like you'd expect with any valuable item in video games, thieves break in to try to steal it and it's up to you to try to stop them by any means necessary. It's a pretty standard story and it really doesn't go much further than that save for some super natural enemies that pop up pretty early in the game but it does exactly what it's meant to do and sets the game in motion proper and gives you a reason to mow down bad guys all in the name of a bottle of wine.

The main goal of Vintage Year is simple, shoot, bomb and slice up anything that stands in between you and your prized bottle of wine. It sounds simple but the true genius of Vintage Year lives in the details. Each of the game's levels are randomly generated and though we've seen that before, even a lot lately, it's the combination of the twitch gameplay that will make you rethink every decision and constantly keep trying to complete each section that much sooner. What if I rounded that corner just a bit slower? What if I shot just a second earlier? Questions like this will plague you as you continue through the game, and you'll constantly be going back to play earlier levels - especially when you level up your characters.

"...you'll regularly want to switch out the characters..."

Similar to recently reviewed games like the Binding of Isaac and Crypt of the Necrodancer you'll be able to choose from a number of different characters to control on your play through and each one has abilities that will make the game feel remarkably different. There's Shiraz the Cannibal who randomly heals after killing enemies, Zinfindel who comes with extra health, Merlot the gunslinger who fires faster than anyone else and Malbec the sharpshooter has near perfect accuracy with most weapons. The genius of this system lies in the fact that none of these abilities are perfect for every situation and you'll regularly want to switch out the characters depending on what the randomly generated level entails. You're scored on a number of criteria at the end of the game so I found myself constantly going back and trying to find out how other characters worked in situations.

It'd be easy to take one look at Vintage Year and discount it as just another retro looking indie game - and it sort of it, but it's also so much more. While it may not feature the best looking HD visuals, it makes up for it in setting a great story telling mood and it's full of remarkably satisfying sound effects, especially the gunshots. At night I would switch on my surround sound headphones and truly become engrossed with Vintage Year. Not many indie games feature sound design this simply yet great.

Like me, you're unlikely to know just what you're getting into with Vintage Year, but those willing to take a chance on an unknown indie game will be greatly rewarded with a remarkably deep and rewarding rogue shooter. It may not do that much different than other games we've seen before, but what it does do, it does so well that it's unmistakeable and deserves to be played by a lot of people.