Stop The Clocks: Cobalt Free On Steam This Weekend

What are you up to on this lazy Saturday, dear reader? Nothing too strenuous, I hope. If you're playing videogames, I'm sure you've already told Alice what you're playing, but if you're stuck for inspiration and don't fancy those FPS freekends, let me point you in the direction of Cobalt [official site]. For those unawares, Cobalt is a stylish side-scrolling platformer that follows the plight of a quick-witted murderbot who deflects bullets and manipulates time for fun. Standard weekend, then. It's also free to play this weekend on Steam.

Those of you who've been paying attention over the last few years will already know Cobalt's been in the mix for quite some time. It's the first third-party game from Minecraft devs Mojang, thus brought with it a distinct degree of hype over its development before the launch this February. I must admit, I came very late to the party and as such went in with fairly low expectations - it seemed all too similar to the legions of genre similars that've poured from the indie sphere in recent times. I was however pleasantly surprised by its sophisticated and at times complex systems.

I had great fun mixing and matching its melee, thrown and firearm combat systems to great effect - especially when successfully executing maneuvers in bullet-time, and discovering new ways of taking on enemies. In his Cobalt review, Kirk spoke to that:

"Discovering new uses for your abilities is one of the most satisfying things about Cobalt. The first time I jump-rolled over an enemy and timed a punch to smash their metallic head into bits, I screamed “yassssss”. One of my favourite things to do in Cobalt is to jump onto a slope and crouch as I land, sending me into a John Woo-style slide – minus the doves – dismembering enemies with my bullets on the way down.

"Its shooting is designed to be playable with a keyboard or a controller (I used the latter) so aiming is handled automatically, your laser pointer hovering over the nearest hostile as long as you crouch or point up, which makes sliding assaults child’s play. It all feeds back into encouraging a near constant forward momentum."

So where in the world are you based on this lazy Saturday, dear reader? Cobalt can be played free-of-charge on Steam before 1pm PST, 4pm EST, and 9pm GMT on Sunday. If you like what you see, you can also grab it for £10.71 with a 33% discount until 10am PST/1pm EST/6pm GMT on Monday April 18.