Gamer Crash

The indie scene has been rising every year at the Penny Arcade Expo thanks in large part to the Indie Megabooth, a section of the show floor highlighting smaller independent developers and their games. It gets larger and larger every year and PAX East this past weekend was no exception. While I didn’t get to try all 80+ games on display there, I did go hands on with a number of upcoming titles so here are some quick thoughts on each.

Hyper Light Drifter
By: Heart Machine
Combining elements from old school 2d action/RPG titles like The Legend of Zelda, Hyper Light Drifter is a game that just oozes style. After hearing about it during it’s successful Kickstarter run, I’ve been casually following this game since. Featuring a gorgeous visual style and a great soundtrack from Disasterpeace, Hyper Light was a very popular booth at PAX this year. As such, I didn’t actually get my hands on the title but I was completely drawn in so I spent a healthy amount of time watching other people play. Interestingly enough, a multiplayer mode was shown off for the first time featuring two players working together to survive waves of enemies. Seems like a nice diversion and something for leaderboard hunters but for many of us, the single player is where the meat of this game is. Currently there’s no release date as Heart Machine wants to take their time to ensure the final product is great.

Aztez
By: Team Colorblind
I had heard a few pre-show things about this one and when I walked by the booth, I stopped in. Aztez is a very stylized brawler set during the height of the Aztec Empire in Mexico. The demo I played had you going up against waves of increasingly challenging enemies. The combat was fast and satisfying and the black and white color scheme mixed with only red for blood was a very cool look. In addition to heavy and quick attacks, players could also block, jump, dodge, and absorb blood on the ground to restore a bit of health. Still, the demo was limited to seeing how long you could survive in combat so I didn’t have a good idea of what the main game really was.

Apparently from what I read on their site, there’s quite a bit more to the game.

Dyscourse
By: Owlchemy Labs
Successfully reaching their Kickstarter goal late last year, the guys behind Jack Lumber and Snuggle Truck are setting out to deliver an interesting take on adventure survival narrative. As a survivor of a plane crash on a desert island, you meet up with fellow survivors and hope to survive long enough to get rescued. The story and how things play out such as who lives or dies is placed directly in your hands by what you choose to do or not do through text based interaction. The demo let me play through three days (essentially three events in game) and right off the bat, the game quickly shifted based on things like who i spoke to or decisions that I had to make for the group. I honestly never felt good about my decisions, assuming that Owlchemy had something devious always planned around the corner. I can say for sure that whatever decision I picked, I was constantly surprised at the result. If the game stays this dynamic through the whole length of the campaign, the amount of story branching and vastly different outcomes is a pretty intriguing concept. It’s a very unique title, but I had a lot of fun trying to keep my group of survivors together.

As a side note, I did manage to run into a bug which halted all progress for my character. Pretty funny when you think that the bug occurred only through selecting a specific course of choices which I had done. Thankfully, the Owlchemy guys helped me out by getting me back to a usable state. Glad to have helped product test guys!

Secret Ponchos
By: Switchblade Monkeys
I was meaning to check out this multiplayer arena shooter last year at PAX but for various reasons it never happened. This year? I firmly rooted myself to this booth. This shooter set firmly in the a fictional western universe has all the right flavors of fun, fast gameplay mixed with unique experiences. In the mode I played (multiple times), 8 players (from rigged up PlayStation 4 consoles) squared off in a Free-For-All mode where a player got 1 point for a kill and minus 1 point for a death. The characters so far are varied in terms of appearance and abilities making for some interesting strategic combat. I’ll tell you right now, I can see this being one great party game in a similar vein to Smash Bros. No release date on this one, but it’s planned for PS4 and PC with Early Access kicking off this summer.

I’ll have more for you on this one later in the week. Stay tuned!

Shovel Knight
By: Yacht Club Games
I’ve been following this game since it hit Kickstarter as it has that sweet spot of classic Mega Man mixed with Castlevania look to it. Not only that, it features some of the catchiest chip tunes (By Jake Kaufman of course) that’ll get stuck in your head long after you stop playing.

I didn’t actually get any hands on time with this one as there was a HUGE crowd and limited controllers to go around, but I did stay and watch for a while. While that game may look straight off of a NES, it can obviously do some more things that the old systems couldn’t. The level on display was from Specter Knight’s level, a sort of creepy graveyard and haunted castle which honestly could have been ripped straight out of Castlevania. The animations were beautiful and there was one room which was completely dark save for lightning flashes which illuminated the area. Believe me, it was a cool effect. Shovel Knight is due out fairly soon as the team has finished work on the game, just bug squashing. I for one, can’t wait.

Delver’s Drop
By: Pixelscopic
Another Kickstarter project that I’ve been following for a while, I had a chance to speak with Coby Utter, co-founder, game director, and chief engineer on Delver’s Drop, about the game. For those who don’t know, Delver’s Drop is a 2D action RPG that has that classic top down look of the old Legend of Zelda games. The dungeons you’ll be exploring are randomly generated every time you play making each playthrough extremely unique. Coupled with different classes and unique physics system, Delver’s Drop is looking to refresh the classic “roguelike” formula. What surprised me the most is that the Pixelscopic team is planning on having a weapon generator that’ll be able to randomize drops that far exceeds what Borderlands 2 was promoting prior to their launch. I didn’t see that coming. What happens if you die but want to continue using the weapon you had? In an interesting twist, an undead version of your character will be waiting for you. Defeat this character to get your stuff back. With that many items in the game though, something better is always around the bend.

For a look at Capybara’s Below and Super T.I.M.E. Force, have a look at my post here.

I’ll fully admit that I’m a sucker for arcade style racers. Give me blazing speeds, unrealistic jumps, and slamming cars over realistic simulation racing any day. While Burnout’s overly long absense has left a pretty big whole in my heart, I’ve been searching for the next great arcade racer. The Crew from Ubisoft caught my attention last year at E3 showing off some interesting gameplay bordering more on the arcade than sim. I’ve been curious ever since and thankfully got some hands on time with the online connected racer at the Penny Arcade Expo in Boston this year. Will it be the next big racer?

While standing in line waiting my turn, I was able to watch people play the game and the first thing that really struck me was how big and detailed the map of the United States was. Developer, Ivory Tower has not been shy about the map and it shows. The major roads are detailed along with the city hubs in each of the five zones that make up the continental US. Being able to quickly zoom in and out of the map looked pretty impressive as well with more and more detail being added the further back you panned. Reports also indicate that if you wanted to race from either end, you’d be looking at a few hours. The size of the map is just one aspect which has me pretty excited.

The four demo stations were set up for two people each since Ubisoft is aiming The Crew to be a socially driven MMO style experience. With that said, the first race took place on the streets of Detroit and was a solo race. The nice thing about The Crew is that while it does have a lot of social features, you can still play it as a single player experience if you want. The Detroit race was fun and the game looked great during this city at night race, but this alone didn’t do anything different enough. If this was all Ubisoft was showing, it would have been a disappointment because frankly, it was fairly basic. Not sure if the AI was turned down for the show, but I had little trouble besting my AI opponents. In traditional arcade racer style, a turbo boost was available in what seemed to be a constantly regenerating bar. I’m not sure if this was by design or due to the aggressive driving I was doing.

The real treat came next as my partner and I were about to take part in a “co-petitive” type of mission. While we were both on the same team, we’d be competing against each other to take down a runaway truck. This is what I signed up for. Rocketing through a small ocean side town, the two of us soared over beach dunes, drifted around grassy stretches, and basically tried to slam into this truck who desperately wants to get away from us. The match ended spectacularly as I managed to take an angle which shot me over a hill completely ramming the truck from the side and taking him out. One element that did surprise me however was the lack of visible car damage. I’m not sure if that was intended or if it was just not turned on for the show. Granted, it didn’t really take any of the fun away from what I was doing, but it would have been a nice added touch. While both of us technically won, I was awarded with a new part for my car.

Speaking of spare car parts, The Crew plans to be “dropping” loot in a similar vein to games like Diablo where completing challenges and races earns you new parts you can use to change/upgrade your car. I did earn a few parts during my demo but wasn’t able to explore that side of the game at all so I can’t speak to it directly.

Overall, I had a fun time with The Crew especially considering it seems to be stocked with gameplay that could be ripped right from a game like Burnout Paradise. I’m curious to see what else is hiding under the hood of a game with a map this size. If you have a crew of your own, the game appears to be even that much better, taking cues from more traditional MMOs such as customization, leveling up, and getting better parts (gear). With this much going on, would anyone be surprised about dungeon raids being included at this point as well? If you’re going to make an MMO style game, might as well go all the way, right? The Crew hits the finish line later this year on PC, PS4, and Xbox One. I personally can’t wait to hit the open roads.

When I heard that Turtle Rock Studios (the talented guys and gals behind the excellent Left 4 Dead) were bringing their upcoming title, Evolve, to PAX East in Boston this year, I knew that would be my first stop on the show floor. Arriving earlier than normal to get a better position in line, the Evolve booth was larger than life complete with a 20 foot statue of the monster in the demo, the Goliath. Even though the wait to play was a bit longer than I anticipated, getting to go hands on with Evolve was well worth it.

For those of you wondering what Evolve is, the best way to describe it would be a human controlled boss fight. Four hunters, each representing a certain class (Assault, Trapper, Medic, Support) are sent out to hunt down and eliminate a monster who’s out to grow stronger and destroy the human characters. While the full game promises to feature more game modes, we only got to try out “Hunt” where the four human characters tried to hunt and kill the 1 monster character before it can level and destroy a generator.

For the sake of transparency, I played as the Goliath (Monster) during my demo time so what follows is perspective based around that. I can’t speak to how the four human characters play as I didn’t actually get any time with them. The full Evolve experience can be read after the jump…

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