Hey there! I made to PAX this year. I’ve tried my best to pad out the next four days with as many cool games as possible. As the week goes on I’ll try to post some more in-depth info about some of the titles I get to see at the show but for now I thought I’d deliver a rough little summary of what I’ve seen so far. Provided I can continue to survive the heinous crowds I’ll make a post like this every day until the show is over.
Massive Chalice
In which I make babies.
My first stop at the show was Double Fine’s booth where I got a chance to check out Massive Chalice. You might remember this title from a Kickstarter last year where it landed a cool million based on its premise of “Fire Emblem Awakening” meets “Game of Thrones”.
The game looks like it’s been coming along nicely, the gameplay feels very reminiscent of XCOM and has carried over some of its best concepts, like permadeath, while still having its own unique feel to it. But of course where things get really interesting is in managing your kingdom and watching the monarchs you pair up make little warrior babies. Also if you were worried about whether or not you can get gay married, fear not, you can be as gay as you like and still adopt some cute little children.
Chariot
In which I partake in the guilty pleasures of physics.
Okay, allow me to gush for a minute. I love Chariot. This physics based puzzle platformer tells the story of a princess (and her suitor) on a quest to find a satisfactory burial site for her newly deceased father. The king joins you on your journey both in ghost form to complain about where you’d like to bury him and also in the form of a casket/corpse combo with giant wheels that you can tether yourself to in order to navigate the world..
The game’s twisted premise is perfectly offset by its cartoonish style and the gameplay itself is a treat. Like with most physics based games you’ll find that the even just dicking around is a pretty good time. Chariot was really easy to pick up and play and the couch co-op aspect was great. I found that having a second player made the game easier but everything still felt totally do-able by yourself. This game could very easily take my best in show trophy.
Arena: Cyber Evolution
In which I play cyber robot hockey.
When the Montreal based, Spearhead Games, released their title for free on early access they were surprised to find a negative reaction from a community that felt owed something from a game that cost nothing and fully disclosed that it was incomplete. Rather than let the hate get them down the team decided to be as transparent as possible with their development process. They took to Twitch and made as honest an attempt as possible to include the community in their design decision making processes.
The game itself plays a lot like hockey, except with less people on the field, oh and with robots and stuff. The game is fairly easy to pick up and learn but definitely has a learning curve to it as well. The team I played against on the showfloor made the mistake of not including a goalie class in their roster and as a result they got crushed pretty hard. Sometimes the early access seams are much more noticeable, like in the game’s menu system which could definitely use a massive overhaul to make it friendlier. ACE is actually available on Steam early access now so if you’re tired of hearing me talk about it you can go play for yourself. You can also check out the developers Twitch channel here and try to pitch some ridiculous ideas.
World of Warships
In which I become a boat?
Wargaming.net already got tanks and planes out of the way, where else was there to go but to the sea? The developer had lots to show off at the show but all anybody really seemed to want to talk about were slow moving boats. The company’s fascination and adherence to historical accuracy continues here with actual warships hailing from two initial countries (the US and Japan) duking it out in some gigantic maps.
The nature of naval warfare makes the game’s scope feel much grander. The average level in World of Tanks is about 1km, in World of Warships I watched the player land a shot on another ship from at least 5km. The ships move slowly but you can plot navigation through a top down map and that leaves lots of room to shoot enormous guns and strategize. One interesting feature that was talked about but wasn’t in the alpha shown was the game’s aircraft carriers which would allow for something of an RTS component as you commanded a fleet in battle.
You have to hand it to the folks at Wargaming.net, I don’t think there’s anybody out there so strictly adhering to historical accuracy while still making games that are fun to play in the process.
I also spent a little bit of time with Dead Island 2 and Gigantic, but I’ll need a bit more time to put together my thoughts on them. If you’re at PAX and want to say hi feel free to tweet at me @JaredWolthuis. See you guys tomorrow!
