I don't know if any of you lovely folks made your way down to PAX South this year, but I went the whole weekend and played a bunch of games, but there were quite a few games I couldn't get my hands on. I wrote down the names of the games that I didn't manage to get to play, which wasn't many.
After writing this, it occurred to me a reason why this year felt like a let down compared to last year. Most of the exhibitors either relied to heavily on volunteers who know nothing about their product, or didn't care enough to explain their product or "sell" their product. In too many situations I was left to just figure out what the game was and what needs to be done.
Black Ice (PC) $14.99
This is a first person shooter hacking game. You are in a Tron like world filled with servers owned by corporations, looking at various servers you can see who owns the server and the level of security on the server (i.e. the difficulty of hacking the server). To hack the server, you look at the server and press the hack button, the server then generates a ring around itself of presumably variable size and spawns enemies inside of this ring. You must defeat the enemies without leaving the ring, by doing so you hack the server and gain resources. Resources can be used to purchase items from a server that sells goods. You also gain XP which upon leveling up will allow you to distribute points to various stats. Fairly simple FPS RPG game, but very enjoyable. One of several games that I enjoyed very much and will likely purchase very soon. Demo available, let's you play until you reach level 4.
Capsule Force (PC/PS4) $14.99
My whole group played this game, took us a few failures to figure out how to play as the exhibitor didn't explain anything to us. 2v2 side scrolling shooter. Kind of a tug of war capture the flag. Shoot each other, respawn. Goal is to jump on one of 2 platforms which will, depending on your team, move you into a direction off screen, which will move you to the next screen, one screen closer to your goal. Your goal, get to the other end of the level and pick up the orb. Fun simple party game.
Color Thief (TBA) TBA
I stood behind what looked like a 4 year old playing the game for like 10 minutes, given that it was like a 4 year, I was impressed by her skills and she really liked the game, her dad said she had played it quite a few times during the expo. I finally got to play, it has an interesting premise. Game takes place in a mostly monochrome world, with a few objects having color. You play a chameleon, you can absorb colors and then transfer the colors to other objects. Color is basically a type of energy in this world, powering certain objects. Certain doors require certain colors to unlock and other elements. Water needs color to be water (not necessarily blue), otherwise it is a solid walkway. Trees and vines need color (not necessarily green) to be living, otherwise they are dead. Water fountains need color to dispense water. These are the puzzles. There was a certain puzzle type that I didn't understand and I asked a few times how it was supposed to be done correctly, because the developer explicitly told me that I was cheating and that most demoers were cheating the exact same way all weekend. Certain doors will only open if you are a color and the door in entirely that color as well, but behind that door is a color you need, but as soon as you absorb that color, the door will no longer open for you. Most players cheated by placing the color they need near the door, absorbing the color that will open the door, stand in the doorway, absorb the color they need (thus shutting the door), but since they are in the doorway, the door cannot close, so they can walk away scot free. I was in a similar situation later on, where I didn't understand how to get out, so I jumped onto a section of walk with a hit box, and walked along it to bypass what I didn't realize was a puzzle, the developer then walked by and explained that puzzle so I would stop cheating. I asked about the first puzzle again since he told me how to solve that puzzle, but he never answered me.
Death Stair (PC/X1/PS4) July 2016
My wife and I played this game for a round. I threw the balls and mines, and she tried to climb the stairs. As the stair climber, your goal is to dodge beach balls, dodgeballs, and land mines getting to the top of the stairs. As the defender, you throw beach balls and dodge balls at the stair climber and lay land mines to stop the stair climber from reaching the top. The game seemed fairly balanced at first, easy to hit and easy to dodge, but right at the end I guess I figured it out or it is really easy as soon as the climber gets to the last set of stairs. I was able to hit her in the face with a ball, and hit her again as soon as she stood up, really unfair. Game might need more balancing, but still fairly fun, but probably not for the stair climber.
DemoDen vanstra handens stig (PC) TBA (Steam Greenlight Process)
This game... I mean... it is barely a game. But the concept intrigued me. You have this game, the game is played by an AI, the AI has a goal of reaching the top of a mountain in the distance. This AI will learn from its mistakes, it will die, but it will keep trying, it is persistent. He will go on for all eternity unless you convince him to give up his quest. You must only press a button to ask him to give up his quest. But he will only give up if you give a blood sacrifice, so when you press the button on the custom "controller" (It's a wooden panel with shapes with a big blue button, the button has a whole in the middle) a needle will come through the middle of the button and prick your finger, thus giving the blood sacrifice, and the AI will give up his quest, die, and then a new AI will be born and will attempt the journey. Now to explain some things you may be wondering. No, the developer did not have a needle in the controller. I watched him explain the game to some ghetto moron, he didn't yet get to explaining that there was a requirement of a blood sacrifice and a needle and the moron went and hit the button, after the dev got to that point the ghetto guy freaked out and thought he was bleeding, kind of funny. I believe the dev said the game would be available for PC and smartphones, presumably for free based on their other titles, and there would be a limited edition that would come with the custom controller (NO NEEDLE). Obviously this game is one of those existential games, it serves little purpose other than to make you think.
Enter the Gungeon (PC/PS4) 2016
I spent quite a bit of my Sunday watching folks play this game, I didn't get to play it, but I didn't need to play. It's a 2D dungeon crawling game, not unlike Nuclear Throne, which I will talk about later on, but the dungeons are full of enemies who ARE bullets carrying guns shooting at you with bullets. They had a giant bullet outfit that one of the volunteers would crawl into and walk around in. Looks pretty fun and interesting, more things to do in the game than what I saw from Nuclear throne. I believe they call it the "Bullet Hell Dungeon Crawler".
Feist (PC) $15
I played this game for a while to kill time, because I wanted to play the next game over, which I never got to play btw. Another LIMBO clone. I've only played LIMBO for like 5 minutes, so I can't atest to how much like or unlike LIMBO it is, but a 2 tone platformer where your character is a silhouette. Fairly decent game, but the demo was unforgiving, if you died, you went right back to the beginning of the demo. I don't believe that is how the final game will play, it just didn't feel like that was their goal, but it always could be.
Fluff Eaters (iOS/Android)
I didn't play this game, my wife and her friend did, I think it was the first game played at the convention. From what I saw, I wouldn't like the game, even if it were free. Basically you have a cat in a bubble, you raise the bubble up, and pop it. The cat will fall and bounce. Before the cat bounces a second time, you must grab as much "fluff"? or food?. It's basically a game of jacks for your tablet or smartphone. I'm not doing any research on this one, it's not worth my time, and it's probably not worth yours either.
Just Shapes and Beats (PC/TBA) Q3/Q4 2016
This game was at the show last year as well, I loved it last year and it was definitely in my top 5 games last year, and as such it is also in my top 5 this year. I love music, I love music games. I got burned out of Guitar Hero and Rock Band along with everyone else, but other music games that aren't gimmicky, they last. This game will last. It's Geometry Wars meets Rock Band... sorta. The soundtrack they demoed last year was the same as this year, an original soundtrack, plus if you beat the demo, you get the bonus level "Mortal Kombat". Dodge projectiles and survive. The demo is 4 player, I assume you can also play with less, but that booth never didn't have a crowd of folks trying to play. Definitely a great game. I spoke with the devs again this year. They intend on releasing on PC before PAX Prime, with a console release before the end of the year, but no story on which console, expect exclusive. Again, I can't wait.
Karaski (PC) February 17th $14.99 (Preorder and get a free download of PostMortem: One must die MSRP $2.99)
Another game that I didn't get to play. First Person mystery game. You'll have to do your own research, my wife was sold on the premise alone, so we didn't even check it out.
Knight Squad (PC/X1) $14.99
They were also here last year, but they already released their game and they are here again. Bomberman meets Gauntlet, 'nuff said. This game was probably my game of show last year, I had so much fun playing it. I got the game during the free GWG on XBL when it released, I've only played 2 player with my wife, and I will say this game sucks when you don't use bots or don't have enough folks playing. Still a great game, but you can tell that this game really needs the required number of players.
Kona (PC/VR) TBA
I didn't get to play this game, but this game looked more like a game for my wife and she wasn't feeling up to playing much of any games during the convention. First person mystery game. You'll have to read up on this one yourself, my wife was sold on the premise alone. No release date AFAICT.
Light Fall (TBA) TBA
I don't remember this game very well off the top of my head. Too many LIMBO-esque games. This game is a side scrolling puzzle platformer. I didn't really get to listen to the story or music or anything because I didn't put the headset on, but basic platformer elements, jumping, wall jumping, obstacles that WILL kill you. Your advantage? You can spawn a cube that you can use, it will power objects, block lasers and other uses I'm sure. Fairly good game, the physics seem spot on, but the character doesn't control quite right for the physics, I'm sure they will tweak that before release.
