PAX East Game Reviews and Recommendations
We have just returned from another crazy weekend of PAX! Here is our list of games that we had the chance to try and wanted you all to know about :D
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — -
Aftercharge https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGdxb9OjzQs
Aftercharge is a 3v3 first-person game that pits invisible robots against a squad of specialized security enforcers in quick-paced skirmishes. 3 people play as the robots, who have to silently travel across the map to destroy energy pylons to win the game. The security forces have abilities to spot the invisible robots and take them out. The game is fast and super fun, and my friends and I all really enjoyed the simplicity of the mechanics combined with the strategizing needed to win. Aftercharge was at PAX last year and I was thrilled that they were able to come by again. If you like multiplayer games that you can play with your friends, then I highly recommend Aftercharge (which comes out Summer 2018!).
Anamorphine http://anamorphine.com/
Anamorphine tells the story of a female cellist and her life experiences. It is a silent storytelling game with no action buttons; you merely move through her memories seamlessly as beautiful cello music rises and falls in the background. From the brief demo I was able to experience at PAX, I could already tell that the game was an emotional rollercoaster where the player really feels like they are experiencing the story. Memories interchange without loading screens (you merely turn or look up and a new memory has begun) and as a professional musician, I really felt like the game spoke to me. If you are in the market for a calm game without button smashing or strategizing, this game seems like it will be an amazing experience.
Boyfriend Dungeon http://www.boyfrienddungeon.com/
Have you ever wanted to play a dungeon crawler AND meet the love of your life? Then look no further than Boyfriend Dungeon, a game where you are a badass warrior who also gets to date a variety of people (including women, men and nonbinary characters !). Over the course of the game, the player picks up different weapons that transform into people that you can date. As the players dates and gets to know the weapons, the weapons become more powerful and gain more abilities. As the game designer Tanya told me, she was tired of seeing the same stereotypes being perpetuated in dating games (e.g. always being a male character dating the very pretty female characters). The team working on the game wanted to create a dating sim that everyone could envision themselves within and everyone had a love interest that actually spoke to them. So far, three of the dateable characters have been announced, and I am so excited to see what the other characters are like. They sadly did not have a playable demo at PAX, but I’m sure they gained an awesome following based on how many people I saw stopping by the booth.
Causa http://indiemegabooth.com/project/causa-voices-dusk/
Causa is a free-to-play multiplayer card game from Chilean game developers at Niebla Games. The game has a story and competitive duel mode, with beautiful art of the powerful faction leaders that you take control of. While there are many card games out there, Causa has a special feature of playing both symmetric and asymmetric matches (1vs1, 2vs1, 2vs2). While I’m not typically a card game lady, I really loved the art and gameplay from Causa and would be really excited to try it out, especially on a mobile device. The CEO of Niebla Games, Maureen Berho, is a sociologist turned game developer who put together the game company with a group of like-minded friends. I think it’s important that we support smaller companies, especially from countries that do not have the same game market that Europe and the United States have.
Cook, Serve, Delicious 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoP53DTpbmQ
As someone who put dozens of hours into Cook, Serve, Delicious (so many that I’m ashamed to tell you how much), I was excited to see a sequel to the fast-paced restaurant game. CSD2 puts the player in command of not just their own restaurant, but a multitude of different types of cuisines and restaurants. With the Barista update, the game becomes even more fast-paced and as a former Barista, I can attest to the crazy orders and even crazier customers. The game is definitely still growing and changing and the developers really care about creating a fun and engaging experience for the game. If you like a little mindless fun (and staring at food), this game is for you.
The Elder Scrolls Online: Summerset -https://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-us/updates/chapter/summerset
As a high elf main, I for one am greatly looking forward to an ESO expansion that features the history of my character. While I was only able to briefly try the game, the landscapes were beautiful and the storyline was mysterious, so I’m excited to learn more. If you are an ESO player, I’d recommend this expansion. If you’re new to the game, try the base game first!
Evolution https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QI73_377igI&feature=youtu.be
If you’re a board game person like me, then you’re always looking for something fun and new to play with your friends. Evolution as a board game is definitely a new take on your typical 4-person game. Each player takes control of a species that they have to evolve to survive around a watering hole, fighting with the other species over a limited amount of food and adapting during every turn. The game is thoughtful and definitely seems like it would be fun to end the existence of my friends by attacking them and stealing their food (you can even evolve into a carnivore and eat them!). The game is currently working on a mobile version that can be played on a cell phone or around a tablet, which I think is a great platform for the cute nature art they have behind the game. The ladies behind this game are awesome people, and definitely care about creating a game we all can connect with. Originally, the player icons only featured Darwin-esque old white professors as characters, but the women behind the game went on to create dozens more playable characters of different races, genders, and styles (not all the women wear makeup and have long hair!). If you like tabletop games and supporting awesome women in the field, then definitely look into picking up the physical game of this and be watching for the mobile verson!
Heroes of the Storm https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yx0sZIIJ5Bc
Blizzard is in a league of its own for creating characters out of community memes, and the release of Deckard Cain at their panel on Thursday is a great example of that. Cain is a beloved storytelling character from the Diablo franchise, and his Heroes kit will play on all the old jokes about him (for example, one of his ultimate options is the Lorenado, a tornado made of pages of old lore). He is mainly a crowd control support with a health potion ability that he can leave on the ground all over the map. I’m happy to have another support character with a very teamwork-oriented kit (if my team wants to work together that is!).
Jousting Time https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1602065925/jousting-time
Jousting time is a new VR game where you place yourself in the shoes of a Jouster and battle it out online! The player picks weapons from a list of standard medieval fare (from swords to bows and arrows), and uses their left hand to ride a horse forward while swinging madly with their right. It was a lot of fun to play (I also got to destroy my boyfriend with a throwing axe), but would be difficult to have as a party game, as you would need two separate VR sets. They are planning on online multiplayer with the release, so if you have a VR headset this one could be a lot of fun!
Omensight https://www.omensight.com/
Omensight was a big surprise for me at PAX, as I had only gotten on the line to hangout with friends during some downtime at the convention. The game is an adventure game with RPG aspects, such as an interactive story and character upgrades. The main character, the Harbinger, has a beautiful design and the characters in the game are diverse and mysterious. The demo at PAX involved a plot decision, and even though I had only been playing for 10 minutes I felt conflicted and attached to the characters I was interacting with. The combat is exciting and fast-paced, and the boss fight had a good level of challenge to it. I love that the story is interactive and changing, and this definitely feels like the kind of game you’d want to replay to see all the various consequences of your choices.
Phogs http://bitloomgames.com/
Growing up, I loved Catdog and secretly wished I could BE Catdog. With Phogs, I can finally live out my dream of one side of a two-headed animal. Phogs is a multiplayer game where players take on one half of a very long Pug, and must use either side of their bodies to maneuver through the world and find items to feed a hungry snake friend to move on. The game is incredibly cute, with a colorful art style and entertaining mechanics (my friend and I laughed through our entire playthrough as we moved our dog body through the worlds). There are a lot of thoughtful mechanics throughout the game, including using the body as a means of transporting a material (for example, if one dog is drinking water the water shoots out of the other dog’s mouth). This game looks like a lot of fun as a couch co-op, so keep it on your radar!
Pikuniku http://indiemegabooth.com/project/pikuniku/
Pikuniku is a one to two person adventure game where the player travels through smaller levels to move on within the world. The demo at PAX definitely didn’t show all this game had to offer, but the co-op was entertaining and required good communication between myself and my partner. Certain switches/mechanics required both players to strategize, and some maps included friendly challenges (one had the two players racing in little cars against each other). The characters and world were cute, and I’m interested to see what else the game has to bring, as the website discusses a storyline and more characters to interact with.
Pixel Ripped http://www.pixelripped.com/
Pixel Ripped is a new VR game that won Best VR Game at GDC this year (just a few weeks before PAX!). The player plays as two different characters; the female hero of a popular handheld game, and the 9 year old girl who is the best player in the world at that handheld game. I firstly loved that the two leads of this game were both girls, including one being a young kid who is more skilled than anyone else, but I also loved how meta this game is. You’re in VR playing a handheld game, navigating the game itself while also keeping track of what’s happening in the real world around the girl. She’s a primary school student, and has to keep her evil teacher at bay so she can play her video game sneakily (I’ve totally been there). The design of the game was stunning; it was colorful and had a good level of challenge to managing all the different aspects of it. It’s a great VR experience and also a fun platformer, and I’m excited to see where this one goes.
Pretending to Grownup https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/drinkingquest/pretending-to-grownup
Pretending to Grownup is a new card game about all the “grownup” tasks we complete in daily life. Each turn, a player must play a grownup action face-down based on different adult struggles (time, money or energy. If other players believe they have cards with a higher amount of that struggle, they can gamble those cards face-down as well. Once people have determined if they are gambling or not, the cards flip and the player with the highest number wins and gets to keep the cards. The game is fairly simplistic and reminds me of the tried and true game BS, so if you’re in the market for some mindless entertainment with goofy cards, this is a good option.
Rend https://www.frostkeep.com/rend-game/
Rend is a faction-based survival game. 60 players join the game into 20 person factions and gather resources/fight their enemies to fill the world tree at the center of the map with souls. The map itself is beautiful, having many different zones with different climates, enemies, and challenges (e.g. the frost land depletes warmth so the player needs to prepare for it, the swamp area has enemies that leave the character with a debuff that attracts more enemies, etc.). For a game created with some members from the original World of Warcraft team, I can definitely feel a lot of RPG beauty within the survival aspect. The devs noted that the game can take upwards of 2 real time months to complete, so it seems like an excellent game to grab some friends to play with. Since it is a survival game, players in each faction can take on different roles to help their team based on their playstyle. If you are a fighter, go attack your enemies in the world. If you are more passive, there is an extensive crafting list with endless resources to discover on the map. Every week, during a server event called The Reckoning, players must plan how their faction will protect and defend their faction base from NPC enemies and other factions. With each subsequent reckoning, the Lost creatures will grow stronger and more powerful forcing each faction to rethink their strategy and give players a designated time to be online together to defend their base. I’m very excited for this one!
Sleep Tight https://www.sleeptightgame.com/
Sleep Tight was probably my favorite game at PAX East. I’m not sure if this was due to the excellent presentation by the game developers in attendance or due to the charming nature of the game itself, but whatever the cause this is my top recommendation from PAX East this year. In this game, you take control of kid characters (boy or girl) who are building up pillow forts during the day to protect themselves at night from monsters. The game features adorable characters and item design, and the fighting at night gets more difficult as time goes on (so the player needs to carefully build up their defenses). There are walls, turrets, and a multitude of imaginative weapons at your disposal (I personally loved a water balloon gun available after a few rounds of building up my defenses). This game is fun and accessible for any age, and I can see it being a big hit on the switch for lots of different demographics. 10/10 from me, awesome game and tons of fun. I can’t wait for it to come out.
Splitgate: Arena Warfare https://youtu.be/2w8xlTYB2jI
Splitgate advertises itself as “Halo meets Portal”, and the game delivered on that promise. The weapon mechanics feel very similar to Halo (need a bit of tweaking, as it seems right now the sniper is super OP), and the player is able to create portals using their weapons to different locations on the map. The player sets the starting point of a portal, and then can drop the end wherever they can on the portal-accessible parts of the map (the walls are a different grey color). The portal mechanic itself was a bit tricky and it took me a while to figure out, but it adds a new element to the traditional first-person shooter that I think is exciting. PAX only had one map available to test, but the devs noted that they just got a large amount of funding, so I’ll be keeping an eye out for this one when it releases next year (they’re estimating Feb. 2019)!
My Time at Portia http://portia.pathea.net/
Stardew Valley is one of my most played games of 2017, and My Time at Portia gave me new excitement for the farming genre. The characters are adorable and the surrounding world is expansive and colorful. The crafting seems to be more extensive than SV, and there are more ways to interact with the locals of Portia (you can even play rock, paper, scissors with them!). The community manager I spoke to (she has hundreds of hours into the game, which speaks to how much there is to do) also noted that they will be adding in domesticated animals into the game, so the development team is continually adding to the content and is reading the feedback from their steam forums. If you loved Stardew Valley as much as I did, I do think this game is a new take on the genre and worth trying.
The Ultimate Clapback https://theultimateclapback.com/
The Ultimate Clapback is a card game created by MaryMartha, a woman who never planned on being a game developer. While struggling emotionally with her mother’s illness, MaryMartha decided to take her humor and put it to good use, creating the game to play with friends to relieve stress. This card game is an excellent way to poke fun at the people you know, as each player sends a card to another that is meant to be an insult, and the receiving player must “clapback” in response. It’s a card game that relies equally on the humor of the card and the delivery of the responder, which sets it apart from typical Cards Against Humanity games that have anonymity for who played what card. MaryMartha was incredibly kind and genuinely excited to be at PAX, so I HAD to buy a copy of the game to play with my friends (who loved it too!)
World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth https://worldofwarcraft.com/en-us/battle-for-azeroth
As an ex-competitive World of Warcraft player, every time WoW announces a new expansion I go through periods of excitement, then anxiety, then fear for the new expansion. After trying the 3v3 PvE mode of BFA at PAX, I can firmly say that I am riding the waves of excitement. The mode was difficult but manageable, and the design of the island was beautiful. I loved that you and your team of 3 adventurers could decide how to gather resources in your own way, and the enemy players we faced were strong and tricky to defeat (which always makes the competitive girl in me happy…I don’t want to steamroll content).
