RTX 2016 Round Up
04 Jul 2016
Another year has come and past and RTX just always seems to get better and better. There were some amazing games that were on the show floor that I was able to get my hands on that I can’t wait to give a full review for. While I was not able to get to every single game there I was able to get my hands on a lot of good games. As a reminder these games range from being in alpha to being released, and unless they are released they are subject to change. My thoughts and opinions on these games should be taken as first impressions rather than full reviews.
LawBreakers
Genre: Multiplayer First Person Shooter
Status: Alpha
While LawBreakers may not be making a lot of hype the devs seems to be listening to feedback carefully. Some issues that I had heard from other reviewers and friends that went to PAX was that the game felt to slow. Now the game controls a bit faster than what people were telling but was definitely slower than other shooters. The game has different classes to choose from, Assassin (The quick mobile character that uses melee to take people down), Enforcer (The standard run and gun character), Titan (The slow but powerful rocket launcher character), and Vanguard (The mobile mid range character). Each type of character type has two abilities and one ultimate that slowly charges during the game, similar to Overwatch. The game just seemed too generic for my taste, It didn’t seem to do anything different or unique. Another problem that I had with the game was that your primary weapon felt like it didn’t do enough damage as you would expect, most of your damage seemed to come from your abilities. The game was fun at the end of the day, but didn’t do anything to win me over.
Pyre
Genre: Adventure Sport game?
Status: In Development
The folks at Super Giant never cease to amaze me with every game that they put out. The art, sound, music, and gameplay are all different in each game but still have a brand of excellence that I come to expect. This title seems to be no different, taking on a adventure game with mixed elements from Banner Saga and sports games. You have three exiles that are trying to return home from rituals they learn about from you. During these rituals the exiles must face off against other exiles to get an orb into the enemies pyre while defending your own. The challenge and strategy comes from only being able to control one exile at a time. Each exile has their own advantages and disadvantages in either movement speed or aura size. The auras are what allows you to banish other exiles and take them off the playing field for a brief period of time. The overall presentation and gameplay definitely have me eagerly awaiting the release of Pyre.
Livelock
Genre: Twin Stick Co-op shooter
Status: In Development
Livelock is a twin stick shooter game that is focused on killing enemies while you try to get to the end of that level. You and three friends will have to work together to make it passed the enemies in your way. You can choose from three different types of mechs to achieve this goal. You can play as Hex the more damage oriented mech, Vanguard as the tanking mech, or catalyst as the support mech. Each of the mechs have abilities that can be customized to fit the players play style. The controls seemed a bit weird and took some time to get used to. The biggest complaint that I had was that aiming on a controller felt off (You can play on a mouse and keyboard, I did not get a chance to however), aiming your abilities also felt off and was hard to gauge where they would land as there was no indication. The levels seemed quick and engaging, and the game overall was pretty fun. It was the kind of fun that you and two of your friends would grab some beers and play through a couple of levels. I hope that the developers implement a single player mode as having a lasting community for this game is unlikely.
Gigantic
Genre: Third Person MOBA
Status: Beta
This game blew me away. When I was talking to the people at the booth my heart sank as they told me that it was another free to play MOBA. I was expecting the game to be fun but probably never catch on as there are so many options when it comes to MOBAs. It did however take on the over the shoulder camera approach that smite took on. I thought that this might make the game more interesting and draw more people in. I got on my team of 5, with a member of the Gigantic team coaching us. It seemed like the standard MOBA fair, pick your character which can be dps, support, and tank. When I got into the match I knew that this game was different when you jumped in the map and there were no lanes just objective points. Capturing those objective points would allow you to summon a monster that would give buffs to your team. You would then fight the enemy team while also trying to kill the enemies summoned minions. Once you do enough of the secondary objectives (Summon monsters, kill enemies summoned minions, and kill enemies) your guardian will then attack the enemies guardian at which point you will be able to attack the enemies guardian taking off health bars from it, do this enough times and you will win. This game in my opinion is leagues better than Smite, the gameplay seems faster and more engaging than other MOBAs. I honestly can’t wait for this game to be out.
Carmageddon: Max Damage
Genre: Racing
Status: Out July 8th
Carmageddon: Max Damage is the latest installment in the Carmageddon series in which you drive over pedestrians, crash into other cars, or actually race (if you are into that kinda thing). The goal of the game is basically to do what was listed above, drive over pedestrians, crash into other cars, or actually race. While I don’t mind reboots this one kinda seemed boring almost. I played for about 10 minutes driving into other cars and running over pedestrians, but it eventually got boring to me. There was nothing more to do other than those three things. Surprisingly however, the cars actually had a good amount of weight to them and felt like they controlled how cars should. I’ll admit that it was fun for a couple of minutes but then my interest just wavered. It could be that I hopped in once someone else left and didn’t have the best idea of what I was doing, but overall it just didn’t impress me.
Black Ice
Genre: Adventure FPS
Status: Beta / Early Access
I was recommended to play this game by my good friend Nick. I was weary at first because the extremely minimalistic approach to the graphics. That quickly dissolved as the gameplay sold me on this game. The game is a mix of wave survival and rouge-like where you take on the role of a hacker in cyberspace. You find a corporation that is represented by a rectangular building, you then proceed to hack the building which then spawns enemies based on the cooperation’s level. If the buildings are close enough to each other you can hack multiple buildings simultaneously. Once you successfully hack a building you then get some randomized loot. This loot will help you to hack other buildings and change the way you play. You also have a leveling system to help you get a grasp on what level of building you should hack. Each level you gain allows you to put points into a skill tree which can give you increased hacking speed, damage, fire rate, etc. The game looks really promising and the fact that you can play multiplayer with friends just makes it even more the better. Im looking forward to playing this game and reviewing it when it comes out.
Witchkin
Genre: Horror
Status: In Development
Horror games are just kinda weird to review. Is a horror game bad because it doesn’t scare you? It’s kinda difficult to tell how good Witchkin was because I was not scared by it when I played it on the show floor. The gameplay does seem pretty good and had some interesting mechanics. The main point of Witchkin is to find a way out of the house while a spoopy looking doll chases you. You can avoid the doll by running away or finding a key to a door which you can close and then hide from the doll. One of the things that did me a frighten was when I closed the door, explored the room, and then turned around to see the door open up and the doll kill me. I was then told that I forgot to lock the door and the doll could go into rooms. With horror kinda being over done recently, Witchkin didn’t really bring anything new to the table. That being said, it does seem really early and there is plenty of room for improvement.
Dubwars
Genre: 2D space shooter / music
Status: Early Access
Dubwars is a visually and audibly beautiful game. The gameplay is reminiscent of Beat Hazard, but differs in that its levels and weapons are created by the level designers rather than procedurally generated, giving it the potential for a proper level balance. From what I could tell from the number of people coming back just trying to finish a level, and from eventually beating one myself, the challenge is there and it feels right. The weapons fire automatically, are specific to the level, and have a great variety to how they work. As a last twist, each level seems to have its own catch which adds one more layer of mechanics to the level. I was not able to play all the ones available, but putting all these factors together made playing different levels absolutely distinct. Currently there are only 10 levels to play, but the devs are deadset on making more levels as part of further patches. My only criticisms based on what I played would be the weight and drift of the ship in comparison to the light and zippy hoards of enemies, and the small pool of levels it seems it will start with. If all goes well, both those might be addressed by the time it’s officially released this summer.
Many more games were on display at RTX, but either the lines were too long for me to want to go to them or I simply ran out of time going to panels. I enjoyed my time at RTX and look forward to attending the next RTX. Hopefully I see these games released before the next RTX and get to review them! Heres to video games and entertainment, see you at the next one!