This article originally ran under a different banner/website in March of 2020 and is now being here re-uploaded for purposes of convenience and consolidation. Please enjoy.
HEAR YE!!! HEAR YE!!! MY LOYAL FOLLOWERS!!! I have often utilized indie games to fill the void in the release schedule left by big-name publishers. Frequently those indie games would be titles that I played demos of at PAX East. Unfortunately, as I begin to tackle bigger and more ambitious titles, these indie games have fallen to the wayside. A dishonor, I no longer wish to take part in. While I still might have time to review these games upon release, I wish to discuss with you five games I played at PAX East 2020 that really caught my attention. Keep in mind, I did not have time to demo every game. I dared not even look at the lines for Animal Crossing: New Horizon or Final Fantasy 7 Remake. I am not here to say those games will not meet expectations, but I am one mortal man who was not able to go all four days to PAX East. I just wish to present five games that I believe you should keep your eye out for.
Chivalry 2
While I have not played the previous medieval warfare simulator, Chivalry: Medieval Warfare, an enthusiastic developer still urged me to wait in line for their demo. I was a tad skeptical as someone who has shied away from multiplayer, but upon charging headlong into battle with my ax and shield, I was reminded of a time I did revel in hoping online to enjoy games with friends. It was never the idea of playing with friends that turned me off from multiplayer. It was frankly, other players. The min-maxers. The players screaming that your character or play-style was worthless. I honestly, had more fun playing betas for games like Overwatch and League of Legends before children crying about metas infested my lobbies.
Chivalry 2 perfectly captured that feeling of playing a multiplayer game before the concept of a meta ruins the experience. It was simply two teams charging head-first into each other like a child smashing his knight toys together. I frequently would try to wade into the backlines where defenseless archers plinked away at enemies unaware of me hunting them. They would try to flee as they saw me barreling down on them, but alas, few were able to escape my wild swings. I even, in some berserker rage, had my shield arm cut off by an opponent, only for me to take him down along with two of his teammates. Naturally, I received a “just a flesh wound” bonus.
I am not sure if the original Chivalry had a meta or if it was just as chaotic as this Chivalry 2. If this was truly the spirit of Chivalry, then maybe returning to some multiplayer titles would not be outside the realm of possibility.
Bite the Bullet
Konami fans, gather and rejoice! No longer must you put up with Konami’s treatment of your beloved run and gunner. Cast aside your tires stemming from Contra: Rogue Corps. You no longer need to tolerate repetitive levels, ugly three-dimensional character models, and overheating guns. I present to you your savior: Bite the Bullet.
Bite the Bullet is a classic run and gunner shooter in the vein of the classic Contra titles. The game boasts itself as a run and gunner roguelite in a sci-fi world. The feature that really drew me to Bite the Bullet was the ability to eat low health enemies. Upon getting the first drone to low health, I pressed the B button on the controller causing my hero to leap onto the drone like a ravenous wolf. A maneuver that I found so hilarious, I kept performing it until my character had become portly. I couldn’t find if there was a disadvantage to having the beer gut, but I found it refreshing to see a video game aiming to not take itself so seriously. Contra fans, keep your eyes out for this one.
Carrion
Devolver Digital just gets it. They have a clear eye for titles that just look fun. They have constantly made it into my top games list and they look to keep the streak going with Carrion. Debuting in the Devolver Digital 2019 E3 show, Carrion gives you control of a ravenous alien creature that seems to be a cross between a symbiote and John Carpenter’s The Thing. You must consume and destroy all the puny scientists who looked to tear you apart in the name of science.
Now I cannot deny that being an amorphous blob popping out of vents, picking off terrified scientists, wasn’t cathartic, but something didn’t quite feel right. It might have been due to the fact I was using a controller but reaching out to grab those screaming scientists felt awkward to control. The sensitivity on grabbing and even moving around felt way too sensitive and frequently found my symbiote monster thrashing back and forth wildly inside an air duct. While the trashing made some sense from a pace perspective, the process of slowly digesting humans brought the pace to a screeching halt. It might be designed to prevent you from counteracting damage from quickly scarfing down people for health, but it kills the fantasy of being an unstoppable alien mass.
I am hoping these concerns will be addressed or easily solved with mouse and keyboard controls. I really hope developers Phobia Game Studio and publisher Devolver Digital sort this out as the number of games that allow us to fulfill our boyish fantasies of being an unstoppable monster is few and far between.
Wastelands 3
While I am familiar with the Wastelands series as the true succor to the Fallout series before Bethesda turned them into sandboxes, I haven’t had the chance to play the previous Wasteland titles. However, at PAX, I am more likely to jump into new titles without any previous knowledge of the series. As the day was winding down, I was able to stumble into the Wastelands 3 booth and place myself in front of one of their demos. A representative approached me and informed me this demo was focused on combat over the storytelling the series was known for. Very much reasonable to test the combat in front of a crowd as large as PAX East.
While I haven’t played many games that involve Xcom-styled turned-based combat, Wastelands 3 showed me I can certainly get into it. Much like placing an opponent in a checkmate scenario in chess, it was incredibly satisfying to pick someone off with the sniper shot or perfectly placed shotgun blast. While the solution seemed obvious, it was really enjoyable to two-shot the boss by shooting at the explosive barrels he chose to stand next to. My one complaint was one of my party members could trigger combat while the other members of the squad were on the other side of the map. Resulting in me moving each individual teammate into the combat range. There might be an ability to do that, but I could not find it in my short time with the demo.
What specifically surprised me about Wasteland 3 was the amount of character the game had in this small demo. After defeating the boss who chose to monologue next to some explosive barrels, I was introduced to the target I was supposed to rescue: Vic Buchanan. Decked in fur coats, face tattoos, and purple hair, he looked like he belonged more in a Gotham city gang than a post-apocalyptic Colorado. He clearly had lost a couple of marbles as he frequently exchanged banter with a dead corpse he carried. He refused to return with us as he had enough of his father, the Patriarch of Colorado. I decided to lie to him and say he could join the Rangers if he returned home with us. He detected my lie and decided to throw a flashbang grenade in retaliation. Unfortunately, his corpse friend supposedly handed him a real grenade that blew off Vic’s legs causing him to bleed out. If this demo was to have no focus on the story, I am ecstatic to see the amount of story teeming through Wastelands 3.
Dunk Lords
I frequently remember going to my cousin’s house and playing the NBA Street games on their Gamecube. The Street series often captured my imagination more than the typical EA sports titles. I found it very disheartening to see EA do away with the series, and I think the team at Story Fort LLC completely agreed. With a few minutes left at PAX East, I was able to jump onto an arcade cabinet containing their new title Dunk Lords. The team described Dunk Lords as a two-on-two basketball beat ’em up. While that’s not a bad comparison, I think saying it’s NBA Street with wacky cartoon characters paints a better picture.
While I didn’t have enough time to get to grips with the controls, I had a blast even with the computer-controlled team cursing me. It is completely bonkers as special moves are being fired off like fireworks on the 4th. Watching the computer use a robot character to skate through me and leap over us to dunk the ball in my face painted a childish smile on my face. You are also able to purchase equipment in between quarters that can assist you like rocket boots or sticky gloves. While the equipment didn’t seem to improve our inability to play basketball, I still walked away from Dunk Lords with a smile because I was playing a character with a strawberry for ahead. How could you say you had a bad time with a game like that?
PAX East is always one of my favorite events. Many games have lost their ways and now aim to numb rather than simulate. However, those games seem to be petrified at being at an event like PAX East. Even the games that didn’t resonate with me, were still built with passion and heart. Not every game needs to appeal to just me; in fact, aiming to appease everyone is how we got games like Fallout 76, Anthem, and Ghost Recon Breakpoint. PAX East will always remind me that games that aim to invoke joy will continue to exist. You just need to know where to look for them.