We didn't get too long at Eurogame Expo this year, just rushing in for a few hours of play on Friday afternoon. Thankfully, that was long enough to head over to the indie arcade and sample several of the typically fascinating projects on show.
Here, then, are five titles I've never seen before, but think will definitely be worth watching in the coming months...
Cloud Built (Coilworks, PC)
This game just looks stunning – an effervescent, sketch-like take on cell shading, that resembles a rough treatment of a graphic novel page brought to discordant life. It's essentially a fast-moving action platformer, though Swedish developer Coilworks refers to the gameplay as 'over-the-top rocket powered parkour', which is a pretty good description. Lead character Demi is an injured war veteran now stuck in some sort of limbo-like rehabilitation, fighting mental demons while leaping from platform to platform. Players can take their own route though the aerial environment, blasting enemies with a charge-able laser and mastering the tricky controls to sneak seconds off those speedrun times.
Chroma (I Am Claw, PC, Mac)
Chosen by Eurogamer as its favorite game of the expo, this clever platform puzzler has you controlling a light emitting character traversing a dark gothic-industrial cavern system filled with deadly obstacles. At points in each stage, however, the player can switch to a silhouette version of the avatar, capable of traversing any of the shadows generated on the cave walls. Through the dynamic lighting system then, the trick is to cast shadowy path ways just where you need them.
The work of just one coder, Mark Foster, Chroma combines the charm and quirkiness of Fez with the light/dark mechanic of Lost in Shadow to engrossing effect. Foster is currently working on the project in his spare time, but the buzz generated by Chroma's Expo appearance will hopefully encourage him to take the plunge full-time. As it is, we may have a long wait to see more of this minimalist treasure.
Assault Android Catcus (Witch Beam, PC, Mac, Linux, Wii U PS Vita, PS4)
Developed by a small bunch of ex-Sega developers in Brisbane, Australia, Assault Android is a visually spectacular top-down arena shooter, that combines the twin-stick and bullet hell blast-'em-up genres to eye-popping, finger-straining effect. You and up to three pals are desperate androids attempting to liberate a starship from attacking robot hordes. This is, of course, achieved through laser fire and not patient negotiation. The arena and mech designs are beautiful and vividly detailed, the action utterly, screen-fryingly frantic. There's also a cool gameplay dynamic that forces players to pick up battery packs to charge their android bodies, thereby thrusting them into dangerous areas of the map.
Heavily influenced by shoot-em-up supremos like Cave and Treasure, with super bright aesthetics recalling late-90s Sega coin-ops, this is a scorching new indie shooter, set to claim a place alongside the likes of Geometry Wars and Super Stardust. It's out later this year on PC, Mac and Linux and early 2014 on Wii U, PS Vita and PS4. So yeah, I quite like this one.
Framed (LoveShack, PC, Mac, iOS)
Another Australian studio, another stylish and massively promising endeavour. Framed is essentially a block-shifting puzzler in the form of a noir-themed graphic novel. Players need to swap the frames of a comic book story into the correct order before the action starts, allowing the protagonist to reach the end of the page safely. In the sequence I played, the hero has to escape an apartment building as the cops close in. the story board shows a sequence of corridor scenes, but if they're arranged correctly, the character can sneak past the policemen, hunting him down for a murder he hasn't committed.
The expressionistic visuals and silhouetted characters perfectly capture the feel of the great 1930s detective comics, and the concentration on context rather than physical action is really intriguing. The three team members behind the game have a long history in games, going all the way back to classic UK studio Bullfrog. That company's innovative verve is in evidence here. Framed is due out early next year.
Master Reboot (Wales Interactive, PC, PS3, Mac)
It's a familiar cyberpunk trope – a future in which humans are able to upload their souls to a sort of ontological cloud server, giving eternal access to favourite moments. But of course, it doesn't work out that way. Described as a first-person psychological horror adventure, Master Reboot is a sort of surreal narrative odyssey, part Silent Hill, part Dear Esther. In the Expo demo, players have to navigate from what looks like a crash site on a desert island, into the Soul Cloud matrix and from there on to a series of playable memories that have been nightmarishly warped. In one, you have to escape the fuselage of a plane while a glowing-eyed air cabin crew member lurches toward you down the aisle.
Details are vague at the moment, but Master Reboot is creepily atmospheric and has that disquieting, woozy sense of place that Chinese Room brought to Dear Esther. The survival horror spirit lives on.
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Source: Tablet Android
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