EGX REZZED is aimed more at indie development, so unlike its big brother show EGX this is all aimed at the creative talents of Indie developers not just from the UK but worldwide in general. The event was held at its new home of Tobacco Dock in London, which I will admit was slightly confusing layout at first but turned out to be a fantastic venue for the event. The event started on Thursday the 12th of March (2015) and finished Saturday 14th March (2015 funnily enough). With so many titles on display it was easy to get side tracked and miss out on some of the truly amazing games that are currently in development, so luckily I was able to attend all 3 of the days and managed to play as many of the games on show as I could get my hands on. Along with industry talks and developer sessions it is easy to see why this event appeals to gamers and industry aspirer’s alike, as it is open to the general public the event had a relaxed atmosphere and was extremely friendly.
I was very pleasantly surprised to see the ID@XBOX room constantly full whenever I passed, I had made a point of making this room my first port of call to try and get my best first impressions before the masses entered the show. With ID@XBOX giving players a choice of 22 different games to play at the event, there was always something for someone on show. Here I shall round up a few of my favourite games from the event and hopefully they are games to look out for in the future coming to the Xbox One.
PNEUMA
Pneuma is a first person puzzle game developed by Bevel Studios that is a narrative driven puzzle while navigating some spectacular levels, you take the role as a god like entity who is struggling to remember why he has created the world around him in the way that he has. Although the game did not directly point out what you had to do, the narrative pointed out that the “eyes are watching you” and you had to be in either looking at or have an eye looking at you for a door to open to the next puzzle.
The mechanic was something different for a puzzle game and it is very cleverly done, though I did see many younger people playing the game and walking away frustrated because they could not figure out how to play the game. Overall the game was very, very pretty and I would not mind playing it at release as the puzzles really made you think and the game did not hold your hand and walk you through puzzles. With the levels art styles also reflecting Roman and Greek classic culture it gave the game a distinctive different look over a lot of other games available on display.
101 Ways To Die
101 Ways to Die was a somewhat reverse take on the classic game Lemmings and is brought to you by developers 4 Door Lemon, where you have to make sure Splats (in game creatures) do not make it out the level alive. You have a level set up and then you are given a certain amount of traps per level which can consist of landmines, springboards, flash bombs and many many more to make sure you can stop all splats from escaping the level. On top of this there will be traps built into the level such as pit falls and spikes on the floor, ceiling and anywhere else; so you have to find ways to stop splats hopping over traps as well. After you lay your traps you release the splats and then they are forces to run the gauntlet you have set out in front of them, then you watch the, perish or escape.
This game was fun and boasting very cartoon like graphics, I just found the speed in which you are forced to watch the splats run the gauntlet could have been given an optional fast forward button to watch it happening quicker as the games pacing can be somewhat slow. Apart from that the game fairly enjoyable and with objectives to meet in every level and a splat killing quota to achieve you can find yourself replaying the game trying to get 100% on every level.
Soul Axiom
Soul Axiom is another first person puzzle game developed by Wales Interactive, to make it different from Pneuma though this is all about manipulating the environment around you. You are given the ability to create and dissolve platforms and walls to change the environment around you as the protagonist. The game play mechanics are Left trigger will use one hand to construct platforms and walls while the left trigger will be used to dissolve walls and platforms. I did not have a lot of time on this game but it seemed somewhat different and special, it also boasts some really nice Egyptian style set design.
The puzzles in this game do involve a lot of thinking and once again, I am not sure if it is down to not being the final build of the game or if that’s how the final product will be; but there is not a lot of hand holding and walking you through the game. Which does make the game feel more grown up, which in turn makes you feel like achieve something when you solve the puzzle because you did not have it spelt out for you.
Gear Gauntlet
Gear Gauntlet is a game that is still sticking in my mind now, it was a joy and pleasure to play. The team that work on the game (Drop Dead Interactive) spent time talking to me and telling me how they designed the game to be the way it was and how it came to be. This was the first team that were actually interested in showing off their product and took the time to speak to each and every single person playing the game. This was by far the most fun I had playing just about any game at the show and was a clear stand out in my mind of what is expected from a good Indie game. It is a really basic concept for a game and is done perfectly, no over complication of what it is supposed to be or what it tries to be. It just sets out to be a fun game and achieves it perfectly.
The main idea of the game is to navigate your way through levels filled with obstacles and try to not hit obstacles or walls, your aim is to complete a level and stay in the screen. If you do not stay on the screen the level will reset and you are forced to play through the level again. You also have to collect gears that are located throughout the level to increase your overall grade at the end of the level. Though as the game progresses you are gives barriers in the level that are colour coded, so to break through you have to press the corresponding button to change the colour of your gear to break through. So the colours are Green, Yellow, Red and Blue and to break through the barriers you have to press the A, B, X and Y buttons to change your gears colour. It is almost reminiscent of guitar hero in that sense, but not only do you have to break through barriers, later levels then have multiple options of ways to navigate the level. With so many different ways to navigate levels and try and master the levels you can find yourself being swept into the game rather quickly and find time flying past very quickly.
This game would benefit a lot from online leader boards so you can compete against friends online and see who is the better player on this game. Though as I said there is simple nature to this game, but the beautiful backgrounds and compelling game play made this easily the game of the show for me, it was a stand out title and I look forward very much to owning this game and loosing not only hours of my life but possibly my temper at how frustrating it can be.
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