My Penny Arcade Expo experience this year was an interesting one to date. Had a rough start to the morning and hopped in quickly into Sunday’s schedule. With the situations building up in the morning, I was not able to make it for any of the panels I was interested in but quickly threw out whatever schedule I had and just went and walked around. Much better adaptation of the day than a silly list I was attempting to make.
I got to visit a lot of booths that interested me thankfully. There was just a few that slipped under my radar. However, it turned out for the better in the end. It felt like there was exceptionally more alluring games than what I was anticipating previously. For this article, I will briefly mention some things that were pretty nifty to me and made for some cool reactions on the expo hall, booths I wish I could have hovered around longer and games I got to try while I was there. Some will have quicker recaps while others will be more dissected. Especially Deathgarden since that consumed more than a quarter of my day.
Starting with some cool things, the presentation of some booths were pretty magnificent and advantageous in terms of where they were placed. Indies in a nice quarter of the map, triple A developers on the front-lines and a lot of great educational institutes on the sides. My favorite booth had to have been the Detroit: Become Human section. The upcoming story telling adventure game by Quantic Dreams that takes place in the near future. Featuring cyborgs near identical to humans and moral dilemmas that will leave you questioning your own morals. Unfortunately, I did not get to try out this game but it seems promising with the new presented demo and great amount of positive feedback I have been hearing. The best part of this booth was it’s presentation featuring a very cool and clean vignette of its own environment. It was so cool to just walk by with a photo booth of human actors right outside portraying the cyborgs in such a cliche sci-fi advertisement way. This area had a clever setup and left me impressed. Another game I thought had a brilliant structure was the Player Unknown’s: Battlegrounds section. One hundred computers and crazy game modes to accompany it. The battle royale format being dedicated to having 100 separate setups for one match was just a really cool thing to see and hear about. It took up a good amount of space but I believe it was definitely worth it. I am not a fan of PUBG but even I could get behind that sense of presentation.
"Detroit: Become Human's" floor space accompanying the Twitch booth.
With these impressionable booths, came along some impressionable games. Prowling the expo hall on some interesting titles, I found a couple that I just had to try. For some others, I was not able to find the time to get in line and will be looking into them as the months pass. None of these games are listed from most interested to least. They were all equally fascinating for varying reasons.
Tour De Death
A singleplayer VR Experience... on a bike! It was an interesting gimmick I have yet to see in VR games. Riding an actual bike and watching the world fall apart around you. I can not wait to be able to try out the full game when it plans for it’s release.
Phogs
A Co-Op game that features a Cat Dog like character! Except instead of Cat Dog, it is Dog Dog. The game conferred such an adorable yet oddly perplexing world to wiggle around and solve puzzles in. This is a game I cannot wait to pick up and play with a friend. I also do not know how it should be pronounced.... Fogs? Pogs?
Ion Maiden
An early access retro styled FPS made by the original home-brewed developing team, 3D Realms. The nostalgic yet very clean graphics of the retro FPS era lives on in this fast paced shooter. After seeing this game in person, I might be a fan! Ion Maiden feels original yet completely inspired by it's previous predecessors like Doom and Duke Nukem.
Last Year: The Nightmare
Asymmetrical horror games are emerging into the pool of gaming and I for one am a fan. Last Year pits five high-school students against a constant and threatening villain. The villain sets traps and attempts to catch the high schoolers with an interesting array of game-play progression of hunt and escape.
Soulcalibur 6
A fighting game series almost long thought gone makes it return to the stage of history. Coming soon to modern console platforms, Soulcalibur plays just as well as it looks. The controls are the same as they have been through past series adaptations but are pleasingly responsive. Alongside a sleek user interface and a flurry or visual effects, Soulcalbiur sets a wonderful presentation for its potential. This is a fighter I can see myself being able to invest into and cannot wait to see more character reveals and see possible character mains I may have. The PAX build was very promising and my interest has been securely fastened for the coming months.
CODE
A simple 8 bit puzzle game that features a variety of self learning player tools with a diverse amount of generated situations. For an indie title and for what the developer was showing me during the demo, I could see myself thoroughly enjoying a full playthrough of this game. It was developed by a singular individual and it shows a lot of promise. CODE is worth picking up and solving a nice handful of smart and well thought out challenges for an hour or so.
(In order from left to right) Phogs, Ion Maiden, Last Year: The Nightmare, Soulcalibur 6, CODE
With all these wonderful games and booths, it would not be fair to myself if I did not swing by the Dead by Daylight booth and give my current favorite game some much needed love. This was the highlight of my day since I got to meet both the game director, Mathieu McCote, and community manager, Not_Queen (Gabriella), for the first time ever. I keep up to date with the latest developer streams they host and it was so awesome to meet them in person. Not_Queen and I got to play a round of survivors and I won a pin with her on my squad. Afterwards, I got to have a nice conversation about her position with the company, how she got there and even to talk to her about my own projects and status of game development. It was such a great feeling to meet Not_Queen and see my favorite developers showing off all the latest Dead by Daylight content. I got great advice for my own personal works and cannot wait to go forward with all this new inspiration.
Best survivor team at PAX East 2018! Featuring Not_Queen, Michael, Brandon and me!
Without further ado, the last segment of my PAX overview is the game that practically ate up my whole day, Deathgarden. This portion will be more in depth than any game I have mentioned thus far so if this is not a title that has not kindled any sort of interest with you, this part may not be for you.
Jumping right into it, Deathgarden is an asymmetrical 5v1 multiplayer only title that is developed by the same team that has worked on Dead by Daylight. However, it is not the exact same team. With the events bEHaviour Interactive has been going through the past few months, the team has almost doubled since then and a portion of developers split up to keep Dead by Daylight and Deathgarden active projects. The world of Deathgarden is pretty vague in it's artistic style but the game-play is where it's vibrancy manifests the most.
The game starts off with both teams in separate drop zones. The five person team emobodies The Runners while the solo player will triumphs as The Hunter. Runners speed across the map attempting to capture two out of the three objective pylons that reside in the area while The Hunter speeds in trying to slow down The Runner's progress and kill them off one by one. Each match is procedurally generated. Environmental structures, player resources and objective points will consistently vary per round and match. The game is based off a best two out of three victory condition and the first team to complete their primary objectives twice wins. The primary objective for The Runners is to capture two out three objective pylons that spawn in and can also make sure three Runners can escape when the goal makes itself available. For The Hunter, they need utilized their arsenal to down and execute three Runners. Easier said than done.
The Runners holding an objective pylon against the upcoming Hunter.
When the match starts, The Runners will dash into the map and be on the lookout for the objective pylons that spawn in. During this time, The Runners may also use their pre-equipped arrows to shoot resources, execution hooks and objectives to tag them for a short time to their team. After ten seconds of the game starting, The Hunter is the next to drop in and this is where things start to get more intense. Equipped with a shotgun and assault rifle, The Hunter is able to sprint in and start the hunt for The Runners. If caught by The Hunter, The Runners will start a chase and depending on the outcome, they can be put in a downed state by taking too much damage. From here, teammates can come over to revive the player or The Hunter may capture them and hook them up in a crazy machine that will spawn after a short amount of time. This gives both teams a pace of progression… save The Runner who will be hooked and prevent The Hunter’s victory or continue to push the objective. If uncontested, The Hunter can execute the captured Runner and remove them from the round, pushing the victory requirement one step forward and leaving The Runner’s one person down.
This is the core game-play in a nutshell but there are some extra features that enrich the playing field. At the start of a match, a countdown will initiate and players can decide their personal load-outs and classes they want to play that round with. From what I gathered, the five person team of Runners have three classes and four perks they may choose from. The Hunter has some equipment and two possible play-styles to approach. For The Runners, the classes revolve around hindering The Hunter, aggroing them or playing for survival. With The Hunter, they can become more lethal and mobile by setting up turrets to guard objectives or becoming a full on monster in a chase by getting a powerful shoulder charge. This ability paired with the talent of stunning The Runners in a chase makes for a great combination. The Hunter may also come equipped with a tracker that allows them to paint a red outline on Runners in a set area.
Deathgarden shows a lot of promise with a well designed competitive push and pull environment. Objective advancement is fast and intense for both sides while opening up new sub objectives with each encounter. After waiting for two and a half hours and watching almost a dozen matches, I got to experience Deathgarden and it pains me to say that I have not gotten the intended game-play experience portrayed in the matches I spectated. On average, the matches lasted around twelve to sixteen minutes. For me, it was only six minutes for my whole match. The Hunter did not comprehend their objective and was not the most skilled shooter in the group we had. This raised up my concerns for some of the player conveyance that currently resides in this current build. I experimented with The Runners potential and even learned that the classes you play do not get their bonuses unless you find specific resource points across the match to upgrade your gauntlets. A simple game with a few specific guidelines to master.
A runner pinned downed by The Hunter; guarding a load-out upgrade pylon.
Overall, Deathgarden will be on my wishlist of games to play as the closed alpha approaches in the coming weeks or months. I really want to dig into the heart of this game and see the perspectives of both sides in more matches. The Hunter looked like a lot of fun with some traditionally shooter personality alongside an epic power fantasy. I am looking forward to trying them out and sending Runners to the blood pits.
In the end, my PAX was a jumbled mess this year but I made the best out of it! Great friends to tag along with, meeting some great developers and playing a refreshing palette of games! If you have any questions or comments, leave them below! I would love to talk more about what I got to saw and what was on the showfloor. It was a wonderful event and cannot wait to hit it up again next year! Stay awesome everyone and thank you for stopping by the cozy corner.
