You can already check out my analysis of the Nintendo 3DS here. This is for all the other games I got to play that weekend.

Fallen Frontier

I’ve been curious what exactly three former Bungie employees would be up to with their new studio Moonshot Games. It turns out they’d be making a game that’s sort of like Metroid, sort of like Contra, a bit like Bionic Commando and coated in Blade Runner style imagery.

Such a chimera of style is clearly a good thing for me, as I love genre mash-ups. At least, good ones that actually work together well. It is my pleasure to say that Fallen Frontier will likely suck me in like Shadow Complex, which is probably what most media will be comparing it to in the coming months/year. The two have a completely different feel, however, except for aiming your weapon with the right analog stick and firing with the right trigger.

Oddly enough, the most fun I had with the game was wall-jumping and using the grappling hook. There was a moment where my co-op partner and I (that’s partly where the Contra comes in) reached our “destination”, but the elevator shaft continued upward. Bouncing between the wall and hovering obstructions, using the grappling hook to keep me going when there were any unfortunate empty spaces, was incredibly fun. I mastered wall-jumping and grappling hook navigation in no time and continued to use it throughout the level. Like in Halo, there is also an emphasis on sneaking up behind foes and whacking them in the back of the head. On the whole the game takes mobility heavily into account so the player can do more than just move forward, aim and fire.

My only real gameplay complaint is that the grenade had a way too wide area of effect, splashing damage on myself and my partner when I thought we were well out of range. The developer was quite aware of this, however, and I expect it will be fixed in the final release. Other than that I’d note a lack of enemy variety, but I expect that will improve in the full game. Otherwise, I just wish the game had a less generic looking hero (small sprite, but he was bald and angry looking).

In short, it looks like three former Bungie employees are off to a good start with their new studio, and should make an excellent mark on the Indie developer map.

Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon

When I heard Vicious Cycle, developers of the oh-so disappointing Matt Hazard, were developing the new Earth Defense Force, my heart sank. Would they deliver a worthy title that was just as outrageous and fun as the first? Would they actually try to make the game good? Would the game control and feel as clunky and unrefined as Matt Hazard?

The answer is no, thank God. The second I started walking around it felt like the same old Earth Defense Force I had grown used to, only with some slight polish across the board. The characters had new combat abilities, you could sprint across long distances, the animations and graphics didn’t look so poor or awkward and the variety of foes was greater. In addition to giant ants spitting acid at me I now had to worry about ticks jumping on my back and exploding.

Sweet.

The only real problem is I never got a sense of a massive wave of foes. It was, of course, just a demo and I’m not sure what the later game will look like, but one of the highlights of the first game is seeing all those giant monsters spread across the city. I’m not sure if the cost of better graphics will end up being fewer enemies, which would be detrimental to such a game when you consider its new co-op features. More players should mean more enemies, not less.

In that regard I can’t make a truly final judgment on the game. However, my major concerns have been laid to rest and Earth Defense Force: Insect Armaggedon will be a day one purchase for me. At the very least Vicious Cycle has made a game that is just as ridiculous and fun as its predecessor.

If only the same could have been said for Matt Hazard.

Trenched

After shaking Tim Schaeffer’s Godly hand I got in line for their new Xbox Live Arcade game Trenched, speaking with who I think was the Lead Designer on the game. I think. I also think his name was Mike, but the entire convention is sort of a blur of faces, names and lights.

Trenched was born out of a desire for a good old fashioned Mech game, the sort you bring home to your parents. A genre that has been severely lacking these days. MechAssault is dead, ChromeHounds was crushed and Armored Core is so hard core (lawl) that you have to calculate whether your weapon will be so large it creates drag during flight. I know this because Mike told me so. Or Matt. Or Bartholomew.

Trenched is not one of those games. You get in a big machine with big guns and shoot other big machines that are attempting to take down the fortress you’re defending. Or tower. Or bomb. These big machines also happen to glow different colors, each indicating its choice of target. Blue beasts beeline straight for the point you are defending while the red monsters assault the player. It forces the player to rethink certain strategies based on the condition of their own health versus that of their tower. As monsters are defeated resources are dropped on the ground and absorbed which are capable of fueling various installments. The demo included a typical stationary turret, but also included a magnet that would absorb more of these resources off the ground. More will be available in the full game, allowing players to create a versatile series of station defenses.

A player’s Mech evolves over the course of the game, but avoids the complexity found in the Armored Core series that requires a doctorate in Engineering. Customization and mechanics will remain simplified so that the point of entry can remain low and accessible.

It also wouldn’t be a Double Fine game without a good sense of humor and absurd imagination. I won’t spoil any of that for you, however. Just know that, same with Fallen Frontier, Trenched will be a must-have Xbox Live Arcade game.

Hunted: The Demon’s Forge

Either co-op is the new name of modern gaming or I happen to be drawn to such titles, as Hunted: The Demon’s Forge was the fourth title I was drawn to on Saturday at the show. I’ve been pretty apprehensive about the game since it was announced. I’d love a co-op game that has nothing to do with guns, and it feels like the number of fantasy games (good ones, at least) are limited when compared to all the modern warfare or science fiction stories going on.

Hunted: The Demon’s Forge has problems starting right with…well, let’s face it. The problems start with the character designs. The female archer should really have been given some actual clothes by now, and the generic male fighter is just that. Generic. He looks like a space marine that’s lost his gun. I welcome the day when a developer can make a character that looks like Kieffer Sutherland, Jeff Goldblum, Sean Connery or Edward Norton. Or Hell, why not even Sylvester Stallone? Instead it’s the same generic “I’m angry, I have no hair and I just found out my favorite Gold’s Gym blew up”.

This is all aesthetic, though. If I refused to try a game based on its aesthetic then I’d pretty much be limited to five or six game studios. The real issues started right when setting a game up. The menu required way too many clicks to start a game, though partly because it kept asking the partner if they were okay with everything. I understand the purpose for this. It is a co-op game and you want to make sure everyone is on the same page. However, it would be better to just have a single summary page before it starts with a simple “Are you okay with this?”. The less you force a user to think in the menus the better. Keep It Simple Stupid.

The game itself, however…well, it felt like it could be fun, but it just wasn’t. That or there was a lot of stuff going on that wasn’t made clear. The game seems built around breaking down another foe’s shield, but the process is long and cumbersome. The most effective method of taking down a foe was for myself or my partner to act as decoy while the other hacked at the monster’s back. Even so it took an excruciatingly long time to take just one foe down. If there were moves designed to knock an enemy back and expose them we couldn’t find them. Further more, when the foe did leave themselves open during an attack, striking at them would not stop them. It merely did some damage while opening myself up to a blow.

Playing the archer I decided to try and hang back and shoot foes in the face, but this proved to be nearly impossible. Arrows are weak and can hardly even count as support unless fused with a spell. Even then, the only spell that really helped was one that would freeze the enemy, and then it was best to switch to melee and attack. Headshots meant nothing until later in the demo against foes that were significantly weaker. Shooting an enemy in the leg or arm was also a worthless gesture. Guess these developers never played Resident Evil 4.

Magic spells felt equally worthless in most scenarios. Once or twice I was able to cast a spell to any results, yet in most cases it felt like they went right through enemies (and very well could have). Despite the number of spells at my disposal I felt like I had nothing to choose from but to freeze a foe with my arrow and then hack at them endlessly with what equated to a machete.

Switching between melee, magic and ranged attacks was hardly intuitive, either. Instead of the game having one attack button it ties each separate ability to a different button. So pressing the right bumper to bring up magic will then switch over to bow and arrow if you hit right trigger. While I can see the logic in this decision it takes some adjustment. Anything that takes adjustment is poor design and usability. It should be one attack button with one or two other buttons dedicated to swapping the other moves.

In the end, it felt like most of the challenge from the demo came more from fighting with its mechanics rather than the foes themselves. These are all things that can be adjusted and improved, but with the game getting so close to release I’m not sure if it’s even possible.

This is a game I was interested in, and while I typically would give a developer a fair shake I just can’t expect them to fix the entire thing in a short month or two. What I played was, frankly, not worth the $60.

That said, it is a Bethesda game, and while Hunted is certainly better than WET, it isn’t up to snuff with better polished and designed games.

Dishwasher: Vampire Smile

It’s no secret that I’m a fan of Dishwasher: Dead Samurai on Xbox Live Arcade. I found it to be an incredibly fun action game with a really addictive arcade mode that can easily be picked up at any time. So I wanted to make sure I got to play the game before the show was over, and after following a series of really bad directions finally got my hands on it.

On the whole, it’s the same game. It feels and controls the same as the previous iteration and is just as tough and unforgiving. If you loved the last one, then you’ll love this one. If you merely liked the last one, well, I’d give it a trial run.

The real change is an improvement in the co-op functionality. The story mode introduces a new character to play as and allows players to travel through the game with a friend. Again, this seems to be the year for co-op, which is completely fine by me. Other than that, the only noticeable gameplay modification was swapping guns to be a supporting attack rather than their own weapon. This was a good move, as being able to use it between a more powerful weapon’s strikes is much more useful than it was in the first game.

It’s fun and violent, and naturally I’d recommend it since I love the game. It may be more worthwhile to huge fans of the previous and those who skipped out on the first, however.

RISK: Factions

I’m not sure what to think about this game. I decided to jump right in and play a single player mode, which was probably a bad idea. It was RISK, and RISK type things were happening, but I was getting screwed over severely. Which I guess means RISK type things were happening.

It just seemed unusual that every fight I had, even with different factions, ended with me rolling no higher than four and my foes rolling no lower than five.

I guess the pleasure of RISK: Factions will come from the crowd who wants to play their favorite board games digitally, at which case it should be great. The game has style, though it feels as if it takes too long for things to happen. It could be that there are settings that allow you to adjust whether certain animations are on/off or at what speeds, and I probably should have seen if such options were available. As it was, I was instantly demoralized to find all of my attacks so easily repelled and turned to play another game.

What I do know is there are additional game modes. You can play traditional RISK, or you can play mission-based modes that grant boons and bonuses for accomplishing specific goals. For what it is doing, it certainly looks to do it well…that is, as long as those dice rolls were chance and not how the game is programmed.

Stupid random number generators.

Red Faction: Armageddon

Red Faction: Armageddon is a game…and that’s about all I can say about it.

The set-up was genius for such a crowded expo hall. Give players a one minute time limit to try and cause as much havoc and destruction as possible. It kept the line to a simple fifteen minute wait like the 3DS line, but unlike the 3DS line it was hardly an appetizer to wet one’s taste buds. The concept was to get as high a score as possible by destroying the environments in one minute.

This gave the opportunity to get a feel for the game, the weapons and the technology behind it. I can safely say all of those will be better than Red Faction: Guerilla, a game that felt half-assed and only partly completed. You use a third person perspective similar to Resident Evil 4, Dead Space or Gears of War, and according to the staff on hand the game will be more linear. In other words, no one like an open-world so they’re going back to a more traditional shooter.

Personally, I don’t have a problem with this since most open-world games suck anyway.

The weapons were pretty damn cool, allowing you to shoot black holes that sucked inside the environment or launch nanobots that simply made parts of buildings “vanish”. Things blow up and crumble in a realistic fashion, which means to get the best results you should either aim for big explosives or target the vulnerable points of a structure.

So the game has some of the basic groundwork to be playable. Whether it will be fun or not is completely dependent on the foes, their A.I. and the actual level design. None of which I got a chance to test out. As a result, I have no idea whether the game is worth the money or not. I just know that it controls better than Red Faction: Guerilla, which, ultimately, isn’t much of an achievement.

Homefront

By now pretty much every website has a review of the game up already, so there’s more knowledge there than I know. What I gathered from picking up the controller was simple. It’s Modern Warfare, but with a much more serious recoil.

As I’ve been limiting my modern combat experience to Infinity Ward’s Call of Duty games I haven’t quite been burnt out on it yet. In some ways Homefront even seems to deliver on the illusion of a war-torn America better than Modern Warfare 2 had. So for me, I’m certainly intrigued by this game. I imagine anyone obsessed with the current trend of modern day shooters will also be salivating all over this.

Anyone else, however, probably not. I know far more players that are sick of Modern Warfare and its imitators than those who want more of it. I’ll give it a whirl, but it is doubtful that anyone else will want to. It was, however, a fun though challenging experience and thus I can recommend it to anyone still interested.

Final Thoughts

PAX East had a lot of games on display, especially downloadable indie titles. I didn’t even get to play some of them since I was trying to minimize time spent in lines.

Next time I hit up PAX I may set an alarm for each morning so I can wake up and head straight for some of the bigger game booths, then spend the rest of the time playing smaller less known or less in demand titles. However, once you get there around mid-day, you have to be really interested in a game to be willing to wait two, three or even four hours to play. I would have loved to have known if Duke Nukem Forever was worthwhile, but I just wasn’t going to miss that much of the convention to play one game. Even one that’s had such a legendary development cycle.

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