Today’s the big day. It’s Saturday and the crowds have come in full. There’s no salvation for us here as we’re out here ducking that corona.
Young Souls
I’m a big sucker for co-op RPGs, and even more so if they have an interesting twist to them. Newly formed studio, 1P2P is doing just that with Young Souls. Playing as two twins, your father is kidnapped by some creatures and since you’re not about to let that slide, the two of you venture into this magical world to fight back. I’ve been really wanting 2.5D beat ‘em ups to evolve, because the genre is long overdue for a complete overhaul and Young Souls is thankfully here to push things forward. The game is split into day/night cycles where during the day you’ll be able to gather supplies for your next dungeon run, buy new gear, and increase your stats by going to the gym GTA: San Andreas style. When night comes you’ll equip your appropriate twin with a wild variety of weapons and armor to choose from. I chose a tankier approach that limited my speed but allowed me to talk a bulk of damage, while my partner kitted his twin in a much speedier approach. The gameplay itself is very reminiscent of Castle Crashers as you hack and slash your way through monsters with secondary weapons like bombs and arrows along with magical spells to fling. The combat moves at a good steady pace as you go from room to room, with my only concern being the lack of variety in the three levels I played. While the three dungeons were pretty distinct from each other, each one still had me going through a straight line of rooms, which is admittedly a nitpick but still. There’s no confirmed release date or even platform list for Young Souls yet, but it’s definitely a game you’re going to want to keep on your radar.
Maneater
Maneater was the one thing I came into PAX most anxious to play, absolutely praying it wouldn’t disappoint and boy am I glad that it didn’t. Easily one of the best things I played this weekend, Maneater puts you in the role of a shark able to swim around an open world as you cause gruesome havoc in the most over-the-top ways possible. Layered on top of that is an RPG system where you’re increasing your shark’s level by eating whatever you can and equipping upgrades like better sonar to more absurd things like bone armor and electricity powers.
It’s a concept that shouldn’t work but plays shockingly smoothly. Gliding along the surface of the water only to see a group of tourists on an inflatable, diving below to pick up speed and proceeding to shoot out of the water in the middle of their inflatable while grabbing one of them to drag into the depths below feels fucking cool. The game is endlessly entertaining as you can do things like launch up in the air with a person, or other marine animal, trapped in your jaws and proceed to tailwhip them into the stratosphere. There’s even a Grand Theft Auto styled wanted system in place where shark hunters will roll up on you if you cause too much havoc and start firing at you. Maneater knows exactly what sort of game it is and further emphasizes this by having Chris Parnell doing national geographic styled narrations throughout the game as he makes comments with a very definite wink. The entire package is wrapped in a revenge story hilariously enough where a shark hunter, Scaley Pete, hunted and killed your mother so you’re out for vengeance. Scaley Pete’s segments are told through a reality show that’s filming him, just adding to the absurdity of it all. Maneater is due to be released later in May and I absolutely cannot wait to play more.
Hardspace: Shipbreaker
Imagine the people of Earth are moving on to explore the stars, but junkers will always be needed even in space. This is why you’ve signed on to join LYNX, a company where you’re hired as a cutter whose job it is to scrap ships for parts to pay off the immense debt you got tricked into accepting.
So that’s where you are; stripping apart ships in hopes of clawing your way out of debt. A friend of mine pitched Hardspace: Shipbreaker as “House Flippers with spaceships” and after getting around to playing the game I’d have to agree. There’s a calming stillness to floating around your zone and analyzing how best to go about taking your ship piece by piece. You can activate your visor that gives you a sort of x-ray vision to see through the metal of the ship to view things like critically valuable parts, or the support pegs that hold certain pieces together.
Each game of Hardspace: Shipbreaker gives you a ship and a list of items needed from it, and you have until the end of the timer to get as much done as possible before you’re sent home for the day. You’re able to continue on your work the next day of course, but the more days it takes you to finish scrapping this ship the longer it’ll take to get your paycheck.
In my demo, I was given an almost FTL looking ship and immediately went off feeling pretty confident in my ability to strip it completely after having seen a previous person do so and watching how they did it. Of course hubris was my downfall as once I entered the ship I tried to cut a support structure and cut too wide, slicing into the hull of the ship and causing everything to come exploding out of the hole I just made. Out of sheer luck, the hole I created had made a perfect space for the reactor (the most valuable piece of the ship) to simply fall straight down into the collection zone; I just had to gently tug it down and let gravity do the rest. And because of course I was doomed to end my demo in spectacular fashion, I had somehow pushed the reactor instead of pulling it, cause it to overheat and gloriously explode. Because of my antics I was actually charged $16k, putting me in the negative; so I can stress about my debt just like in real life!
Despite my hilarious failure, I still had a lot of fun with what I played. There’s a lot of potential here, especially after hearing how many ships they had in the base game and the inclusion of mod support where players can build their own ships. If you’re as eager as I am to rip and tear some spaceships, Hardspace: Shipbreaker drops in early access later this May.
