There’s been so many things to do and write about that I couldn’t keep up. I’d have loved to spent more time with all these demos, but here we are.
Windrose
Have I played this game before? I feel I’ve played this game before, but it was called Valheim, or maybe Palworld, or Rust, or any of hundreds of crafting survival games that came before it.
You are a pirate captain! Yay! And you’re carrying a mystical cargo! And the pirate king Blackbeard wants it, and he boards your boat, kills your crew, and kills you, as well, but not before you grab that mystic orb and it sinks its tendrils into you and you black out… Only to awaken on the shore of a small island in the Carribean. You soon find that you cannot die… for long. You’ll pop right back up at your home fire. But still, you’re lost and alone and tired a cold and hungry, with only your drowned crew to keep you company (until you kill them again). Without wondering just how dodos came to be on your island when they were native to an island on the other side of the world, you proceed to make them extinct again as you embark on a mission to rebuild your ship and go on the hunt for the pirate that killed you.
It is exactly like Valheim, though with pirates instead of Vikings, and perhaps without the disappointment of the mess Valheim turned into. It is multiplayer, and, you know, you have played this game before.
Tides of Blazefall
Mix Disco Elysium with Fallen London – Sunless Sea and a unique 1D tactical card-based battle system, and you’d have a pretty good idea of what Tides of Blazefall is all about.
It hasn’t been long since the sun broke and the sky came apart, allowing glimpses of a light-filled alternate hell dimension beyond the skies you know. Everyone seeks the safety of darkness, because with the day comes the evil sun and the Blazefall — droplets of destruction that rain from the broken sky. Spending too long under the sky makes you suntouched; your hair turns white, you lose your memories and all sense of your previous life.
You captain a ship that is pursued by the Pale Order, suntouched pirates who seek to destroy all normal life. While escaping pursuit, you are pulled into battle, a battle you lose. When you awaken, you’re alone on a small island. You build a raft from the remains of your ship and go looking for your crew.
The plot is told from a second person viewpoint inside your head. Each action is commented upon by ghostly masks — compassion, courage, indecisiveness, pride and so on — that strengthen or weaken as you make decisions and presumably open up or close off possible path plots.
BTW, I won that battle with the ghost ship. Turns out it was sailed by MY OWN DEAD CREW! AAAAAAGH!
Combat is ship-to-ship. Both ships are broadside to one another, and both ships can move left or right along the line connecting them. This is the one dimensional tactical battle. You can play some number of cards depending on the kind of ship you’re sailing; the tutorial ship has three action slots. Your ship has a certain amount of health, and you have a certain amount of crew. If any of these hit zero, you lose. If the enemy has fewer crew than you, you can board and perhaps take control of the ship. You start out with some basic cards — move left or right, fire at the enemy ship, fire more accurately, etc. Each card has an initiative and is played in initiative order. Enemy cards are hidden, but if you play a card with the same initiative as an enemy card, that card will be revealed and you may be able to get an idea for what maneuvers the enemy is planning. Once all the cards are played, the battle plays out.
You gain more cards by hiring special crew, and likely by upgrading your ship.
The game is very creepy, very unusual — it might be my favorite of the games I’ve played for this Next Fest.
Twilight Imperium Digital
Twilight Imperium Digital is the digital version of the famous, or infamous, board game of space diplomacy and warfare typically played over a weekend by a roomful of players, all taking on the roles of the leaders of various space factions vying for control of the galaxy.
I joked to Kasul, as I launched the game, to come back for me when a week had passed.
This demo only covers space combat, which is reminiscent of Tunnels & Trolls, at least, how it used to be. Your forces are compared. Destroyers have a chance to take out enemy fighters (which require carriers to support), and then each unit on both sides rolls dice. The number of hits on both sides are subtracted, and the side that has the greater number gets free hits on the enemy. This continues until someone is out of ships. The strategy lies in bringing the correct mix of ships to the fight. It’s pretty tough, to be honest, and since the demo really doesn’t explain anything, what I’ve written above is basically guesswork. I have never played the actual game.
The demo does allow you to play with another actual human; I played against a bot.
Panzer Dragoon Zwei
I didn’t really spend too much time with PD2. If you have played Panzer Dragoon, well, this is more of that. The Steam port has better graphics but fewer enemies than the original Sega Saturn version; I didn’t play it super long but from what I did play, it seems similar to the recent remake of the original Panzer Dragoon. Will we be seeing a remake of the third game in the series, the RPG Panzer Dragoon Saga? I can only hope.
Okay, gotta get to work.
