Games to Watch Out for From EGX Rezzed 2018 - Part 2 - Article
by VGChartz Staff , posted on 16 April 2018 / 2,392 Views
You can check out Part 1 of my picks of the best indie games being showcased at this year's EGX Rezzed here. Below are my final four star acts.
This Dead Winter
Developer - Kindred Games
Release Date - TBA
Platforms - TBA
If one game involving snow stood out on the showfloor, it was This Dead Winter by Kindred Games. This Dead Winter has you playing as a fox trying to recover its cub, which has been taken from you in a never-ending winter. Set in a dark fantasy world, you must scurry through the snow to uncover what has happened to your cub and learn more about the world you inhabit while doing so.
The graphics on display that had many attendees turning their heads towards the stand; the gorgeous reactive snow and environments both help to create a real sense of a frozen wasteland, one which is highly inhospitable to your playable fox and any other life found in the game world.
No release date has so far been given for This Dead Winter, but I and many others at this year's event will eagerly be awaiting more information on this beautiful-looking game.
Extinction
Developer - Iron Galaxy
Release Date - 10/4/2018
Platforms - PC, PS4, Xbox One
Having just been released, Iron Galaxy was keen to show off its latest title Extinction. The company had a big booth set up, decked out in glitzy artwork, so Extinction certainly stood out from the crowd in its section.
Playing as one of the world's last sentinels, it's your task to stop invading waves of monsters from destroying the cities you're trying to protect. Waves of smaller enemies will rush the city streets, all while a massive (think God of War scale massive) boss pummels the city with boulders and weapons.
Sitting down to play the game, I liked how the player character controlled, navigating the streets with surprising agility. I ended up dying relatively quickly when facing off against the large boss-like creature, but even during my short playtime I became intrigued enough to want to play the final version.
Photographs
Developer - EightyEight Games
Release Date - 2018
Platforms - Android, iOS, PC
Having been a massive fan of EightyEight's previous project, the second I laid eyes on Photographs on the showfloor I knew I was in for a treat, and could identify the developer after seeing only a small amount of footage.
Photographs is a puzzle story-telling game where you must solve puzzles on polaroids, with each one you solve giving more insight into a character's back-story, and exactly how the world is like it is.
In my time with the demo, I found the puzzles fairly quick and easy, with them all being the "move one direction and everything moves" type of game, but it was the narrative between that had me hooked, pushing me to solve puzzles as quickly as possible so that I could listen to the next segment. There seems to have been some sort of travesty which means the whole world started falling apart, causing the first narrator to lose his shop, his daughter and, in turn, his way of life. Each narrative beat in the demo resulted in some gorgeous animations, lovingly crafted using pixel art, and in my ten minutes with the game I could have sworn only two minutes had actually passed.
One thing's for certain, I cannot wait to get my hands on Photographs when it releases sometime this year.
The Sinking City
Developer - Frogwares
Release Date - TBA
Platforms - TBA
From the offset, you might think that The Sinking City had been funded by a major third party publisher - not so, in fact it's the product of an indie studio consisting of around 60 developers, but The Sinking City easily looks just as good, if not better, than titles from much bigger studios.
Inspired by HP Lovecraft, The Sinking City has you playing as a private investigator that must investigate what is happening in the city of Oakmont, Massachusetts, as it floods and is infested by all manner of demonic creatures and tentacles.
In my time with the demo, I had my character patrolling the flooded streets in a boat, exploring the dark and gloomy streets as much as I could due to the incredible level of detail. Eventually, some tentacles upended my boat, forcing my character to flee and run into a building. Due to the open-world nature of the game, I was then able to go wherever I liked, seeing little clues for bigger story points scattered around buildings and streets all over the game world.
While no release date has been given just yet, The Sinking City looks set to capitalise on the success of Frogwares' previous Sherlock titles, and I for one look forward to playing it properly in the future.
