PAX East ‘22: Day Two Highlights
Another day, another wonderful experience at PAX East 2022. Thankfully, day two did not suffer from a sophomore slump and offered plenty of exciting and intriguing games. Here are five more titles from the show floor you should be keeping your eyes on.
Moonscars
Black Mermaid | Humble Games
Moonscars is an incredible 2D souls-like slasher-platformer featuring skill-based combat with a dark fantasy story set in a beautifully realized world marred by desperation and despair. Knowing very little of this game beforehand, I was immediately struck by the pixel-focused art style and doomy color scheme. The ominous lore sprinkled into this small 20-minute demo already has themes of self-worth, self-awareness, and finding out exactly what makes you, you. Not only is the lore and premise of Moonscars intriguing, the gameplay is incredibly precise and satisfying - what you always hope for and appreciate with a more challenging combat-platforming game. With the depth of skills available, variety of combats already showcased and inauspicious tones, Moonscars is now among top billing for my games of PAX East 2022.
Originally seen at Play NYC 2021, Shoulders of Giants showcased a new demo, but with the same level of awesomeness. In this game, you play as two characters simultaneously; a small gunslinging humanoid frog on top of a large sword-wielding robot. For reasons, you must defeat the ‘darkness’ by bringing back the ‘light’. During this hefty new demo, you start off by choosing a layout that includes one of three sets of weapons to best suit your preferences. To balance the two characters, the robot focuses more on melee attacks and abilities, while the frog handles the long-range attacks and weapons. There’s also roughlite features to the game, though that wasn’t too prevalent in my time with the game (since it’s still a work in progress). Combat and movement felt super smooth, and after this 20-minute adventure in the demo, I’m still excited for more.
One of the strangest, most insane, and utterly entertaining games I saw this weekend was McPixel 3. The demo just throws you into a pixelated world of micro-levels that are rampantly varied and different from the last. One level you’re eating a bomb-shaped steak, the next level you’re piecing together a cartoonish bomb, and the next one you’re kicking anyone and everyone you see. I was constantly chuckling and befuddled by the complete calamity - and I loved every second. After speaking to the dev, he assured me that there is a story piecing together all of these levels and the demo presented at PAX East is meant to show a variety of levels and humor (which was VERY successful in that aspect). McPixel 3 is planning for a PC release in 2022.
Rogue Spirit is an anime-inspired 3D-action rogue-lite where you must dethrone the Demon King as the valiant spirit of Midra’s prince by possessing opponents to use their bodies as weapons. The demo quickly threw me into a lush forest area - experimenting with movement and attacks in a trial-an-error sort of way. At first, I originally possessed a female archery character, keeping my distance, utilizing a few moves, and exploring a bit. Eventually, I would defeat enemies and have the option to jump into another character and continue exploring. This literal jump-in jump-out flow of the game to try out different characters, abilities, and play styles was extremely engaging and satisfying. The taste of this demo has me intrigued to see more of Rogue Spirit as it continues to evolve within Early Access on PC.
Uragun
Kool2Play
Uragun is a fast-paced futuristic top-down shooter where there is no shortage of corrupted machines out to destroy you. After waking up into a state of sentience, you play as a giant mech who traverses the world, trying to find their missing pilot and discover what has happened to Earth. As I was playing the demo, I really enjoyed the precise movement of the mech and satisfying abilities to destroy the hordes of robots that were focused on annihilating me. The developers of the game also showed me a bit of a later-game level, where the customization of the mech through abilities and weapons offered more depth of the gameplay mechanics…but also much more depth in the variety and veracity of enemies - an exciting, but daunting combo.
For more of our day one impressions, listen to our PAX East ‘22 Day Two Breakdown episode of the Six One Indiecast. And of course, check back here for highlights and impressions from the rest of the weekend!
Written by Harry Loizides