The PAX East 2020 Games I Can’t Stop Thinking About
This time last weekend, I was wondering in a gamer’s paradise, surrounded by game demos, video game merchandise, gaming panels, and my fellow gamers. I went to PAX East 2020 in Boston to network, as I want to get a PR job in the video game industry, but I was pleasantly surprised by the demos I played, many of which I had never heard of before attending. The following games are the ones that one week later I still cannot stop thinking about. (Note: they are not in ranked order, because how do I compare five games that are so completely different?)
No Straight Roads
I love music, and I especially love music motifs. I also love Psychonauts and projects that are like it (I cannot wait for Psychonauts 2). If you’re like me and you’ve wanted an action-focused music game that doesn’t force players to stay on rhythm, No Straight Roads is exactly what you’re looking for. It has great character designs (courtesy of Street Fighter V concept artist Daim Dziauddin), a wicked cool soundtrack that mashes up tons of genres, and fun gameplay that incorporates rhythmic elements but does not rely on exact timing needed in music games like Guitar Hero (thanks to game designer Wan Hazmer of Final Fantasy XV fame). You take control of Mayday and Zuke, a pair of musicians who are using their indie rock band to challenge a dictatorial EDM empire. My lord, that just sounds cool to say.
Malaysian studio Metronomik really has a special project on their hands, and I think No Straight Roads could be a musical masterpiece. The action of the demo’s boss fight was fun and kept me engaged, driven by changing phases of combat and a remarkable soundtrack that switched from classical to EDM to rock with little pause. I hope the game will come out on the Nintendo Switch eventually—it is currently planned for PC and PS4 release only and I only own a Switch right now—but if I can upgrade my computer or if the PlayStation 5 is backwards compatible, I might just have to get a new console for this one (and Psychonauts 2).
2. Metamorphosis
For many years, puzzle platformers made up most of what I played. Platformers are a great entry point for new gamers, and the genre continues to provide a fun, guided experience that can appeal to those of any skill level. However, due to the saturation of platformers in today’s market, great games can get lost in a sea of lower quality ones. Though I haven’t seen much press around this game, Ovid Games’ Metamorphosis could easily be that next great game, and I want everyone to know about it.
Based on Franz Kafka’s short story of the same name, the game lets players control Gregor Samsa, who transformed into a bug for some reason, as he tries to regain his humanity. Because this game is a first-person puzzle platformer, the first point of comparison that comes to mind for me is the Portal series. Where Portal innovates through the portal mechanics and a series of engaging, laboratory experiment-like puzzles, Metamorphosis’s uniqueness comes from the perspective of a tiny, non-humanoid creature that can survive far falls, climb up the sides of walls, and traverse through spaces and hazards that would be impossible if the player’s character was any larger.
The setting, which is composed of stacked books, broken chairs, cluttered desks, and flying papers, reminds me of the games my brother and I loved as kids that had a similar small scale: Katamri Damacy, Chibi-Robo, Mister Mosquito, and, of course, the Flushed Away movie tie-in game. A bad Dreamworks game aside, Metamorphosis takes full advantage of the unique perspective of a bug and matches the other games I listed in quality. I only hope that it doesn’t go under the radar and end up hiding right beneath everyone’s noses.
3. Knuckle Sandwich
Knuckle Sandwich is one of my most anticipated games. Period. I have followed the project for about a year, and as a huge fan of Gameboy-era games and art styles, Knuckle Sandwich feels like a quirky love letter to my childhood. Except with more cannibalism and cooler visual effects. My biased love for this project aside, Knuckle Sandwich’s demo was a great introduction to both the game’s plot and battle system, the two most important aspects of an RPG. I had played a different Knuckle Sandwich demo on itch.io last year, but after running into a bug that made the game crash, I couldn’t finish it (Note: I totally could have finished it if I had troubleshooted or reached out to developer Andrew Brophy for help—which he offered—but I got sidetracked and forgot.)
Months later, I’ve tried the game again in this new demo, and I am just as hooked as I was from my last Knuckle Sandwich encounter. Where the artwork, setting, and minigames of the original itch.io demo drew me in, the bizarre tone and timing-focused combat of the PAX East 2020 demo have convinced me to stay (who am I kidding? I was already following this project, but this new demo was still impactful). If you have not played the itch.io demo, I would highly recommend it, and I cannot wait for this game to come out whenever it does.
4. Doom Eternal
If you played Doom (2016), you probably think you know what you’ll be getting into with Doom Eternal : running, gunning and sawing your way through demons in a heavy metal gore fest. What you might not realize is that everything about the game has been turned up (in quintessential heavy metal fashion) to an eleven. More baddies, more action, more fun, right? Where id Software found their success in Doom, they have made the best parts of that great game even better. If you ask me, the four-month delay was well worth the terrific fine-tuning that makes Doom Eternal a must-buy game.
Boston Celtics stars Marcus Smart & Romeo Langford visited Bethesda Game Days for an early hands-on of DOOM Eternal. It was so cool to watch this in-person.
Full disclosure: I only tried Doom Eternal on the easiest difficulty, as I am not great at the first one and have yet to beat it (blame Dragon Quest XI S for eating up all my gaming time). Even on the easiest difficulty, the game felt significantly more intense than its predecessor, and I love it. I am not the kind of gamer who wants to suffer through super difficult challenges if I don’t have to, but given all the conversation around how much more intense Doom Eternal was supposed to be than Doom, I was pleased to see that the change applies evenly at all difficulty levels. This one is definitely harder than the last, but that makes clearing rooms of enemies that much sweeter.
5. Season
The team at Scavengers Studio entered the gaming industry with the release of battle royale Darwin Project this past January. Their next endeavor: a narrative adventure game driven by a quest to document disappearing cultures. Season send the player on a half archival, half journalistic quest to record history of the people and places you’ll encounter in a world where modern civilization has long since disappeared. The game does a great job juxtaposing inspirational post World War II imagery of the 1950s with a decomposed but still somehow breathtaking natural setting. Abandoned highway pillars have become religious shrines. Cattle fields roll where drive-in restaurants once stood. Record players and boxy TVs are considered relics. The Scavengers team has created a familiar but very different Earth that I already want to explore.
As a communications professional, I was also intrigued by the gameplay concepts of recording history and culture through photography, audio recording, illustration, and written accounts. I have dabbled in writing, drawing, and photography, and I believe that incorporating these elements into a game about cataloging cultures could make for a standout experience. However, in their current form, these elements feel secondary to exploring the world instead of complimenting the rich scenery. Part of this may be the lack of an in-game catalog for players to look back on what they shot, recorded and wrote, but I think the idea of cataloging culture would be significantly more impactful if the player was the one who had to line up the shot for the photograph, stop and start the recording at right moments, and wrote what they found most memorable rather than options in a dialogue tree. Of course, this would make for a far more complex game, and too much freedom could detract from the narrative focus of this project. But there is certainly room for these mechanics to improve as development moves ahead.
Likely the best part of Season at this stage is its art. The game is beautifully cell-shaded with clear inspirations from Hayao Miyazaki’s body of work. The character designs rival Miyazaki’s as well, with a trendy-looking young woman from an isolated village as the lead and the last priest left at a shrine, who has committed himself to disappearing alongside his home, as the other major character in the demo. I always enjoy when game developers choose to have a character of color as the lead—especially a female character of color—and I look forward to the range of striking figures I’ll meet when the game releases. Don’t expect anything anytime soon though; the next available opportunity to try this game stateside will most likely be PAX East 2021.
Honorable Mentions
Going Under
I would be lying if I said I knew what Going Under was when I stumbled upon the team17 booth. I was drawn in by the art style, and when I, the college student saw it was a game about being an intern, I knew I had to try it. This game is only an honorable mention because the other five games stood out to me a little bit more, but I would certainly buy Going Under if it came out on Switch (or if I get another console soon). Fighting off goblins in a company’s basement using only the objects around you, like chairs, pencils, and brooms? Sign me up. Aggro Crab Games, you made a fan this PAX.
Shantae and the Seven Spirits
I went up until this past PAX without playing a Shantae game, and wow, I was really missing out. I am love a good platformer, especially a Metroidvania, so it was silly of me not to try Shantae yet. Blame my massive backlog and easily distracted nature when it comes to buying more games, but having the opportunity to try out Shantae and the Seven Sirens, I was thoroughly impressed. It felt fluid and fun, exactly like every good platformer should. I know, I really don’t need to buy more games, but Shantae will at least make it on my eShop wishlist for now. The game is out already on Apple Arcade, but it will release on consoles early this year.
Panzer Paladin
Panzer Paladin is a good platformer. With the glut of 2D, pixel-art platformers we find ourselves in, games need to be unique to stand out. Panzer Paladin’s concept of finding weapons along your way and using them to fight enemies until they break brings together classic ideas of Megaman’s weapons and Fire Emblem’s item-breaking; most folks may not like the latter, but that strategy component elevates this platformer to be something more that normal. The visual style is charming, and the ability to jump out of your mech and fight with a Zero Suit Samus-like energy whip at will is refreshing. In the 2D pixel platformer space, Panzer Paladin could be the next Shovel Knight, and I really hope that it is.