With E3 being put out to pasture, Geoff Keighley’s Summer Game Fest (SGF) seems to have taken up the mantle as the go-to industry event for publishers, developers, and games media to flock to during summer. We had a chance to attend this year’s event, and have rounded up the best games that we got to check out, either through hands-on demos or closed-door presentations.

Afterlove EP

Chances are, Afterlove EP hasn’t popped up on your radar before. Developed by Indonesian studio Pikselnesia, this hybrid dating sim/visual novel/rhythm game stood out at SGF. That can (partly) be chalked up to its slower-paced nature (compared to something like Phantom Blade Zero, which was being demoed nearby), but also because of its deeply personal nature. Pikselnesia’s founder and creative director, Mohammad Fahmi, passed away during the game’s development, and in many ways, Afterlove EP feels like a tribute to him. Set in a digital recreation of Jakarta (where Fahmi) grew up, the story focuses on Rama, a young musician still dealing with his girlfriend’s death.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows

As someone who fell off the Assassin’s Creed bandwagon a long time ago, Shadows might just be the entry that will bring me back into the fold. While we didn’t get to play this one for ourselves, the idea of being able to switch back and forth between a nimble, stealthy ninja and a lumbering behemoth of a samurai shows a lot of promise and it’s certainly a far cry from the rigid stealth mechanics that defined the franchise during its early years.

Delta Force: Hawk Ops

At this point, I’ve butchered this Delta Force Hawk Ops about a half-dozen times, usually referring to it as a jumble of words from the following list: Delta, Black, Ops, Force, America, and Hawk. My favorite so far is when I called it Black Ops: Hawk Force. Jokes aside, Delta Force is, in many ways, a mish-mash of mechanics and features from a few other AAA shooters. As a lapsed Battlefield fan, I instantly felt at home jumping into the attack/defend-centric Havoc Warfare, while Hazard Operations is geared more towards those who enjoy extraction shooters like Escape from Tarkov. The third piece of the puzzle, Delta Force’s narrative campaign, was MIA at SGF, but we’ll keep our eyes peeled for its eventual reveal.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard

Not unlike Assassin’s Creed Shadows, we only got to see Dragon Age: The Veilguard as part of a developer-led gameplay presentation. Still, EA’s next entry in the long-running series has a lot going for it, and it could be the boost BioWare needed following the rather lackluster Anthem and the much-maligned Mass Effect Andromeda. The shift to more action-focused combat and a cinematic presentation might draw the ire of those who preferred the slower-paced nature of the first two games, but the dev team seems intent on delivering something that everyone can sink their teeth into. Appealing to a wide range of players is a lofty goal, so we’ll have to wait and see if BioWare can pull it off.

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree

Criminally, we only got to go hands-on with Elden Ring‘s upcoming DLC for a measly 30 minutes, but what we got to play was glorious. We won’t try to figure out the story based on our brief play session, but on the gameplay side, what we did see was very promising. From entirely new weapon types, enemies, bosses, and a huge area to explore, Shadow of the Erdtree is shaping up to be something special, and unlike every other game on this list, it’s set to release in just a few days. While I was sad to hear that this new DLC won’t add any new endings or impact existing ones, there’s a good chance this expansion will answer a lot of lingering questions that players have been obsessing over for the past two years.

Marvel Rivals

Yes, we are well aware that Marvel Rivals bears a few similarities to other hero shooters (namely, Overwatch), but this upcoming free-to-play title has a few tricks up its sleeve. Tapping into decades worth of existing material, Marvel Rivals features a sizable roster from the get-go, a mix of traditional shooter mechanics with more traversal-focused characters (Spider-Man, in particular, stands out from the pack), and a team-up system that lets specific characters play off each other. With a closed beta test rolling out in July, there’s a chance that some of you will get to take this for a spin before the rest of us.

Monster Hunter Wilds

Rounding out the trinity of “games we got to see but not play for ourselves” is Monster Hunter Wilds, though in this case, I kind of get why Capcom went this route. As an evolution of what we saw in Monster Hunter World, it should come as no surprise that Wilds is as complicated to jump into for the first time, and I can safely say that I would have died in record time if I was the one with my hands on the controls. Thankfully, the devs running the presentation know what they’re doing, and what we saw on display was incredibly impressive. As expected, the game’s environments are massive and constantly shifting, and it’s pretty wild (yes, pun intended) to watch how quickly the terrain and wildlife can change as a storm rolls in or out of the area. Thankfully, small quality-of-life inclusions like rideable mounts and mobile camps should ease the breaking-in process that every newcomer has to endure.

New World: Aeternum

I have to admit — I completely dismissed New World when it launched on PC in 2021, both because I’ve never been drawn to the genre and I primarily play games on consoles. New World: Aeternum, on the other hand, has piqued my interest. In fact, despite being an MMORPG, I was able to play through the first hour or so of the game solo, only teaming up with other players for a few combat encounters. As someone who prefers single-player RPGs that are more in line with say, the Witcher series, New World: Aeternum might just be my door into the world of MMOs.

Parcel Corps

On paper, Billy Goat Entertainment’s Parcel Corps is my dream game. It’s a modern mashup of everything you like about Crazy Taxi and Jet Set Radio, where you play as a freelance bike courier, diving headfirst into the gig economy as you scramble to deliver packages quickly. Like any good game, it’s easy to pick up, but mastering wall rides, rail grinds, weaving around traffic, and figuring out the fastest routes will certainly take some practice.

While Waiting

While Waiting is the only game on our list that isn’t confirmed to be coming to PlayStation, since the developers made a note to tell us that it’s fully playable with a controller, we’re certainly hoping that it makes the jump to Sony’s consoles. Much in the same way that Untitled Goose Game is a puzzle game disguised as a chaotic goose simulator, While Waiting is a puzzle game that’s disguised as… a game about waiting. In fact, you can technically “beat” each level (which typically only lasts a few minutes) by simply doing nothing, but the real challenge comes in poking around and experimenting with your surroundings to try and solve small puzzles. In many ways, While Waiting encourages players to intentionally cause havoc and push the boundaries of each level — as a game critic and game developer, it’s very much up my alley.

The post Our Favorite Games From Summer Game Fest 2024 appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.

As I sat down for one of EA‘s closed-door presentations of Dragon Age: The Veilguard, it didn’t take long for me to sense the excitement in the air. Despite this being a hands-off presentation of the game’s first hour, it was hard not to notice the plastered smiles and excited whispers coming from my fellow writers and content creators to the left and right of me. And this makes sense; it’s been a decade since players have gotten their hands on a new Dragon Age, and BioWare‘s other offerings over the past 10 years weren’t exactly slam dunks.

With the game’s director, Corrine Busche, guiding us through the first hour of the game, it became clear that the dev team was looking to open up the world of Dragon Age to all types of players, from more casual newcomers to those who logged countless hours across the franchise’s other titles. Of course, as you’d expect from most western RPGs at this point, the presentation kicked off with an overview of the character creator.

Your Character

Now, if I’m being honest, spending an hour or two obsessing over my character’s and eye color and facial scars is not something I normally place a lot of importance on, but I know I’m probably in the minority on that. To their credit though, BioWare looks to have spend a lot time and effort to craft a robust character creation system, even going so far as to make sure skin tones and hair styles look great throughout the course of your adventure.

“We wanted to make sure skin tones were well represented,” Corrine explained, “including the under hues that influence how our skin shows up under different lighting conditions, even controlling for levels of melanin.”

And I have to admit, the end result looked rather good, thanks in part to the ability to look at your character under several different lighting conditions representative of in-game locales and settings. It only took a few minutes to throw together a great looking character, and there are plenty of presets and randomizers at your disposal should you want to get into the game in as little time as possible.

Your Combat

While Dragon Age: The Veilguard only features three core classes (Rogue, Warrior, and Mage), Corrine explained that each one can pick from different specializations to better align with one’s intended playstyle.

“Each class has three bespoke and unique specializations that are really classes unto themselves. The duelist plays much different to the saboteur, who prefers to use gadgets, turrets and bombs. The Veil Ranger is my personal favorite [Rogue] specialization, as it prioritizes the bow arrow and can magically infuse arrows. Now, each of these specializations are unique per class, and are backed up by an incredibly robust skill tree which is also unique per class. It really allows you to customize and curate how you exist and how your gameplay experience plays out to your tastes.”

Admittedly, I was a bit surprised to see the combat adopting a stronger focus on action — if you’ve checked out any footage of the game in action, you’ll probably notice how the camera is a bit closer to your player, lending a more intimate feel that I normally associate with third-person action-adventure games. It’s a noticeable difference compared to say the first or second Dragon Age, but BioWare has taken some steps to provide options for those who prefer a slower-paced, strategic experience.

Sure, you can’t control your companions directly, but along with firing off abilities using more recognizable button combos, you can also use any of these abilities by pulling up an ability wheel. This completely pauses the game, which helps to slow down the sometimes frantic pace for those who would rather not deal with juggling their companions in real time.

Your Companions

If you’re a purist who’s worried that The Veilguard isn’t your grandfather’s Dragon Age, you’ll be delighted to hear that the battle-tested dialogue and companion system from previous games is back in full force. Completely separate from class or species, you’ll be able to select a backstory for your created character, which also unlocks new dialogue options that are unique to that background.

As you’d come to expect, being able to choose your own dialogue can have both short-term and long-term impacts, whether it’s affecting how specific plot arcs unfold, or influencing how your companions think about and treat you. For those of you who are far more in touch with Dragon Age’s lore than I am, you’ll probably get a kick out of seeing fan-favorites like Varric or Harding, who serve as your companions (along with a few other new characters).

While I’m by no means concerned, one niggling thought that I couldn’t get rid of was that The Veilguard might be trying to appease too wide of an audience, losing its uniqueness and core identity in the process. That being said, if there’s a studio capable of striking a careful balance like this, BioWare would be a top contender — and I’m certainly hoping that they are propelled back into the AAA game dev spotlight when Dragon Age: The Veilguard releases this fall.

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Oh, there are also guns. And grappling hooks. And you can decapitate your enemies. Yeah, if it wasn’t obvious already, let’s just get it out of the way: Assassin’s Creed Shadows is a bit bonkers.

And to be clear, that’s not a bad thing. Ubisoft’s flagship franchise is nearly 20 years old at this point, and while it’s certainly showing no signs of slowing down, one could argue that the series could use a bit of a shakeup. While stealth and free-running play first fiddle in the vast majority of Assassin’s Creed titles, recent entries like Odyssey and Valhalla have gone the opposite direction, putting an emphasis on combat and exploration and stripping away the core mechanics that helped put Assassin’s Creed on the map all those years ago.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows looks to offer up the best of both worlds, and it’s pulling this off by revisiting the idea of having two protagonists. This time around, however, these aren’t simply reskins of the same character. Instead, Shadows puts players in the shoes (boots? I’ll be honest, I don’t know what samurai and shinobi wear) of Naoe, a female ninja who is trying to find her place in a rapidly evolving world, and Yusuke, a foreign-born samurai warrior who is simultaneously accepted and isolated in his new surroundings.

While I didn’t get a chance to go hands-on with Shadows, a few developers from Ubisoft Quebec walked us through the same section of gameplay to really hammer home just how different these two characters feel. Starting with Yusuke, it only took a few seconds to see how differently he is perceived by others. Shortly after arriving in the bustling castle town of Fukuchiyama, he’s met with an equal mix of reverence and fear; some townsfolk might bow in his presence, while others cower away in fear. Of course, it only took a minute or two before Yusuke found himself in combat with a few corrupt samurai, and this is when Assassin’s Creed Shadow’s brutality comes to light.

I won’t beat around the bush –– Yusuke hits like a tank, and the developers have not tried to downplay the gore. Starting out with his kanabo (translation: giant, two-handed war club), Yusuke quickly laid waste to his fellow samurai, with a few heads literally rolling on the ground by the end of it (I also caught a glimpse of a nearby oblivious NPC accidentally catching a devastating swing directly to his face, though as he flew off screen, I wasn’t sure if this was intended or not). All of this power does, as you’d expect, come with its own tradeoffs. Yusuke is a noticeably slow fighter, and while switching to his katana does speed him up a smidgen, he’s nowhere near as graceful or fluid as Ghost of Tsushima’s Jin.

And that’s where Naoe comes in. When infiltrating the town’s castle to assassinate a corrupt daimyo (read: Feudal Japan-era lord), she can make full use of the abilities you’ve come to associate with the series. As a nimble and light ninja, Naoe can hop across rooftops, scale walls, and use her grappling hook for both non-lethal takedowns and hiding on ceilings. She also has a few weapons to complement her hidden blade (the kusarigama, in particular, is a favorite of mine), and she has a few new stealth moves of her own, including crawling through shallow water while remaining hidden, complete with breathing through a bamboo reed.

On the second play-through of this same mission, I got to see how playing as Yusuke would unfold. True to his hulking size, Yusuke cannot hop from rooftop to rooftop or parkour his way to success, instead opting to systematically walk through the castle’s interior grounds, decimating anyone who comes in his way, whether it be with his trusty war club or his slightly-more-modern rifle. Oh yes, there are guns in this game, I wasn’t kidding when I wrote that earlier.

And it’s this dichotomy that has piqued our interest in Assassin’s Creed Shadows. The franchise has previously explored swapping out stealth and free-running in favor of more direct combat, but it’s never tried to include both of these distinct playstyles into one cohesive experience. And yes, while this is accomplished by simply giving the player the option to swap between Yusuke and Naoe, the world Ubisoft Quebec has crafted looks to take both of these playstyles into account. Where Naoe would silently climb over a locked gate, Yusuke would barrel right through it. When she decides to pick off enemies from afar with her trusty kunai, he opts to beat them to a bloody pulp, sending their bodies (and, sometimes, heads) flying through the air.

It’s not entirely clear whether Assassin’s Creed Shadows will succeed in having its cake and eating it too, but it certainly looks like Ubisoft might pull it off, and I can’t wait to determine that for myself when the game launches on November 15.

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Alan Wake, the writer, has been trapped in the Dark Place for 13 years. Alan Wake, the series, has been trapped in a dark place for almost 13 years. After an underwhelming spin-off, it stayed dormant in the void as Remedy Entertainment continued on with other projects, only poking its head out in an unexpected backdoor way with the studio’s 2019 hit Control. Despite all that time toiling away on his cursed typewriter, it seems like Alan Wake is stepping back into the light in a major and wholly deserved way with Alan Wake 2.

Even though it’s been a long wait, this version of Alan Wake 2 probably could not have happened if the gap between games had been shorter. According to creative director Sam Lake — a gifted writer known for his scripts as much as his likeness to the original Max Payne — Alan Wake 2 is an amalgamation of what Remedy has learned over the years. The Alan Wake 2 that could have probably happened a decade ago if the first game had become a smashing success is not the Alan Wake 2 that is coming out in 2023.

“I feel that we couldn’t have done this [before now], like if we had been lucky with our wish to do Alan Wake 2 and it would have ended up going forward, all the earlier concepts were very different from this,” said Lake. “I don’t think that we could have made this game before we made Control. Lessons learned from Control affected this quite a bit.”

A lot of these Control inspirations are not subtle, either. Wake’s levels inside of the Dark Place are ever-twisting as if they were inside the confines of the Oldest House. Stairs leading down into a basement can send Wake to the rooftop of a building. A room can change entirely if looked at from a certain angle or lit with a special light. There’s even a special class of enemies that appear as ghostly apparitions until the last second and force players to treat each wispy specter as a threat. All of these trippy visuals are meant to make the player question what’s happening as they delve into the psyche of a tormented man who’s about to break.

This surreal approach more cleanly matches Alan Wake’s aesthetic while giving it a more interesting base. Creeping through a world that’s darker and transfixed on spooking the player is more engaging than the action horror trappings of the first game, which was not great at action and light on horror. There’s Resident Evil-style shooting and resource management, but also puzzle solving and level design that begs players to search around and backtrack for items more valuable than thermoses. There’s just simply more meat here.

Having to shoot at evasive shadows is more thrilling and tense — thanks to the tighter controls — and demonstrates how Remedy has refined its combat chops in the ensuing years. This is concisely shown by how peeling shadows off enemies now works. Instead of laboriously whittling down the darkness with the flashlight, it comes off in just one quick burst; the challenge comes with tracking the threats down and keeping an eye on them. Foes seem much more aggressive now, too, so hopefully, the controls can keep up in the long run.

While it remains to be seen how scary the game will be, it is more fitting that Remedy is trying to make it scarier, given its many horror and horror-adjacent inspirations like Twin Peaks and Stephen King’s novels. Remedy is also trying to imbue more of the atmosphere in other places, as well, which explains the existence of the new Mind Place. This secluded mental space gives players the chance to sift through clues and suspects and pin them together on a corkboard. Doing so will open up new dialogue options and let players more clearly see how everything is linked. While Saga, the new playable character, has a Mind Place that has players tying together clues, Wake’s is all about players connecting together a storyboard.

However, it is more of a guided experience since clues can’t be pieced together incorrectly — every player will be led to the same conclusions. Not being able to fail might suck out some of the potential satisfaction that would come from successfully piecing together a case, but director of communications Thomas Puha explained that this proved too difficult and confusing during development. To remedy this, it was made to be more linear after a lot of deliberation and testing. Wake’s half of the campaign is a little more open, though, as players combine different plot elements to create new “stories” in the world, which appear to be used for puzzles. Regardless of how on-rails it is, it’s still an appropriate way to frame the story for both of its characters and their wildly different professions.

Alan Wake 2 also has its share of silly moments. Ahti, the janitor from Control, can be seen belting out Finnish ballads on a stage in a dingy karaoke bar in Watery, one of the new Pacific Northwestern towns. Players can stumble across a number of live-action scenes, one of which is a humorous commercial about a coffee-based theme park called Coffee World. It still seems darker than the first game, but not without its lighter moments. Lake said this was all on purpose and something Remedy took seriously. 

“I think it will be a very unique balance,” said Lake. “It is a survival horror game. Obviously, you can see an echo of Resident Evil there, like in resource management and all that. But at the same time, it is still an Alan Wake game in the sense that it’s not just all-out horror, as many horror games tend to be. It’s dark and horrifying from the get-go and all the way true [to Alan Wake], and for us, it was important to have all of these different sides to it.”

Lake also said that there was excitement to come back to Alan Wake and had the team wondering how it could make this sequel “bigger and cooler and turn the knobs to the max.” This is why there are so many unique elements to Alan Wake 2 and why it isn’t just another traditional Alan Wake game. 

It’ll need those different factors since it’s releasing in the middle of a packed release schedule, almost echoing how the first game came out on the same day as Red Dead Redemption. Lake unabashedly noted that Remedy wanted to “get out of Spider-Man 2’s way” with its 10-day delay, but Alan Wake 2 is still just weeks from titans like Assassin’s Creed Mirage, Lords of the Fallen, Super Mario Bros. Wonder, Ghostrunner 2, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, just to name a few. Alan Wake 2 is nothing like those games, though, and Lake explained how that is what the studio is banking on. 

“[Sticking out] is a big part of how we approach these [games],” said Lake. “We feel that we need to do something that looks like us, stands out, is unique, and is something different because there’s a lot of competition out there, and we can’t do the same thing that somebody else is doing. A lot of thinking goes into how we can make this exciting and something that people will go in and go, ‘I have never experienced something like this before.’”

Alan Wake 2 is obviously drawing from the Resident Evil 2 remake and Control, but it still looks to have enough of its own identity with that signature Remedy flair that fully blossomed in Control. Combat looks to be more fluid and tense, while its storytelling has appeared to have gotten more complex and strange. So while the wait for Alan Wake 2 has been especially long, it seems like it’s only benefiting from Remedy’s experiences and justifying its long bout in the Dark Place.

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RoboCop hasn’t had the most striking presence in the gaming space. He was most recently in Mortal Kombat 11 as a DLC fighter, but he hasn’t been in a full traditional video game since the 2003 multiplatform shooter developed by Titus Interactive, the studio behind the infamous Superman game on the Nintendo 64. Teyon is coming in two decades later with RoboCop: Rogue City, a promising attempt that’s simultaneously trying to redeem the franchise in the video game medium and provide a more thorough look at the character.

Shooting is one part of RoboCop’s noticeable skills, and that’s clearly the easiest part to translate to a video game. Gunplay is somewhat standard, as RoboCop can shoot thugs with his Auto 9 or pick up another weapon lying around. Environments are wonderfully interactive, though, since various chunks of the level and bits of debris will break apart or explode dramatically when shot at. This window dressing adds to the chaos and makes the firefights more lively, while also conveying the over-the-top nature from the films.

Rogue City does buck a few trends, and that’s how it stands out. Whereas most shooters have gotten faster and almost mandated the use of grappling hooks, RoboCop is a tank that methodically stomps around the battlefield. It’s a little jarring at first since it’s so outside of what most other shooters do and while the gunplay is loud and violent — goons get dismembered rather easily — it remains to be seen if this accurate portrayal will hold the game back. This also applies to tossing around spiky-haired punks as if they were stuffed animals, as it is thrilling to see a giant blood splat on the wall, but getting in close enough to clutch these criminals isn’t always the easiest or fastest thing to do.

But Teyon has given RoboCop some upgrades through his multifaceted skill tree. It touches on many different aspects and even grants him a dash that adds some much-needed mobility. Finding that sweet spot of being true to the lore and fantasy of RoboCop while also making a mechanically solid shooter was a challenge for Teyon according to game director Piotr Latocha. He explained how the studio thought it was “really important” to make players feel like they were an “indestructible tank” while still having “dynamic, fast-moving action.”

“We added a lot of things that RoboCop actually does, like grabbing enemies and throwing them at each other, picking up and throwing heavy things, breaching walls, and such,” said Latocha. “So you are a bit slower, but you can do other cool things that a heavy tank can do. But also once you upgrade your character, we added some things that were not in the films, like the dash, so we had some opportunities to get that more than dynamic movement.”

It would be pretty typical if a Rogue City was just about blasting dirtbags, but it is much more than that. RoboCop is also, unsurprisingly, a cop, and that’s represented in the gameplay, as well. The police station is lovingly realized and full of all sorts of hallways to explore, conversations to overhear, and tiny tasks to help out with. Players can also roam around the hub-like area that’s comparable in size to the hubs in Eidos-Montréal’s Deus Ex games. These open areas are filled with opportunities to solve petty crimes, issue tickets, and generally patrol the grimy, dimly lit streets. 

Since RoboCop isn’t a standard real-world cop where a small infraction can be a death sentence, these brief quests and activities delve into the game’s RPG side. Players can pick certain dialogue options in order to reach a conclusion and look for clues (which can also influence the dialogue), both of which are different yet engaging ways to interact with RoboCop’s dirty world that don’t involve shooting. Each action either serves the public trust or upholds the law and this push and pull will open up different endings that “play out kind of like the Fallout games,” according to Latocha. It’s an interesting angle to add to a RoboCop game, and these segments change up the pacing while also staying true to the character, so hopefully these decisions stay important throughout the whole campaign. Latocha spoke about how the studio wanted to add this because it is great to give players choices, and this variety is what he’s most proud of.

“There’s a lot of different things to do,” said Latocha. “And I am most proud of how the game is much more than just shooting. We have some crimes to solve, different small side quests, some random encounters, and dialogue options. It was pretty important to us to have something more than just shooting.

“We wanted players to feel like they stepped into the shoes of RoboCop and just be in the city that was represented in the movies. If you see RoboCop, it wasn’t only about shooting. This was important. It was very brutal, of course, and I think we’ve covered a lot of that, but we wanted to have some more types of things to do and also a lot of humor, as well.”

RoboCop’s satirical bent is seemingly still here alongside the stunning violence through the silly commercials that play on the radio and the goofy nature of some of the NPCs. There are some appropriately funny moments in the first few hours, which is an encouraging sign since humor, as Latocha stated, is a crucial part of RoboCop. He said that the team, as is often the case when developers make these types of licensed games, watched the movies over and over again to get the mood right. It’s a high bar, and one some RoboCop media has failed at, but Rogue City appears like it is on the right track.

RoboCop: Rogue City has some rough spots, which has been the case with other Teyon games. Some of the animation is a little rudimentary and its shooting might not be the most polished in the genre, but, judging by the first few hours, it looks and feels like a RoboCop game should, and Teyon has a few more months to possibly clean up these small issues. Peter Weller’s iconic likeness and authoritative voice are only one part of the equation since there are other details that give this game more authenticity. The grim lighting, clashing tones, excessively dirty streets, and more all seem like decent adaptations of the source material. If it manages to faithfully obey these prime directives, it’ll be good for both RoboCop and story-based first-person shooters, as both have seen better times.

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Capcom has been mining its back catalog with various collections, remakes, and new entries in long-running franchises. Dino Crisis has, much to the chagrin of a niche in its fanbase, not been included in this IP excavation and has stayed extinct since its odd third entry. Exoprimal is not a fourth Dino Crisis and isn’t trying to be, and while that is a little disappointing, it still seems like a decent cooperative shooter that’s absolutely loaded with dinosaurs.

Exoprimal is mostly built around dropping two teams into a level and blasting the scores and scores of dinos that pour out of the sky, as if monsoon season were replaced by velociraptor season. But it’s not always velociraptors and that’s what Capcom wants to highlight for this bizarre shooter. Players get funneled along a course where missions play randomly, some force users to shoot certain kinds of dinosaurs, while others have the team protecting a certain point. It’s a different collection every time that’s supposed to give the game a healthy amount of replayability.

The variability is welcome since the core act of slaughtering dinosaurs is relatively mindless, and that kind of gameplay is more prone to getting repetitive. The shooting is snappy enough and every character has a slew of unique abilities, but dealing with the perpetual onslaught is a constant, as there seemingly aren’t other types of mechanics to mix it up. It’s going to be the game’s biggest hurdle, and it’s difficult to fully judge after only a few hours. However, it’s something Capcom is aware of, according to technical director Kazuki Abe.

“With every different experience it brings that challenge, but also that excitement of figuring out how do you, as a team, overcome these various challenges?” said Abe. “In this round it may seem simple, the next round might not be so simple. And that constant changing of missions and enemies is part of what we hope will keep Exoprimal enjoyable to players for a long time.”

There are multiple mission types, a competitive component that pits two human teams against each other at the end, and an array of customization options, all of which add replayability but don’t automatically make the game endlessly replayable. Players are still doing similar actions for the most part — destroying dinosaurs on admittedly generic maps — and it’s unknown how long it will keep the experience fresh. Capcom promised that more game types would unlock in the full game, and some thankfully did during the multi-hour session, but cutting down gangs of dinosaurs began to lose some of its luster the course of the demo, even if some of those beasts pouring out of the portals were different.

Capcom is supporting the game after launch, which will depend on player feedback pulled from social media and the gameplay data that gets pinged back to Capcom. Seeing where players die and what game types need work are some just of the areas Capcom is going to look into, and hopefully quick action can further streamline the experience and ensure that it stays relevant. Launching on Game Pass and having cross-platform play with the PlayStation consoles and PC were also two aspects Abe cited as key to keeping the game alive and are appreciated since games like this need all the help they can get.

The exosuits are also another part of the game that’s geared towards replayability since there’s a decent number of them and all of them can be customized. They’re separated into three classes — assault, tank, and support — and bring either firepower, defense, or healing to the team, but all in their own unique ways. And not only is there a decent amount of them, players can swap freely at any time, which offers a great amount of flexibility for those who need to change their strategy on the fly. Sometimes a team might not need Roadblock’s giant shield, but Skywave’s healing blasts.

Exosuits can also be further customized in a way that lets players bend classes. For example, any character can attack using a huge cannon or lay down a healing field, meaning a healer can have a big-ass cannon or a tank can patch up the team. There are even cosmetics that give players more superficial ways to trick out their armor. Director Takuro Hiraoka said that the team made all these exosuits by mixing together what the game needed to suit its mechanics and what types of aesthetics the team wanted. Art director Takuro Fuse went one step further and explained how important it is to make different characters that stick out during intense sequences.

“There’s the mecha component to them, and these characters do look very robotic,” said Fuse. “But at the same time, we wanted to make it a point to infuse character and personality into each one. So it’s the combination of that aesthetic of the mech, but also with its own unique personality and flair when it’s on the battlefield: the heroic type, the tough type, someone who looks like a pro wrestler, and then the sleek, nicely framed characters and whatnot.

“But again, these are not humans — they are mechas — so finding that balance between that personality and that aesthetic was very important. And then there was some inspiration that came from Japanese culture and anime as well. All of these things really came together in this beautiful blend of what we see in the world of Exoprimal.”

Exoprimal has solid core mechanics, a silly premise, and multiple exosuits that yield variety and different playstyles. These aspects mean that it has hooks in place that give it the potential to become a relatively solid cooperative shooter, which is something Capcom doesn’t currently have. The question just remains how long it can maintain that momentum and whether or not it’ll go extinct shortly after launch.

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The follow-up to 2019’s excellent Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is nearly upon us, following a brief delay to give developer Respawn Entertainment extra time to polish things up. We were invited by publisher EA to a hidden venue in Hollywood, California to get nearly four hours of hands-on time with Star Wars Jedi: Survivor to see what Cal Kestis and crew have been up to since their latest epic adventure, and it’s shaping up to be a worth sequel to its critically-acclaimed predecessor.

Trouble finds Cal, yet again

The portion of the game we went hands-on with began about an hour into the campaign, no doubt to avoid spoiling exactly how things all start. Cal Kestis has been on the move for around five years since the conclusion of Fallen Order, and he and his reliable and inquisitive droid companion BD-1 have crash-landed on a backwoods planet known as Koboh while attempting to visit Cal’s old friend Greez Dritus.

It doesn’t take long before the local drama finds Cal, of course – a local gang known as the Bedlam Raiders is terrorizing locals, including prospectors who go to great lengths to try and harvest the planet’s natural minerals and ancient ruins. Cal, being a Jedi, naturally wants to help, and quickly crosses paths with the gang’s leader, an imposing Gen’Dai named Rayvis. This sets up what will no doubt be a lengthy sequence of encounters and battles between the two.

While we can’t go too deep into the story here, some things have changed while others have stayed the same. Cal’s repertoire of moves has been expanded upon, as he now has five different stances. The Dual Wield stance seen in the first game has been fully realized, while he also has access to a crossguard stance as seen used by Kylo Ren. Finally, one stance even allows the use of a blaster, which, while perhaps a bit uncivilized compared to a lightsaber, does have its uses.

From Story Mode to Grandmaster

There are five levels of difficulty to choose from, which can be freely switched at any time. A new Jedi Padawan mode sits between the absolute non-challenge that is Story Mode and the more average Jedi Knight level, to give players an occasional challenge without throwing insurmountable foes at them. Certain boss fights can be particularly tough, so being able to change the difficulty on the fly will no doubt help some players who don’t want to spend the extra time repeating a fight over and over. The Souls-like meditation circles are back in Jedi: Survivor, which allow you to manage skills, change stance loadouts, fast travel to other meditation circles, and heal. That last option does completely fill up Cal’s health and force bars, along with restoring BD-1’s stimpaks for healing in the field, but it also respawns all enemies.

Combat in Jedi: Survivor is melee-focused. While Cal is a Jedi and can wield the Force with ease, ultimately his use of those powers is limited by a Force meter and is used as an assist to get the upper hand against his enemies as he slices them up with his trusty lightsaber. After our hands-on time with the game, we were treated to a live demonstration by a member of the combat design team of just what was possible with mastery of the various mechanics available to the player. Think taking out groups of Stormtroopers in one fell swoop, or juggling enemies with a combination of Force moves, and even an occasional hit from a blaster. It’ll probably take several hours for any player to rise to that level of competence, but it all looked so smoothly animated you couldn’t help but be impressed with the options on display.

Like your own personal Star Wars movie

The production values in Jedi: Survivor are world-class. Whether it’s the incredibly detailed world, characters, weapons, or ships, the whole game plays, feels, and sounds like you’ve been transported into the world of Star Wars. Cinematics are fully rendered in-engine, and feature classic wipes between cuts, and plenty of tension between enemies in true sci-fi Western form. The world feels lived-in with other beings busy doing their own thing, and of course natural predators to either avoid or fight for potential experience.

In an interview with the team, Jason Harris, Design Director for Gameplay and Combat mentioned that Disney and Lucasfilm continued giving Respawn Entertainment essentially free license to create whatever they wanted to in order to flesh out their vision. Not to say they didn’t check in, of course, just that at this point their track record has earned a certain amount of trust with the intellectual property holders. He gave special mention to the teams involved in turning concept art into fully-realized, digital versions that perfectly reflected the intentions of the designers. The careful attention given to even background objects is easy to see throughout the experience.

As for performance, while the build we played was on a beefy PC, it should roughly represent what we will see when the game launches on the PS5. Respawn is leaving the previous generation of consoles behind, something we will no doubt see more of now that supplies of the current generation are more stable. This has many benefits, chief among them being quick loading times. There is a seamless transition between the game world and entering training areas, or respawning after a death. We did notice some stuttering in some of the game’s wider areas, but perhaps this will be buffed out by the time the game launches on April 28, or at least with a patch on or around launch.

Previous experience not necessary

From what we could tell, while it’s not necessary to have played The Fallen Order before you start up Survivor, it will help because there are a lot of references to the earlier game mentioned in passing between Cal and other characters. Otherwise, though, Cal is simply trying to fix his ship, the Mantis, and along the way discovers ancient Jedi ruins and an anomalous planet called Tanalorr that seems to be the key to Cal’s journey. So, it seems the story will be able to stand on its own, while offering plenty of callbacks and hidden references to the first game, and perhaps the novel that followed, for those who enjoy that sort of thing.

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor appears to continue telling Cal Kestis’s story in a most exciting fashion. Two additional fully-fleshed-out fighting stances ensure more variety in combat, and the fact that Cal retains his powers from the previous adventure means combat gets intense pretty early on. There is plenty of challenge to be found, and if this hands-on is any indication, Respawn Entertainment hasn’t fixed what isn’t broken and is seemingly giving us an improved version of what made The Fallen Order so appealing in the first place. Get ready to continue Cal Kestis’ journey when it launches on the PS5, Xbox Series, and PC platforms on April 28, 2023.

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Developer Arvore recently announced its upcoming virtual reality game Pixel Ripped 1978 at GDC 2023. I was given a sneak peek, and got some hands-on time, with the team’s first fully licensed addition to its line of Pixel Ripped games.

Both of the studio’s previous releases, Pixel Ripped 1989 and Pixel Ripped 1995, were loosely based on games from their relative time era, but couldn’t specifically name names due to licensing issues. Thanks to a partnership with Atari, this next addition to the series won’t be so vague.

Atari x Arvore

Atari first approached Arvore at the DICE Awards in 2022, the studio’s CEO Ricardo Justus tells me, with the veteran publisher outlining the possibility of collaborating on the next Pixel Ripped adventure. At this point, Pixel Ripped 1978 was already deep in the development process and almost ready to be announced, but this partnership opened the door to a world of possibilities.

Atari’s collaboration meant that Arvore was now allowed to incorporate almost anything from the Atari-owned library. The development team had to go back to the drawing board and start adding actual Atari references, rewriting the story so as to get as much Atari goodness in there as possible.

Putting on nostalgia goggles

This official licensing allows Pixel Ripped 1978 to really lean in on the nostalgia factor. Playing as Bug, the game developer that created the first Pixel Ripped game, you begin sitting in your work cubicle playing on the Atari 2600. In VR, I was transported back to nine-year-old me playing the same console at Christmas — only this time, I could jump straight into the games I was playing.

Thanks to the technical capabilities of the PSVR 2, the transition from a game developer sitting at a desk to a hero solving puzzles and shooting baddies is seamless and smooth. When you’re in a game, you’re controlling Dot, who’s tasked with repairing the Atari games that Bug is developing from the inside and restoring them to their full pixelated glory. For those that have played the previous Pixel Ripped titles, you’ll be reunited with familiar characters and meet colorful new ones in this VR game-within-a-game adventure.

The power of PSVR 2

Pixel Ripped 1978 is built for the next generation of VR systems, and that means the PSVR won’t be getting it, and even the Meta Quest 2 has to be tethered to a gaming PC to play it. The resolution that the PSVR 2 brings with it, as well as the processing power of the PS5, makes this VR game super smooth. The new controllers helped with immersion for the experience, and made grabbing things pretty easy.

When it comes to moving from point A to point B in the FPS part of the game, the developer uses a directed focus effect, which basically eliminates your peripheral vision while moving by sliding blinders on you, and eliminates any chance for motion sickness. That’s something that almost all VR developers are doing now with current-gen VR systems, and it’s a game changer.

Conclusion

I was allowed to play through the first chapter of the game for the demo, and the story is intriguing and entertaining, with some colorful character. The graphics were impressive in VR, with smooth transitions and smooth movements, showcasing the power of the PSVR 2 well. Its newfound partnership also makes this a nostalgic celebration of Atari-era games, something that those who — like me — grew up with old-school systems like the 2600 will greatly appreciate.

Pixel Ripped 1978 is releasing sometime this summer for the PSVR 2, PC VR, and the Meta Quest 2 while tethered.

The post Pixel Ripped 1978 PSVR 2 Preview: ‘A Nostalgic Celebration of Atari’ appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.

Forspoken was first announced during Sony’s June 2020 State of Play webcast, known only as Project Athia. Fast-forward two and a half years later, and the game is quickly parkouring its way towards its (twice-delayed) release date of January 24th.

While a playable teaser demo released following an announcement during last week’s The Game Awards, we managed to sneak off to Square Enix’s LAX-adjacent offices ahead of the awards show to take a deeper dive into the game with a four-hour hands-on session. Time to see what developer Luminous Productions has been up to as they leap into the tail end of development.

Please take me home

For those unfamiliar, Forspoken stars Frey Holland, a typical young woman in New York, who is seemingly tired of her current life and plans to get away from everything. Little does she know that her plan is about to succeed in the most absurd way possible.

When she stumbles upon a magical, sentient bracelet (he prefers the term vambrace), Frey is transported into a whole different world entirely, called Athia. New York City and the United States of America at large may have their own share of problems like any country, but they’re nothing like what Athia is facing.

An ominous miasma that Frey calls the Break has infected the land, turning every living thing it touches into either dust or a much more ferocious, bloodthirsty version of its former self. The land has been ruled by four women known as Tantas, and Athia was a peaceful place to live before the Break.

Now, however, each Tanta rules with an iron fist, as all have been corrupted by the Break. For some reason, Frey and her unwanted bracelet partner whom she derisively calls Cuff are unaffected by the Break, as they have seemingly been purposely summoned into Athia in order to help the few remaining people who have managed to escape to a city on top of the mountains.

At first, Frey is reluctant to want to help anyone, even after one of the citizens helps to get her out of prison. Her main focus is on getting back home. Why, exactly, she is so eager to get back to the life that just a few hours ago she was ready to leave behind is a mystery. Perhaps it’s simply the familiarity of her old life is still something she’d rather have than being thrust into the problems of strangers in a strange land? Whatever the case, I know that personally I’d probably want to stay in Athia with the magical powers she quickly unlocks.

After befriending some of the locals, Frey finds herself caring for their fates, and thus decides that some of them are worth fighting for. She’s not exactly a noble warrior at the outset, and that comes across as believably endearing as you see her cold façade gradually chip away as she warms up to a select few people in need.

Joined at the wrist

One “person,” if they could indeed be called that, whom Frey is especially cold to at the start of her adventure is Cuff. Again, he is a sentient, or at least possessed, metal bracelet that Frey put on shortly before she was teleported to the land of Athia. He is permanently attached to her right arm, and can help block attacks as well as channel the magical essence that now flows through Frey.

He also talks, a lot. Think Mimir from God of War levels of talking, and you’ll have some idea of what I mean. Though in this case, only Frey can hear what he is saying, which results in some comical moments where other characters hear Frey talking to what sounds like herself. Her initial dismissive attitude towards him is due in no small part to their seemingly permanent arrangement, as up until now it seems Frey had no one she could depend on in her regular life. Growing up like that will naturally make anyone distrust others.

Forspoken boasts at least two signature gameplay features: magical parkour, and over 100 magic combat options. The magical parkour system is one that Luminous Productions said they had very early on in their work, before perhaps even the name of the game was decided upon. Once they had this more or less working, the world was built with it in mind. This means that there are usually a lot of obstacles between any two given points on a map, but it’s nothing a little parkour can’t get you through.

It basically works like this: while you move, you simply hold down the circle button, and Frey will effortlessly increase her speed while deftly jumping up and over almost anything in her path. The skill is not unlimited, however, though the stamina that this uses is quite plentiful even in the early stages of the adventure. Naturally, this stamina can be upgraded as the player progresses.

Like regular parkour, but MAGIC

The magical parkour serves as a basis for getting Frey into the “Flow,” the name for Forspoken’s combo system. By holding down circle during combat, Frey can kind of go on autopilot and automatically dodge most incoming attacks.

Since we didn’t have a ton of time during our hands-on demo, this part of the tutorial was quickly gone over, and I didn’t feel too confident holding Circle down as Frey would often move around a bit too quickly for my liking. Instead, I watched for the star-like icon that appeared as enemies prepared to attack me, and simply held circle whenever I saw them to dodge.

This worked well enough that I didn’t take damage too often, even allowing me to get through one of the early bosses without much hassle. This Flow mechanic is going to take a lot of practice to get through, but from what I’ve seen the payoff will be worth it.

Outside of combat, the magical parkour serves as a great exploration tool. Pressing up on the D-pad makes Cuff scan the nearby area, which will highlight chests and enemies that Frey should be aware of. Often times, the chests and other goodies are up and out of reach, but holding the circle button allows Frey to easily scale most buildings, and learned abilities allow her to kick and jump off walls in order to get a little bit higher. Not every area will be easily reachable at the start of the game, though, so some areas will probably need to be re-visited as the player progresses. This method of traversal will also take some getting used to, as it is incredibly quick and requires you to react quickly to whatever comes your way.

There are four different magic colors, each with their own style and uses. During our session, we mostly utilized the purple magic, which is the type that Frey has from the outset of her adventure. These attacks are ranged and earth-based, more akin to a third-person shooting mechanic. It’s something that’s easy to grasp. Pressing R2 fires off some projectiles, while holding the button allows for three different attacks, selectable by holding the R1 button: options include launching a larger projectile to deal more damage, firing off a burst of controlled shots, or creating a shield of rocks that protect Frey until she lets go, at which point the shield’s contents are fired straight ahead, damaging anything unlucky enough to be in her path.

A combo for every style

Frey also has an assortment of assist magics, which can be equipped separately by holding the L1 button. While we only saw a small sampling of these, the L2 button fires off these moves and varies from summoning a plant-based turret that fires at enemies for a time, to binding enemies in vines and leaving them wide open to attacks, and even leeching life force from enemies in order to heal Frey.

There are thousands of combinations between main and support magic attacks, and surely players of all types will find their own combinations that work well for them. For instance, towards the end of our session we were able to check out the red magic, which is melee focused and summons weapons made of magic which can be used to punish enemies who dare to invade Frey’s personal space. Switching magic can be done by holding L1 and R1, pressing left or right on the D-Pad, or even swiping on the DualSense’s touchpad. Again, there are plenty of options, and whichever one feels right in the moment will be right for you.

Speaking of options, the land of Athia is awash with them. In fact, at the start of our session we were cautioned to try and avoid going too far off the path that leads us to our next objective, because much like other open-world games, the entire world is available for the player to explore and interact with from the second chapter onwards.

Of course, some areas are going to be inhabited by formidable enemies that will take down early-game players in one hit, which serve as a natural deterrent to heading off in any old which way, but the freedom to figure this out on your own is great for those who love to just explore a vast new landscape. Athia was designed with magical parkour in mind, after all, so it is a huge playground in which players can hone their skills before going about Frey’s actual business of saving this cursed land. I will admit that I nearly didn’t make it to the end of our prescribed content, likely because I was able to roam about wherever I wanted.

There are also numerous style options for Frey, and all of them are functional. She can equip and upgrade various apparel such as masks, necklaces, and cloaks at workbenches tucked away within safehouses found throughout the land of Athia. Resources for these upgrades can be found on fallen enemies, in chests, or perhaps given as quest rewards.

Frey can also paint her nails in a unique upgrade option that I don’t remember in other games before. Each hand can be painted in a separate style if desired, for different effects such as extra damage, or easier recovery. Though, you could always just go with your favorite look instead. The choice, as ever, is yours.

Forspoken has a ton of potential, and is now a game that I am excited to get my hands on again as the release nears. The flow mechanic is going to take some getting used to – there is no getting around this. But I believe investing the time in it will allow players to reap the rewards and master the game in whatever way they so choose. The mixture of a large world, interesting cast of characters, and a vast array of magical combat options seems like a great combination, and soon we’ll find out if all these ideas meld together well when Forspoken launches on the PS5 and PC platforms on January 24, 2023.

The post Forspoken Hands-on Gameplay Preview (PS5) appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.

Halloween is the perfect time for most any survival horror game to launch. Newly minted Canadian studio Brass Token is launching their supernatural survival horror game The Chant during the week of Halloween, on November 3. Ahead of this launch, they invited PlayStation LifeStyle to their corner of Vancouver, Canada to take a peek at their studio and spend a bit of time playing their debut game. Read all about our time on a mysterious island below in our The Chant preview.

Scrappy startup vibes

Nestled away in a busy industrial area in Vancouver Canada, the scrappy startup Brass Token describes their team as “a lean studio with a mighty vision to be a premiere boutique developer of story-driven action games for PC and console.” With a total permanent staff size of 19, you’d be hard-pressed to find a tighter-knit group of people aiming so high when it comes to a debut title.

Indeed, we were given a brief tour of the studio, and there wasn’t a whole lot to see – the company has taken a hybrid approach to work with the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, and as such only a few developers were in the office, with their computers stationed along the windows at the back wall, and one room with a door featured whiteboarding and early concept art for The Chant.

Behind another door, Brass Token has taken the more traditional development cost-saving route of building out their own motion-capture and recording booth within their studio. The room featured large chunks of sound padding adorning the walls, and a couple of stations where players could isolate themselves as they test out the game. It was at one of these stations that I was able to get my first sampling of The Chant.

Fight, flee, GO CrAzY?!

The demo started me out at Chapter 3 of the story, and as such, we weren’t shown the full setup of the story’s premise. In The Chant, you play as Jess Briars, a woman with an established career in biomedicine. She had some sort of traumatic event which drove her apart from her best friend, Kim, who has now invited her to come out to Glory Island for a spiritual retreat.

At this point in the story, the main ritual has been completed, and it has opened everyone’s “third eye” to the horrors known as The Gloom, a psychedelic dimension that feeds off of negative energy. Fellow retreat member Sonny has been severely affected by the ritual, and has fled the area and run towards the local mines.

Since the demo took place after what would normally have been The Chant’s tutorial, I was thrust into spiritual warfare without much preparation. This was an odd choice, but perhaps the story is so tightly woven that it will make more sense once the full game is released. Most enemies appear to be some sort of sentient plant life, though there were also giant venomous toads to contend with towards the end of the demo. Also, although Jess is seemingly an average woman, she does have some tools at her disposal. She can use sage sticks and craft other weapons to attack her enemies in various ways, though some cannot be defeated and are best avoided.

As The Chant is at least in part a psychological thriller, one enemy in particular appeared to manifest some of Jess’ fears – it was made entirely of flies, which she hates, and shouted insecurities she seemed to hold, thus messing with her mind as opposed to her body. This enemy sauntered along towards Jess, and could be temporarily stunned with a smudge stick, but ultimately had to be run away from, at least for now. Surprisingly, this enemy could even open doors, only finally being warded off once a certain marker was reached.

Balance in all things

Jess has three health bars, each relating to her current overall well-being. Mind, Body, and Spirit each get their own status level, and while healing can be performed on each by using a crystal with a press of the directional pad, holding a button can also trade some Spirit health for Mind. If Mind ever dips to zero, then Jess will suffer a panic attack, which affects how she can perform in combat. If Body ever hits zero, then she’s dead and the game must be reloaded from a checkpoint. We didn’t see what happens if Spirit hit zero, but this also has its own consequences.

On the surface, the enigmatic leader of Prismic Science Tyler Anton invites people to his island in order to become the best, most awakened version of themselves. He speaks in a soft, considered manner, with some obvious influence from real-life cult leader Charles Manson. There are a lot of vague messages of expanding your consciousness, peering into the unknown, and coming out a changed person. But there is something curious about The Chant which may signal the truth behind Tyler: the number six can be seen throughout the game.

There are six main characters, six different crystals to utilize, six locations to explore, six things to craft in a radial menu, and six chapters to the story. Even Jess’ three health bars can be healed, but she can only hold two healing items per bar – three bars times two items gives us six again. There are probably more things within The Chant that relate to this spiritually cursed number, but if so this will reveal itself upon the game’s release.

From a technical standpoint, Brass Token is aiming incredibly high for a small studio. Unreal Engine 4 is being used for The Chant, and they are targeting current-generation consoles only, in addition to PC. We played on the sole PS5 unit available for testing, with a QA tester by our side taking notes of our session that they could perhaps use as feedback to fix a few remaining issues before launch.

There seemed to be a heavy focus on high production values, as is evident in character modeling. A lot of work seems to have gone into skin textures, for instance. I noticed that one character’s physical stress was accentuated by him being drenched with sweat, beads of which collected at various spots on his face in a convincing manner. Main character Jess became dirty as our demo progressed on, something her skin acutely showed with various patches of dirt and other substances caked on the various crevices that lined her face. With a tightly-controlled environment such as an island and mines, perhaps such a high production value can be carried throughout the adventure.

Showing promise

As mentioned, Brass Token has its own custom-built motion capture room, and while we didn’t see anyone suit up to be recorded while we were at their studio, we did take a look at the head camera rigs the company seemed pretty proud of – bicycle or skateboarding helmets rigged up with metal casing, with a spot to mount a smartphone with which facial data can be recorded, plus copious amounts of gaffer tape.

There’s a contagious sense of a do-it-yourself attitude within the walls of Brass Token, and everyone there seemed to genuinely want to help make the best product they possibly could. CEO Mike Skupa formerly of United Front Games and Rockstar Games seems to have assembled an accomplished group of people all eagerly working towards a collective goal.

The Chant has a lot riding on its success. As Brass Token’s debut title, some would say it has to succeed in order to help the studio establish itself. Releasing just after Halloween, this story-driven survival horror game seems to check all the boxes to make for a fun, scary game you can play or watch others play through in a sitting or two over the weekend. Turn the lights off and the volume up to give yourself a few supernatural scares when The Chant launches on November 3, 2022 for the PS5, Xbox Series, and PC platforms.

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