There are a lot of scalpers on the way to the con today. I count at least a dozen of them on my way. Plus, Party City is handing out gummies to passers, and two girls in a Red Bull car pull up to the sidewalk to hand out samples as I’m walking by. It seems Boston is real desperate to separate gamers from their money.
Today I decided to wear my Connor outfit from Detroit: Become Human (I’m repurposing it from Halloween). At the entrance to the con, I spot a massive dude in a killer Mr. X costume. Just as I take his picture, he exclaims “Oh, you’re Connor from Detroit!” It always nice to be appreciated.
Before hitting up any games, I stop by a PUBG match in progress. I really miss this game. Fortnite never really grabbed hold of me, and neither did Apex Legends. But there was something about PUBG that felt so… magical.
First thing’s first, let’s head over to Unnamed Perspective Game and give that a try. Feels a lot like Portal except with resizing objects instead of portals. The dev likes my costume. Sweet.
Afterparty is right across the aisle, but it’s obvious the line is going to be two hours at least. Yea, not worth it. It’ll be out eventually.
Lets go for an indie showcase run:
- The Forgotten City is a first-person exploration game where you are exploring an ancient Roman city and get sent back in time via a portal. I don’t know what happens after that because the game crashed when I entered the portal.
- Negative World is a puzzle platformer where platforms and blocks disappear depending on how many “jumps” you’ve used in the level so far. So some blocks will disappear when you have <4 jumps left, others will appear if your jumps are divisible by 2, etc. Pretty clever concept actually.
- Disjunction is a top-down stealth game with really gorgeous 16-bit graphics. Only problem is that the stealth concept feels outdated. It has vision cones and everything.
- Exposure is a puzzle game that requires you to hide behind shapes in the background by changing your character’s color. Wasn’t that fun to be honest with you.
- Aqua Plungers actually looks like a really fun party game. Four players control scuba divers who have to plunder treasure from sunken ships and bring it back to their treasure chests at the surface, all while avoiding monsters and attacking other players. There is also a boss monster guarding the treasure. Seemed really hectic and fun.
I bump into Andrew and Jay trying out Swag & Sorcery, which feels like it should be one of those mobile time-wasting games.
Andrew: “Isn’t this the exact type of resource-gathering game you were complaining about yesterday.” Yes Andrew, it was.
Andrew and Jay head up to a panel about Rogue-likes by the guys who made Dead Cells. I nearly join them but decide to hit the con floor for a few more games before closing. Andrew and Jay highly recommend Phantom Brigade.
On the floor I spot a free monitor for The Walking Dead: The Final Season (I believe it’s the fifth one). I haven’t played these games since the first one sadly. Looks like pretty much the same thing as the first game to be honest.
Since Andrew recommended it, I go wait in line for Phantom Brigade. Andrew and Jay were right, this is a great game. Its a tactics game with mechs where you can see a few seconds into the future using a slider. With that info, you can queue up beautifully choreographed move/attack/block combos and then see them played out in real time. Definitely the most fun I’ve had at the con so far.
Andrew and Jay are out of their panel, so it’s off to MJ O’Connor’s for food that doesn’t taste like it came out of a microwave. Tomorrow I’m gonna hit up some of the bigger games before I call it a wrap for the weekend.
