I've just gotten back to the hotel room after taking on the Exhibit Hall from the opening ceremony to the close of buisness, and only got through a small portion of what I wanted to try out. I got to meet up with several companies and talk to them about their games, and even on the first day, you can tell who's passionate about their games and who's already worn out. Here's what we checked out today:
Opening Ceremony
Geek Chic
Right at the opening doors, Geek Chic was showing off their very impressive display of tables, including a small table with a built in multi touch display that they said Microsoft Surface couldn't do. It looked like it was based on a projector underneith it based on the picture quality (it was a bit fuzzy), but seemed to work great. I watched them zoom around a map, and move icons representing game characters around it and tracked their progress. Very impressive. They didn't have any kind of price tag on it though, from the sounds of it, they got ther thing together last night, so consider this a very early version of it.
Smirk and Dagger - Cuthroat Caverns
We sat down to play this game first, because I'm a sucker for any game that takes place in a dungeon. Players choose from a variety of heroes (that gain special abilities with later expansions) to get back out of a dungeon after claiming its almighty prize. There was only one, so the goal is to have the highest amount of prestige when you're done fighting through the monsters. And they're tough, while we were able to combo some attacks to take them down quickly, most will run a few rounds of combat. You draw cards that allow you to attack your enemies, boost your abiltities, or mess with your friends. We really liked this one, but were wary of the number of expansions that were out for it. We'll probably be picking this up tomorrow.
Castle Panic
Castle Panic is a cooperative game that allows players to work together to defend a castle in the center of the gameboard from an army of monsters attacking from the forest. Monsters move up and try to break down the walls, then the towers, but can be felled by various cards that work in different game zones. We didn't get to sit down and play this one, but the run down was very informative and gave me a real feel for the game. I'd like to head back tomorrow and check it out, especially while they still have scratch and dent copies of the game going for $20 (opposed to $35).
Posthuman Studios - Eclipse Phase
We spoke with two representatives of Posthuman Studious about their free RPG system called Eclipse Phase. Conceptually, it's a sci-fi genre in which consciousness can be shifted between bodies, enabling you to take on new abilities to get whatever job you need done done, but also allowing your character to never truly die, as your concious can be shifted and backed up. All the materials are open and free to download at their website www.eclipsephase.com. I'm really not doing enough justice to this game, so check it out if you're interested in a percentile based role play system where you can play as a gun toting octopus.
Wildfire - Cthulhu Tech
Another sci-fi role play system, Cthulhu Tech is set in 2085 with humans on the verge of extinction after discovering limitless sources of energy from portals, allowing monsters to come forth. An alien race has watched humanity stumble over this power and believe they need to be checked, all while their own government claims to have everything under control. The creator I spoke with about this was so passionate about this license and had so many great ideas about how stories could be written into the events that are unfolding from their expansion books, it really made me want to give it a try. Check out cthulhutech.com for all the information on this very diverse series.
Iron Dice Products - Iron Die
There wasn't much to check out at this booth, but it was drawing quite the crowd. In fact, the starter sets for the game completely sold out within three hours. I only got to check out a little bit about this game, but Jeffrey Lee, the representative at the booth, sure did know his stuff about the game. From what I was able to gather from the information at the table and speaking with Jeffrey, it's essentially a semi-collectable constructed dice rolling game in which you build a dice pool and then challenge other players with them. It uses the laws of averages to balance itself as gameplay, but there seems to be a deeper level of strategy behind it. He encouraged anybody interested to check out Board Game Geek for information, and their website, www.greatdice.com. The dice are beutiful, but from I saw, pretty darn expensive. Keep an eye on this one to see how far they can take it.
Crystal Tower Games - Sub Heroes
This is a family oriented game in which players build sandwhiches according to "quests" they draw from a deck. There's varying degrees of success to the sandwhich, if you have the first three ingredients on the quest card, you score 3 points, if you manage the next 2 as well, you get 5 points, and if you can finish the full sandwhich with another 2 ingredients, you'll get 7 points. First player to 21 points wins, but watch out as your opponents can steal ingredients or completely trash your whole sandwhich. I wasn't super impressed by this, but it was a little fun, they clearly tried to spice it up a little bit by having titles under the ingredients like "black belt olive" or the "provolone ranger". I think they should reskin this game to take their quest idea to a whole new level. Send a character on a quest and let him complete certain goals along the way for more points. Got a horse, saved the princess, and brought her back? 3 points. Slayed the dragon and found the treasure? 5 points. Retrieved the artifact and found a new sword along the way? 7 points. I think it would be a lot more exciting, but again, I'm a sucker for anything in a dungeon.
Council Games - Combat: Last Man Standing
This is a type of medieval era fighting game in which players design a character with a base pool of ability points, which affects how many cards you draw, how much damage you do, and basically how you effectively play. I wasn't sure about this game until we sat down and played it for a bit. It played pretty well, but we were playing from a community deck. I'm not sure how I would feel about having to build my own deck to play against other constructed decks. I already play Magic.
Check back later for more updates, and keep following us on twitter @videogamingat30 for more GenCon mini reviews of the games on the floor! I'll have a few more game updates done later tonight!
