We went to EGX 2022 to check out some awesome games. EGX is a games event that is usually hosted twice a year and showcases games that are currently in development. In this blog, we are going to highlight some of the best that we saw at the show.
Sker Ritual – Wales Interactive
This game is a sequel to the game Sker maiden made by Wales Interactive. We got to play the demo at Egx for around 45 minutes. Sker Ritual is a round-based survival shooter, the closest comparison I could say is a mix between Call of duty zombies mixed with Resident Evil 8 village. This game is a co-op shooter with up to four players and is unique in that you have a bunch of objectives that you complete as you progress through the level.
The art style for this game does remind me of the previously mentioned Resident Evil Village in that it’s realistic, gory, and full of fantastic particle effects. The use of lighting in this game is impressive with the number of dynamic lights that are presented on screen. This ranges from gun effects, fire, and many more.
The gameplay is super fun and does remind me of the zombie mode in Call of Duty. A currency system in the game will allow you to buy perks, and guns and supercharge your gun for more damage. The round-based gameplay doesn’t get stale as you will have objectives throughout that will allow you to progress to new areas on the map. Some objectives were a little vague such as shooting certain scarecrows with a lightning gun but imagine this is done intentionally as the game is meant to be repayable. The gunplay felt intuitive with my favorite being the pump action shotgun as this worked super well with the gore system. Other guns such as the mp5 and lighting gun felt great and the pack a punch made the guns feel even better.
There is also progression throughout in between rounds with ‘miracles’. These are little bonuses that you get to make you feel a little more powerful. Furthermore, Sker also uses allows you to customise your character with masks, taunts, and abilities which makes your character feel more unique.
Sker Ritual comes out on Steam Early Access on October 13th with the first map being released. I am looking forward to playing this game when it launches.
Samurai vs Ninja – Chessers studio
This is a cool mobile game that I played at the Transfuzer stand at EGX. Samurai vs ninja is a mobile hack n slash but with a bit more depth. I don’t play many mobile games but this caught my eye because it was very minimalist with easy to pick up controls.
Aesthetically, this game has a very minimalist art style that works well for the Japanese setting. One tree, some beautiful swaying grass, and cool effects. This game ran well on the phone that was given to me to play.
Gameplay-wise, you have an attack, block/parry, and grab. These mechanics have more depth than what’s on the surface. For example, you can grab an opponent swing them around to hit other enemies then slash them up. This was pretty impressive and worked seamlessly with gore effects that intensified the combat.
My suggestions to the devs were to add more environments like snow and maybe a battleground but it seems they are already in the works. It was great to have fun playing a game on a platform I don’t usually like to play games on. There is no date for release but I will download this game if it comes on to the ios app store. They have plans to release it onto the Play store on android.
Engines of Destruction – Rengage
The final game that I am going to talk about is Engines of Destruction. This was shown at the Tranfuzer showcase area and this game although early in development shows a lot of promise. This is a mech combat game with some first-person shooter gameplay. The mech combat reminds me of the discontinued Hawken game from a few years ago. Built in the new Unreal 5 engine, this game looks very impressive with mech models being highly detailed. The game also allows you to customise your mech with different weapons for you to kill other mechs and soldiers.
The mechanics of the game is that you have light guns which allow you to target more infantry-type units. You can also use your light guns to target mech weapons and disable them until your heavy weapons reload. You use your heavy weapons primarily to target other mechs. These deal high damage and only take a few shots to take your opponents out.
This game is still in very early development and the devs don’t yet have a timeline for when the game is going to release. So far it looks very promising.
There were many more games that we were able to play at EGX. This ranged from the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 beta to the steam deck. It was an amazing experience and cannot wait to go back next year.