EGX Rezzed 2018 – Day One

With high-profile indie games winning big at the BAFTA awards last night, this year’s EGX Rezzed was an exciting place to be. With contributions from ID@ Xbox, PlayStation and The Leftfield Collection, we weren’t short on games during the first day of this year’s event so, without further ado, let me recap the events of day one.

After familiarising myself with the show layout I wasted no time in asking some of my fellow attendees their top pick at the show, the unanimous choice being Catastronaunts by Inertia Game Studios. This delightful 1-4 couch co-op multiplayer game is charming combination of lovable family games Overcooked and Space. Working in a team with other players this game tests both your teamwork abilities and your patience. Essentially, you have to destroy the enemy space ship before it destroys you, this however is not as simple as it seems. My verdict: a hilarious family co-op game that is destined to sell well once it is released towards the end of 2018.

My attention was next drawn to a game called Sinner: A Sacrifice for Redemption which effectively is a Soulsborne inspired game. Sinner is formulated from the recipe which made Bloodborne and the Dark Souls series so successful, to be unique though Sinner has a clever twist. Firstly the game only features boss fights, no build up, no scavenging to level up and no frustrating areas to get stuck in; secondly, in order to face off against these bosses the player must sacrifice an item (weapons etc) on their person; you cannot face a boss without first offering a sacrifice. This concept immediately intrigued me and this game may well be one worth keeping an eye on.

Next I wandered over to the indie room to play Bomber Crew. This flight-sim game strives to be very technical and, whilst this is a fun aspect, I found myself very confused at the controls and the purpose of my mission. Set during a war of some kind I was told to prepare a team and snap a photograph of an enemy camp. Bomber Crew expects the player to do everything from chose the altitude and manage your crew to operating the inside of the air craft itself. This demo was charming with its cartoon style but I found myself getting rather stressed.

The final game I played at the end of EGX Rezzed day one was PHOGS. And I’m so glad that I decided to finish my day with this hilarious, kooky indie. The concept of the game revolves around two dogs who share one long legless body, with two players using half a controller each. This co-op style leads to guaranteed laughs. Each Phog must work in harmony in order to solve puzzles and cross into the next area of the game. With only half the controls available to each player this is gloriously tricky. Playing PHOGS was easily my favourite moment from today’s show.

So that’s it for my day one coverage! Tomorrow I’ll be playing more indie games and chatting to developer Sara Casan about her new game, Lake Ridden. Come back to Square XO tomorrow for all the latest Rezzed news and gossip!