Gamerzeino issue 1 by ind13

Gamerzeino Issue One

k n a l C & t e h c t Ra ls on the PS4 ua

s i v e v i s s e r p m The most i Feature

Feature

Review

Pathologic Classic HD is available now and we talk to Robbie Paterson about it.

Need to Know is a mass surveillance indie thriller and we talk to the makers Monomyth Games

Stories: The Path of Destinies. A fantasy action hack-andslash RPG game

Ratchet & Clank 4. The most impressive visuals on the PS4 Gamerzeino

Gamerzeino

Gamerzeino Issue 1, May 2016

The Relapse Begins: Pathologic Classic HD is Available Now pages 7-9

CONTENTS

Editorial page 5

Rogue State pages 13-16

The Relapse Begins: Pathologic Classic HD is Available Now pages 7-9

Need to Know, a mass surveillance indie thriller pages 18-24

Interview: Robbie Paterson pages 10-11

Ratchet & Clank 4 review pages 26-28

Stories: The Path of Destinies review pages 30-33

ESL & Team YP: Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s quite controversial pages 42-43

KHOLAT review pages 35-37

EGX Rezzed pages 44-47

Syndrome: A Sci-fi survival horror game pages 38-41

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News, Reviews and Features on all things indie gaming ind13.com 4

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Editorial A new games magazine. Just what the world doesn’t need, right? Well, that may or may not be true. But we obviously don’t agree, otherwise we wouldn’t have created Gamerzeino.

During the next few years, the website and magazine grew. Both in readership and stature in the industry, and we bloody enjoyed it. And still do I might add, it’s great to be a part of.

Either that, or we are ever so slightly bonkers. Or completely mad. Games Addict Insane, actually. We also run a network of three games site, so we thought “hmmm, why don’t we combine all three sites into one magazine. That way we can have the best of all our content all in one place!”

Of course, games being a global thing, we developed a global readership and began speaking to loads of great people that we normally wouldn’t have had the opportunity to. Some of those people were the great folks at Sirus Gaming.

And that, ladies and gentlemen and family pets, is how the idea started for our first issue. It is a bit more complicated then that, of course, so let me explain it in a little bit more depth. Let us go back in time a few years, and explore our (in) glorious history. In 2013 a few like-minded souls got together to start a new website dedicated to indie games, which were increasingly more available on consoles, PCs and, of course, phones and tablets. Called IND13, we set up the website and the magazine to go along with it, which was released in December of that very same year.

You see, IND13 covers indie games, it is quite strict about that, but Sirus covers all games, and mainly the big games out there which we all love to play. Sirus are Philippines based, and have a great group of writers and contributors, and we started working more closely with them. After a bit more of time went by, we decided to form something resembling a kick-ass partnership. Our sites support each other, and content can be utilised on both sites giving us a greater reach than some of those other bog-standard normal sites that exist. And we are truly global. “Hey”, I hear you say, “so that’s cool, but what now?” Well to that I would say, “this is where it gets really interesting.”

We started used the great reviews that Sirus used for our IND13 magazine, but realised that there was a slight problem. Although Sirus covers more games that you would think you would be able to play, some of the best reviews we couldn’t use as they were not of indie games. We started thinking about that, but then got side-tracked slightly as we also started work on a new site called 3Sprt. 3Sprt is our dedicated eSports channel, with the latest news from the fastest growing sport in the world today. So lets recap slightly: IND13 - indie games Sirus Gaming - AAA Games 3Sprt - eSports Well, what we needed is a magazine that could contain ALL of our content. A magazine that had no restrictions and bought to you, the readers, more amazing content that you could read in one trip to the lavatory. And lo, Gamerzeino was born unto the world, and I hope you enjoy reading it as much as we enjoy making it. Lee, all-round games lover

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The Relapse Begins Pathologic Classic HD is Available Now

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Ice-Pick Lodge, General Arcade and Gambitious Digital Entertainment bring remastered, classic psychological firstperson survival game to digital distributors

its eccentricity, its gameplay prodding at the fragile boundaries of convention.

Ice-Pick Lodge’s unforgettable oddity of psychological survival in a plague-stricken town, completely remastered with updated graphics and newly translated dialogue, Pathologic Classic HD is available now for PC on Steam, GOG.com and Humble Store.

Embark on a dark journey to explore a remote town built upon old tanneries and butcheries just as a mysterious and deadly disease breaks out. An educated doctor, The Bachelor, is sent to investigate, but he is not alone. One of the volunteers, The Changeling, is a strange girl who believes she can heal with her hands, and the other, The Haruspex, is a talented amateur who’s fond of experimental surgery.

Ten years since its debut, Pathologic has spread to become a worldwide cult classic, its macabre storytelling both unsettling and alluring in

Taking on the role of one of these doctors you will explore the town, its weird traditions, and the complex relationships of its inhabitants. You will only

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have twelve days to defeat the invisible enemy called the Sand Plague. You cannot shoot, barter, nor reason with this enemy, and only one thing is for certain; you can’t save everyone. Pathologic Classic HD is an extensively remastered rerelease featuring updated graphics and effects while addressing the most prominent criticisms of the original game with a newly translated script, and new voice-overs including reinstated dialogue. Released in anticipation of the Kickstarted Pathologic Remake currently in development, Pathologic Classic HD is the definitive rendition of Ice-Pick Lodge’s seminal game. «

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The Interview Harry Cole interviewed Robbie Paterson about Pathologic Classic What is scary in game is what we see, but how do you form a story behind the scares, to keep the player playing? By making it engaging! You don’t have to take Pathologic as a horror or even “terror” story at all. There’s a ton of characters, multiple storylines, and even some humorous moments here and there. It can be dreadful, but it can also be touching, thoughtprovoking, and intriguing. All in all, in order to make the whole thing engaging, you have to think about the story and the ideas first. Scares come in—or rather emerge—second, if at all. Do you think the strength of the game’s characters and storyline are why this game is sure to be enjoyed ten years after its initial release? Most certainly. While the story is hopefully not the only highlight of the game—actually, many players seem to believe that the hallmark of Pathologic is its “atmosphere”—being rich in lore is the thing that keeps a game going. Ten years have passed, but people still have unsolved questions and matters to argue about; they still sympathize with the characters and want to uncover the plot points that were hinted at, but not

explained in full. I believe that it’s a general rule, too. Long-lasting games seem to be the ones that have a strong story and setting. Mind that I’m not necessarily talking about extensive lore and an abundance of characters. Take Portal, for example; while minimalistic, it has a welldefined (though seemingly unnecessary for a puzzle game) story and setting. Which is why it’s made a lingering impression on so many people (that, and also by being very good at what it does, obviously). The artwork is awesome, what are some of the inspirations? The insides of Meethos’s (our art director’s) head. He doesn’t really talk about where he draws it all from. Have you ever found that you have scared yourselves with this game? Woken up in the middle of the night thinking about your own characters? Definitely! How could we do that to them? What has been updated in this release? What’s been suped up? The Classic HD edition featured updated graphics (thanks to General Arcade), but the main

feature of the re-release is a new English translation. We felt bad about the game being inaccessible and broken, especially since we’ve offered it as a reward to some of our Kickstarter backers. Now that is fixed. Please tell us about the Kickstarter you are working on? And the planned release? There’s a lot to tell! What started as a project to remake Pathologic on a new engine and with new assets, turned into a re-imagining of the game. The core plot, ideas, characters etc. will remain the same, but it’s a different take on the old story. Ten years have passed; the way we think and tell stories has changed. The original Pathologic was incredibly ambitious for its time; what we’re doing now is ambitious for this time. «

“We felt bad about the game being inaccessible and broken, especially since we’ve offered it as a reward to some of our Kickstarter backers...”

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500 MILLION PLAYS WITHIN 3 YEARS WE PUT SOME OF THIS SUCCESS DOWN TO OUR

MINIWORLDGAMES IS A 12

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GAMES STUDIO

Rogue State Assume control of a Middle Eastern country recovering from a violent revolution. We talked to Raghav Mathur, form Little Red Dog Games

Could you introduce yourself, tell us about the team and your studio? We’re a three-person team: two developers and an artist. The business-end of Little Red Dog Games is based out of upstate New York with me, but my colleague Denis is a developer in Kassel, Germany and our resident artist, Derek, is based in Canada. We’re all amateurs in this business, holding down fulltime day jobs in different industries, so the massive

positive response we’ve received about this game has been very uplifting for us all. In your own words, how would describe Rogue State? Rogue State is sometimes difficult to put a label on. It’s the unholy fusion of a geopolitical simulator and a narrative-driven turn-based survival game, built in an engine especially designed for adventure games. It’s been compared to 1988’s Hidden Agenda as well as

Positech’s Democracy games. I love this game, what is the back story to why you created it? What was the inspiration behind the game? I’ve worked with Denis in the past on a few other projects, and we share a similar workethic. A presidential simulator built upon contemporary affairs was in the back of my mind for a while, but I wasn’t quite sure if there was a market for something like this. Looking back over some old

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notes, I see I wrote down: “I can’t be the only person who thought FTL would be just as fun if spacecraft were replaced with statecraft.” The game was originally planned to be about American politics, where players could play their own version of Aaron Sorkin’s The West Wing. We abandoned that notion to pursue a Middle Eastern theme because there weren’t many games out there that portrayed the region tastefully as anything more than a backdrop for conflict. How is the game played out? The player takes on the role of the Glorious Leader of a fictional Middle Eastern country called Basenji. Every turn, you can take up to four actions that may include purchasing a new building, a diplomatic exchange with a neighbouring state, purchasing new military units, changing your national policies and so forth. After the turn is complete, the game throws a random event at you that challenges your leadership. Most everything you do in the game is going to upset a segment of your society, so you will be juggling the needs of competing factions all looking to disrupt your course of moderation. All you need to do is survive for sixty turns, but the game will take any moments of comfort you may be experiencing and use them as an opportunity to throw a nasty crisis or disaster your way. The game is a cruel dungeon-master, and not for anyone looking for an easy ride. What role does the player take in the game? You play a notable male or

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female revolutionary who helped lead a revolution to overthrow a tyrant despot. You were chosen by the council of revolutionaries to oversee the country’s five-year transition from autocracy to democracy while your more popular and cunning brother waits for you to slip up to seize control for himself. Players choose what kind of leader they wish to be, but sometimes the people of Basenji learn that the cure may be worse than the disease. Why make such a politically driven game? If we can play and love a game about sitting in a customs booth, then why not a game that explores contemporary international affairs without over-emphasis on war. War is possible in Rogue State, we wanted a game where players would feel a strong inclination to avoid it. More importantly, I thought it’d be really cool to make a game about the kind of country that games don’t get made about. We wanted to make a game about Oman, or Kuwait, or Yemen. We wanted to make a game about a Middle Eastern country with it’s own story to be told, and that story wouldn’t necessarily be the story of Iraq or Syria. The country of Basenji borrows elements from a lot of diverse cultures, all based in the Middle East, all with their own histories. Do you see relevant parallels to the current political climate? Of course, and it’s a mix of the intentional and accidental. The events of Rogue State are

“There really is no specific political agenda to this game, but the game does shine a spotlight on the challenges faced when players attempt a dogmatic adherence to an ideal...”

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largely drawn from real issues that captured the media’s attention over the past decade. Sometimes the comparisons are heavy-handed, other times they’re a bit more subtle.

for enjoying the a thoughtprovoking simulation, particularly one that builds empathy. That’s what I tell myself when I play This War Of Mine.

There really is no specific political agenda to this game, but the game does shine a spotlight on the challenges faced when players attempt a dogmatic adherence to an ideal. That’s not to suggest that we can’t have a sense of humour about our world this is a game where you can engage in layered diplomacy with a despotic chicken, after all.

Is this a form of political satire? Or political commentary? Maybe a little of both. If it’s political commentary, then it’s commenting that even the Glorious Leader of a fictional country is a servant to the demands of the powerful and/ or the many. If it’s political satire, then it’s mocking the absurdity of diplomacy in the age of a twenty-four hour news-cycle.

Is there an element of political education to the game? Absolutely. If there’s one thing I hope players appreciate when playing this game, it’s that it is a convenient narrative to blame the world’s problems on the actions of specific individuals, but the reality is larger societal pressures and politics often dictate the actions of those individuals. Do you think there is no topic off limits for games these days? It doesn’t just have to be a platformer? Are games now a form of expression that can be as credible as film and literature? I sincerely believe that games are art and that good art is subjective, even elusive. There are certainly topics that I think are effectively impossible to be explored in a game tastefully, but perhaps some day I’ll be surprised. For now, I think if it can be successfully modeled in a classroom activity, it can also probably be expanded upon in a thoughtful game. We shouldn’t feel guilty

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What would you like players to enjoy about the game? The surprises. We’ve put a few jaw-dropping moments in there, and we’ve worked hard to keep the game fun in multiple playthroughs...which is good, because it’s also punishingly difficult.

“If it’s political commentary, then it’s commenting that even the Glorious Leader of a fictional country is a servant to the demands of the powerful and/ or the many. If it’s political satire, then it’s mocking the absurdity of diplomacy in the age of a twenty-four hour news-cycle...”

Are you looking forward to the crazy things players will decide as the best route? It’s my favorite part. I love seeing players argue about strategic approaches, and making a case for playing the game a certain way. It means we did our jobs well.

do you hope to include in the future? We made a promise to our fans: no paid DLC. We’ve already made a whole bunch of changes, both mechanically and aesthetically to the game since we launched based on user requests.

Do you win a game like this? We define winning as completing your term as Glorious Leader and transitioning power successfully with your head and other vital organs intact. Your epilogue is brief, so the player can imagine their own retirement painting pictures of cats in their palatial residence if they so choose.

This is the game you bought, and we’re going to continue servicing it and adding new events and features at our leisure so long as we see people still care.

What expansions and ideas

Do we all secretly want to be dictators for a day? I know I like the sound of creating my own state. Now you’ve got the chance, Happy. Careful what you wish for. «

disrupts.tv

the video station for the startup scene. beta now live

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Need to Know a mass surveillance indie thriller

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Are you an enemy of the state, or it’s eyes and ears? Do you rage against governments for violating privacy rights, limiting civil and political rights and freedoms, or are you helping them? In Need to Know, a new indie thriller from Monomyth Games, you play the type of person that Julian Assange, that scourge of the free (within limits) world, really doesn’t like. You are part of the machine that is spying on the public in the name of curtailing crime, terrorism, and all other manners of unpleasant things. Not that this is that black & white in a game as unique and thought provoking as any as I have seen for quite a while. In the game, you have to attempt to ascend the ranks of the NSA-like Department of Liberty, but you do have choices to make. Essentially, will you stand up for privacy, or will you help create an unstoppable police state? You must spy on citizens, pick apart their private lives, and determine how dangerous they are. You can also resist these suffocating privacy invasions by aiding underground groups and leaking internal reports to the media. Or, you can just use all of that juicy classified information for your own, personal gain. Your call. All of this adds extra dimensions to the game, making it multifaceted and not just a ‘play it once’ experience. Need to Know emphasises story, and will sculpt the crushing growth of our realworld surveillance society into a meaningful, gripping journey. It critiques the system

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by passing the uncomfortable (or too comfortable?) mantle of power onto your shoulders, and testing which choices you’ll make. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll sweat bullets under the searing blaze of an interrogation lamp. Need to Know has just started it’s Kickstarter campaign, and so we at IND13 had the chance to talk to the guys behind it at an early stage of it’s life in the public domain; Quincy Geary, the Technical Director & Programmer and Tristram Geary, the Creative Director & Writer. Not just about Need to Know, the game that is already starting to cause waves in the Kickstarter community, but about setting up their studio, Monomyth Games. Monomyth Games are a relatively new indie studio, with Need to Know being your first game. What was the idea behind setting up the studio, and do you have a background in games development? I think Tristram and I had been thinking about working on a project for quite a while, but we never really got around to having a proper sit-down to work out what we would do. We were thinking, ‘mobile games? Maybe some sort of app?’, but nothing serious came out of it. Then, one day, Tristram suggested a game where you played as an employee of an intelligence agency, and worked your way up through the ranks. It just developed from there, and once we’d added in the surveillance aspect we started to get pretty excited about the idea. Thus, Monomyth Games was born. John, the lead artist for Need to Know, is a long-time friend

“One of the unique things about video games is that they allow players to inhabit a perspective, and make choices which can carry some serious emotional weight...”

of mine, and along the way we invited him to work with us. Months of development later, and here we are!

we’ve gone along, I’ve become more and more confident that we’ll be able to do justice to Need to Know’s potential.

None of us come strictly from a game development background, but we all have skills and experience which fit in quite well with game design. Tristram has a background in film, and has done a fair bit of writing, editing, etc. with his production company, Torchborne Screens.

Monomyth is a very call word, meaning a hero’s journey. It is very games orientated, is that the reason why you chose it, because of the games that you intend to make? Or is it because you see yourselves as taking a different journey/ path into the industry with the games that you make? We should say that we really value characters and narrative. The monomyth is such a fundamental storyline; it’s shared by almost every culture worldwide. It goes back thousands of years to the beginning of recorded history, but yet it’s still perpetually retold even today.

I’m in the final year of a computer science degree at the University of Adelaide, which I’ll be postponing my degree if Need to Know gets funded, so we can get the game out to people as soon as possible. I’ve picked up a lot of extra skills while working on the game, and there’s always more to learn. John is a graphic designer by trade, but he also has experience working on website and UI design, and he’s had a big impact on the look of the game and improved it a lot. As

To us, the name represents stories in general. Whether they’re told on a cave wall or through VR technology, people will always want and need them. We want to meld the timelessness of narrative with gaming, which is a relatively

shiny and exciting medium, to tell stories in a way that only video games can. Surveillance is an increasingly hot topic, especially with new ways to ‘spy’ on people seemingly being thought up all the time. But normally games concentrate on the ‘watched’ not the ‘watcher’. Why did you decide to take this approach? One of the unique things about video games is that they allow players to inhabit a perspective, and make choices which can carry some serious emotional weight. In Shadow of the Colossus, when you get a pang of guilt when you kill your first colossus, it’s not because you saw someone else kill the colossus, it’s because you did it yourself! You’re made to think, “Oh gee, why did I do that?”. We like the idea of the player being the ‘watcher’, because power bring about conflicts which make things more interesting. If you’re the one

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being spied on, there’s not too much moral ambiguity there; it’s not really your fault, so you’re the good guy. When you’re the one doing the spying, the line between right and wrong is really put under a spotlight. You’re getting rewarded for looking at private information, like a teenager’s text messages or a sick person’s medical records, on the off chance they have something to hide, which makes you wonder, ‘Is what I’m doing OK?’ In the game, the player can often choose to follow a different path, but who wants to do ‘the right thing’ when towing the line gets you more money and recognition? Do you see the game developing as it goes along, adding more to it as the user base grows? Or as a single stand-alone game. I can see this as a game that grows, maybe with a community? We’ve got a pretty clear narrative for the game in

mind, and a journey for the protagonist, but we’ve also spent a lot of time thinking of how to expand on the game in different ways: different choices and sub-plots, along with ways to add in more assignments after the game is released. Although the game will be mostly self-contained, one of the reasons we’re putting it on Kickstarter is to try and build a community around the game. If people are contacting us and suggesting ideas for the game, it’ll mean they’re emotionally invested in it, and we couldn’t be happier about that. I have talked to various games developers/studios, and they sometimes tell me they already have the ideas for their next game before they have even released their current one. Is that the same with you? Soon after we came up with the idea for Need to Know, we started to brainstorm ideas for other games.

We really liked the Need to Know concept (at that stage we were calling it Clearance), but wanted to test it against some other ideas before properly getting into development. We came up with a list of about 50 concepts, some of which were pretty interesting. In one game, you play an unscrupulous paparazzo and uncover the details of a crime in which you are implicated. (If you’re sensing a recurring theme here, I swear that most of our ideas weren’t about breaches of privacy; another idea was to make the player escape a glitching game, which would allow us to play mind tricks on the player and really mess with them along the way.) We ended up with three or four ideas which we thought were really strong, but some of the concepts were a little more abstract, so we thought those stories would be better told once we had some more development experience under our belts. More than anything

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else, though, we picked Need to Know because we just love the concept, and the stories it allows us to tell. Hopefully we’ll be able to show off some of the other ideas in the future! Looking at your site, you have a team of three? A Programmer, a Writer and an Art Director. Are all your roles very clearly defined or are you all working on various things together all the time, on all aspects of the job. We each have specific roles as you’ve described, and most of our work is in the corresponding area, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t overlap between our roles. Although I’m nominally the ‘Programmer’, I’ll frequently delve into story or visual

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design, and vice versa for Tristram and John. We each have the most knowledge in our respective roles, but many good ideas have come from one-onone discussions rather than just from the person who technically performs a role. And yep, we currently have a team of three. Although, we may be expanding to four very soon, with the addition of a musician who will work on our soundtrack and audio design. Keep an eye out! What platforms are you aiming to launch Need to Know on? The plan is to release the game on the main desktop platforms: Windows, OSX and

Linux. If we can make the game work on console platforms, and if there’s enough interest, we’ll look more into that. The Need to Know world could be a pretty good setting for a mobile game, with shorter assignments that would let players spy on others wherever they are; maybe we could call it Need to Know on the Go! For now, though, making Need to Know for the desktop is our main focus. « Need to Know is on Kickstarter now, with various ‘clearance level’ pledge offers, ranging from early access to the game, exclusive celebrity scandal storylines, and to having your profile in the game itself. Get backing now, I know I am…

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k n a l C & t e h c t Ra 4

S P e h t n o s l a u vis e v i s s e r p m i t s The mo

Review by Lexuzze Tablante When I first saw the preview of Ratchet & Clank, all I had in mind was that the game would really be a success and beautiful. There hasn’t been a lot of revival, remakes, or reboots on the Playstation classics since then. Ratchet & Clank, developed by Insomniac Games, was originally released on the Playstation 2 entertainment system in 2002. There were remastered editions that were released on the Playstation 3, but this time on the next-generation console, PS4, Ratchet & Clank is back with much more improved gameplay, better controls, great dialogue, and astonishing graphics. We return to the world of Racthet & Clank in the Playstation 4 system along with its upcoming CGI-movie based on the game this April 29. Get your booty-lombax butt in and assist the Galaxy Rangers in this fun and

spectacular action-adventure platformer remake. Ratchet & Clank starts off in the planet Veldin where the hopeful Lombax, Ratchet, auditioned to become part of the known hero organization led by the too-full-of-himself hero, Captain Qwark. The basic tutorial starts in Veldin and followed by the introduction of the cute companion and tin-can partner, Clank, escaping the factory of Drek in the planet of Quartu. The dynamic duo embarked in a journey to send a warning to the Galaxy Rangers to let them prepare for the imminent attack of Drek’s army of deadly-robots. What’s great about the first two levels is that it shows you more of what Ratchet and Clank did before they met in Veldin unlike the previous classic version of Ratchet & Clank. The game conveniently tells you the basic mechanics of the game and gives you bit and bits of guide for the new weapons you acquire. Gameplay-wise, the Ratchet

& Clank retained its previous version which is quite as nice as it didn’t lose the touch of the series. You still have to use your Omniwrench 8000, gather bolts for your credits from destroying crates and destructible items, and upgrade your weaponry. It’s your good ol’ smackand-shoot platformer that Ratchet & Clank veterans love. And as a newcomer to the series, it’s quite fantastic that the game reintroduces the whole franchise to the new generation. I’ve watched a dozen of gameplay videos of Ratchet & Clank in the past since I’m a follower of the series but didn’t really have a chance to play any of it due my lack of “funds” –as I was still a kid back then — and all I can say is that the remake version of Rachet & Clank stayed loyal to its series. One good thing to note as well is that the controls of the game are pretty smooth, the sensitivity is fair and very precise. It makes Ratchet and Clank easy to control and manoeuvre. The level design is pretty simple and you can go back to planets if you need to finish

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optional missions if you want to. There are also gold bolts where you can use to buy extra perks in the game like outfits and cheats. The weapons are similar to the 2002 version of Ratchet & Clank. What I like most in the list of weapons are the Groovitron and the deadly floating companion, Mr. Zurkon. The Groovitron, as from the word groove-ey, hilariously forces your enemies to dance and making them vulnerable to attacks. While Mr. Zurkon is your companion who floats and helps you take out the bad guys while commenting a lot with humorous and sarcastic comebacks. In the list of weaponry, you still have the Fusion Grenade (previously known as the Bomb Glove), the highly-trusted plasma Combuster gun, the flamethrower Pyrocriter, and more. But these however, which for veterans of the series, makes Ratchet & Clank a bit repetitive and could have added more to the weapons and upgradability for a “reboot” or “remake”. Graphically, this remade version is incredible. One of the best I’ve seen in any PS4 games so far. Ratchet & Clank aesthetically improved in a way

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that it can be crowned as the best-looking game of 2016 on the Playstation 4 system. With its eye-candy visuals plus the smooth motion blur gives us the cinematic feel of the game, adding the smooth explosions with smokes, lighting glare effects, detailed character models, water visuals, and the whole environment makes the whole the game more catchy — yes, it’s almost comparable to its CGI-movie. Additionally, the game showcased a new awesome costume in Ratchet & Clank that wasn’t in the previous version — the Galaxy Ranger blue armor-suit for Ratchet. And all I can say that it looks badass. Visually, Ratchet & Clank is one of the game changers for the PS4 this year as a second-party game. The voice-acting of this version of Ratchet & Clank is really impressive. Yes, Mikey Kelley, the original voice behind Ratchet was decent, but James Taylor replacing Kelley was not a bad choice at all. He gave life to what the developers wanted to have for Ratchet. That youngster-teen voice over a bit husky-young-adult voice was suitable voice for that Lombax we all know and love. The studio still re-casted good

old voices of Clank, played by David Kaye, and Jim Ward behind Captain Qwark — who, by the way, is also the narrator of the game. The game is pretty much almost 9 to 11 hours of gameplay, 7-8 hours tops if you’re in a very fast pace of accomplishing the game. There are challenges in the game where you can unlock certain perks/unlockables which makes the game worth playing again and its new game mode after you finish Ratchet & Clank. Even without these little adventures, the game is still enjoyable to play with. The Ratchet & Clank reboot is one of the best exclusive games I’ve bought so far. It was worth it for only $39.99, it’s pretty affordable for a remake on the PS4 unlike other exclusives which usually goes to a full-price of $59.99. It offers a better reintroduction to the series for all newcomers. Aside from being almost similar to the old version, the fantastic improvement on its aesthetics, decent level design, great voice actors behind the game, smoother controls, and the cinematic feel makes this game worth adding to your Playstation 4 library without a doubt. «

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HARD-HITTING BEAT-EM-UP ACTION! ‘MakinGames has got that beat'em-up feel just right, complete with bone-shuddering weapon attacks and weighty divekicks.’ - Pocketgamer.co.uk

- BONE-CRUSHING MOVES - DEADLY WEAPONS - INSANE BOSSES DO YOU HAVE WHAT IT TAKES?

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h t a P e h T : s e i r o St s e i n i t s e of D ction a y s a t n a f c i t s A fanta game G P R h s la s d hack-an

Review by Jan Lemuel Goyeneche Have you ever thought about “what if I had done that other thing instead of this in the first place?” to get a different ending or path of the game’s story you’re playing? Would it change the way you view the occurrences that had happened? Would it satisfy your side of the story on how it concluded? Or would you like to get different results depending on how you go on with the story?

a mysterious, locked page of the book that could only be found out if you find 4 of the different truths you’ll discover. It’s a really nice ride, depending on which ending you’re, well, ending. Here’s how it works: you play the game, fight Ravens and other enemies (there are the shielded ones, the ‘fire’ elementals and ones who can ‘buff-out’ Ravens), choose options on what to do next, and unlock a truth. Sounds kinda simple, doesn’t it? Quite simple, actually, since you’re the one who pulls the strings behind Reynardo’s story.

If you’ve ever thought about any of those, then Stories: The Path of Destinies would be a game that’s definitely for your taste.

The story gets a little repetitive, though, since the options you’re going to pick for every ending has mostly the same choices in it.

The story all began when Reynardo met a kid with a book. It was some sort of magical book, since for every story you unlock, the book tells you that it’s what ‘might’ happen, and not what really happened. You are to find out different endings to unlock certain ‘truths’ that would ultimately lead you to

For example, you chose to save Lapino (a friend of Reynardo’s who’s supposedly a mad rabbit that sold a Pegasus and got caught for it), continue on with the story’s ending, and decided to go back on the same path again, but chose to go with the other side of the same story this time.

After you’ve done that part of the story, if you chose to go with the other first option (there are 3 options at the beginning of the story), the path it brings in it is most likely the same path you’ve been with the Lapino story (but don’t worry, it will still stick to the concept of the option that you chose). The controls in this game is kind of hard, since it recommends a joystick for use. You move Reynardo using the right mouse button. Be warned, it’s not like how you move in an RTS game, since you need to hold the button and point it to where you’re going. The attack, like every other game that includes the mouse to its controls, would be the left mouse button. You use the CTRL key to dash, ALT to hook and SHIFT key to use your sword’s spells. That doesn’t just end there, since you have to parry the enemy’s attack to avoid a TON of damage (parrying was kind of hard for me for a while since you have to point where the enemy is at to parry it, but got the hang of it after a while).

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The ‘grabbing’ was kinda hard, too, since you have to hold the left mouse button, then release it to a direction to throw the enemy (sort of like slinging the mouse). You can also forge magical swords and collect crystals that enhances Reynardo’s capabilities. There are 4 different upgradable swords. There’s one that heals you progressively in time, one that gives off fire and adds damage to your attacks, one that freezes enemies giving you more time to plan your attacks, and once that gives you a fast attack speed (I personally love this one, since I’m the type who likes fast attacks). The crystals you’ll collect are kind of rare, since you need to forge these swords first to open different gates (which can only be opened by using

the sword as a ‘key’). Most of them give nice stats (like the, you guessed it right, more bonus attack speed!), some… not really. You can only equip 3 crystals at a time, so make sure you combine 3 crystals that make the most perfect synergy for you. The environment was kind of sharp to the eyes at first (mostly because of the lighting), but it’s really amazing how Spearhead Games (props to them) was able to optimize the game’s graphics. The graphics are absolutely gorgeous (they used Unreal Engine on this one), the environment also suits on what place you’re in, and the characters, though there’s only a number of them, served their purpose as to what they are in the game. «

“A fantastic fantasy action hack-andslash RPG game, Stories: The Path of Destinies definitely delivered on what their title suggested. A must for every RPG lover out there.”

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Save the sheep from a horde of wolves by building a fence around them, in this increasingly difficult new puzzler from McPeppergames www.mcpeppergames.com 34 Gamerzeino

T A L O H K

l when a i c e p s o s g n i h There’s somet you to the core. es a game horrifi

Review by Feliciano Mondigo III Apparently, this game has something different. Horror games like Outlast, the first Amnesia (God bless ‘A Machine for Pigs‘) and Slender always has a place in our mind and heart due to their insanely scary nature. The dreaded atmosphere the main protagonist ventures is so full of mystery. All the more when a sinister entity is chasing you from the shadows. That’s when KHOLAT comes in. It’s a mixture between Slender, Outlast and Amnesia minus the puzzles. It offers the players a sense of isolation, dread and fear in every dark corner. The story is inspired from the incident that shook most hikers all around the world: The Dyatlov Pass Incident. Indie Polish game developer IMGN.PRO injects a fictional formula on this story to add an extra layer of mystery. Most of the premise involves around the player retracing

the events that happened during the said incident in February 1959. The goal of the game is to explore the notable places where the 9 hikers were left to die. Let’s start with Gameplay. If you are familiar with walking simulators then KHOLAT is a game of pure walking and walking. Most of the events ingame heavily features on your Map and Compass. The Map serves as your bestfriend and it is required to track all the key locations to progress through the game. A quick note, there is no minimap, no player indicator and no sense of trail when traversing through the snowy tundra. All you need to rely on are the coordinates that are keenly placed in your map. The compass also serves as an indicator to where the next objective and camp are located. Personally, it took me an hour to get a gist of these things. And the absence of a jump button makes the game unnerving most of the time. Exploration is key in KHOLAT. If the player has no idea how to read the map, then walking around in circles will be their

death. Despite the game’s shortcomings, this is what drives me to play the game. Yes, this is a horror game. The player will eventually encounter strange orange entities that chase them once seen. It is a heart-pounding experience but that is all there is. There are moments of certain build-ups that lead up to a potential revelation but no, KHOLAT fails to deliver a crescendo of eeriness and mystery that would leave players terrified. One moment the player gets inside an abandoned Soviet Bunker then once a missing page is located, the tension stops. It makes the game less terrifying and boring. Luckily, for backtracking, there is a fast-travel system that makes quick access to recently discovered camps. Graphics-wise, KHOLAT is a very beautiful game. The developers utilized the real power of the Unreal Engine 4 to give you an immersive experience. Sometimes, I stop and stare in awe at the glorious glaciers

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“KHOLAT is a very beautiful game. The developers utilized the real power of the Unreal Engine 4 to give you an immersive experience.”

that protrudes on my way. Players are also given a more detailed experience when using headphones. The sound in this game is well crafted. The rustling of winds, howling of wolves and the sound of snow gives the player an atmosphere to live in. Not to mention, the game’s narrator is voiced by Sean Bean. He creates a sense of narrative to a story that does not seem to persuade

players that there is a scienceexperiment gone wrong in these mountains. Don’t get me wrong, KHOLAT is a good example for nextgeneration walking simulators. But the unhinged story and lackluster gameplay makes the game feel stressful at times. The graphics, once again, are impressive. The 4 or so hours I’ve spent are often-times

stressful when walking back and forth and don’t even get me started with the game’s disappointing ending. In terms of replay value, the game gives you the chance to collect all missing notes located all around the Ural Mountains once the game is over. It is up to you if you want to take the challenge or not. «

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Syndrome A Sci-fi survival horror game, inspired by the classics. Harry Cole talked to Ricardo Cesteiro, from the games studio Camel 101.

We all love horror games. We all love games that scare the bejesus out of us. And Camel 101, a games studio that is a indie and global as you can be, are making a new one, inspired by the classic survival horror movies and games, called Syndrome. With the game due to be completed soon, we caught up with the studio to discuss games (what else), how they work, and the thinking behind Syndrome.

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Please introduce yourself and your studio? My name is Ricardo Cesteiro, I’m a partner and producer at Camel 101. We’re a game dev studio founded by 3 guys that are spread around the world. We’ve worked on a lot of different projects, starting with puzzle casual games, then strategy wargames and now a survival horror title for PC and consoles. How many team members are you, what is your role?

We’re a team of 3: I’m a software engineer but I’m mostly focused on production, game design and writing. My brother Bruno is the lead developer and programming expert, and Boris is the 3d wizard: modeller, animator and special effects. We do most of the work, but we also rely on a few talented outsourcers to do specific things, mostly sound related. What game are you currently working on, what is its premise?

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SIRUS

sirusgaming.info

We’re currently working on Syndrome, a sci-fi survival horror game inspired by old classics, where the player can fight, to a certain point. This means that the player has access to weapons, but ammunition is really scarce. It must be wisely spent.

environment is very tense and claustrophobic.

What is the story behind the game? It all starts with the main character waking up in a spaceship, with no memory of what happened. He soon finds out that most of the crew is dead, or transformed into something really horrible.

So there will always be options for the player. There’s a large ship to explore and a mystery to unravel.

Eventually he meets two other survivors that try to help him, but each one of them has a different version of what happened. Who are the lead characters? The lead character is Trent Galen, a ship technician. What inspired this title? There were a lot of inspirations for this game from different media, namely movies, games and books. I could name a few movies like Pandorum, Event Horizon, Virus, Alien and many others. What games inspired you? Gameplay wise I would say Resident Evil (the original) and System Shock. The player could fight, but he couldn’t kill everyone he saw like a shooter. That’s the kind of experience that we want for Syndrome.

Although the player can fight, combat is not easy. Most of the times the best option is to hide, move stealthily or create a distraction to attract the enemies.

How do you get fear into a game? There are several ways to achieve this. The most obvious and easy way is the jump scare. It works but it’s a cheap thrill that gets worn out quickly. We’re creating a tense and creepy environment that’s scary by itself. Sure we have flickering lights and creepy shadows, but it’s much more than that. We want the place to feel alive, we want the player to feel like he’s in a place where human beings live, and where they were slaughtered. Adding to this there’s the backstories of the dead crew members. There are journals and data-logs spread around the ship, so the player can read about the last moments of his old colleagues. And there’s also the fact that the main character is being plagued by hallucinations.

What can players look forward to? A very creepy story driven game with a lot of passion put into it.

That’s how we’re trying to create fear: a believable (scary) place, creepy and violent monsters, a mysterious storyline and a relatable character that doesn’t remember a thing.

The game is set inside a spaceship, so the

What stage are you at in the games development?

“We’re creating a tense and creepy environment that’s scary by itself. Sure we have flickering lights and creepy shadows, but it’s much more than that. We want the place to feel alive, we want the player to feel like he’s in a place where human beings live, and where they were slaughtered...”

The game is nearly completed! All the content is in the game, we’re now polishing some last details, fixing bugs, working on localizations, voice overs etc. We’re basically in the last stage of development. What do you hope for the future of this game? We hope that folks enjoy the game as much as we’re enjoying creating it. We’re putting a lot of focus into the story and the characters, and it’s been really fun working on this project. We’re all sci-fi and horror fans in the team, so there’s always been a constant stream of new ideas and suggestions to add to the game. « To find out more visit the company website www. camel101.com and the games website www. syndromegame.com

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ESL are right to say no to Team YP It’s quite controversial, but ESL’s decision to cut its association with Team YP is, says Lee Smith, the right one.

The Electronic Sports League (ESL) has banned a team from its competitions because it is sponsored by pornography website YouPorn.

partnership has always been to present Team YP as a ‘safe-forwork’ spin-off of the adultentertainment brand. Thus separating the team, its blog and promotion from any adult content.

Team YP, as they are know, have been competing in tournaments for games such as Street Fighter, CounterStrike and Starcraft 2, and have been sponsored by YouPorn, since 2014.

They even went as far as wearing a ‘censored’ version of its black and pink jersey for a Street Fighter tounament in 2015 because Capcom wouldn’t allow the team to wear their usual kit.

The idea behind the

It seems, though, that the

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ESL had more peoblems than just the shirt. They have said that Team YP contravenes its advertising rules and has banned the team outright from competing at its events, which includes international competitions for games such as Call of Duty, Dota 2 and Counter-Strike In a comment to VentureBeat, which got its hands on email correspondence between the league and Team YP, an ESL spokesperson said “Advertising pornography is not legal in the

markets we operate in, and the vast majority of partners we’re working with have strict ‘no drugs, no alcohol, no pornography’ rules that we’ve contractually taken on board. These aren’t new rules but ones that have been in our rulebooks for a long time.

esports has been controversial, stopping our players from competing because they are sponsored by us, in spite of Team YP operating as a completely SFW brand, clearly separated from any adult content, seems unfair to say the least.”

We have spoken to Team YP manager earlier this year, and in that conversation we’ve explained the situation and rules in detail and offered to look for potential alternatives in a bigger group. At the same time, we’re consulting with our legal teams about this. We will inform the team and the management as soon as we have any updates.”

However, is it a bad thing? eSports continues to grow massively around the globe, with competitions in games such as Dota 2 offering multimillion-pound prize pools.

According to the VentureBeat report, Team YP offered to completely rebrand and remove references to ‘YP’ altogether in an effort to convince the ESL to allow their players to compete. “If the division had to go through a rebranding and remove the YP for something else,” Team YP said in the email. “If the sponsor is still technically ‘YouPorn’ but the YP is not actively present in the branding, would you be allowed to let my teams play?” The appeal fell on deaf ears, however, with the ESL responding that their rules prohibit teams even accepting sponsorship from pornography brands, regardless of their promotion. Team YP manager Claire Fisher has said that she is “disappointed that Team YP’s growth is being stunted by this decision, not to mention the effect that this will have on our roster of players. While for some, our participation in

Sponsorship, as in other sports, is often the main source of income for players and teams alike. ESL’s decision on Team YP could have widespread ramifications on e-sports players’ ability to compete and the types of sponsors that are allowed to be involved in the industry. But I am fine with that. I think that there would be serious uproar if, say, YouPorn (or any other site that specialises in pornography), tried to sponsor any other sport like, say, football, or athletics. And if the world of eSports is to grow like other sports and be taken seriously, it needs to think like them.

“Advertising pornography is not legal in the markets we operate in, and the vast majority of partners we’re working with have strict ‘no drugs, no alcohol, no pornography’ rules...”

The world of gaming still has an incredibly sexist image, even though more women are starting to be involved, and the ESL’s decision is one that strikes a blow to that image. Inclusivity should always be encouraged, and by refusing sponsorship from the likes of YouPorn, the ESL is helping to foster a gaming world and create an enviroment where it doesn’t matter about your gender. It only matters about your gaming skills. «

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EGX Rezzed With more indie games that you can shake a controller at, and with all the latest and greatest VR technology, this years was the biggest and best yet. Lee Smith was sent to investigate, and wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t disappointed.

Life can be tough sometimes, especially when you have to traipse along to yet another great games event to play all the latest goodies. Lets face it, we love a good games event. Of course, there are so many nowadays, that it can be tricky to know which ones to go to. Which one is going to have the games that you really want to play? Which ones where you might actually be able to play something rather than waiting

in queue for at least an hour for five minutes of play time? Well, for me at least, EGX is the best of the lot. Not only does it show the best indie games on the market, and some that arenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t yet, but it also is managed properly. In such a way that while, yes, of course there are queues, but they are not so unmanageable that you spend your day just feeling frustrated and bored. Gamer Network, the company behind EGX Rezzed, announced that this years event maintained its position as

Londonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s premier games event, with another sold out gala of gaming at Tobacco Dock. More than 15,000 flocked to East London over three days from April 7th to the 9th to enjoy the biggest collection of games in the capital. Part of the London Games Festival, EGX Rezzed had more than 175 playable and pre-release games, with AAA Blockbusters such as Dark Souls III, Just Cause 3: Sky Fortress, and Total War: Warhammer alongside popular indie offerings such as Shadowhand, The

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Assembly, The Banner Saga 2, Overcooked and Giant Cop. EGX Rezzed was also the place to try cutting edge VR tech. In addition to the HTC Vive, a number of games were playable on the Oculus Rift including the public debut of Gang Beasts VR. PlayStation VR also brought along its Playroom VR suite of experiences to try, along with RIGS: Mechanized Combat League, Battlezone and Superhypercube. The Developer Sessions brought gamers face-to-face with world renowned game creators as they presented their latest projects, took part in panel discussions and answered questions from fans. Sessions included talks from the creators of Mirror’s Edge Catalyst: Inspirations, Dying Light, and Total War: Warhammer. All the sessions were streamed on the EGX YouTube Channel CEO of Gamer Network, Rupert Loman said “It’s fantastic to have another successful EGX Rezzed under our belt. The event goes from strength to strength and continues to grow in both attendee’s numbers and exhibitors, whilst maintaining its rare and unique atmosphere. The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive from all the people that make this show so special, developers, publishers, investors and most importantly the gamers.” But more than the numbers and figures; more than the sheer number of great games on offer, and stalls selling anything from t-shirts to console skins; is the sense of community at EGX Rezzed.

Now I understand, of course, that the world has indeed moved on from the perception of gamers as lonely people sitting in a dark room illuminated only by a glowing screen. But that isn’t the case (if it never actually was). And at EGX Rezzed, it isn’t just that the people there like their games, it is that they love their games, and indie games in particular. They love trying out early releases of title which sole developers, or small teams, have been slaving on for a couple of years. Quite often while still doing a ‘day job’. For them, the game is a passion not merely a way to bolster their profit margin, and the people that attend know that and feel the same way. They talk to the developer not as business and consumer, but as friends, as comrades, and fellow gamers, and it makes it a much more unique experience. Every year the event grows bigger as crowds flock to the Tobacco Docks, a venue which I have a feeling they will soon outgrow. But for now, enjoy it as much as you can.

“One of the unique things about video games is that they allow players to inhabit a perspective, and make choices which can carry some serious emotional weight...”

For as the world of indie gaming grows ever more inventive, and more studios are starting up to challenge the dominance of the major studios (who were all once, ironically, indie studios themselves), there are games that cater for every genre. And some that you have never even thought of. « Dates for EGX Rezzed 2017 will be announced soon and tickets for EGX at the NEC Sept 22nd – 25th are now available to buy at www.egx.net

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ESPORTS (ALSO KNOWN AS ELECTRONIC SPORTS, ESPORTS, E-SPORTS, COMPETITIVE (VIDEO) GAMING, PROFESSIONAL (VIDEO) GAMING, OR PRO-GAMING) CAN BE DEFINED AS A FORM OF SPORTS WHERE THE PRIMARY BE RIGHT WHERE THE ACTION IS