Recently Stoffel Presents had the immense honour of being invited down to London to check out the Modus Games Showcase. Four wonderful indie games due to launch at various points this year. Here are Badger’s thoughts on all four titles.
Lost Words: Beyond the Page
Lost Words: Beyond the Page is a really special game. The official blurb for the game really doesn’t do it justice:
Lost Words: Beyond the Page is a narrative-driven, atmospheric puzzler set inside the pages of a young girl’s diary. Following an immersive story by renowned games writer Rhianna Pratchett, players guide an aspiring author through the wondrous fantasy world of Estoria, where words wield immense power. In Lost Words: Beyond the Page, players interact with the words themselves to solve challenging puzzles and unique platforming segments to progress through an evolving landscape.
Winner of over a dozen game awards and accolades, players will leap through the diary pages to uncover an emotional tale of loss and personal growth that will test the protagonist, Izzy, as she embarks on this highly decorated, groundbreaking adventure.
Sounds great right? Trust me it is. So much more than the text above implies. After a 30 min demo of the game, I was left feeling emotionally vulnerable, raw and introspective.
Lost Words: Beyond the Page takes you through the seven stages of grief as experienced by a teenage girl. It blends the lines between art, games & therapy.
Perfectly balanced between innovative gameplay, A raw and honest story and an experience that leaves you brooding introspectively. Lost Words: Beyond the Page is an absolute must for all indie game fans when it releases later in 2019
Trine 4 – The Nightmare Prince
Next up at the Modus Games Showcase was Trine 4. Has a big fan of Trine 2 I was excited to see Trine 4 and I wasn’t disappointed.
Amadeus the Wizard, Pontius the Knight, and Zoya the Thief return once again to help save young Prince Selius.
Prince Selius suffers from intensely dark dreams and due to his magical talents, monstrous nightmares are able to slip into reality and wreak havoc on the waking world. Amadeus, Pontius, and Zoya must find the afflicted prince and resolve the desperate situation before the world is engulfed by the Nightmare Prince’s shadows.
Set in a beautiful, colourful and vibrant 2.5D environment Trine 4: The Nightmare Prince combines fiendish and tricky puzzles with sublime co-op gameplay. The solutions to which change depending on the number of players.
Trine 4: The nightmare prince is an excellent return to the Trine series and builds upon the best aspects of the franchise. Trine 4 is definitely a game we are looking forward to streaming in Autumn 2019 and seeing just how bad The Stream Team is at working together.
Bear With Me – The Lost Robots
The Penultimate game in the Modus Showcase is Bear With Me – The Lost Robots. A Noir Point and click adventure starring a drunk, jaded teddy bear!
Dark interrogations, sarcastic banter, and challenging puzzles lie in store for our heroes as they collect clues to solve a bigger, more sinister mystery. Featuring an evocative soundtrack, expansive narrative and a uniquely drawn 2D animated art-style accented by an impressive film noir style, Bear With Me will take players through an emotional rollercoaster of a journey that will determine the fates of our protagonists.
Bear with Me- The Lost Robots really grabbed the attention of Tiki and this is one he is looking forward to reviewing as it comes closer to launch in Summer 2019. Having a Teddy Bear as a drunken, jaded, 50’s style noir detective is a wonderful touch.
Bear With Me – The Lost Robots was our first introduction to the series but left both Tiki and I wanting to check out more. This will be a great addition to any point and click fans collection
Bear With Me – The Lost Robots is a prequel to the Bear With Me series whose previous 3 episodes released on Steam. This prequel episode will be the franchises first outing on home consoles. Not only is it appearing on consoles for the first time but it will launch in the summer with Bear With Me – The Lost Robots and the first three episodes for an extremely reasonable £14.99!!
Ary and the Secrets of Seasons
Finally, in the Modus Games Showcase was Ary and the Secrets of the Seasons. A beautiful and colourful open world to explore with a what I suspect becomes a fiendish puzzle mechanic.
After a mysterious force throws the seasons of Valdi into disarray, Ary decides to assist the Guardians of Seasons and sets out to find the source of the mayhem. Using her wits and courage, Ary will have to overcome monstrous enemies, secret plots, and stuffy traditions to save Valdi and bring balance to the world once more.
During our time with Ary and the Secrets of Seasons, it seemed a deep and complex game. One that is easy to pick up but becomes ever more complex as you progress.
The open world looked beautiful and the dungeons were extremely reminiscent of The Legend of Zelda. To solve puzzles you create domes containing one of the four seasons.
The season cast will affect the environment around you. Higher water levels in Autumn, Water freezes in Winter creating platforms etc. It is possible to cast multiple seasons at once and grow the size of the area it affects but two seasons can never touch. This I believe will make for some complex but satisfying puzzles during the later stages of the game.
The seasons also affect the enemies you face. Winter makes them susceptible to cold etc. So you can use the seasons to not only solve puzzles but to help you in combat too.
Ary and the Secret of Seasons also as a wonderful story to go along with the innovative puzzle mechanic and gloriously beautiful world. The game looks stunning and plays really smooth. It will be interesting to get hands-on with the full game when it launches in the latter end of 2019 and see just how the ambition and vision of Ary and the Secret of the Seasons are implemented.
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