Summer Game Fest Play Days Previews Round-Up

At Summer Game Fest Play Days, I got to experience several hands-off demonstrations, and this article is about the few I didn’t get a super in-depth look at, but were interesting nonetheless. RPGamer was able to get an exclusive first look at the multiplayer horror game SAW: Genesis, being developed by Broken Mirror Games and Anshar Studios, and published by Bloober Team, and a sweeping overview of the MMO life sim SEED, being developed and published by Klang Games.

SAW: Genesis

Unnerving to say the least.

Having grown up when the SAW films were at their peak of popularity but being far too young to watch them, I never thought in my later, more mature years that a SAW video game was a good, fun idea or that it would make any sense at all. That might be due in part to my aversion to torture and the gory nature of the franchise, but it’s also admittedly a gaming blindside I have. As somebody who vastly prefers single-player experiences, I forgot about the wide mass popularity of multiplayer games like Dead by Daylight, and all of a sudden, the gears clicked into place, and SAW: Genesis suddenly made a lot more sense.

What was most interesting about SAW: Genesis, and what I think makes it a lot more compelling than a direct film-to-game translation, is its interesting setting: 1920s England after the First World War, with much of its gore and horror rooted in this historical backdrop. The premise has the Judge, a WWI veteran affected by shell shock, carrying profound psychological and physical damage from the war. This motivates him to “rehabilitate” others, including opposing players. The sound and visual design are spot on, drawing from British orphanages and architecture, as well as the generally bleak atmosphere of post-WWI Europe.

Gameplay-wise, SAW: Genesis is a 3v1 multiplayer experience that pits three players, known as the Accused, against the Judge, a precursor to the infamous Jigsaw from the SAW films. Set in a shifting maze with a ton of traps, the Accused have to outwit the Judge through strength in numbers and teamwork, whereas the Judge has the exclusive ability to navigate hidden corridors or use paralyzing toxins or hallucinogenic bombs to disorient the Accused. The demonstrated gameplay didn’t feel thorough enough to draw firm conclusions, and it seems this is a game that players really need to experience to see if it works. The gore didn’t seem as gratuitous as the films, which is a bonus in my eyes, and the premise seemed remarkable enough to offer a distinctly grisly multiplayer horror experience.

SEED

Cities in SEED are sprawling and incredibly active.

I played quite a bit of The Sims as a kid on the PlayStation 2, but otherwise, life sims aren’t exactly my most thoroughly explored genre. SEED is fascinating on several levels, but primarily because it really shows how far the genre has advanced since I became familiar with it. SEED is a persistent life sim, meaning that all of the characters, known as Seedlings, continue to live their lives and go about their daily routines even while players are logged out of the game. My biggest, overarching thought about SEED was just how impressive it is as a technical accomplishment. There are so many systems, including a fully developed materials economy, political systems, jobs, a hierarchy of needs for Seedlings, construction cycles, and full life cycles for Seedlings.

It’s dizzying and would be impressive on its own as a self-contained game, but SEED is also a society simulator and MMO, meaning different societies and players interact with each other at varying levels. This was most apparent in the actual communication players can have with Seedlings, and that Seedlings can have with each other. Players are able to directly text any Seedling, and the Seedlings can also talk to each other. One of the presenters told a Seedling that another Seedling in an entirely different town had gossiped about them, claiming that they smelled horrendous. The exchanges between them and the drama that unfolded were incredibly entertaining to watch, but it was also wildly impressive from a technical and programming standpoint, with the Seedling AI seeming very real and deep. The brief time didn’t allow for an in-depth examination of SEED‘s many, many systems, but I walked away flabbergasted and profoundly impressed by the game’s construction and deeply interactive systems.