Trends of PAX Australia: Local Multiplayer

Growing up with the PC as a major part of my gaming life, this age of desktop computer as the ultimate local multiplayer machine is baffling and scary. In my experience the PC would actively resist any form of local competitive play, painfully beeping whenever you tried to press more than two keys at once and steadfastly refusing to acknowledge two joysticks without performing the prerequisite dark rituals, if you could even find two ports to plug sticks into in the pre-USB days. The situation has improved since wired Xbox 360 controllers became the go-to solution for PC gamepad controls, some level of uniformity in the wild west of computer peripherals, but for the longest time my most vivid memories of local PC multiplayer were of holding down keys unnecessarily to stop the other player having a chance to input anything and lopsided sports games battles between keyboard and Gravis gamepad.

PAX Australia, particularly the ANZ Indie Pavilion, proved that Australian’s love their local multiplayer (perhaps a remnant of so many years of terrible internet speeds forcing us from the modem to the living room). While the Wii U and Xbox One had their share of four player fun, the majority of these friendship stretchers will be available only for PC, at least initially. Some are already making a splash, Gunscape and Screencheat show tremendous promise, while others we eagerly anticipate hitting Early Access and full release. Let’s take a look at some of my favourites from the PAX show floor.

Bearzerkers

Disclaimer: I am a Kickstarter backer of Bearzerkers.

Starting life as Pandamonium, a Global Game Jam project, Wildgrass Games’ Bearzerkers has developed that concept into an intensely satisfying, fully featured multiplayer experience. You control one of four armadillos in an enclosed arena where a number of hungry pandas are released, chasing their nearest prey and devouring them upon contact. Armadillos and panda move at the same speed, but each armadillo can dig for a short while, creating a barrier that other armadillos cannot pass through but the panda can stomp over without concern. The object becomes to try and cut off the escape routes for the unlucky player being chased, making them dinner for the ever hungry rabid panda.

One struggle in the original Pandamonium was the difficulty you had in shaking the panda from your tail. That has been addressed in two ways by Wildgrass, firstly by adding a variety of powerups that appear around the level, and secondly by adding extra pandas to the mix over time, making players balance attack and defense rather than leaving one player as the target and three others working to close them in. Talking with Wildgrass they are placing a lot of emphasis on getting this balance right as well as polishing their level design for competitive play. That focus shows in Bearzerkers current build, it felt the most balanced of the multiplayer games we tried at PAX. I’m not sure how many layers deep the strategy will go, but as a fun, easy to pick up multiplayer game with plenty of laughs Bearzerkers is a success.

One new addition to the PAX build was a co-op campaign that gives a glimpse to their single player mode; you work together to escape a perilous gauntlet of robotic enemies and crushing blocks. It required significant skill to navigate, and a Left 4 Dead style revival mechanic meant that you had to ‘leave the safe room’ to go and help up a fallen teammate, usually resulting in a snowball of disaster. The show floor didn’t show the mode to its full potential, it requires quick reflexes, strategy and co-ordination, but it will flesh out the game package for times when you don’t have friends around for a game. Bearzerkers’ website is here, with no release date currently set.

Dungeon League

Dungeon League is as indie as it gets, a one man effort from Sydney local Christopher Yabsley with a name that makes Google searching nearly impossible. At present Dungeon League is an isometric 2D team deathmatch game featuring three classes, in game levelling, weapon upgrades and a variety of game modes played on a ‘first to three wins’ basis between teams of two. Your first round is played with basic weapons and armour and a single ability but in game you can find chests filled with weapons and coins to buy better equipment between matches, and strong performance is rewarded with additional abilities as you level up. Characters that are underwhelming in early rounds become powerhouses later on with the right gear and upgrades, in our games early warrior dominance made way to archer and wizard rampages in later rounds, creating a situation where our team stole out to an early lead only to be run down as our opponents upgraded their way beyond our skills, creating an epic final match that was one of the most entertaining multiplayer experiences I have had in a long time.

Controls are full 360 degree movement but with attacks on only four axis, it didn’t look like it would control well as an observer but with pad in hand it felt great. You have a limited mana pool to unleash your special abilities, but you start with a generous supply that allows several uses of your skills. The game modes include straight deathmatch, race mode and capture the flag, race mode was the most chaotic and entertaining for mine, CTF often fell to a deadlock as the 2v2 nature plus in base spawn points made it hard to score, while deathmatch was fun and required good teamwork with positioning to avoid the domino effect of a 2v1 situation when your teammate dies. Race featured three numbered flags and required players to touch them in numeric order to score a point, offering plenty of strategy as you can choose to defend a single flag and deny the opposition points or work together to run an optimal path and avoid conflict.

The balance of abilities, reliance on teamwork, levelling mechanics and equipment upgrades all work together to create a fantastic multiplayer experience. The ‘first to three’ nature of the games makes each round important, a few rounds of deathmatch and CTF ended in ties meaning our deciding round featured fully upgraded characters and felt like a lot was on the line. Yabsley has big plans for expanding the game, a single player roguelike experience and ‘creeps’ to drop gold in deathmatch were just two mentioned, but I hope he doesn’t lose focus on balancing the already excellent multiplayer component. Dungeon League goes into Early Access on 6 December, the website is here.

Swordy

New Zealand based developers Frogshark have created a striking look for Swordy, a physics based swordfighting game that reminds me of a cross between Bushido Blade and spinning tops. While deeper strategy might reveal itself with extended play, Swordy was about picking up the biggest sword (or hammer) you could find and spinning like crazy towards your opponents, timing your attacks to slice them in half before they can do the same to you. While only four player was available at PAX, 12 spaces were available in the map on show, a number that would result in complete madness.

Swordy inspired a lot of laughs, especially when you figure out you can throw your weapons as well as swing them. There were plenty of balance issues, spawn camping could be a problem and the big war hammer dominated in our play, but as long as it was played in the right spirit Swordy was a lot of fun. It will be interesting to see where Frogshark take this one, but for now it has a Gang Beasts style of comedy physics deathmatch vibe that was a lot of fun to watch and play. It looks promising, and you can find the website here. There is no release date for Swordy as yet.

#IDARB

Over at the Xbox booth they were showing off four player #IDARB, an eSport that combines a 2D platformer with NBA Jam. While #IDARB supports eight players, four was frantic enough as the physics were loose enough to reward mastery while making it difficult to control the ball. At its best you have teammates passing between each other trying to set up the perfect shot and counter attacks reminiscent of basketball fast breaks, at its worst you have the ball in a corner and all four players attacking it like an under 8’s soccer match. Luckily it didn’t take long for teams to take on roles and start to work together, a requirement as the level design offers just enough navigational difficulty that passing is the preferred method of progress, being a ball hog rarely pays off in #IDARB.

#IDARB doesn’t take itself very seriously, an in depth character creator allows you to play as just about anything, from a slice of bacon to a guitar or Abe Lincoln, and being web based you can share your creations easily. What really separates #IDARB from the competition is the crazy integration of Twitter and Twitch, where commenters can influence the game using hashtag commands or chat to turn off the lights or literally rickroll the match. On the PAX floor we only got to play the vanilla game, which is entertaining enough thanks to good core mechanics, but the possibility for the audience to influence (and likely troll) the match makes #IDARB a very intriguing party game prospect. As a competitive sport it looks the goods, well balanced and nice controls, it may get a little frantic in 4v4 but hopefully the game scales well. The #IDARB website is here, with a release tentatively scheduled for late 2014.