Game 4 – PAX East Hands On

<p>In typical Behemoth fashion&comma; rather than remain comfortable within the genre of their immensely successful previous title&comma; the studio has moved on to something completely original&period; Following the success of <em>Castle Crashers<&sol;em> and 2013’s unique platformer&comma; <strong><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;critics-adoring-battleblock-theater&sol;"><em>BattleBlock Theater<&sol;em><&sol;a>&comma;<&sol;strong> <em>Game 4<&sol;em> is Behemoth’s take on turn-based strategy&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;03&sol;05020756&sol;Screen-Shot-2015-03-13-at-2&period;58&period;33-PM&period;png"><img class&equals;"aligncenter size-full wp-image-79439" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;03&sol;05020756&sol;Screen-Shot-2015-03-13-at-2&period;58&period;33-PM&period;png" alt&equals;"Screen Shot 2015-03-13 at 2&period;58&period;33 PM" width&equals;"983" height&equals;"550" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>As is a PAX East tradition&comma; instead of setting up typical stations&comma; Behemoth showed off their upcoming title via a handful of uniquely customized arcade cabinets&comma; which is not a platform often associate with strategy games&period; Just by looking at the cabinet’s control scheme&comma; it was obvious that <em>Game 4<&sol;em> is not your typical&comma; dense strategy title&period; Instead&comma; many smaller tasks are automatically handled by the character AI&comma; such as choosing which enemies to attack when in range of multiple foes&period; Instead of focusing on the minutia of the genre&comma; <em>Game 4<&sol;em> is more focused on unit placement on the battlefield&comma; and knowing the strengths and weaknesses of each unit type&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;03&sol;05020819&sol;Game4&lowbar;BearHitsPlanet&period;png"><img class&equals;"aligncenter size-full wp-image-79437" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;03&sol;05020819&sol;Game4&lowbar;BearHitsPlanet&period;png" alt&equals;"Game4&lowbar;BearHitsPlanet" width&equals;"1280" height&equals;"800" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>My demo opened with charmingly warped exposition of how a giant Space Bear’s collision with the planet plunged the world into hexagonal chaos&period; The Space Bear&comma; who may or may not have also been the narrator&comma; then reluctantly introduced the protagonist&comma; who he hilariously resented and rooted against throughout the entire demo&period; After an easy-to-understand tutorial battle&comma; I set off across the fog-laden over world&comma; occasionally stopping to do battle and acquire more party members&period; Eventually&comma; I reached the first of many towns which contained a shop&comma; my home &lpar;where I could customize my individual party members with an assortment of traditional&comma; Behemoth silliness&rpar;&comma; and an Arena&period; While they remained mostly tight-lipped about <em>Game 4<&sol;em>’s various modes&comma; I was able to confirm that it will feature a &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Questing” mode &lpar;separate from the campaign&rpar; where players can just fight and level up&comma; a versus mode&comma; and co-op&period; Currently&comma; whether or not co-op will be allowed in the main campaign&comma; or feature it’s own campaign has yet to be determined&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;03&sol;05020734&sol;Screen-Shot-2015-03-13-at-2&period;59&period;28-PM&period;png"><img class&equals;"aligncenter size-full wp-image-79440" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;03&sol;05020734&sol;Screen-Shot-2015-03-13-at-2&period;59&period;28-PM&period;png" alt&equals;"Screen Shot 2015-03-13 at 2&period;59&period;28 PM" width&equals;"841" height&equals;"468" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>After slapping some funny hats and silly weapons on my units&comma; I immediately headed back out into over world where&comma; in my final battle of the demo&comma; I was introduced to the recruiting mechanic&period; By using a net&comma; the last enemy unit on the battlefield can be captured and recruited onto your team&period; This move&comma; which can be tough to pull off&comma; was extremely helpful after I was able to recruit a walking&comma; talking cupcake&comma; who heals units with it’s delicious&comma; sugary magic&period; The ability to recruit any enemy unit added a fun nuance to battles and gave a feeling of personalized control over how my team grew&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><iframe src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;youtube&period;com&sol;embed&sol;y5A-W7QvFRQ" width&equals;"560" height&equals;"315" frameborder&equals;"0" allowfullscreen&equals;"allowfullscreen"><&sol;iframe><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Behemoth’s attempt at streamlining the turn-based strategy experience could potentially turn off hardcore strategy fans&period; Yet&comma; this decision also lowers the intimidating barrier of entry to the genre and could attract those who have never considered playing a strategy title&period; Approximately 2 years into development&comma; with a development team larger than any of their previous titles&comma; <em>Game 4<&sol;em> has no confirmed release date&period; While the only confirmed platforms for the titles are Xbox One and Steam&comma; other platforms have not been ruled out&period; For updates on <em>Game 4<&sol;em>&comma; keep your eyes pealed here at Bagogames&comma; or check out<strong> <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;thebehemoth&period;com&sol;">Behemoth’s site<&sol;a><&sol;strong>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;