Best upcoming games from EGX 2018

 
This year’s EGX is being called the best year yet, with presentations from Tim Schafer discussing past projects like Grim Fandango and Monkey Island, and Digital Foundry talking about how Sony might begin work on the PlayStation 5. However, the stars of the show were really the upcoming games that attendees to play and hear about from their developers. This is a select list of some of the best of those games.

Disco Elysium

In Disco Elysium players work their way through a fantasy murder mystery, working on finding clues in a world that may or may not be their dream. Styled after classics such as Fallout and Baldur’s Gate, the game continues to use classic RPG gameplay but has its own twist on the levelling system. Instead of upgrading strength, charisma, and other stats that you’d expect to see in an RPG, players will fine tune the intellectual abilities of their reptilian character, allowing them to make them easier to talk to or enhance their feral side, for example.

Bad North

Bad North is a similar blend of styles to They Are Billions. This tower defence games changes the playing field to a small Scandinavian island, and the homes of locals are the towers which need defending. As ominous boats carrying enemies arrive in waves from the surrounding mist players need to juggle their units in order to combat the waves of enemies. An interesting mechanic requires units to be places and moved around strategically, for example arches can deal with a band of roving soldiers but if they’re seen before the boar arrives they’ll be decimated by that boat’s defences. This makes for some tense and interesting moments that ultimately come down to very simple yet interesting concepts.

Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption

This is a souls-like boss run game with one for each of the seven deadly sins, plus a mystery area. The graphics are stunning and each boss is unique and terrifyingly huge compared to the player. As is the case with most souls games the player is underpowered, armed with a shield, two swords, a torch, fire bombs, javelin, and a healing spell that takes far too long to cast. The game is heading to Nintendo Switch in addition to other platforms, which should make for great on-the-go boss runs, though whether it will compete with Dark Souls Remastered is another question.

Onrush

While this looks like a racing game it’s more of an amalgamation of inspirations from throughout the games industry. Created by the developers of the Burnout series, Onrush is best described as a racing game without a finish line. Instead of needing to reach a certain point players work against each other, or in teams, to accomplish various objectives. These objectives might be to wear down every other player’s lives, stay at 100 MPH for the longest, or get enough takedowns to earn the best car in the match. The game has huge potential as it blends much of what is popular right now together in a form never seen before.

Far: Lone Sail

In this title players take on the role of a young boy who must guide his landship across the dried up sea, battling past every obstacle he comes up against whilst also scavenging parts to keep the landship from falling apart.

Metamorphosis

In metamorphosis players are put in the head of a house spider, exploring the nooks and crannies of a household and uncovering all of the items and debris that we usually forget about. Whenever the player emerges on the surface they see a Franz Kafka play being acted out around them, which they must avoid if they don’t want to be seen and squashed, or inadvertently injured.