Team 17 Preview (Yoku’s Island Express, Genesis Alpha One, The Escapists 2)
At E3 last week, I had the absolute privilege of meeting some of the developers currently working on projects being published by the iconic Team 17 Digital Limited (Worms, Alien Breed). There is definitely something for everyone here! Let’s get started!
Yoku’s Island Express
Yoku’s Island Express was a game that I personally had never heard of prior to E3. However, after my time playing it, it’s easily among my top 10 games that I’m looking forward to in the next 12 months. Developed by Villa Gorilla, you play as a Yoku, a dung beetle who is tethered to a ball in a side-scroller adventure with some basic Metroidvania aspects. Yet the reason this game stands out is the unique pinball mechanics.
Each of the four or five worlds is filled with little blue and yellow bumpers that you can control to launch our hero Yoku’s ball like a pinball. Like pinball machines, timing your launch is critical; launch too soon or too late, and you might miss the string of fruit or the path you need to take. There are no deaths in the game, if you mess up, you might just fall down to another section and have to redo a part, or you might fall through some thistles and lose some fruit (the game’s currency that you’ll use to earn certain items). The blend of beautiful, bright visuals and it’s unique playstyle has made Yoku’s Island Express a stand-out title for me. The game will launch in 2018 on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Switch.
Genesis Alpha One
Developed by Radiation Blue, Genesis Alpha One is a futuristic first-person sci-fi game with shooter elements, exploration elements, and ship building elements. All of this takes place in a rogue-like design, so no two games will be alike. The premise is simple, Earth is no longer inhabitable and you need to pilot a crew to a distant star system to find Genesis and kickstart humanity. Arriving at Genesis is where the game ends, but getting there is going to be one hell of a journey!
As captain of the ship, you can go into a ship building menu and design the layout of your ship, adding new additions like storage, labs, and so on. Additions require resources, so you’ll have to send a ship to various planets to scavenge resources (think Mass Effect 2). While you’re on the ship, you can wonder around in first-person, armed with weaponry and looking for any enemy stow-aways. If you die, you don’t respawn, but instead, another crew member is promoted to captain and you begin controlling them. It’s important to maintain a diverse and healthy crew. How do you increase your crew? Well, one way I was shown was to create crew members by combining DNA in a cloning lab from different species to create hybrid crew members. It’s quite impressive! The game still has a ton more work to be done, and probably won’t see the light of day until at least next year, but if developers accomplish all that they intend to, it’ll probably be a pretty awesome game.
The Escapists 2
The third game I had the pleasure of playing was the sequel to The Escapists, the breakout (ha!) hit from a couple years ago. Developer Mouldy Toof Studios has given the visuals in The Escapists 2 a nice little upgrade – while still retaining its cute charm, but standing out a little more. The characters have increased animations, to create a more fluid look. Prisons are much larger than the previous game, and now have an element of verticality to them. The prison I attempted to escape has five separate floors!
However, the most substantial inclusion is the addition of multiplayer. In the Escapists 2, you’ll be able to join another player (local co-op, online with friends or online in a public room) and work together on an escape plan. The developers even included some co-op only sections in the prisons that require a second person. I asked them how much of the content was co-op only and they said only about 10%, the majority of the game can still be enjoyed all by your lonesome. There will also be a competitive multiplayer mode where you’ll have no idea who the other human players are. It’ll be a race to escape the prison and you’ll be able to approach it any way you like. Escape tools will be more prevalent, and the overall AI difficulty will be toned down (the challenge will come from other human players). If no one escapes from the prison within the time frame, the everyone loses and the game cycles to another prison. The multiplayer aspects sound like a great addition to an already great game, I can’t wait to escape from prison with my friends soon! The developer I spoke with confirmed that the game will be supported with downloadable content after the game launches, but they’ll announce that at a future time. The Escapists 2 will launch on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Switch later this year.
