PEGBRJE: Season’s Beatings, Swung and Location Withheld Demake
Two games and a re-viewing of a third
Season’s Beatings is a high octane FPS created by CodeAvarice, a two part indie team who had created Paranautical Activity back on page 16. Players are an office worker who goes to a holiday party and finds themselves unable to leave due to militant party goers, and after weeks they finally crack. Nothing will stop them from getting out now.
In keeping with the studio’s strengths, Season’s Beatings combines the FPS speed shooting of Superhot with the puzzling layout and chaos of Hotline Miami. Each level players are tasked with defeating every enemy on the floor in order for the elevators to work, with the caveat that everyone only takes a single hit to kill. This includes the player; single stray bullet or an awkward bat swing will end the run and force a restart. Understanding the angles and routes of the enemies is crucial to avoid losing all progress on a floor, but at the same time some of my best runs were when I simply just took off and dove through windows to take them by surprise. There is also the weapon throwing mechanic that is crucial to success, which will chuck whatever weapon the player is holding and knock out any enemy hit. Knocking them out does not kill them, but does give a perfect opportunity to bridge the gap with a melee weapon, or discard a gun with no ammo since reloading is not possible.
Pacing is important, and Season’s Beatings has only one pace; chaotic speed. Everything is streamlined to be quick no matter how slow the player may wish to take it, from the smooth movements to the rapid acquisition of weapons to diving through windows. Death only takes a single button to reset and return, letting players go again and again until they can move to the next room. Every shot is quick and every enemy is quicker as the levels become even more complex with enemies spawning in harder to anticipate locations. The challenges of time, melee only and gun only become harder as a result, giving even more of a challenge for players to try.
It’s hard to say much else, for it is a simple yet efficient strategy for success. I could not get rid of the stupid grin on my face even after dying dozens of times to a level just because of how much fun it was to try over and over again. The fast paced combat, the reimagining of holiday songs with sweet guitar riffs and even the silly remarks after hitting an enemy with a baseball bat. Everything ties together for this remarkably fun and ridiculous game that you’ll definitely enjoy if you love speedy shooty titles.
Swung is a 2D ‘platforming’ adventure game created by Extra Nice, an indie studio based out of the Netherlands, with work done by T3triez. Players will be following a tale as old as time, with a princess being kidnapped by a dragon. Unfortunately the prince is a coward, so the local wizard enchanted a sword to do all the heavy lifting; that sword is the player.
As a magical sword, it is up to the player to ensure that the prince makes it to the end of each Chapter without dying by fighting off his enemies and protecting him from damage as he cowers. With the left mouse button, the player can rotate the sword to ‘swing’ at enemies, doing damage and knocking them away. The sword is also reflective, meaning that projectiles will bounce off and fly back at enemies, which can be extremely handy against ranged foes. As levels go on, enemies will become more complicated to deal with besides ‘swinging’, so understanding how the sword interacts with enemies is crucial to keeping our dear prince alive.
The right mouse button allows for the prince to grab ahold of the sword and let players drag him along to the next safe area because he also cannot do any of the jumping himself. This is the ‘platforming’ I mentioned earlier, for it is less worrying about the stamina bar of the sword running out and more about placing the prince in a location that is safest for him so that players can fight uninterrupted. He can be picked up and moved at any time, combat or otherwise, but that does run the risk of getting hit when trying to reposition. The prince does not have much health, so why bother risking it?
It’s a cute concept seen only once before in the bundle, and Swung’s quirky story telling and sound effects help seal the deal as a fun few hours of adventuring. The controls will be a bit odd at first to get used to, but you’ll be on your way to saving the kingdom and watching the prince snatch all the fame from you in no time.
And now, for the technical ‘third’ title.
Location Withheld Demake is a PSX ‘demake’ of the title Location Withheld, both by Bryce Bucher of the United States. As before, players are found to be within an unfamiliar room and will slowly piece together what the case files mean that surround them. It is nearly identical to the previous iteration, instead opting for the PSX style of fidelity to tell the story. For some this is a perfect combination — the lower visual quality gives a similar feeling to fog as it slightly distorts the view of the images. It also gives that retro aesthetic of playing a horror game as a child again, which is a feeling that can make nearly anything scarier.
I’d recommend checking my overview of Location Witheld to get more information on the entire title. As it is the same, it feels a bit awkward to simply repeat the same emotions and scenarios with the only major difference being the graphical fidelity and aesthetic presentation. Regardless of which you play, the fear will still remain.
That’s the end of 35 somehow! Who would’ve thought.
