After the euphoria of the first day of PAX East the second day is one of settling in and trying to really see what the conference has to offer. The layout has been explored, friends have been caught up with and now it is time for some serious exploration of the nooks and crannys to see what I may have missed on the first day.

The nice thing about this event is that there are so many different vendors and exhibitors, I actually found myself wandering to a lot of the smaller shops and game stations to see what they had on display. I ended up buying dice for my friends (an annual tradition), chatted with the child’s play folks and heard what geek therapuetics had to say about healing through gaming.

Eventually I game back to the games, I had a chance to check out a ton of different ones but a few stood out. Outward 2, Robots at Midnight and Heartworm being some of the more interesting ones I was lucky enough to try.

Outward 2

Developed by Nine Dots studio Outward 2 was a very impressive experience that I had a blast with at the show. Set in a fantastical world called Aurai the character is not the fated one or a hidden God, but instead a normal human that has to learn skills and magic to survive and thrive in the harsh world.

While I did not get much of the story from the demo I did get a really good look at the systems in Outward 2 and they were amazing, frankly better than many ARPGs from much larger studios. There are a variety of weapons, spells and skills that can be acquired and learned which is the main focus of the gameplay.

Weapons can be dual wielded for brutal attacks, or a weapon and shield combo for more effective defensive strategies. Regardless of loadout the combat is varied and interesting with blocks, parries, charge attacks and even an attack out of the defensive roll.

I found the combat challenging but rewarding if proper tactics were utilized. There were also some spells available that added a fire aura which could be compined with attacks or ranged spells for extra effect.

While the game is very early it still looked great and the developer I was chatting with mentioned there will be a very robust character creation system to add a ton of diversity to the game. This is one to keep on your roadmap as the team has a lot of great ideas to build on the successful first game in the series.

Robots at Midnight

Another great looking game was the deceptively charming looking Robots at Midnight. Meant to be a Soulslike experience I was warned the game is hard and it was, but it was also chock full of great moments and interesting battle mechanics.

Set on a planet that was built for luxury and now lies in ruins and occupied by aggressive robots the young hero is trying to survive while desperate to learn what happened to his family. This premise essentially sets up a hostile planet with robots who either are indifferent or want to end your life and keep the planet to themselves.

Featuring a truly terrific look and feel the game is an Action RPG that focuses on quick blocks and parries combined with skills and items to take out enemies. As the world is explored more combat, traversal and skills are learned making the game continue to evolve.

On top of the standard enemies there are occasional boss fights that challenged me to really try to learn patterns to time my blocks and strikes for maximum effectiveness. There was something truly satisfying about getting a perfect block and then following up with a flurry of blows on the massive boss.

The game is still fairly early with no release date announced but what I saw was very promising. Robots at Midnight will be available on Steam once released and I hope they show us some more before release as I enjoyed my time with this game.

Heartworm

Set in the style of 90’s action horror games like Silent Hill, Resident Evil, and Dino Crisis, Heartworm was something I wanted to get my hands on. Following a young woman who wants to learn what happened to someone she lost as she travels to a mysterious house Heartworm had serious horro vibes.

The presentation of the game is in true retro style, they even included ‘tank’ movement controls as the default schema. Shuddering as I remembered early Resident Evil games I swiftly changed to modern controls. Once in the game I was impressed with the devotion to the megacy style look and feel and the cheesiness of the dialogue that enhanced that effect.

Played like any other survuval horror game the goal is to explore, solve puzzles and progress through the house. Once a certain point is reached in the demo the action part starts with enemy figures able to be stunned and avoided with flashes from your camera.

There are no guns in Heartworm, instead the camera is the tool to avoid enemies and perhaps more as the game progresses. It is a neat twist and I have to say the style of the game one me over despite the low-fi presentation.

Releasing in 2025 on Steam Heartworm promises a psychologically-focused narrative that already came across strongly in the short demo. Plenty to like in this demo and one to look forward to once it releases.