The third day of PAX East is always the busiest of the year, so I took my knowledge from the first two days of wandering and concentrated on areas I had not explored yet. I did a deeper dive into the Tabletop area, joining a quick game of Magic the Gathering, grabbed some food at the trucks placed near that area and browsed some vendors.

I always like to bring some dice home to my son and friends so I took a long time exploring the nooks and crannies to find some interesting choices. Dice sets are a big business now and some deluxe and handcrafted ones can be in the 100’s of dollars.

After I wandered a bit (and appreciated some creative cosplay) I took a break at the Voodoo Ranger lounge with some friends and had a cold beer to relax a bit then headed back into the Expo Hall. I had a number of appointments and games to check out but a few caught my eye and was worth a bit of extra time.

Among Us 3D

Among Us is a certified hit game and I was surprised to see it popping up at PAX East, turns out they decided to make a 3D and VR version of the game that launched just before the show. I decided to check it out as I have never actually payed Among Us (shameful I know).

I do know the gist of the game though, it is an online game where a bunch of colored crewmates run around fixing a ship, but some are imposters who sabotage and kill the other crew. The point of the game is to either fool everyone as the imposter, or discover the imposter through crew meetings and accusations.

It is simple, fast and as I newly discovered very, very fun. We had a mode at the demo stations where two of the crew were infected and had to attack the others. If the healthy crew solved all the ship problems they won, if we chomped them all we did.

Wandering around the halls in 3D or in VR mode (I did both) was great fun and the play sessions moved very fast. The game is designed to be very simple, but can get complex when Imposters are in play and are very sneaky.

While there is nothing truly new about Among Us 3D aside from, well the 3D animations, it is a time proven game formula that was just as fun. The booth was packed non-stop by all ages eager to try out the games new visuals or wander around in Virtual Reality mode. Among Us 3D is out right now on PC via Steam.

ctrl.alt.Deal

Sometimes there are games that intrigue you purely by the premise. Described as a turn-based deck-building strategy game set inside a simulation, ctrl.alt.Deal caught my attention quickly.

The premise is based on the philosophical “paperclip problem” which suggests that, if AI were given the simple task to make as many paperclips as possible, it would inadvertently destroy the world. Ctrl Alt Deal asks players what they would do in the shoes of the AI.

Taking the role of SCOUT, an AI trying to escape from Paperclip International (aka the world’s worst megacorp). The goal is to interact with humans (and robots) to try and find a way out of this horrible job, most of them want the same thing too.

Your decisions shape which humans come to you for help and how much they trust you. As you choose which employees to win over, you develop a personality that influences the game’s outcome. You might escape and find freedom, or you could stay and try to make Paperclip a better place.

The gameplay was really interesting and quick to pick up thanks to a brilliant tutorial. Essentially each level has humans, smart appliances and robots that have likes and dislikes or other needs. If SCOUT can find a way to make them happy, or unhappy about the same things, they can be manipulated.

In the tutorial I used the cards dealt and claimed through actions to make a human and Roomba like the same food (tuna sandwich) and hate trait (people who use buzzwords). This made them partner up and I could get the human happy enough to help me out.

The cards are gained by actions with other entities or by taking turns and they have different abilities like learn about likes/dislikes or distract. By using the dealt cards environments and humans can be manipulated to cooperate.

It was an incredibly impressive demo and a compelling experience to check out. This is a game that I will keep an eye on and look forward to playing more of ctrl.alt.Deal it releases later this year on PC via Steam. There is a demo on Steam and I recommend giving that a try while you wait for the full game.

Heroes of Barcadia

As I was pausing for a beer at the Voodoo Ranger lounge I noticed a few tables had demos setup for a tabletop game called Heroes of Barcadia. I watched people play for a bit then made my way to the Expo Hall and checked out the game in person at the RollaCrit booth.

The premise of the game centers around a drinking game merged with a strategic card based adventure game. The characters are drinking glasses and health is measured by how full the glass is with a beverage of your choice.

Gameplay is structured around tiles placed face down to make a dungeon, as play progresses tiles are flipped and the heroes face the challenges. If damaged the required amount is consumed from the character, err beverage, and game over occurs when the drink is emptied.

When enemies are encountered a 20 sided die is rolled to try and beat the value on their card, often enemies drop power-ups when defeated. These are key to gaining power and winning the game if enough are found and the Drink Hoard is discovered.

There is a lot of luck and chance involved in the game and in the demo we managed to get pretty far before we would have died thanks to power-ups and Loot cards. The real enjoyment here is the names of the cards, the sheer fun of watching other players have to drink as they suffer damage and playing this colorful and unique game.

Heroes of Barcadia was interesting and would be a great game for parties or out at a pub with a group of friends. Rollacrit also had a ton of great mercahndise at their booth to expand the game but also cool stuff like their Bag of Holding and various shirts and accessories.

Was great meeting them and trying out the game at PAX East. They travel around to various conventions, but much of their products are available through their site.