At EGX 2015 we get the chance to talk to Jan Van Der Crabben, Live operations Manager at Creative Assembly ( and CEO & Founder at Ancient History Encyclopedia) and James the Community coordinator.
EGX 2015 Gaming Interviews – Total War: Warhammer
At EGX this year We got to talk to Joey, Community manager for Creative Assembly’s Total War : Warhammer, about the new instalment to the total war series:
EGX 2015
EGX, formerly known as Eurogamer, is the largest gaming expo in the UK, and this year’s event was the biggest yet.
Ubisoft were out in force with Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate, Rainbow Six: Siege, Tom Clancy’s The Division, and Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. However, EA’s stand showcasing Star Wars: Battlefront had to be the largest, with a full-size TIE-Fighter on display. Sadly, you were not able to get inside it, although there was a TIE-fighter pilot for posing with.
That is not to say that the other stands were lesser quality, as the stand for Mad Max had their own police Interceptor, whilst the Just Cause 3 stand was offering free energy drinks. Total War: Warhammer had a giant spider crashing out of their stand. Thankfully, no one seemed to be arachnophobic (or if they were, they were keeping well clear).
Halo 5 was also on offer, but it sadly seemed to be drowned out by the other stands. EGX2015 was seriously big…
What was particularly pleasing to see was the huge numbers of indie developers in attendance, showcasing their latest and forthcoming games. These games varied from simple pc-based card games through to frenetic first-person shooters such as Pixelbomb Games’ Beyond: Flesh and Blood.
Many classic video games were also being showcased on the colossal retro gaming stands, including numerous arcade machines and pinball games from many a person’s youth.
There were even a ton of board games, including several tables of Warhammer Fantasy battle to tempt the wargamers there.
What were also big this year were the queues. Not only did you need to queue to enter the convention (longer if you had made the mistake of deciding to buy tickets on the day), with the whole of Hall 19 dedicated to ticket sales and their queues, but you also needed to queue to play the games. These delays were particularly annoying, but little could be done to alleviate this.
Thankfully, the presence of many cosplayers served to distract queuing gamers with their awesome costumes. They were always happy to pose for photographs.
For those interested in pursuing video game development as a profession, there was also a small careers fair, with delegates from various universities across the UK, as well as some from Microsoft.
Despite the sheer numbers and scale of the event, apart from the queues there were very few – if any – organisational issues that could be discerned. The EGX team had the experience and the logistics to handle this size of event with ease.
Overall, EGX2015 was a massive video game event for the UK, and quite possibly the largest to date. How they attempt to surpass themselves next year though will remain to be seen.
For more pictures Go HERE and HERE
and For Interviews go HERE – we have also added some to the bottom of this article.
Codenames
Now you may not know this about me but I’m a bit of a table top gaming fan. I read magasines and blogs, listen to podcasts and even watch videos of people playing board, card and miniatures games. In recent months there’s been one title I’ve heard over and over again across all this media: Codenames. This party word game has been making a massive splash in the hobby gaming world, nominated numerous times for must-buy and convention bests by many industry moguls. So of course, I had to check what the fuss was all about and let you geeks know what I found out!
The aim of Codenames is to guess where all your team’s spys are whilst avoiding your opponent’s, or accidentally picking civilians (which end your turn) or the Assassin (which causes an instant loss). Mechanics wise, Codenames is incredibly straightforward. The game has a huge stack of cards with single words on them, and the players assemble 25 of these into a five by five grid; these represent spies in the field who are only known by the players by their ‘codenames’. One member of each team is then nominated as a Spymaster and given a Key which tells the players which of each of the words in the grid are blue spys, red spys, civilians or the dreaded assassin.
The rest of each team (blue and red) then become the ‘field operatives’. Each turn, the active team’s spymaster gives a single word clue, followed by a number. That team’s field operatives then guess which words they think best match the clue, up to the number the spymaster gave. For example, if the spymaster said “Trees:2”’ the field operatives may pick ‘Nut’ and ‘Bark’ from the gris of words on the table. If they get them right, the spymaster will cover the guessed words with their team’s coloured chits. The winner is the first team to find all their spies.
Simples! Well, not quite. The meat of the game is covered in the first half of the rulebook; the rest of the booklet is devoted to what is considered a ‘valid clue’. I adore the simple mechanics of Codenames; which can be picked up in minutes. However this over-explanation of the validity of a clue just feels a little clunky, especially if you have rules lawyers at the table who’ll be keeping tabs. It’s a minor gripe, and to be perfectly honest it didn’t come up past the second playthrough, but something to bear in mind.
Other than this little hiccup, Codenames feels like a wonderfully oiled and polished engine. Once the intricacies of clue validity is sorted, Codenames just runs with the solid efficiency of any great party game. Players are constantly engaged, both by the deductive reasoning needed to suss out your spymaster’s clues and by making sure your opponent’s haven’t given too much information away. Whilst the theme is lightly applied, the word-based party game angle makes Codenames perfect for hard core gamers, mixed level game nights and even the annual Christmas post-dinner game afternoon with the family.
Something we did encounter was a touch of analysis paralysis, especially in the early turns. Whilst it would be safe to give single guess clues, this is a first class ticket to Loserville. However, in the pursuit of those multi-guess clues the spymasters may become overwhelmed by the need to make sure their field operatives don’t pick the wrong words, amongst the hundreds of different connections and connotations in the spy-word grid. Its not ‘really’ an issue as it comes down to the creativity of the spymasters and how well they know the other members of their team, plus Codenames comes with a sand timer which can be flipped by ANY player if they believe someone is taking too long to give a clue or make a guess.
The components are of a decent card stock, meaning they’ll take the shuffle battering the game will receive due to it’s replayability. There’s hundreds of double sided codename cards and keys, so no two games will ever be the same. The artwork is….OK. I know, I know, lazy writing but that’s all I can really say about it. It’s function and gets the theme of the game across, but it won’t blow you away.
Does this game live up to the hype? For me it’s a resounding YES! Codenames has a simple, easy to grasp ruleset and an inclusivity that makes it suitable for all levels of gamer. It’s also one of those rare games that despite having a short, filler-length playtimes, it can be played repeatedly in the same night without diminishing returns, especially if you change the spymasters each game. With it’s decent build quality, cheap price and endless combinations, Codenames is a perfect game for any collection.
The Martian
So, as it turns out, all you need to survive Mars is potatoes and duct tape. This is the first of many things that came out of The Martian.
Perhaps more important than that survival tip though, is that this is, well and truly, a great film. On all fronts, Ridley Scott has brought together a project that shines. Despite initial concerns that the film would be somewhat rehashing Matt Damon’s role as Mann in Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar, The Martian stands, titan like, on its own. This is no doubt due to the fact that it’s actually an adaptation, based on the eponymous novel by Andy Weir and adapted for the big screen by the excellent Drew Goddard (of Cabin in the Woods and Daredevil fame). What we’re dealing with here is a far cry from the futurist, near operatic drama of Interstellar, instead we are watching the story of one man’s battle for survival in one of the most inhospitable environments known to man. What really separates these two films however, is just one, very important thing. Matt Damon, in the role of Mark Watney, is viciously funny.
Seriously, any concerns you had about similarity, throw them right the hell out of the window. The Martian is tense and dramatic sure. We are, after all, dealing with a guy, trying to survive, alone, with limited supplies, on freaking Mars. And all of that is ridiculously exciting, particularly given NASA’s recent announcement of their discovery of water on the Red Planet. But, at it’s core, The Martian is as much a dark comedy as it is a survival story.So, yeah, in case you didn’t already know, Matt Damon has comedy chops. Said chops are helped in no small part by the whip-smart script which found the perfect way to transform the book’s large monologues into something screen-workable, by having Watney make video logs of his experience. It’s simple, but elegant.
Before I get too caught up in Damon’s performance though, I should give due mention to the rest of the cast. Although this is very much the story of Mark Watney, and Damon’s role is obviously foremost, the rest of the cast don’t exactly slouch. It’s probably helped by the fact that there is an improbably amount of famous showing up here. Everybody from Jessica Chastain to Jeff Daniels is in The Martian and all of them deliver sterling performances. Well, almost everybody. Sean Bean shows up here in a role that feels just a little out of place. In fact, I think he may have been cast solely for a Lord of the Rings joke that happens late in the film. Aside from the slightly stilted performance of Bean however, it’s fair to say that the entire cast is on top form, even if their characters aren’t exactly the most fleshed out as compared to the leading man.
Also, all props to Ridley Scott. I mean, not everything he does is always perfect (Prometheus being the most notable in terms of comparison) but boy oh boy, that man knows how to make a film. More than that, he knows how to make a spectacle. I don’t know exactly where The Martian was filmed but it looks amazing. I imagine there was more than a touch of CGI involved in that look but when something comes out that pretty, I’m not going to make too many complaints. Aside from the look of the thing, Scott also appears to have wrung the very best out of his team, with almost every moment of the film delivering exactly what you want it to. There were more than a few tense moments of hand wringing from me, I’ll tell you that. That said, there are also a couple of dud moments. A bare handful, I must say, and incredibly minor at that. It’s just a bit of a shame when you get caught in a scene, even if it’s only for a minute, that feels like it’s kind of forcing you to feel a certain something rather than bringing it naturally.
Finally then, just in case it wasn’t abundantly clear how much I loved this film, I want to make it very clear that you should already be on your way to the cinema to see this film. Whether it’s for the science (which is rather wonderfully at the fore), the comedy (Captain Blondebeard, never forget), the high-stakes drama (seriously guys, the end. No spoilers but goddamn that got tense) or just the beauty of seeing a film that so amazing encapsulates so much of how we think and feel about space and Mars while presenting all of that emotion in a brilliantly human way, The Martian is a film that is well worth your time and your praise.
Other filmmakers would do well to pay attention and learn from a film that manages to be so superbly, almost painfully human, while set in a narrative that is determined to explore the triumph over the alien. Because, really, that’s where The Martian fits in the canon of film. It is a story, in the vein of, I guess, films like Castaway, where the ultimate message is the triumph of man’s will over overwhelming odds. There’s something rather nice about that, don’t you think?
Parasyte -the maxim- – Review
If I said to you, “I’ve just watched a touching, emotional contemplation on humanity’s role as a member of a biosphere,” you’d assume I’d watched some art students’ fledgling project. If I then added, “It also had John Carpenter-esque monster transformations and parasites that hunger for human flesh,” you’d know I’m talking about an anime series.
Parasyte -the maxim- is the kind of show that only comes out of Japan. When I heard the premise, I knew I had to give it a try, though: a young man named Shinichi wakes up to find that his dream that a parasite tried to inhabit his body was true, and that, while his actions in the dream prevented it from taking over his mind, it now controls his right arm. Together, he and his parasite Migi must fight for their own survival, hiding from and facing off against both humans and other parasites. The premise is just unique enough of a spin on the classic ‘bodysnatchers’ tale that it hooked me in, and I was glad I tried it.
The visuals of the parasites unfurling once-human faces into deadly biological weapons are reminiscent of The Thing, and are appealing in spite of their disgusting nature. In fact, the art direction as a whole is very well done, giving the infected human hosts uniquely alien expressions and displaying improbably fights between horrors in gorgeous fashion. There’s no lingering over the cruelty on show, merely a stark portrayal, and this works well throughout the series.
The story, too, is well-realised, though there are some weak points. Shinichi’s struggles with what he is becoming, something other than human, are mostly drawn out nicely and portrayed through actions and other characters’ reactions to him. Migi is a great character, displaying an insectoid intellect very well, particularly in disagreeing with Shinichi’s often noble intentions. To Migi, survival is key, as it would be to any animal, and he doesn’t have the emotions and instincts which humans possess to drive us otherwise. Their clashes are thought-provoking and consistent, and the relationship between the two develops nicely.
Shinichi’s situation affects his home and personal life too, mainly his love life with his crush/girlfriend Satomi. Satomi serves as a sort of conscience and baseline for Shinichi, a way to compare how he has changed since being infected with Migi. At times, their confrontations and ‘fights’ are very over-wrought, and some of the weaker moments of the story, but we are dealing with teenagers so maybe it can be forgiven. Angst is the default setting for a teen, as we all know.
As the story progresses quickly, we meet other parasites who have infiltrated human society. The first is within a dog, providing a very Silent Hill visual of a dog whose head opens up to present vicious innards, and from there we see parasites trying to integrate with human society and those trying to destroy it. Ryoko Tamiya is one of the former, inhabiting a supply teacher who comes to Shinichi’s school. She is unique amongst the parasites, inquisitive and curious, and even births a human son.
With Ryoko, the more standard parasites, and Migi/Shinichi, the crux of the philosophical points of the series comes in: questions about co-habiting the other with other species, as Migi and Shinichi share a body, and who bears responsibility when a shared resource is destroyed, as well as questions on environmental policy and relative morality. Writer Hitoshi Iwaaki obviously had a pro-environmental stance in writing the original manga, and this carried over well into the series. Particularly with some of the ironies and complexities in the story later on, such as pollution helping save Shinichi’s life.
Parasyte -the maxim- is not a black and white morality tale, and tries to have you understand all perspectives, even those beyond the characters themselves. The issue of where the parasites came from is never fully concluded, but hinted at, allowing the audience to draw their own conclusions. This, is you’ve seen my other reviews, is something I cherish in a story.
It is not a perfect tale, though. Shinichi’s transformations throughout the series means he is a very inconsistent character, one difficult to build any sort of rapport for. It makes sense for Satomi to doubt who he is, question their relationship often, but it makes it hard to latch onto anyone in the story. If anything, Migi the parasite is the most consistent and interesting protagonist. A slower transition for Shinichi, with less time contemplating the changes, might have worked better.
The resolution between Shinichi and Migi is also unsatisfying. Without spoiling it, it follows one of the standard anime resolutions, and was a little wearying. The sting in their tale is almost worth it, almost, but not quite. Again, sudden character changes mar the story where a more gradual shift would have worked better.
These are nitpicks, though. Parasyte -the maxim- is a gory, violent, and contemplative story about humans, humanity, and our relationship with the Earth. It isn’t afraid to take unusual turns, shows some fascinating fights and encounters, and delightfully borrows heavily from John Carpenter (so much that I think the man must be bankrupt). It is definitely worth your time if you love anime or unusual stories.
The Casebook of Sam Spallucci, by A.S. Chambers
This first casebook is an interesting offering from the Lancastrian author A.S. Chambers . Rather than a traditional novel, The Casebook of Sam Spallucci is more a series of inter-connected short-stories, something that we see far too few instances of, and the deliberately experimental nature of this book is to be praised.
The overall story is an interesting experiment. What if Dashiell Hammett’s classic Sam Spade series was based in Lancaster rather than New York, and was more of a supernatural investigator rather than a traditional private eye?
The stories grow in length, as well as in depth, and are all suitably different so that they never feel repetitive. In his cases, Sam encounters vampires, werewolves, and many other overtly supernatural entities.
Locating Sam Spallucci in Lancaster (referencing many real-world locations) was wise choice by Chambers, as it grounds the story in the reality of this world. Thus, when Spallucci stumbles upon the various supernatural going on, they are far more disturbing than other novels that are set in generic locations.
Thankfully, Sam Spallucci has a lighter-touch than the noir overtones of Humphrey Bogart’s portrayal of Sam Spade. This lightness is well used to contrast the moments of horror with the sense of fun that permeates the character of Sam Spalluci. Unlike some characters that seemingly lament their existence, Sam is one that has a sense of fun about the character and the reader can appreciate why he has the friends that he does.
A.S. Chambers takes time to flesh out the character of Sam Spallucci, and as the narrative is viewed from Sam’s perspective, we gain a greater understanding of his world, by exploring the supernatural underbelly of Chambers’ Lancaster.
If I do have one criticism of The Casebook of Sam Spallucci is that the supernatural other-worldliness is rarely doubted, thus we never explore doubt or explore other possibilities. Similarly, there are monstrous human elements (no spoilers), the consequences of which are not fully explored.
Harebrained Schemes Crowdfunds Battle Tech, Smashes Initial Goal in an Hour
Jordan Weisman and Harebrained Schemes, the team behind the several critically acclaimed new Shadowrun games amongst others, have set their sights on a new target – Battle Tech.
Originally created by Weisman in the early 80’s as a tabletop game featuring miniatures Battle Tech is set in the far future of 3025 and the Succession Wars Era. Set in a region of space known as the Inner Sphere numerous noble houses are in a pitched battle for dominance amidst constant war fare and feudal political intrigue. The noble houses do battle with 30 foot tall heavily armed humanoid armoured combat units called BattleMechs
Battle Tech has since been explored via various media including a pen and paper RPG named Mech Warrior, numerous novels, animation and a variety of computer games including the 90’s hit Mech Warrior 2 and the more recent Mech Warrior Online.
This new game, the first turn based game set in the classic Battle Tech world on PC for over 20 years, will be a single-player, turn-based, tactical ‘Mech combat game where the player will take on the role of a leader of a mercenary outfit hired by one of the noble houses to pilot Mechs. Much like their campaign for Shadowrun: Hong Kong Weisman and the team at Harebrained Schemes already have the funds to make a basic version of the game featuring skirmish battles against A.I across a variety of maps. They have big plans for the game if they get the necessary funding though with a single player campaign, expanding said campaign and PVP multi-player set as stretch goals.
Unsurprisingly given their track record and fanbase their latest crowd funding endeavour has already smashed its initial goal of $250,000 in an hour with 35 days to go and is sitting at over $830,000 at the time of writing this piece.
Pledge levels range from $1 to $10,000 (but the limited $10,000 level is already gone, no seriously) with a copy of the game via Steam,GOG, Humble and a noble house wallpaper costing a rather reasonable $25( that’s £16 and change for the English folks).
Roleplaying – an Online Streaming Tale
As technology advances so does the way we play games. Tabletop RPGs no longer need for every player to sit around a table as the internet allows us to join the game from the comfort of our homes, potentially roleplaying with people from different towns, cities, countries and even different continents. Thanks to the internet we are able to roleplay with no limitations, distance doesn’t hinder us nor do we need to physically appear at the location for a few hours of enjoyment.
As well as this people have also begun to record their RPG sessions, though this brings the question: why? Through making use of recording software there are many people livestreaming their roleplaying sessions, which allows us to watch and be an audience for. In of itself, being a part of the audience is almost as enjoyable as the stream, especially with the interaction that occurs between other viewers and streamers.
But why do people stream their RPG sessions? I’ve asked a few streamers and online dungeon masters for their take on why they personally enjoy streaming and why they enjoy doing what they do.
Using their online aliases, I had the fortune to interview Elacular, DallyDaydream, Cuteless and Newbiespud, all of whom are streamed DMs and roleplayers.
What was your influence for DMing and roleplaying online?
- Elacular: It’s something I’ve always been interested in, especially as I’m a storyteller. I’ve always had partial influences from RPGs, and by DMing I’m able to tell an ever evolving story. What I like about recording and roleplaying online is that people can listen in to the story as it’s another means for a story to be shared.
- Cuteless: Honestly? Because my father told me not to, as well as some partial influence from Newbiespud’s Friendship is Dragons comic.
- DallyDaydream: I’ve always been interested in roleplaying. It had been something I had been doing ever since university, and although I lacked people to play locally once I had finished, being able to roleplay online eliminated that problem for me. I wasn’t initially interested in streaming or being streamed, though Newbiespud’s Fallout is Dragon’s campaign changed that.
- Newbiespud: I’d been roleplaying ever since highschool with some friends, one of whom was my inspiration to become a dungeon master. In my opinion, he was a master storyteller and helped shaped me to become the dungeon master I am now. Slowbeef and Diabetus where my main inspiration to stream, I remember watching them and going “Man, that’d be neat to get into!
Why do you enjoy streaming/being streamed?
- Elacular: The story being told gets shared. It’s not just a private story shared between a small group, anyone can sit in and listen. Seeing as the livestreams are often recorded as well, people can always go back to catch the story from the beginning too. No one has to be left out and can always be up to date if they wanted to.
- Cuteless: It’s cool to see the way people react to events that develop and unfold, be it in a game you’re running or are being a part of as a player. It’s interesting to see it from all sides; viewers can predict something to happen and be completely bewildered and amazed by what just happened as much any player can, players have different reactions as how their player could react can be different from how the player themselves would react – and to witness that kind of conflict first hand is interesting.
- DallyDaydream: As mentioned before, it eliminated the problem of not having anyone locally to roleplay with. Streaming is a great way to record how a session went, you can always go over sessions to see the progression of the story and characters to the the evolution of the players and the world surrounding the game and life itself. It always changes and progresses and recording streams are a great way to rewatch those changes later on.
- Newbiespud: Initially, I wanted to make a podcast. It was something I had always wanted to do. I figured people who were interested in what happened in the campaign would like to know what was going on, but that turned out to be expensive. So I live streamed instead, and have been able to locally record session on Hitbox and post VODs onto YouTube.
What difference between roleplaying online and in a room makes streaming a session superior?
- Elacular: People can be a part of it, even if they aren’t playing. People watch, aliases become familiar, and fans turn into a small community. It’s sweet seeing people join to watch what you do and interact really friendly to one another.
- Cuteless: When you roleplay online you’re not limited to the same group that you know in real life, your options are varied. You experience different roleplayers, different styles of play and undergo completely different experiences, for better or worse, and that’s great. You also get to meet a new people, because of roleplaying online I’d say I’ve met some of the best friends a person could ask for.
- DallyDaydream: When streaming you get to record the stream, you get an actual recording to go back to and recap yourself on whatever has happened prior, you have a permanent log of progression and change ready and available. Not only that, you have a memory you can look back towards and enjoy. As well as this, by looking for roleplaying groups online and streaming you’re able to open your social circles even further, allowing people you may have never even thought about before or met into a familiar space.
- Newbiespud: When you start streaming for a while you eventually obtain some sort of following, from one thing or another. When the people who arrive become regulars you get used to interaction between them and interact more frequently. You aren’t subjected to a name on a screen, you see the person behind it use the alias before you. You may not always get on, but you have interactions between everyone involved, playing or watching. People speculate, laugh, create memes and private jokes. People craft memories, and that’s something special to me.
If you ever want to watch some of these amazing streams you can view them on either DallyDaydream’s Hitbox channel or Newbiespud’s Hitbox. You can also view Cuteless’ and Elacular’s streams via DallyDaydream’s hitbox too, or if you want to ever catch up on some of the older streams you can always view DallyDaydream’s Youtube or Newbiespud’s YouTube
Infected! Or: “How Craig’s players managed to not take any combat skills.”
Those of you who know me personally will know that I am a big fan of the “Zombie” genre. Those of you who don’t know me personally are now aware of this fact (lucky you). Romero movies, Zombieland, Shaun of the Dead, Dead Rising (see me previous article on the movie tie-in “Watchtower” here)
On top of the above, if you have been following my articles, you will also know that I am a big fan of tabletop roleplaying games. So, you can imagine my delight when I was given an advance copy of upcoming Kickstarter project “Infected!” to review.
You’ll notice in my opening I used quotation marks for the term Zombie, because not everything that falls into this category is the dead rising once more to walk the earth; some franchises (such as 28 Days Later for example) are not shambling corpses, but infected. You may have also noticed that this is the title of this game. That’s right, these are not your traditional zed heads. Much like video game cousins Resident Evil and Left 4 Dead, Infected! is set in a world where a “super flu” has caused the majority of the population to become wild, feral and most of all, aggressive.
This game, however, is set after the outbreak; after the world has started to calm down. A cure has in fact been developed, so long as it is administered soon enough, so now it falls to the players to survive and set about rebuilding society and humanity. Along the way they must face off against wild animals, outlaw gangs fighting for territory and supplies and yes, the remaining pockets of Infected, in all shapes and sizes. That’s right, this game, much like the aforementioned Left 4 Dead and deservedly successful The Last of Us, Infected! has different subtypes of Infected – from your standard Runner to the cunning, pack leading Alphas, right through to my personal favourite, the Mimic (Played Left 4 Dead? Remember Witches? Those.)
I recently made my weekly playgroup go out into the wilderness and try to survive against the odds. I ran them through a stripped down version of the character creation for this game, which in of itself is quite a well thought out structure, following a “point buy” system, but applying limitations and caps based on what level of experience the game is being run at. However, there seem to be several overlooked points within this creation system, such as the “Circumstances” (aspects of your character’s lifestyle and how they affect the game) not being explained particularly in much detail from a mechanics perspective and the Advantages/Disadvantages list seems to have been completely missed from the sample rules I had to work with.
Issues aside, we had characters, we had chosen our setting (My group decided they wanted the game to be set in Tokyo. This did not stop the NPCs from having hammy, midwest US accents.) we set about playing the game.
The general overall game mechanic used operates on establishing a total number of successes. This is done by rolling two ten sided dice (D10s), one for your corresponding attribute and one for your corresponding skill. You add your roll to your statistic and for each roll you score a “success” for every point over ten that you achieve. Once this total has been added together and any/all modifiers have been applied, you are left with your total number of successes. This system appealed to me as it felt like a stripped down, simplified version of the old World of Darkness tabletop games, of which I am very familiar and fond of.
My group, bless them, are usually very good at considering party balance and roles, but somehow not a single one of them had taken the time to consider that in a survival game, they would encounter much, if any, combat. As such, none of them took any form of weapon skills and only one member had ranks in brawling. This led to a number of encounters being talked through instead of a gung-ho, guns blazing approach, which made for a very interesting session to GM (Or, “Narrate” as it is in this game) but sadly, unless faced with an Alpha, there’s not much point in trying to reason with the swathes of Infected hordes which led to much fleeing in the group’s trusty Prius.
In short, Infected! proved to be a refreshing look at the post apocalyptic survival genre, reminiscent of I Am Legend with its scope of isolation and scavenge-to-live mentality. The mechanics work and, despite the missing information from my advanced copy, we as a group were still able to get a good game going. Plus I am assured by the game’s developers that this advanced copy of the rules is still unfinished and will be of a much higher caliber upon completion.
Infected! has been successfully funded on Kickstarter and will no doubt be appearing on our shelves in the very near future. If you love the “Zombie” genre and are looking for something with a bit more depth and plot complexity than your standard shotgun-fest games then I would highly recommend you keep an eye out for this one.
In the meantime, I have been and, unless I get infected myself, I shall remain, Craig.
You can check out INFECTED’s Kickstarter page HERE
