Game 4 – The Behemoth takes on a tactical RPG
After launching the most cryptic (and yet highly telling) trailer to grace the unworthy eyeballs of man and beast, The Behemoth went forth to PAX Prime in Seattle and unveiled the glory that is Game 4! Staying true to their promise, it is a game in a genre that they hadn’t yet taken on. It also turns out that my guess wasn’t too far off the mark when I made it back in Episode 55. Yet, there was one big clue that none of us picked up on that just seems so ridiculously obvious now. However, this isn’t about my lacking powers of deduction, it’s about the exceptional demo I got to play and how I’m now plotting my eventual withdrawal from society to experience this game in its entirety.
If you’re unfamiliar with a little game called BattleBlock Theater, let me just say that it has some of the finest dialog and narration ever. Until now, that is, and that’s a good thing. Honestly, haven’t you all been secretly yearning for a more expansive story in which you might, through your game avatar, play a role?
Enter the poignantly titled Game 4 and try to avoid soiling yourself from the overwhelming pure joy of it all. Okay, Game 4 is most likely a working title, but for now it absolutely fits with the feel of the game. (Or at least, you know, the short demo that they had on the floor at PAX.) Now we finally know a bit more about the game world after the bear fell. The world was shattered into a series of hex grids (yes, it’s in the teaser trailer and we somehow didn’t see it) and our poor protagonists will embark on a turn-based journey surviving by the whim of our mysterious and unreliable narrator! (Will Stamper, narrator of BattleBlock Theater, will narrate in Game 4 as well.)
Meet Horatio, a simple blueberry farmer who almost protects his family from a horde of barbarians.
On to the meat of the game! From my experience at PAX, many game elements are based solely on positioning. On each turn I was able to give my characters a command to move and that was it. From there it was entirely up to what was within range of my attacks. For the most part, my characters were melee based and would attack one enemy adjacent to them. Therein lies the dilemma! It seems like the only way to guarantee that I would attack a specific enemy was to make certain it was the only one in range. (I blame all of the bear blood, raining down and causing endless chaos.)
Because the Game 4 demo at PAX was only three encounters, there’s only so much I can say about the game. The newest trailer shows off some of the equipment management and additional characters. I am absolutely stupid excited to play the final version of the game (whatever it might be called). The good folks over at The Behemoth say it’s coming to Steam (my preference) and Xbox One, but no release date is currently available. It’s also going to feature single player, two player co-op, and four-player ( 2v2 competition) modes.
