PAX East 2018 Rundown - A Peek At 10 Of The Best Indie Games

By: GooseAs PAX East 2018 comes to a close, it is necessary to highlight some of the best games that were previewed at the event. Each and every game seen there was action-packed and will surely thrive, but these 10 specifically stuck out, and for good reason. These all had unique characteristics that really made them shine in their own way. Check them out below!Phantom Doctrine Phantom Doctrine is a truly awesome Cold War experience that you can’t miss, especially if you’re a fan of strategic war games. With a majority of gameplay being top-down, the action never stops. You are in control of a squad of top secret agents from different countries and organizations, such as the CIA. Pick a team wisely, and operate stealthily while giving movement and action commands or else your mission might be compromised! Phantom Doctrine features in-depth and realistic aspects, all the way down to exact 1983 Chinese police uniforms. The game’s roots come from real-life conspiracy theories from the Cold War, and essentially asks the player, “if these theories were factual, what would’ve happened?” It will be arriving on Steam, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One sometime in the middle of 2018!Unheard Unheard is a detective battle that never seems to end. As an investigator who is seeking answers to different crimes such as murder and drug trafficking, pick through possible suspects and try to find out the answer. Use clues and hints to figure out the right name, and make sure to not bust the wrong guy! Its use of radio theater and immersive gameplay helps to set it apart. It is a truly hard game that requires some thinking, some time, and plenty of patience. Mainly designed to be strictly a PC game, the release date and other potential platforms have not been officially announced yet, but stay tuned.Cynosure Cynosure is a virtual reality experience that takes place in a modern city that has taken inspiration from Manhattan. It is a game that is scarily similar to Super Smash Brothers, with beatdown, brawl action that will leave you occupied for hours. The graphics are beautifully in-depth and provide a realistic 3D adventure. You’ll cross paths with all sorts of enemies, whether they be secret agent combatants or evil glass orbs that must be destroyed. The city seems to be floating on asteroids, so try not to fall through the cracks to your doom. One more thing - even though it might be hard to not marvel at the size of the city, try not to puke! Cynosure will be available within the next few months on the Ocolus Rift, and possibly other VR platforms.My Memory of Us My Memory Of Us is another wartime experience, but is unique in the sense that it focuses strictly on the emotional side of things. Taking place in Germany during the Second World War, one controls a young couple who fall in love and try to navigate through the military-occupied region. Staying away from any Nazi symbolism such as the swastika and almost any violence, My Memory of Us is a psychological adventure that is sure to break your heart. It puts you in the shoes of citizens who suffered through those situations, but still keeps a kiddy aspect through its cartoon-like animations and environment. Step inside of the mind of two lovers, and make sure to stay together. My Memory Of Us will drop on PlayStation 4 and Steam in the latter of the year.Double Kick Heroes Double Kick Heroes is a literal mix of Guitar Hero and the COD: Black Ops Zombies Dead Arcade hidden minigame! This killing festival leaves one constantly wanting more, and one constantly staying on their toes in an effort to avoid being killed. Zombies on bikes, trucks, and massive military vans will try everything they can to end you and your team. To shoot, you have to follow the notes of the hardcore rock and roll music that blares over the in-game audio. It follows the same exact style as the Guitar Hero series, and be careful to never skip a beat! This musical trip is available on Steam on April 11th! Sky Noon Sky Noon is a first-person shooter with a fun western environment that any gamer will love. With nearly unlimited ammo and the constant respawning of weapons, the game works with its small maps so perfectly to ensure that there is never a lack of action. The variety of game modes make Sky Noon so enticing to any gamer. There is something for people on both ends of the spectrum, from fans of shooters such as Call of Duty to fans of Halo and other futuristic games. Jetpacks and grapples keep you in safety, and hopefully help you from falling off of the map. A fun shoot-em-up to keep an eye out for! This Steam action game comes out later in the year.DOLMEN DOLMEN is a space horror role-playing game with hundreds of ugly creatures that, to put it bluntly, will kill you over and over again. Taking place in a mystical forest that closely resembles a post-apocalyptic wasteland, DOLMEN has a great variance of hand-to-hand combat and strategic killing. This means you can either approach your enemy and beat the crap out of them, or maybe shoot the tree limbs above them and crush them! With so many different levels and unlimited lives, it will automatically become an addiction. Its erie storyline, which is to good to spoil or even give hint of, will always leave you wanting more. The sci-fi action is brilliantly fused with other SoulsBorne-like features, thus making DOLMEN the perfect horror ride. Having just started a KickStarter campaign, DOLMEN will come out (if successfully funded) on Steam, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 in December of 2019.NITE Team 4 NITE Team 4 is a military thriller that functions as an educational tool as well. It is a hacking based game, and actually uses operational hacking tools that are used in modern-day situations. One must hack into hotel wifi, bank accounts, phones, laptops and more. Every single event that occurs in the game is also something that happened around the world, and most events are relatively recent (such as the conspiracies of Russian hacking). The cyber warfare game even helped the indie producer Alice & Smith secure a military contract! The scenarios and levels are just slightly adjusted for the purpose of training entry-level cyber specialists, but the base of all gameplay is the same in both versions. Talk about being realistic! Look for it on Steam on June 7th.Legends of AriaLegends of Aria, a “moddable sandbox MMORPG” (according to the development team), is an open world treat to any fan of games such as World of Warcraft and the Final Fantasy series. The environment is large and engaging. The world is hosted on one main server where every player can build a home and thrive. There are outside critters that will try to take your things and even kill you, so stock up on swords and weapons at the wide variety of vendors in local towns. Legends of Aria has so much to offer, and takes a specific focus on that “do your own thing” mindset that many open world RPGs such as Skyrim and Witcher 3 have offered, but an approach that's not as common with MMOs. As a PC game that has already had several open betas, Legends of Aria will be available to the public in the summer.Sleep Tight Sleep Tight can be described as an innocent slaughterfest. Playing as a young boy who is defending his room from the creatures in his nightmares, one must build up their defenses and survive level by level. The game is comparable to Survival mode on COD: Modern Warfare 3, as the player gets to build up barriers, deploy turrets, buy weapons, and much more. If you want to survive, definitely ensure that you upgrade your attributes (which include health, maximum ammunition capacity, and more). If you die, you restart. With that being said, prepare to have all of the scary monsters you grew up with under your bed try to destroy you! The game will be released on Nintendo Switch and Steam, but the exact date this year is unknown as of right now.