PAX South Spotlight: Foregone
At PAX West, TheJewphin had an opportunity to play Foregone, a quick and deadly 2D action platformer with lots of loot. Now it's my turn.
Visually, the game is a joy to behold. Animations are smooth and the color pallet pops without overwhelming. Multiple times during the demo I found a safe spot to park my character just so I could take in the visuals.
As for combat, you have both melee and ranged weapons available at any time. The demo contained two melee and ranged weapons. Melee options were a quick shortsword, and a falchion which had a large delay before each swing in exchange for more power. Ranged weapons were a handgun and a longbow, but I didn't really notice a difference between the two other than different sprites.
Defeating enemies causes them to explode like loot pinatas, raining down gems and potentially new weapon drops. Collecting loot is a large part of the game, as these weapon drops contain different properties, adding a knockback effect or poison damage to your attacks.
The gems you collect recharge various abilities, depending on the color. Red gems recharge a healing ability. Blue gems recharge combat abilities and the overdrive meter (i.e., temporary "god mode"). In retail, players will be able to swap out different combat abilities to match their play style. The abilities I got to play with were a screen-wide area of effect attack, a dash attack that hit like a truck, and a barrier shield that could absorb three hits. Because your abilities charge with pickups, as opposed to automatically charging overtime, you're encouraged to actively engage in combat: no sitting around waiting for them to recharge before the next encounter.
Between your attacks, combat abilities, overcharge, the heal, a double jump, and a non-damaging slide move, you have a lot of tools at your disposal. Combat is fast, enemies hit hard, and you feel like a badass throughout the whole experience. I loved my time with the demo, and can't wait to see the full game after release.
Speaking of release, Foregone is entering early access on the Epic Game Store in the coming months. With console releases slated for later this year.