Like Plaion, the presence of Focus was preponderant during this 2022 edition of the gamescom. In addition to the article by Sodzounet who was able to grab hold of 3 games, and by Onidra who tested Evil West, I also had the opportunity to discover 3 titles: Dordogne, Atlas Fallen and A Plague Tale : Requiem, coming out very soon.
Dordogne
Developed by the French studio UMANIMATION, Dordogne is a narrative adventure where we play a certain Mimi, a 32-year-old woman who finds herself immersed in her childhood memories when she returns to the house of her recently deceased grandmother. The latter left many letters and other riddles for her granddaughter so that she could remember a year she spent as a child in this house.
We are faced with a game with a relatively classic grip for the genre, we explore, we look in detail at the elements of the decor with which to interact and then we complete the different objectives. The slightly original part comes from the "notebook" to be completed. If the idea has already been exploited many times, here, however, it is more worked. Mimi is indeed equipped with her notebook, in which she adds words as she discovers, an audio recorder and a camera. In order to complete a puzzle, it will be necessary to associate words, sounds and images, which will unlock new pages and allow the adventure to continue. If the unblocking of words is done smoothly, it is sometimes a little abstruse to understand what it is necessary to record as sound. For the photo, not much to say, the elements to be photographed stand out rather well. And since we're talking about images, special mention to the artistic direction of the title, all in watercolor and simply magnificent!
You will now have to wait until 2023 to get your hands on the full game. Note that the studio is working in parallel on the creation of a film that will act as a prologue to the game, also to be released in 2023.
The Plague Tale: Requiem
Perhaps I would not be objective, but it should be made clear that A Plague Tale: Requiem is the game I'm most looking forward to this year. Although not flawless, the first episode is a title that marked me with a red iron and that I loved doing. Maybe an attachment that comes from the fact that I lived very close to the old Asobo studios, I don't know, but the Amicia and Hugo adventure made me go through a lot of emotions, and I was really waiting to find them again with a more ambitious 2nd part.
During this introduction of almost an hour, I was able to reconnect with the duo of characters during an advanced chapter in the adventure, which earned me some trouble at times, since we unlock Ammunition a bit special and new compared to Innocence but not "properly introduced" for the demo. We find an Amicia injured in the head who has her head bandaged by a Hugo whose voice is still just as sweet and innocent, then we progress in an almost summery and rural setting, in search of an island and in search of clues. on its potential location! The opportunity to see that between the two episodes, Asobo has acquired a lot of experience. Finer, more detailed and still just as inspired, the medieval Spagnol depicted by the Bordeaux studio is magnificent.
Overall, the areas are larger, and even if we always have this feeling of evolving in "arenas" in the presence of enemies, the size of the latter makes it possible to vary the approaches sufficiently to avoid the repetitive side. It must be said that our two companions have developed new skills, so the way to face (or not) the enemies is changing considerably. As far as rats go, it's still impressive, and the visual upgrades make it all the more menacing. On the other hand, on the demo viewed, I didn't feel their presence as a danger... quite the opposite to tell the truth, but I won't say more to leave you the pleasure of discovery!
First extremely positive handling on my side. We feel that the ambitions of the studio have been revised upwards and that the work aims for a whole new level. Looking forward to October 18! Release planned for PC, Xbox Series, Playstation and Nintendo Switch.
Atlas Fall
Introduced during theOpening Night Live, I had the opportunity to attend a (hands-off) presentation ofAtlas Fall, developed by Deck 13 (Lords of the traps, The Surge). The perfect opportunity to learn about the style of play, its purpose and its ambitions! Atlas Fallen is the story of a world totally destroyed by the God of the Sun, where a semblance of civilization remains and tries to regain its bearings and regain influence in a world where sand is omnipresent. Sand which will have a particular importance elsewhere. Present on most of the map, we will use the latter by "sliding" on it to move at high speed, and we can shape it to attack and defend ourselves, thanks to an artifact that our character will find at the beginning of the adventure. .
This presentation reassured me on one point (and it's totally personal, I agree), we are relatively far from a Souls-like, which I feared given the studio's recent work. We are here on a game which in the DNA reminded me more of Horizon, whether it's on the exploration side or even when we see the fights, where we have a location of the damage to be able to "break" a reinforcement on an enemy and weaknesses / resistances modulo the creatures we face. Our avatar has three weapons that he can summon using his gauntlet, to adapt to all types of situations.
Although entirely playable in solo, the game can also be played in cooperation with our friends. As so often with this style of play, the difficulty will adapt accordingly. Note that in what has been mentioned, we will not be able to do matchmaking with strangers, only our friends will be able to join us, if they do not have too high a level compared to us, to see if this changes. Personally, I don't consider that to be a bad thing.
Deck 13 promises an adventure of around twenty hours, with the possibility of doubling the playing time as soon as you decide to complete all the additional activities of the game. This first preview shows an extremely punchy Action-RPG, and the promises are many, like those with bosses up to 10 times our size. Difficult without a controller in hand to judge the sensations, but I am conquered for the moment. Just waiting for a more specific release date, with a vague 2023 at the moment.
