Gamescom Round-Up: Star Wars 1313, Strike Suit Zero and Tiny Troopers

One of the things I love about gamescom is that huge established brands will nestle right next to new IPs from new studios. Here’s the first of a series of round-ups covering the some of games that Nick and I saw.

Star Wars 1313

Star Wars 1313 is very much a mixed bag to me. An exquisitely-detailed mixed bag, mind you. One of those hand-embroidered bags lovingly stitched out of soft silk and spun gold. But still… the contents are a bit suspect.

The clips they showed us were the same ones from E3 – a bit of banter between bounty hunters, a very impressive drop through the layers of Coruscant, some third-person combat and the inevitable explosions.

It’s very early days yet but my chief worry is that their attempt to blend that Star Wars cinematic feel with a platformer will result in another Enslaved where artistic angles take precedence over exploration and skilled platforming. The section of gameplay they showed us even included a scene very much like the opening of Enslaved where the main character had to climb across very obvious handholds on the outside of a burning hulk as it plummeted through the air.

The game looked absolutely incredible but also completely linear. I suppose in that respect, it’s not that different to Mass Effect 3 which I absolutely love. Here’s a compilation of the trailers that I found on YouTube. For some reason, the person who compiled them put them in reverse chronological order.

Strike Suit Zero

Inspired by Wing Commander, Macross and a dozen other mecha or space combat universes, Strike Suit Zero puts you in the cockpit of a unique spacecraft that flips between ship and robot modes. The strike suit’s ship form will fly like your typical space combat craft with thrusters in the rear and a terrible turning the circle.

The robot form is limited by an energy bar and allows you to strafe away from incoming missiles. It also comes with a target-painting ability that fires a dozen missiles to multiple targets in one shot. All the action takes place in the suit, so sadly, there’s no equivalent to the Tiger’s Claw and her crew. Plenty of story is told through your co-pilots as you battle on the knife-edge of a galaxywide war, though you won’t see any branching storylines. The team did consider this but with only 13 levels, there’s not a lot of room for branching.

There are plenty of other spacecraft available – maneuvrable fighters, clunky heavy bombers and more have been designed by mecha designer Junji Okubo who worked on Steel Battalion. You can choose to skip the all-rounder strike suit entirely and play through the 13 missions in a more specialised ship if you wish.

Strike Suit Zero is being developed in Guildford by Born Ready Games and aiming for an autumn 2012 release on PC with console versions to follow in early 2013.

Tiny Troopers

The popular iOS game Tiny Troopers is coming to PCs on 24th August. It’s basically (and unashamedly) Cannon Fodder, even going so far as to replicate the original’s controls. Your troopers will air drop into a level and it’s your job to guide them around hazards, clicking merrily away to blow up enemies and search for looty goodness. There’s no WASD and no controller support due to fears that it would unbalance the game.

You’ll earn Command Points by completing missions, which are ten used to purchase goodies in the following missions – rockets, grenades, airstrikes and so on. Within levels you’ll find medals. These can be spent to upgrade the starting level of your troopers. New ones will spawn with extra hit points or class-specific bonuses.

Tiny Troopers will be out on PC, Android and Mac this Friday, 24th August.