PAX East is all about the Indies

PAX East has come and gone and it was another great year in the books. This time, there was more of an Indie presence than a AAA presence at the show. Is this a bad thing? Not necessarily. Will this be the trend for other PAX’s as well? The Gamers Lounge had a blast at PAX and here are some of the highlights...

Indie games were observed and played. The Indie MegaBooth took a large amount of floor space this year and there were some great games. Some of the better games I played included Galax-Z from 17-Bit which is coming out for PS4 and Vita. I played this at PAX Prime last year and I really like the game mechanics, as well as the story. I would describe it as a fast paced asteroids-like Shump. At PAX East, the game looks and plays a lot a like I remembered, but the missions are now rogue-like, which means everytime you play a mission, they are randomly generated. The game looks and plays great. If gamers are interested in more information, here is a link.

Another great game was Aztez from Team Colorblind. I also played this at Prime last year. This a brutal, 2D action game. It’s in black and white with lots of blood, as gamers take on waves of enemies with combo attacks. This looks like a great game to keep an eye on.

Secret Ponchos by Switchblade Monkeys was another Indie game I had played before at Prime and I was eager to see it again. It is coming out to PS4 and it is a team-based, arena western game. They have added a new character that is focused on close combat. I prefer Phantom Poncho, who uses a shotgun. The game is fast paced and looks be in early access this summer.

I also checked out Grimm Bros Dragon Fin Soup. They recently had a successful kickstarter and as a result, had a playable demo of their game. I saw some of Hotline Miami and that game looks like its going to better than the original. If gamers haven’t played the original, they need to pick it up.

There were a few other games that really caught my eye at the Indie Booth. One of these was Strike Vector. This is a space flight simulation that features dogfights. I like that it is fast paced and gamers can choose their dual weapon and item loadouts. I highly recommend checking out the site.

Below, from Capy, was another game I played for a while. The music fit the game perfectly, as it seems to be the ideal dungeon crawler, which plays on the idea of being alone in a big world.

I played many other great indie games at PAX East: Catlateral Damage, Tiny Dice, Tower of Guns, BroForce, Drunken Robot Pornography, and the list goes on and on. If I had to choose an Indie game of the show, it might be Hotline Miami 2 or Galax-Z.

More information on all the Indie Games at PAX can be found here.