7/7/2023 0 Comments Age of wonders iii co op modeMost of its buttons were meaningless at first, but as we started to describe our surroundings and began piecing together how the items we could see might relate to those in the other's half, the game - and the cube – began to open up. Instead, I had a cuboid device similar to a computer in front of me, rendered in full 3D, that I could rotate around to examine the various contraptions attached to its four sides. Victoria: Yes, unlike you, I couldn't explore the room around me at all, so I couldn't really get a feel for where I was in the grand scheme of things. Your side – the future - was almost the inverse of that though, right? This is the version of The Past Within that Matt saw. I was dropped into the middle of an old-fashioned room, presented in hand-illustrated 2D, and could explore it by rotating at 90-degree intervals to scrutinise each wall, prodding and poking any suspicious corners for items and clues. My side of the experience – the past – will be immediately familiar to anyone that's played a Rusty Lake or Cube Escape game before. Matt: And both set-ups are very different. That means neither can see anything the other sees, but because progress requires players to interact with objects in their own timeline to find solutions to puzzles in the other, communication is essential at all times – and it's vital for both players to form a mental picture of each other's surroundings, not just what's in front of them. Victoria: Yes! Players need to decide which timeline they'll each occupy at the start of the game, and, for our playthrough, I was in the future while you were in the past - both of us playing on different devices. The Past Within mightn't shake up the puzzling fundamentals too much – it still plays out somewhere between a room escape game and point-and-click adventure – but it's Rusty Lake's first fully (and exclusively) co-op game, and one that comes with a compelling premise, asking players to solve a mystery across two separate, but concurrently unfolding timelines. Rusty Lake: Roots, for instance, sees players ricocheting back and forth through time, visiting different members of a family at various points throughout their lives – giving the basic puzzling some wonderful emotional richness - while the recent White Door introduces an intriguing split-screen twist. That applies to all the studio's games, but while the Cube Escape series keeps things short and sweet, the larger Rusty Lake games have become increasingly ambitious with each new entry. Matt: So, for those that don't know, Rusty Lake specialises in casual, approachable – albeit gleefully sinister - puzzlers that riff on the classic room escape formula, all linked together with a surreal, loosely interconnected plot. But I'm a puzzle fan, and after reading up on the studio's previous titles, I was excited for some co-op fun. Victoria: Yes, this was my first Rusty Lake game and until you mentioned The Past Within, the developer wasn't on my radar at all. It helps if you dress the part and play in a cabin in the woods. Watch on YouTube A trailer showing the experience of two people playing the game. Now, I was already a big fan of the Rusty Lake games - and their free-to-play companion series Cube Escape - but this was your first Rusty Lake game, right? What did you know about the series before we played? Matt: Funnily enough, I'm also at my computer - and if there's one thing I've learned from our recent tangle with developer Rusty Lake's new co-op puzzler, The Past Within, it's that by combining our brains on the respective sides of our screens, we might just be able to puzzle our way to some final thoughts on the game. Victoria: Hi there! I am sitting at my desk, with my computer in front of me. Availability: Releases 2nd November (today!) on Steam, Itch.io, iOS and Android.Instead, Matt Wales and Victoria Kennedy paired up and here, collectively, in dialogue format, is what they think. The Past Within's fundamental use of two players means it's a game someone cannot review alone, so we didn't try to. Only when solved, will the shared story move on. It separates two players across two timelines, one in the future, one in the past, then presents them with a series of puzzles they cannot solve without clues from the other person's present. Fewer still go as far as to obscure an entire half of the game from the other player, meaning the two people playing need to constantly communicate in order to grasp what's going on. An imaginative co-op experience that demands communication and teamwork, and conjures something memorable and unique as a result.įew games are bold enough to require co-op.
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