Gaming PAX Aus 2015 PC Gaming
HANDS ON: Armed with Wings: Rearmed
By Gabriel Huynh on November 1, 2015
At this year PAX Australia we were given a brief opportunity to talk with the sole developer Daniel Sun and got to try our hands on his upcoming 2D puzzle-platforming game, Armed with Wings: Rearmed. The playable demo at PAX featured selected levels from the story mode, teaching the players the basic controls; and survival mode – where players test their wit and endurance against waves of enemies. The game's art style uses a minimalist and monochromatic approach highlighting the dark and depressing setting, similar to Limbo, which in my opinion works based on the story of the game.
In Armed with Wings: Rearmed, players play as a warrior and their eagle companion, exploring the world of Black Mist, fighting through soldiers loyal to a tyrant king and unearthly creatures, such as minotaurs plaguing the world. For the game's combat system the warrior can utilizes two different types of attacks: a basic attack which player's can chain into flurry of strikes or launch enemies into the air; or a strong attack which can be either directly lunge into the enemy or cast an electrical attack, delivering massive damage. The combat system was well-polished as it was very satisfying just attacking waves of enemies through as combinations of basic and strong attacks. However, I felt the short boss battle at the end of the story was very straightforward and repetitive – as the boss only had one attack pattern and you could just input the same combinations of buttons over and over again to defeat it.
For the platforming section, I was slightly disappointed how limited these parts were as the warrior's movement could move horizontally and climb up and down ladders. Jumping from platform to platform was done automatically provided you had a running start, making these short sections relatively simple to solve. Lastly, the various puzzles shown in the demo, players would control their eagle companion to access areas, such as small tunnels to actual switches which open gates or created an accessible path for the player. These sections were slightly difficult as the eagle has limited movement and any damage causes the bird to return back to its starting position, resetting the puzzle.
Talking to Daniel about the game demo itself, he talked about one of the game features that could not been shown at PAX Australia – character customization. The in-depth character customization allow players can equip different swords as the game progresses – each with different attack and defence modifiers.
Armed with Wings: Rearmed is a fun, exciting 2D side-scrolling puzzle-platforming game that tells one warrior's quest to rid the world from tyrannical ruler. From the playable demo, the game's combat system was a big highlight for me, as it was easy to learn and highly polished, with the challenging puzzles being a close second. The game is already available on Steam Early Access, with a full released expected in the near future.
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