Epigenesis

Platform: PC - Steam
Price: £6.99
Developer: Dead Shark Triplepunch
Genre: Indie Action/Sports
Overall rating: 4/5
Version Reviewed: Early Release v0.28

I warn you now this game can get mighty frustrating, although definitely in a good way.

Whilst down at Insomnia 51, Smokeys and I spent some time looking at a number of up-and-coming Indie games either rising through the ranks of Steam's Greenlight programme or already on the market.

Epigenesis caught our eye for it's style - built on the Unreal engine it looks and feels incredibly familiar to any of those who have played any of the Unreal Tournament series. We kept hovering around their stand in the exhibition in the hopes of getting a chance to play, but every time we walked past all the computers were occupied by captivated gamers.

We spoke for a fair while to one of the developers about the game, it's mechanics and how they had won the "Make something Unreal 2013" competition and had their game bypass Greenlight entirely and go straight on sale in the Steam Store. It sounded highly impressive, even with no personal gameplay!

Once back in a darkened room lit only by the cool glow of LCD, we both grabbed copies of Epigenesis and dived straight in to a 1 vs 1 LAN game. I promptly plummeted straight off the edge of a platform, and judging by the swearwords eminating from my headset, so did Smokeys. 

The maps are made up of a number of floating platforms connecting two goals, one at either end of the arena, and a central island with a spawn point for a ball. Launch the ball through your opponents goal and you'll gain a point, but crucially when you respawn you will be holding a genetically engineered super-seed. Neat. Overview

You can take the seed to the nodes on certain platforms to plant them. These plants can give your team support in the form of artillery, mortar or a shield over that platform. Once planted your team is also granted a buff such as a speed boost. Plant seeds in a chain all the way from your goal to your opponents, and you automatically win the game. If a node chain is not established by the time the clock reaches zero, the team with the highest score wins. The seeds can also be used to take over platforms with enemy plants on, converting them to your own. Gameplay

Games are up to 5 vs 5 with either players, bots or a combination. To assist you in thwarting the opposition, you have a set of non-lethal equipment. There's no killing in Epigenesis, instead you use your weaponry to push or pull your enemies off the platforms to fall to their demise. 

Gameplay is intense and fast paced, lose concentration as to where the ball has gone and you'll regret it! You're forever juggling trying to grab the ball and score goals, whilst all the time keeping an eye out for the enemy ball or seed carrier and monitoring how many platforms are controlled by friend or foe. Add to this having to watch very carefully where you're treading so you don't stroll off an edge and you can see why I gave this game quite a high frustration factor!

Bot dynamics are a little irritating at the moment, but at the time of writing they have only just been added to the game so should improve with further patches. They aren't exactly what you would call team players, but they can hold their own well and should present a fair challenge.

The graphics are on the whole very good. The look of the arena is well thought through and detailed, special events such as seed planting and weather formations render very nicely. Audio is pretty simplistic, though some of the sound effects can tend to get rather irritating after a while. Volume control doesn't seem to have a huge effect on this with some sounds remaining deafening regardless of settings, though this could just be an early glitch. Audio and Visual

Control of your character can prove slightly infuriating, as I mentioned earlier the arena layout requires a heck of a lot of jumping. Get that jump wrong and you plummet to your death resulting in a respawn. If the platforms were a fraction closer together, thus requiring only one jump to bridge the gap rather than two, you could focus more on the game objectives than character movement. Control

Epigenesis is essentially a novel digital version of basketball with plants and holes in your court. Once you get more familiar with the powerups and strategies you can begin to relax and have some fun. I figure it's just a matter of practice to prefect the style of play required to do well, and once you have you'll have trouble saying no to another match.

This game is certainly a different use of the Unreal Engine. It's such a terrific unique play style, that I am in no way surprised that the game has done so well with awards. The concept is great, the execution is brilliant, the actual gameplay is frustrating (both good and bad) and the tactical side of it creates a good basis for replay-ability, alongside varying maps and player counts. Overall, it's a great way to spend half hour or so, but you'll have a heart attack if you play much longer than that.

- Smokeys_13

Epigenesis is a cracking game and most definitely a worthy winner of the "Make something Unreal 2013" competition. Gameplay is addictive and exhilarating, you'll find yourself totally engrossed within minutes. Just make sure you put any blunt objects well out of reach so you can't smash your screen out of excited frustration.

- HolmesyLogic

Images courtesy of Dead Shark Triplepunch.