Congo: The Game caught me off-guard a little. It was the last game I played at EGX 2014 and I’m glad I stumbled on it. The premise is relatively simple: the players (up to a maximum of four) are stranded in the Congo and must scavenge what they can to stay alive. This is because the jungle is swarming with killer beasts lurking in the darkness just waiting to feast on your bones. You can expect the standard arsenal of guns at your disposal but what the enemy fears most is light.
The team at Innocent Devils have nurtured a clever little idea that will require teamwork and co-ordination to survive. Each player is limited to what they can carry in two hands so if you need to lug that can of fuel to a generator you had better make sure your partner has something to protect you. They’ll have to be quick to protect you too because the beasts are ferocious; I was swiftly dispatched (quite brutally too) once one of them had my scent. Turns out the burning torch I was carrying didn’t offer me the protection I thought it would.
Jack Bromhead, the art director for the game, later explained that the brighter and more powerful the light the more intense the fear it would drive into the animals. My torch might have shown me the way but other than that I might have well been carrying a chocolate teapot.
What resulted was fear. Fear of the unknown and a constant feeling of threat that anything could leap out of the darkness at any time. I moved cautiously but quickly, always on edge, always on guard. As an experience it was fantastic and I’m looking forward to seeing how the final game plays and if the tension carries across when more than one person is involved. The demo at EGX was single-player only.
Adding to the atmosphere is the design, which gives a real sense of being lost in the jungle foliage but with small, possibly former military, encampments littered around. There were abandoned jeeps and small shacks to explore between the jungle paths. Much as I wanted them to be safe havens I never felt they were, which just added to the tension.
Congo is shaping up to be one of those games that grabs you instantly and refuses to let go until it spits you out the other side. Definitely one to keep an eye out for when it releases on Steam later in 2014.
1001-Up.com 