Devolver Digital made an appearance at SGC this year with Broforce and Titan Souls at the helm. Broforce is currently available via Steam Early Access, and if you haven’t played it, here’s a brief synopsis: America’s finest action-movie heroes go around spreading freedom in the best way possible- blowing stuff up…It’s pretty awesome. However, I’ve spent hours with Broforce; I’ve had it installed on both of my computers since its Early Access debut. What I haven’t spent hours with- and I highly doubt anyone has- is Titan Souls, a game revealed briefly during Sony’s E3 conference.
As someone who didn’t attend this year’s E3 event, most of my exposure to the featured titles was through the main presentations. Titan Souls was shown very briefly during Sony’s long-winded press conference; the game may have only been shown for 5 sec.
I went into Titan Souls completely blind; I didn’t know the controls, I had yet to see any of the gameplay mechanics, and I didn’t have a clue as to where I was in the world. I walked up to the Devolver Digital booth right as someone was leaving the Titan Souls station- I sat down and continued right where he left off, without bothering to have anything explained to me.
My run began in a “holy trials” type of area; I found myself in a massive ancient ruin, with several doors, which more than likely led to various dungeons. After messing with the controller (Titan Souls was running on a 2014 14″ Razer Blade with an Xbox 360 controller) for a while, I discovered that my character had a dodge-roll, but couldn’t do much else for mobility. I could walk and roll around the area- and swim, which I discovered by accident- but I couldn’t run. My character was also capable of climbing up vines growing within the ruins. Over the course of my frantic button-mashing to figure out how to do everything, I came across what seemed like an ability to slow down time; movement came to a crawl and the screen distorted with ripples, but I had no idea what was actually going on. I discovered that my one and only attack was a lone, single arrow. Once I fired it, that was it- I only had one arrow. After firing it, I had to chase it down and pick it up in order to attack again.
After much confusion, I thought it best to venture into one of the many doors in the area. To my unfortunate surprise, the doors didn’t lead into dungeons- they led directly into boss arenas. The first room that I entered contained a massive cube with a single eye. However, it didn’t react to my presence- I walked right up to it, touching it, and it didn’t attack me….until I shot it with my arrow, and the cube rolled over and killed me without remorse.
…Fantastic.
After several minutes of chasing down my arrow, and many unfortunate deaths, I gave up and decided to try another room. The next room contained a giant brain enclosed in a block of water. After shooting it with an arrow, the enemy chaotically slid around the arena, bouncing off walls as it tried to chase me down. During the chaos, it would slide across buttons on the ground which would cause a flame to erupt in the center of the room. I figured the solution had to deal with leading the enemy into the fire, but I couldn’t seem to do it. I could lead him into that area, but the flame wouldn’t stay lit long enough for my idea to work.
“Well, what if you shoot your arrow into the flame?” …My God, I made progress.
After learning that I could light my one arrow on fire, I kept trying to line things up just perfectly, so I could shoot my arrow through the fire, to then hit the watery cube on the other side. After many failed attempts, a cosmic event occurred- I slipped up, and activated what I originally thought was a time-bending mechanic. As luck would have it, I discovered that instead of chasing down my arrow, I could call it back through some kind of telekinesis.
…The planets aligned, and Titan Souls finally made sense.
I didn’t kill my watery adversary, however I discovered that I was on the right track towards doing so: I was supposed to bait my foe into sliding over one of the four buttons that triggered the flame in the center of the stage; I could then ignite my arrow, and if it misses, position myself so the enemy is between me and the arrow, and call it back, thus hitting it on the opposite side. Pure gameplay brilliance. My new plan of attack was successful, as it evaporated the water surrounding the Titan’s brain. I was able to land a few more flaming-arrow strikes, only to get crushed once again. After a few more attempts, frustration was setting in, and I finally gave up on Titan Souls. While my overall experience may sound like a frustrating and slightly irritating time, I actually enjoyed Titan Souls, and the way I approached the SGC demo. Unless it’s a sequel, continuation or spin-off of a series, I like to plunge headstrong into a game without knowing anything about its gameplay mechanics or plot. I think having no expectations of a video game really allows me to experience it at its full potential.
Titan Souls reminded me of Shadow of the Colossus, in such that the player has no idea what the world has to offer, only that there’s something out there that must be conquered. Once those titanic creatures have been found, each one can only be defeated through patience and lateral thinking. Even though I completely gave up in the end, I left wanting more. I wanted to see what other arrow-based puzzles Titan Souls might have to offer, along with Titan designs, other environments- I wanted to experience the rest of the game right then and there.
Fortunately, an alternate version of the game is currently available to download through Ludum Dare. Titan Souls is expected to release in Q1 2015 for PC and PS4.