Vortex Gaming

It seems that SIE's PlayStation booth offered the most to see at this year's ChinaJoy. SIE showcased many new titles from the 'China Hero Project,' which directly supports small Chinese game developers, and provided a large demo area for gamers visiting the site to play these games on PS5 consoles. Among the various new titles on display, such as Lost Soul Aside, Willis, and Phantom Blade, one truly fresh game that had never been introduced in Korea caught my eye. It's 'EXILEDGE,' a new title currently being developed by Chinese video game developer ENIGMATRIX.

Exiledge is a third-person roguelike shooter game depicting a devastated world. The game's protagonist, Alter, embarks on an adventure to uncover the fate of the world created by 'Zora,' a godlike being. Players can enjoy a TPS-based combat system with hack-and-slash elements, and team up with Zora, a mysterious girl with mystical powers, to fight powerful bosses. It's easy to understand if you think of it as a third-person action game where you can utilize various means, starting with melee attacks using close-range weapons, various types of guns that can be used alternately, and even magic.

The demo build starts by selecting one of the three equipment types that the developer has preset. Regardless of which combination you choose, a melee combat sword is provided as a basic weapon, and you can choose two more gun styles you like, such as shotguns, machine guns, pistols, or sniper rifles, to use alternately. At the same time, you can utilize two types of attribute magic. Magic shows powerful abilities, such as damage-focused magic that summons a giant pillar of fire or black hole magic that gathers surrounding enemies in one place. Since it is powerful enough to clear a chaotic battlefield at once, there is a separate cooldown time each time you use magic.

After selecting your favorite magic combination and starting the game, you will face an altar where you can select traits before the full-scale battle. Here, you can add additional options to the weapon or magic you have chosen. Every time you come into contact with the trait altar, three choices appear, and depending on how you choose the traits, you could create powerful combinations where the synergy between magic and weapons continues to overlap. It was a bit difficult to explore good combinations on-site because the demo build was in Chinese.

If you have chosen a trait and absorbed the power of the altar, it's time to go into full-scale battle. The battle is a method of entering the battle stage by riding a magic elevator designed like an ancient relic, and even at this time, three choices are provided. Since the characteristics of the stage are displayed as simplified icons even before entering, you can plan your battle route considering the direction of future growth. If you have played other roguelike action games even once, you would have felt it was a familiar structure.

When you arrive at the battle stage by elevator, the location of the structure to be occupied is displayed on the minimap and screen. After moving to the area and contacting the structure, three views are presented again to choose 'what enemies to fight'. In other words, the player directly chooses and progresses everything from the weapons to be used in battle, the rewards to be obtained after battle, and what types of enemies to fight.

If you have selected up to this point, the battle is relatively simple. All that remains is to avoid the attacks of enemies who swing their arms and approach or throw projectiles from afar and fight until all enemies are defeated. At this time, you calculate the remaining number of bullets or the cooldown time of magic and fight by mixing in melee attacks in the middle, and the feeling at this time was not bad. The character's movements are smooth, and I thought that you could create really cool super plays depending on your proficiency. After defeating the approaching enemies in a phase-like manner two or three times, a crystal that allows you to select enhancement traits appears, and if you contact this crystal and choose a trait, you can occupy the area.

After repeating the area occupation of a similar structure two or three times, the long-awaited boss battle finally begins. The boss of the demo build showed various patterns, including melee swings that must be avoided by looking at the motion, a dash that narrows the distance at once, a long-range pattern that marks the floor and blows a strong wind, and shock waves that must be avoided by jumping or dashing. It was a structure that could be easily attacked if you calmly identified the pattern from a distance and accumulated damage, but the demo ended without clearing the boss, perhaps because I had consumed too much health in the general battle. Although it was a disappointing ending, it was a time when I could fully feel the charm of the game.

After finishing the demo and continuing to watch other attendees play with regret, the developer of Exiledge, ENIGMATRIX, greeted me. Xiao Xinchan, the general manager of Enigmatrix, introduced himself and said that he plans to release the game on the PS5 platform in the third quarter of 2024, and plans to release it on the Xbox and Nintendo Switch platforms in 2025. When asked about Korean localization, he laughed lightly, saying that he would have to see when it was released in 2024.

Exiledge has already been attempted through several games. In a way, it is following the roguelike action style that can be said to be stereotyped, but it showed the potential to appeal to everyone who likes TPS or roguelike action games through clean and restrained visuals. Although not much has been revealed yet, Exiledge is expected to be a new PS title worth looking forward to.

Looking at the concept art of Exiledge introduced on the official website of the developer Enigmatrix, you can feel a little bit how sincere the developers are about their game. Until someone tells you, it's hard to imagine that it's a work by a Chinese developer, and I naturally became excited about how much more the current game visuals can be renewed in the future. I hope to see the improved 모습 of Exiledge through more various events even after ChinaJoy.

웹진 인벤박광석 기자
2023-08-01