Epic Games Has Two of the Most Unique Upcoming Games Right Now (Preview)

Today the world knows Epic Games for Fortnite, but they’re also a major publisher in the industry and they’re currently publishing two upcoming games that I have to say feel like must-plays. After checking out End of Abyss and Out of Words at Summer Game Fest this year, both games immediately jumped to the top of my wishlist. It’s rare to find that nowadays, considering how much we know about new titles ahead of time. But getting about 30 minutes of hands-on time for each game truly opened my eyes to what Epic is offering.

End of Abyss

An atmospheric, survival horror game with a unique combat system, Section 9’s End of Abyss takes heavy inspiration from classic Metroidvania as well as games like Limbo, Little Nightmares, and even perhaps a little bit of Dark Souls. It is very difficult, after all.

End of Abyss takes place in a dark underground compound that is filled with fungus-like monsters. Your job is to traverse the facility and find out what happened to everyone and everything. With a fixed camera angle and little lighting, the game produces a sense of dread. You don’t know what will be around the corner, or even what’s behind you. I have to give credit to the team for creating such a unique looking game in a genre filled with thousands of dark sci-fi titles. 

Now, it really is a true survival horror game with resource management, limited health, specific save points, upgradable weapons, and a crafting system. But there’s more to it.

You have seemingly unlimited stamina so you can constantly dodge enemy attacks by rolling away, and running around combat zones to avoid being latched onto by one of the hand-looking monsters that launch at you like Facehuggers from Alien. And as a twin-stick shooter, you can’t shoot until you’re aiming with the right stick. You have to be accurate as well; End of Abyss isn’t very forgiving. Even when you die, although you’ll keep everything you’ve unlocked or upgraded, you will have to face every monster again.

Again, it’s not an easy game. In our sessions, we were told that no one – not even the developers themselves – were able to beat the demo’s boss on the first try. In fact, most people who played the game at SGF weren’t able to beat the boss – a centipede-esque monstrosity – at all. But we were. My colleague and I succeeded on the second try (alternating playing every few minutes). Unfortunately we couldn’t do it on the first try.

Out of Words

The other game Epic had at SGF this year is WiredFly and Kong Orange’s Out of Words, a co-op platformer that drops players into a handcrafted artistic world. Out of Words is an apt title since the two main characters, teenagers Kurt and Karla, have lost their mouths and literally can’t talk in the game. Because of that, there’s very little dialogue that comes from other characters you encounter on this wondrous journey, but conversely, you should absolutely talk to your partner while you play.

My colleague and I played about 30 minutes of Out of Words during our session, some of it taking place around the start of the game and some of it about six hours in, which allowed us to get a broader understanding of the story and how the gameplay progresses. 

Interestingly, what hooked me right away was the art design. There’s been a resurgence in heavily artistic games over the past decade, but this one knocks it out of the park. We were told that everything on screen was handdrawn. Of course, there’s a lot of tech and CG involved, but it all started with hand-drawn and stop-motion animation. That made every movement the player-character makes that much more meaningful, especially at the slow parts. The next thing that took me by surprise was the incredible sound design. If you can recall the sound the aliens made in the movie Arrival, that’s how it felt hearing some of the creatures in Out of Words. Coupling the art and sound made this game captivating, to say the least.

Aside from that, the rather impressive co-op mechanics makes this game a natural competitor to a title like Split Fiction. Throughout the game, you have to work closely with your partner to get around blockades, advance to the next area, and somehow fly across the screen. For the latter, you do that by passing a creature off to each other at specific times to allow one person to fly while the other one falls, and then you have to quickly pass it back so the other person can fly while you fall. You do that over and over again without falling off the screen.

Sometimes the game required advanced planning. We had to stop and think about how to move forward. It wasn’t like solving a puzzle, but rather getting on the same level with each other. I value that Out of Words isn’t just about giving players another co-op adventure. Really, it seems that it’s about two people coming together to experience something truly new and fantastical.