PAX East First Impressions – Revolution 60

It takes some serious balls to promote your indie game as “ Heavy Rain meets Mass Effect “, but that’s precisely how the team at Giant Spacekat is describing their debut project, Revolution 60 .

. Well, perhaps “balls” is the wrong word, as the development team is actually made up entirely of women. Brianna Wu, Amanda Stenquist Warner, Maria Enderton, and Carolyn VanEseltine make up the GSK crew that was originally founded in 2010. With over three years of development time under their belt, GSK came to PAX East to show off a demo and generate some buzz about their story-driven project.

True to its claim, Revolution 60 does blend elements of Heavy Rain and Mass Effect . Much like both titles, story is the key component of the experience, while cut scenes include branching quick-time events reminiscent of the former, and choices made throughout the game will alter the experience and carry over to successive entries in the series, taking cues from the latter. Custscenes will transition directly into active, turn-based combat, as there’s no direct exploration in the game. These fight scenes take place on a 6×6 grid, with enemies sharing a 3×3 grid while player protagonist Holiday can move about her own 3×3 space. The demo provided the option to move between tiles at will, but shooting her blaster had a cooldown timer, so there’s a definite rhythm to battling. There’s also a power meter at the bottom of the screen that gradually fills as Holiday successfully lands hit on her enemies. Once filled, players can stun attackers and launch a devastating special attack, engaging in a quick time event to successfully deal substantial damage.

Completing combat results in gaining experience, and as Holiday levels up she’ll be able to spend skills point in what is described as a Borderlands -esque branching skill tree. There will be a wide variety of skills to choose from, expanding her special moveset as well as offering passive abilities to buff her in combat. While Holiday is the only playable character in terms of combat, additional characters can be played for a limited time during cut scene interactions and quick time events.

The entire experience is said to take about 3-5 hours in total, depending on how combat plays out; but, as previously mentioned, Revolution 60 is a planned trilogy. GSK wanted to stress that they’ve avoided padding the game with any filler content, explaining that they don’t intend to ever waste a moment of the payer’s time. Even if that means spending a month putting together a set piece most players will only see for a few minutes. The entire game will be included at launch, but the team is considering DLC in the form of a story companion guide to further flesh out the world and character lore.

Revolution 60 is releasing “soon”, so be on the lookout for an official release date announcement in the near future. It will launch first on iOS, with ports scheduled for PC and Mac shortly thereafter. The game’s website is a bit bare bones at the moment, as they’re doing a redesign in preparation of release, but there’s additional information about the Giant Spacekat team in the About Ussection. Those interested can keep up with the game on social media via Facebookand Twitter.