The real winners of E3 2019 are indie titles, as this year’s event showcased some amazingly good-looking and really interesting video games created by small, yet talented teams. However, as not all of the independent titles really had much time to shine, developers are left with showcasing extended reveals on their own.
Besides the obvious Fall Guys from Devolver and RPG Time: The Legend of Wright, one of the titles that really caught my eye was the incredibly minimalist, yet highly nuanced Unto the End, which received a very short segment during the ID @ Xbox sizzle reel at Microsoft’s Xbox E3 2019 Briefing. It’s a blessing, to say the least, that developer 2 Ton Studios has released a short gameplay trailer of their own to showcase what the game is all about. Check it out below.
First off, we see the game’s protagonist in a cave, fending off a monster. The combat is on display in the video, and it looks to be a very intricate system of deflecting and timing your attacks, which is quite unheard of for a 2D side-scroller action title. It also has these little neat interactions like dropping your torch when it comes time to battle, and of course rolling away from danger as a last resort when it comes to guarding from enemy attacks.
The footage then shifts to a field where the protagonist is sparring with someone, then to a snowy mountain segment where he is killed by a spear. From the interactions, I’m guessing that Unto the End will have one-hit death mechanics, where you must learn to master the combat, lest you end up missing a deflect or a dodge to instantly die. Honestly, I’m all for this, but only if the combat is polished enough for it to work great while being intuitive and challenging at the same time.
The gameplay footage shows off a lot more locations that are included in the game, such as sprawling forests, snowy mountaintops and dark caves. There’s no music in the gampelay video, and it remains to be seen if there will be a soundtrack included, seeing as the trailer is composed of footage in a very early alpha stage of development.
Unto the End will be released on the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC and Nintendo Switch at an unspecified date.
