Publisher tinyBuild and developer Jason Oda have just released a new trailer for upcoming emotional action adventure game Waking, introducing basic gameplay mechanics and its combat system.
Waking puts you in your own mind as you lay in a coma. To wake up from the darkness, you must battle a number of personal demons within your psyche so that you can see light once again. To prevail against these forces of darkness, you must enter into guided meditations, where you will collect your most treasured memories and meet the people you love. Waking’s gameplay involves sections for guided meditations where you will access and envision memories that will be incorporated in the game through a series of choices. These memories also become your weapon in the game. Lastly, Waking will ask a series of personal questions that may trigger or force you to relive unpleasant childhood experiences and memories, one step closer to its promises to be “The Most Personal Game Ever Made”.
I don’t know about personal, but it certainly is very immersive. The premise of an action game that’s also meant to be an emotional experience is certainly a weird one, but if implemented well it could be unreal and amazing.
Developer Jason Oda described Waking in the combat trailer as Souls-like, maintaining a high level of difficulty and resorting more to stronger, solitary opponents that you need to observe and study to beat, instead of a hack and slash title where your deaths are mostly due to the overwhelming number of enemies, not the actual difficulty level of the game. One key gameplay mechanic is the telekinetic system attack which allows the player to control certain objects in the environment and use them to attack and parry enemies to take them down. As always, this power should be used strategically, depending on your approach to a certain combat situation. Waking also boasts a procedurally generated world of cavers, crypts, and dungeons, all located in your ever-changing Mindscape. This, along with the story and the difficulty, should combine for up to 20+ hours of gameplay to complete the game.
Waking is expected to launch this Summer for the Xbox One and PC via Steam and Discord.
