XO

XO

(I backed this game on Kickstarter, and helped out with alpha and beta testing…)

XO has a lovely mix of tactics and strategy within a relatively short three to five hour game run. But learning XO well enough to survive that final run will take you much longer. It’s a game to be played many times as you learn more about the ships, the factions, the enemies, weapons and circumstances. Each time you’ll learn how to survive longer, how to make better use of the ships, systems and resources you encountered, and how to better choose through the event paths in order to win faction allies as you go.

– Real player with 89.9 hrs in game

Read More: Best Real-Time with Pause Political Games.

I’ll split this review to what I enjoyed and what I did not.

What I enjoyed

  1. You really get the feeling of trying to build together a rag-tag fleet of military and civilian ships, fleeing away from a seemingly unstoppable enemy while building up your arsenal, firepower and the capacity to support your fleet. Awesome feeling. :)

  2. Lots of interesting concepts, boarding, resource harvesting, different kinds of weapons to counter different enemies. Really enjoyed different weapons, upgrades, ship types, keeping civilians in cargo holds (then performing a crew transfer to abandoned/disabled ships) and the ability build up my fleet. :D

– Real player with 51.9 hrs in game

XO on Steam

Roller Drama

Roller Drama

A SITCOM?!?

In Roller Drama you (Joan) live together with five athletes as their coach and hopefully friend:

Anne, Portia, Pippi, Cordelia, and Juliet. They just formed a Roller Derby top team!

Portia is the property “guardian”, the others (you too) just squatted in the dilapidated building. You have to try to be the balancing factor as these top athletes develop close personal relationships and the group navigates rivalries, love stories, and sexual tension.

REAL-TIME FULL-CONTACT SPORT!

All this while playing Roller Derby-like full-contact matches, where in real time you have to give the right hints, decide strategies, and give orders. You’ll have arcade-like controls and power cards!

SURVEILLANCE

Daily life in the game’s world is not easy; political and environmental problems interfere with complex personal lives. The game’s universe is a slightly altered perspective of today’s world, with the same problems but… more explicit. It’s a dystopia that talks about our present (thank you Terry Gilliam).

KEY FEATURES

  • Interactive narrative with meaningful game-changing choices

  • Explorable universe

  • Replayable narrative and matches: every championship is unique, several different endings

  • Real-time match play, fully generative

  • Deck-building mechanics determined by player choices and game results

  • Beautiful, hand drawn art

  • Full controller support

  • Localized in nine languages

  • Cloud saves

WHO ARE OPEN LAB GAMES?

We are four people making narrative sports games since 2017, based in Florence, Italy.

Read More: Best Real-Time with Pause Sports Games.

Roller Drama on Steam