Video: This is Beacon, a roguelike top-down shooter with a very interesting twist on death (and rebirth).
You’re expected to die in a roguelike, but Beacon is trying something neat:
When you inevitably die, the DNA of the enemies you’ve killed can be used to grant you different stats and potentially gameplay-altering physical mutations for your next run.
It’s coming soon for PC, Mac and Xbox One.
Comments
7 responses to “In Beacon, Death Is A Small Victory”
It REEKS of indie, and that isn’t a bad thing, most of the time.
Beacon Academy
Mmmm, bacon
Basically, Doomsday Origins?
It’s eye catching
Style looks great.
But those animations make me cry :`(
Also, the combat/gameplay looks a bit ‘meh’ – needs more umpff
As interesting as it looks, I’m kind of leery of it already because there are a number of generic plot elements in there along with a few common indie game identifiers. There’s a ship named “Ouroboros” that’s also in a game about a constant life and death cycle no less. Japanese writing, which is often used as a tactic by indie studios to appeal to Japanese game players, is used everywhere for no discernible reason unless the fiction is like Firefly where Chinese became a major language? Also why is the main character’s name (Or at least the one in the video) Freja which is based in Norse mythology, not Japanese? If you wanted to immediately justify the Japanese writing and fit in with the life and death theme, Izanami would have been a better name.
I know it’s still early days and this stuff will be explained at some point, but it just feels like a missed opportunity to make it a little more visually and thematically consistent.
Hello! Our choice to include Japanese writing funnily enough has never been because we were trying to appeal to an audience in Japan (though that’s not necessarily a bad thing!). It’s totally in part because Freja Akiyama IS Japanese (well mixed-raced to be accurate) herself. Also the company that ’employs’ her, Shoraiteku, is also Japanese in origin, hence the Japanese text on the ship, clone bay and pretty much throughout all our branding.
The Ouroboros ship name is a little on the nose with the theme of death as a cycle, but hey, not everybody is going to pick up on that believe it or not. Somebody thought it was a Red Dwarf reference!
We’ve honestly not touched on really any of the story elements of the game, because as you say, it’s early days yet to discuss that. But we’re aiming to make the narrative interesting and engaging, and something that dives into the backstory of Freja herself some more!
Thanks!