Spiffy Biffing: Project Awakened Shows Off All The Powers
Project Awakened does not have all the powers. Well, I don't think it does, anyway. That would be a very large number - probably more than I can count on my fingers, toes, and hyper-sophisticated computational machine on which I do the majority of my day-to-day tasks put together - and thinking about such things makes me uncomfortable. But, if nothing else, I'm certain Phosphor Games' unabashedly ambitious hero factory contains a lot of powers. That's my official calculation. But why trust incredibly shifty-looking characters like myself when developer-produced videos created with the sole intention of getting you to spend money tell only the truth? Why indeed.
Quite the array, huh? I have to admit, though, that I wasn't super impressed by Phosphor's examples of mixing and matching. I mean, they produced gigantic, oftentimes amusingly spinny effects, but they didn't tickle my clever bone. I "oooooo"-ed and "ahhhh"-ed, but never "hmmmm"-ed. I nearly "harumph"-ed, but it was just a sneeze. That said, I imagine there's plenty more where those powers came from. Plus, Phosphor has no qualms about letting players break the game. Well, sometimes, anyway.
"Characters will have limited total power allowances in the single-player campaign and in competitive multiplayer modes (you are free to create a character with every skill in the game, but you can't use them in these base modes if he exceeds the skill cap)."
"Players will be able to create modded maps and custom lobbies that are 'unsanctioned' (for both MP and SP) which have different skill caps, or no skill caps, and do not contribute to player ratings or earn the player currency. This allows you to 'break' the balance of the game in order to setup specific experiences to your liking."
In other words, go wild! Or don't. I think the goal of including a semi-balanced multiplayer mode's something of an idealistic one, though. With so many powers in the mix, I'm envisioning complete chaos no matter how many skill caps are keeping all the flying super mutant ninja cyborg totally-not-Solid-Snake men grounded. I mean, I suppose you could disallow certain skills outright, but that'd kind of defeat the purpose, wouldn't it?
Oh well. I still very much like the general philosophy behind this one, as I am nothing if not a connoisseur of kitchen sinks - hurled into piles of Everything or otherwise. And seeing as Awakened could well include a power that amounts to throwing kitchen sinks at people, it's definitely piqued my interest. As of now, its Kickstarter's chugging along dutifully at a hair of $100,000, but it's still got a few weeks. Interested?