That's One XEL Of A Demo
Hello, and welcome to the world of XEL. I think I read that this was a twin-stick shooter, so after posting the news bit about it, I downloaded the demo to give it a whirl. Here’s what I think…
It’s not a twin-stick shooter, at least, not from the demo experience. It’s classed as an action-adventure with some RPG and exploration elements. The latter is evident as when you start the game, you’re wandering about with little to do other than roll.
Perhaps it’s not the best of ideas to try out a demo while drinking a beer, then writing about it (thanks, spellcheck) as my patience levels were uncharacteristically low. “When will the action kick in? Why can’t I smash stuff?”. Usually that wouldn’t be the inner monologue yours truly faces, but gaming + beer = mess.
Thankfully then, within the 45 minutes it took to play the demo, it didn’t take long until all those nods that wooden barricades could be broken, could. You get a junk sword to create some paths, but more importantly, defeat some spanner-wielding robots and smash some boxes for loot not required in the XEL demo.
“Why is there so much tech in the forrest?” asks our protagonist ??, clarified as ‘Reid’ on the Steam page. I’ll throw back an even more importanterer question, young lady: why are you spelling forrest with two ‘r’s? The reason for the tech… that’s to be found out in Tiny Roar’s game out this year, but no matter, it has potential.
Movement is swift and out-agiling (making up loadsa new words) the robots is easy-peasy. You can even wield a shield to deflect projectiles, but again, Reid is so slick she can roll past these offences and cut ’em good with her sword. While the visuals are nice and crisp, and the voyeuristic isometric viewpoint looks good, you have no control of the camera, so getting stuck behind a building is inevitable and happened twice.
Still, XEL was easy – including the BOTW-like boss. There are a few sounds that sound like they’re from Zelda, too. It’s all rather pleasant. I particularly liked the cutscenes in the game that are all 3D rendered, but they looked like they were a little low resolution and a bit too blocky for my liking. Just sayin’.
Anyway, XEL looks like a decent game that you should place on your wishlist. While it was a teeny bit easy and not that much on offer in the demo, you’re welcome to try it yourself without being part of any gentlemen’s club as it’s free on Steam now. The link is below; write some words about it yourself.