Next Up Hero & Tacoma Free On Epic

It has been an odd one for news this week, as it both poured out of Ubisoft, and was scarce at the same time. Some of it was angrily scribbled in editorial, on the hypocrisy of a now-resigned Ubisoft Exec that claimed: “women don’t sell (games).” Monday, I wrote about Dungeon Rushers being added to Twitch Prime. Tuesday, Alexx covered all in the Nintendo Direct Mini. Wednesday, Taylor questioned how long can the Xbox One last into the next generation, following Microsoft’s claims of “Years.” Then on Thursday, Taylor also covered EA’s NHL 21 release, coming to both generations, though it won’t focus on next-generation content until next year.

This week is a double-bill for free games on the Epic Games Store, as both Next Up Hero and Tacoma are available all week through the store’s weekly deal. To once again make it clear and transparent, I was provided advanced access to the former’s Beta ahead of its release a while ago along with a full copy later on. Take the opinions on Next Up Hero however you like with that information.

I doubt I’ll have to worry about any of that though, I don’t care too much for Next Up Hero. You see, I don’t like other people, I hate all of them and their mothers too, I just can’t stand any of them. Yet every now and then, a game will try to connect you with these despicable fleshy beings that don’t know when to shut up. Asymmetrical gameplay is one way of doing it, it connects you with others without having you actively dealing with the berks starving for attention. I still don’t like that, as it adds very little, which was the case in Death Stranding. Next Up Hero is an asymmetrical arena battler, one where you and several other plods try to fight the simplest battles.

The difference here is, unlike say Borderlands, the others helping you aren’t controlled by people. Rather they are AI following you. You see, that’s asymmetrical gameplay in action right there. The problem, is the question of what does this add? If they didn’t have “HadSexWithYouMum69” above them, I wouldn’t know or care they were people who died in this small Bastion-like island arena. So you end up running around “reviving” these useless dullards to little noticeable effect in battles. Again I’ll ask it, why am I bothering to activate these AI?

Well, it means upon each stage of a level you can switch to the character you prefer for each battle. With a handful of character classes, you will find differences in how they play. You’ll also notice that upon completing a stage, the game will automatically switch you into a different character, letting you experience each one. You better hope you can revive that one character you like playing as, or you are stuck with weapons you don’t like and attacks you don’t care for. This is why I don’t like this system, I’d hazard a guess that 99% of us would find a style we like, with a character we like. Too bad.

Moving on to Tacoma, a sci-fi walking simulator from the people made Gone Home. Gone Home happens to be a game I love for pulling the rug out from the player perfectly. You’d think that due to the sci-fi setting and the history of Gone Home behind the studio, I’d like Tacoma. You’d be wrong though, I don’t. I know, it seems like I’m being quite grumpy today, but neither Next up Hero and Tacoma light a fire under me.

Tacoma isn’t my thing for the simple reason that it is just a space-y version of Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture. Yes, that’s the storytelling DNA of walking simulators. Surely we could have something more than a rough outline of a human nattering on about nonsense. To torture an example of gameplay, it is a poorly-realized Return of the Obra Dinn.

Tacoma and Next Up Hero are both available throughout the week until Thursday, July 30th. Next week it is a triple-bill of pixels, platforming, and running rogue on a genre that can be left alone for a month or two. 20XX is a roguelike/lite action platformer that looks Mega Man and Metroid had a child. Barony, asks the question “what if roguelikes/lites were first-person and featured as many pixels as Minecraft and was voxel-based like CubeWorld?” Finally, Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP, is an art game with that really thin pixel art style I don’t like by those that are developing JETT: The Far Shore, the arty game shown off during the PS5 reveal.