Dabbling with… Screencheat

The eighth episode of a short series on games I discovered at EGX Rezzed 2015.

Alright, local multiplayer FPS madness! This is what I signed up for. Screencheat (Samurai Punk, 2014) is great. Each player gets a piece of the screen to look at, which means you can see what the other players are getting up to – hence the title. But that’s the point as every player is invisible. You have to look to see what players are doing otherwise you don’t know where to shoot.

It’s a pretty weird experience, as you’re not just taking care of your own movements but trying to track that of others in each panel. Colour-coded areas makes it easier to see who you should be watching but rest assured no one feels safe and you’re never quite sure if someone is stalking you RIGHT NOW.

Players spend most of the time being scared and shooting in the wrong place – so it’s the perfect ingredients for comedy. Everyone looks stupid, especially if you’re the person unleashing the Bear Bomb. Although you could play with just two players, I think you need at least three for proper hardcore chaos to develop. (I don’t know if it would make a good subject for Side by Side as we have discovered some multiplayer games are more difficult to warm to with just two players, a la Gravity Series)

Here’s the release trailer, but it doesn’t quite convey the chaos and paranoia.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCNol4MuQdo

Screencheat was developed by Samurai Punk and released last October. Go to the Samurai Punk website to find out more.

All Episodes

• TRI – a first-person puzzler
• The Marvellous Miss Take – polished 2D heist/stealth game
• DEEP – deep breathing meditation in VR
• Her Story – explore video footage of police interviews to solve a mystery
• CAVE! CAVE! DEUS VIDET – art-fi visual novel in which I understood nothing that was going on
• One One One Two Three – minimalist card game that plays out in minutes
• Aerobat – incredible 2D shooter, I can’t rate it highly enough
• Screencheat – wonderful local multiplayer FPS
• Planet of the Eyes – a puzzle platformer that didn’t hold my hand