Late Thoughts about Realms Deep 2022

Realms Deep 2022 Key Art.

It's been a long time since the last Events post from me. Usually I tend to write those a day after specific event, but there was nothing that really interested me for the last year. Not to mention that we exist in crazy and often surreal times. So I eagerly waited for Realms Deep 2022. Kind of. It's actually funny to think about in retrospective. I wasn't disappointed by it (show was nice), it's just the stages of anticipation I went through.

I didn't know what to expect. Didn't want to expect anything. Not after the last year, which had its ups and downs. The only think I had in mind in regards to Realms Deep 2022 was "When they will just announce it already?" because it was obvious that the show will go on. Once teaser trailer came out, I was just too busy with work to really get excited. However, I managed to be there in time. All three days. I'll go over each one of them.

Day One.

After the recap of Realms Deep 2021 and some lore stuff, 3D Realms kicked things off with a new world premiere: Phantom Fury. That mysterious "00000002001" project finally got a name, right! It does look curious, even though system requirements seem way too high for my poor laptop. But there're many reasons for me to update my setup already, so that's a given. Cultic is getting a full release with its first episode, WRATH: Aeon of Ruin received new trailer with cool stuff & release date. Combustion got catchy stuff in its new teaser. Nothing was said about Core Decay & Ion Fury: Aftershock, but some small updates followed shortly after. Developers of both projects are hard at work and were either too deep in the process and/or, in case of Voidpoint, just didn't had their announcement ready on time.

Now let's go other what other companies showed off. First of all, Wizordum's demo is out! I knew it was coming, I already installed it and I'm going to play it (hopefully) soon. The re-release of Chasm: The Rift got a release date as well. It was announced before and that was one hell of a surprise. I thought all hope was lost! And then General Arcade drops a demo, so I'll have to check that one out as well! New Blood couldn't miss this event, obviously. Besides some gameplay for AMID EVIL - The Black Labyrinth. They've also teamed up with Nightdive Studios in order to bring in Rise of the Triad: Ludicrous Edition, serving as co-publsher with new Apogee (who I didn't expect to see there)! That's the name of the re-release announced by 3D Realms back in Realms Deep 2020: they stepped away from the project in the beginning of 2022. No idea what happened when Desctructive Creations left its development. Either way, it looks curious and will see how it goes.

Similarly to last year, I would like to just list some games that caught my eye during this first day without bringing up the titles I mentioned before. It doesn't mean I would end up playing them or trying out the demo, but giving them a shout-out is the least I can do:

• Extraneum.

• Frogun.

• Sentry.

• Tenebris Somnia.

• Islands of the Galiph.

• Ctrl Alt Ego.

• Slayers X: Terminal Aftermath: Vengance of the Slayer.

I think it was alright overall. That's pretty much all I can say about this year's Realms Deep. It ended up not being this "next big thing" I really anticipated, but it still resulted in a few hours of good old escapism from reality. While next two days got nothing in terms of major announcements, there're still some things worth talking about.

Day Two & Three.

Next day included a mix of gameplay footage of various games shown on Realms Deep from various streamers. That creates a greater sense of community and serves as a great example of showing off many upcoming games. I think it's important to point out that probably not everyone enjoyed more promiment presence of content creators, but I personally didn't really an opinion about it. Same implies to Ty & Mike's love story (I wish them all the best though). You know, it's just a given. Not everything is going to click with you and that's fine.

Developers of Phantom Fury, WRATH and Graven (new content update was released prior to this event) shared some exciting details about previously revealed content though! There were some interview from other indie developers too, which is always a nice addition. Third day was surely a weird one, as they promised. Tempest Rising interview was good. DOOMBRINGER showdown was alright. I know I'm not making it any justice, but I guess I'm just exhausted. Too tired to be more expressive. Each year was different and I'm sure 2023 will brings another scope of changes for its formula. At the end of a day, we should keep in mind that there's a small team behind it and that's inspiring. I enjoyed that.