PAX EAST 2022 | "Die After Sunset"
It should be a relaxing day at the beach, but evil has other plans. When one is supposed to be catching rays, you’re instead dealing with an alien threat. At first, they don’t seem much like a threat, especially with how cute they are. However, when the darkness hits the sand, well, there’s a reason why it’s called Die After Sunset!
At the PQUBE booth, the Die After Sunset demo gave me the opportunity to take on two missions. The first dealt with protecting the art at a nearby museum; the second had some aliens attempting to steal some swimwear. These aliens came in many forms, from rolly-pollies that spun towards you to Twinkie-shaped threats that shot their ectoplasm their way. When dealing with them one-on-one, the fights aren’t to difficult. It’s when they arrive in swarms when the challenge really begins.
When the sun is up, the aliens are fairly easy to kill; in the shadows, the game gets brutally hard! What would normally take a few shots to take down instead becomes four times as tough to eliminate. The challenge also increases with the fact that these aliens cast spawn anywhere, even in areas that normally are safe zones in other third-person shooters. These aliens come at you with everything they got, to the point where you’ll more than likely be forced to respawn on numerous occasions!
Control-wise, Die After Sunset is pretty easy to figure out. Using your primary and secondary weapons is a cinch, with a different button for each. With that being said, aiming can be extremely difficult, especially when on the move. Getting a single hit, even up close, can be tough to master, something that developers PlayStark Games may want to tinker with somewhere down the line.
Nevertheless, the Die After Sunset demo showcased a lot of strong potential for the game’s future. Its colorful elements brought to mind Sunset Overdrive, with a gameplay aspect akin to Gun Gun Pixies. With a little more of a spit-shine here and there, this could potentially be a wicked fun shooter in the long run. (When multiplayer is added later on, said potential will no doubt growth exponentially!)
Die After Sunset is currently available on Steam Early Access.