Eon Altar isn’t a mobile game. But it’s got a super-cool mobile integration where you can use mobile devices to play the game. It’s a quasi-turn-based RPG, where you and 3 other players battle against waves of enemies, and you control your character and battle while controlling it on your mobile device, seeing the results on the TV. You can move around during non-combat phases, with the ability to use friendly abilities during battle, before eventually going into battles. Each player controls a unique character with their own set of abilities. Some attacks and abilities have cooldown and energy costs, with energy being regained by doing damage with standard attacks. If an enemy attacks you, you are engaged with them, and can only attack them, but otherwise you can choose which enemy to attack. But be wary if you have area-of-effect abilities: some of them can do friendly fire damage.
This is actually a really cool setup, and while you have to be on the same wifi network to play, this seems a lot easier and smarter to play a co-op RPG than with a controller. Plus, so many people have phones, and the companion app is out on iOS and Android, so pretty much anyone can play. What I’d like to see would be something like what Quiplash does, where all you need to do is to enter a code to join a room, without being on the same network.
Still, the phone/tablet controller app (Free) is really cool to use. You have all sorts of information available to you on your own personal screen, and can see how abilities work without interrupting other players. The group I was in had players of varying skills and familiarity with RPGs, and while there’s definitely some degree of learning curve based on how much you understand RPGs, it’s something that might be easy enough to pick up on. As well, the PAX demo was a bit choppy, but that’s because it’s in a convention center full of a million tablets and phones all searching for wi-fi and phone signals. That it even worked at all is kind of a miracle. With the game working optimally on a less-crowded local wi-fi network, the game promises to work really well.
There also promises to be story and actual role-playing elements with dialogue between characters, and you can possibly even privately communicate with other characters for certain circumstances. The desktop version is in early access right now on Steam, and it was one of the more memorable experiences I had at PAX Prime. It’s not explicitly mobile, but it uses mobile in a really cool way.
