Ukrainian developer Bear Games recently announced Comix Zero, their upcoming platformer blending Soulslike combat, RPG elements, and an open-world structure within a unique comic book aesthetic. The alpha gameplay in the trailer below is action-heavy and doesn’t reveal much about what else you’ll be doing as you fight for survival within the comic book world – like saving it, or just trying to escape. The developers mention features like ability customization, crafting, NPC quests, and a sprawling world that may require a hand-drawn map just to navigate. They fully embrace the comic book aesthetic with interactive speech bubbles, panel interaction, and classic onomatopoeic effects like ‘POW’ and ‘BANG.’ One particularly neat touch is that the typical health bar is replaced by the enemies simply getting drained of color as they receive a beating.
It’s clear that Bear has received plenty of feedback on the trailer for Comix Zero and told me up front about some of the controversy surrounding its announcement and changes they are planning to implement. People my age will be familiar with the 1995 Genesis classic Comix Zone, and Bear even cites this as one of their inspirations in the press release. It’s often hard to take Youtube comments serious, but this being one of the things that has been pointed out, Bear has chosen to be very clear that the likeness stops at the style and the fact that both games are combat heavy. In terms of animation and style, the team is working on making gameplay snappier and adding more variety to the comic book aesthetic, such as integrating black-and-white pages.
Curious about how the comic book aesthetic impacts gameplay beyond the visuals, I asked the team, who were happy to share more details. When traversing the panels, the player will experience multiple effects like burning paper, tearing across pages and paper and even parkour elements tied to the properties of the paper. If you’re into puzzle solving you’ll have a slew of riddles to overcome and you’ll even find pages under water that affects player movement. As for the mythological influences on gods and creatures featured in the game, Comix Zero provides a back story about the Artist, the god of the world in which the player is trapped, and how he basically steals whatever he likes from our world and puts it into his. Additionally, our zero-to-hero protagonist is a big pop culture nerd, so there will be plenty of easter eggs from games and anime spread across the world to find.
Speaking of zero-to-hero, there will be a lot of ways to improve your character as you progress. New powers, magic, fighting techniques, and various armor and weapon sets will become available, each adding depth to your play style in meaningful ways. A social aspect also allows the player to rise through ranks, evolving from a slave to emperor or even a demi-god. Perhaps more intriguing is the fact that the amount of deaths is tied to the character’s memory which in turn affects the plot. It will be interesting to see how that part in particular plays out.
All in all, Comix Zero appears to offer much more depth than the trailer alone suggests, and I’m eager to see if Bear Games can tie it all together into a cohesive, enjoyable experience. A release date is yet to be revealed, but you can check out the game page for trailers and screenshots while you wait.
