Nelo

Nelo is a fast paced shooter currently being developed by Magic and Mirrors. While currently single-player, the developers are also working on two Multiplayer modes. One will be an endurance version that can be played solo or co-op and the other is a PVP type base defense using tower defense mechanisms. The studio Magic and Mirrors was established by the game's creators Kevin Bryant and Michelle Morger. The game was created using Epic Games Unreal Engine 4. Nelo released on November 20, 2017 on Steam.

The Story (from the Official Website)

The story is about an Alien Character named Nelo Aukal. His people, the Tono Gians are at war with their Ai creations called the Nightsithe. When their planet, Tono Gia, was suffering from overpopulation, the Nightsithe were created to search through deep space to find and harvest resourceful planets. The Nightsithe mistake the Tono Gians' home planet as a target for harvesting, and has forced the people to escape the planet and find a new home on their own. Your character, Nelo, was awaken from cryo-sleep only to discover that he is the only survivor of a ship that crash landed on another alien planet that was once ruled by another advanced civilization called the Plemnibon. Unfortunately, the planet Plemniba is now a hostile home world to the Nightsithe. Nelo must find his way to escape the planet and rendezvous with the rest of his people.

The story also features a deuteragonist. Nelo's younger brother Jaymar Aukal is very high ranking fleet commander of the Tono Gian resistance. While Nelo is marooned on Plemniba and considered missing in action to the rest of his people, Jaymar goes on a quest to avenge his missing brother by searching through space to find and destroy what is believed to be the central control unit for the Nightsithe. The Tono Gian council sees his ambition as suicidal and irrational, and dismissed Jaymar to go rouge. All while Nelo is marooned, Jaymar travels to many different locations in space including moons, planets, and asteroid fields to avenge Nelo.

Gameplay Overview

Nelo and Jaymar, are Elite Zenith class warriors for the Tono Gian resistance, who are equipped with the Quasar suit, A power suit that grants them super speed, agility, and advanced mobility like power gliding, wall jumping, air dashing, and meteor attacks. But more notable, Nelo and Jaymar's suits are wirelessly connected to the Hands of Aphelion, an array of four floating mechanical hands that allow them to wield up to four conventional weapons all at once. You can enter battle simultaneously firing four assault rifles or how about a Submachine gun, a shotgun, a laser beam, and a rocket launcher. The Hands of Aphelion allow the player to mix and match the four weapons they want to use for their own recipe of carnage. Because the hands aren't physically connected to your character's body, this allows them to aim independently from the direction your character is facing. The Hands of Aphelion can also grab and throw physics object and even enemies which can be used like improvised grenades. The hands can also be used as deadly, ranged melee weapons.

But one of the more critical mechanics is the ability to seamlessly switch between a third person action mode and a top down twinstick shooter mode in the push and release of a button. This shooting system is more important to the combat than sounds as a concept. The twinstick shooter mode is very beneficial for fast, close quarter combat because it gives you a better view of your surroundings. But the third person mode offers better range and verticality. We mapped this ability to the right mouse button and the left trigger on the gamepad because we use it as much as other shooters use aim down sights. When you kill enemies quickly, your multiplier will increase, when you get a multiplier to certain numbers like 10, 20, 40, 80, ect. You can set off an EMP Bomb to eliminate all the enemies within the blast radius as well as replenish your health. When you don't have a bomb ready you can instead activate a shield that can protect you from practically anything for one second, and has a five second recharge time. This shield acts like a wild card for the player to escape the impossible situations.

Nelo's gameplay goes beyond just combat. You can use your advanced mobility to traverse large structures and explore the alien worlds and even stealth around Nightsithe patrol ships. You will also battle snipers at long range using the highly accurate Railgun, and use your Hands of Aphelion to solve physics based puzzles. There will even be moments where you can control special vehicles like manual gun turrets, a powered Mech Suit with four arms wielding up to four different cannons, and even fly a space craft for orbital dogfights.