Project Awakened Now On Kickstarter, Go Back It

You there, sir!  I need you to back a Kickstarter project.  Now.  I don't care what you are doing.  Back this project.

Too strong a pitch?  Ok, let me start from the beginning then.  Back in 2009 one of the star publishers from the 90s, Midway, fell apart.  During that time however one of the main unannounced projects under development at Midway Chicago was a title called Hero, a sandbox superhero game built on the tone of games like Infamous.  With Midway quickly going the way of the dinosaur, much of the Hero team reformed under the banner of Phosphor Games with the sole intention of redeveloping Hero with the new name Project Awakened.

Two years later, a proof-of-concept video for Awakened was leaked.  Originally meant for publisher pitches, the video became an instant hit amongst the gaming community.  Though the demonstration was easily a pre-alpha build, the detailed gameplay and character creation possibilities easily made Awakened the story of the week.  And then, sadly, it disappeared once again.

Until this morning.

Without any warning whatsoever, Awakened is now back in the public spotlight and I couldn't be more excited.  The Kickstarter project, whose goal is $500,000, depicts a new shift in direction for the project.  While the footage in the pitch video is of a UE3 prototype, the developers have announced that Awakened will be an Unreal Engine 4 project, making it one of the first UE4 titles announced as well as the first crowdfunded title to do so.  While there are no details at this time as to the story, Awakened looks to offer a strong character customization feature, one that easily looks on par with that of games like Saints Row The Third.  From the looks of it you should be able to replicate almost any superhero character you can imagine.  How does this not look exciting?

You can find the Kickstarter page for Awakened here.  If anything, how can you resist the urge to create a huge tornado made out of fire and police cars?  Seriously, you should find Awakened as irresistible as I do and, as backer #21, I demand that you at least check out their pitch video.