Last night we were lucky enough to get some hands on time with upcoming Activision games for a pre-NY Comic Con event. We examined the ex co-op game Prototype, slashed some bad guys in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and met our old friend BJ Blaskowitz it's Wolfenstein.
When we launched Co-Optimus a little more than a year ago, Prototype was a game that was often discussed. The open world style, combined with a superhuman character, reminded folks of Crackdown; and the promise of co-op further solidified that. But alas not everything is roses and rockets, and soon we found out cooperative play was canned. After several delays and a few months later I finally got some hands on time with a pre-beta build of the game for the Xbox 360 last night in New York City.
The demo level took place in Times Square in NYC, so the GTA IV comparisons will be immediately made. I gotta say, despite the chaotic setting I was thrown into, Prototype's NY has a more real feeling than GTA. There seemed to be more life crowding the streets of the famous NY Landmark. The developer told me that this was their version of NYC, so don't think this is a one to one creation, despite that I was impressed. The main character, Alex, has a bit of a problem. Namely, he seems all raged out and wants to blow up everything in his path with superhuman mutant abilities. You can jump huge distances, scale the side of buildings, throw cars, and manifest different weapons from some sort of substance inside of you.
My first task in the demo was to eliminate enemy soldiers in the area. I felt like Spider-Man playing as the Incredible Hulk as I leapt around picking up guys, smashing enemies and punching and kicking my way to victory. The character and fighting controls feel something like you'd experience in Devil May Cry rather than Crackdown. It works well, though I found myself fighting the camera at times. After the soldiers were eliminated it was onto the tanks. I began by jumping on top of the tank and smashing it to bits with my combos. "You know you can just throw some taxis at it, right?" chimed in the Developer. Well now I do, and soon it was a demolition derby in Times Square.
This won't end well...for the military.
Next up...the helicopters. I quickly scaled a building and leapt out to begin attacking the chopper. I wasn't able to actually get inside it and take control, though we've seen videos where you can. Dropping down below I was attacked by more tanks, this time though I decided I'd like to "borrow" one. And so I did. And so the helicopters blew up. And so I beat the demo. And so I was happy.
At that point in the game, things actually seemed a bit to chaotic for anything more than button mashing co-op play. So perhaps it was wiser to pull it. I was told that was actually the intro level, and then the game begins with a flashback to 15 days earlier with Alex laying on a slab in a morgue. Sounds very Hollywood, I can't wait for this "summer blockbuster" release in June.
X-Men Origins: WolverineThe Wolverine game was a bit of a surprise to me. It's a movie tie-in, so my immediate want factor drops by two fold. But upon viewing the demo by a developer, I knew this wasn't your ordinary movie tie-in. In fact, this is Raven Software's "vision of the character" with a tie-in to the movie license. The person giving the demo said - "This is the Wolverine fans always wanted."
An example of the Jungle Level
The game is brutal, like... really friggin brutal. Within the first five minutes of the demo I had lopped off three heads, six limbs, and cut a guy in half. I took shotgun blasts at close range and watch as pieces of Wolverine flew off. I jumped on a helicopter, yanked the pilot out, and stuck his head into the rotating blades. Yeah, this one isn't going anywhere near a Teen rating.
I hate to make the God of War comparison here, but that's exactly how this game seems to play out. That's not a bad thing, I just wanted to set some expectations. You'll kill dudes, kill some more dudes, take down a chopper or two, and then level up. You'll learn and unlock abilities, and you'll earn brutal attacks. There seems to be a great variety of missions as well, not just point A to point B style stuff. One missions had Wolverine decked out in his classic outfit in a tunnel being flooded. He leapt from truck to truck taking out bad guys, all while a wall of water followed close behind.
Visually the game is gorgeous and really seems to utilize next-gen hardware. The demo level took place in a jungle, with huge expansive environments and no loading times whatsoever. One caveat though is, the path felt very linear despite the gigantic regions to view. Controls seemed to work well, and I never felt like I was fighting the camera. It was easy enough to pull off combos and special moves, and in no time I was lopping off limbs like a pro.
Like I said, this game was a pleasant surprise. It won't win any awards for most original title or anything like that, but it's good mindless fun with pretty visuals and lots of bloody action. Look for this game to release around the same time as the X-Men: Origins movie this May.
The final game of the show was Wolfenstein. The game unfortunately was a hands off demo, so I didn't actually get to play it. The game immediately is going to get comparisons to Call of Duty: World at War in both visual style and gameplay. But like the previous Wolfenstein game, there's a heavy sci-fi element here.
You play as familiar character BJ Blaskowitz fighting the Nazis. In the demo we saw the developer work their way through a mansion, killing Nazis, and collecting treasure along the way which can be used to buy and upgrade weapons. Soon the ordinary mansion turned upside down as "an event" occurred. While they were mum to say exactly what happened, we witnessed random losses of gravity, strange blue explosions, and lots of confused folks as the player tried to make his way out of the building.
Looks normal now...
After that we were shown a later level in which BJ has something called "Veil" powers. Using this he can enter an alternate dimension, think Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, to solve environmental puzzles and plan attacks on the enemy. In one example we saw that entering the Veil would show a hole in the wall where players could go through, which otherwise isn't there in normal mode. Different powers would be unlocked over time, for instance the ability to slow down time, and these could also be upgraded by using the in-game treasure system.
Perhaps it's my cynical nature, but I just crave an old school Wolfenstein game without so much sci-fi and other stuff. The new game looks decent enough on its own, but I just don't think it'll be my cup of tea. Look for the new Wolfenstein game this summer.