Freedom Force

Irrational's superhero game was tucked away in the NDL stand and I was lucky enough (well patient enough) to get a turn at it. It's immediately obvious that this game is just fun in a box and the interface is extremely intuitive. It only took me a few seconds to crack it and get right into playing the mission. Most things can be done just by selecting a character (either by clicking on their model or portrait) then right clicking on whatever you want to affect. So clicking on an enemy will let you pick an attack from a small pop-down menu, or if you're strong enough clicking on an object like a rock (or, strangely, a surprisingly lethal hedge) will let you pick it up to lob it at someone. The characters could come straight out of a "golden era" comic and the music is just perfect, sounding rather like a 60s sci-fi movie theme without being quite so annoying. The graphics aren't going to wow you with shiny sources and insane polygon counts, but they impressed me by conveying the style of a comic book so well in 3D, the art direction is really spot on. It's hard not to crack a smile when playing this game, it's just loaded with so much charm.

Fishtank

The first game I checked out at German publisher Fishtank was Call of Cthulu currently in development at Head First. It's got a while to go until it's finished, but it definitely shows promise. I was shown through the first mission where you have to break a guy called Bryan out of prison. He's there because the police framed him (sure, sure, that's what they all say) but you need him so you can find out more about the recent strange goings on in town, and also because you need him to steal a car and get you out of town. In a nod towards Deus Ex style freedom (I'm so glad more developers are starting to offer gamers similar freedom in their games), there are a few ways to break your pal out of the joint. You can charge through the front door to take on the two shotgun armed policemen, but the better option is to sneak round the back, nab the key from the sleeping Police Chief's table (navigating a simple creaking floor board puzzle in the process so as not to wake him) and then of course unlock the prison cell with it. Sure, it's not total freedom, but it's a welcome nod towards it. There are going to be lot of puzzles in the game, about as many as your average adventure game, but you won't be seeing any maddeningly obscure puzzles requiring you to combine multiple seemingly unrelated items.

The levels looks very detailed and atmospheric. The textures are all photosourced and there are four layers to each surface - a texture map, decals, a detail map and a dark map. What this all means is that even on close inspection everything looks convincingly detailed. The levels also look pretty realistic because Head First have, well, broken a lot of it - a wooden fence had bits missing or loose, the brick road was obviously in a state of disrepair, plaster was missing from parts of some walls and so on. At one point Andrew from Head First showed me the office of the main character, a P.I., and there were lots of newspaper clippings stuck to the wall, doodles of one or two Cthulu monsters on his desk, a desk fan and numerous other details I've forgotten that none the less made it an impressive scene.

Head first are really going for that holy grail of gaming here; immersion. Unlike most horror games it's played from a first person perspective. There also isn't any HUD. Instead, you'll get an idea of how hurt you are from blood trails, blood on your arms, and if you're hobbling, chances are something's torn a sizable chunk out of your leg. You can also suffer from fatigue, meaning you'll slow down and start panting. It's by no means done yet. The AI is place-holder quality right now as enemies seem fond of walking into walls. Prepare for a scare from Head First some time next year.

Fishtank were showing off a recently announced third person action game called Archangel. Set in three time periods, the Middle Ages, Futuristic Berlin and Hell, you play the titular Archangel. You cast spells, cut up enemies with your sword and gain new stats as things go on, and that's about all that's been revealed about the game. One unique aspect is that you get more points for "purifying" an enemy, although when faced with a choice between purifying them with a spell or cutting them into tiny chunks I know what most gamers would pick. No shots are currently available of the game, but it uses a new engine and did an admirable job of rendering a detailed forest clearing and a smoothly animated monster and Archangel. We should hear and see more of the game soon as it's due in Q2 2002.

Much has been seen of AquaNox as nVidia are using it to show of the GeForce 3. With so much graphical polish it looked in danger of scrimping on the gameplay, and after giving it a quick go the jury is still out I'm afraid. The numerous weapons felt, looked, and sounded satisfying, and rather than being told to destroy everything in sight you were given some direction in the form of sequential objectives, but whether it will gel together into a solid game has yet to be seen. I should be getting hold of the OEM demo copy so I'll give you a more informed opinion on the matter then.