NAMCO Bandai Hands-on Event

11 Sep, 2011

On Wednesday 7th September I was fortunate enough to go hands-on with some of Namco-Bandai’s upcoming titles at their offices in London. The games on show included Ace Combat: Assault Horizon, Ridge Racer Unbound, Inversion, Dark Souls, and Dragon Ball Z Ultimate Tenkaichi.

Ace Combat: Assault Horizon

The demo started me off in a fierce aerial battle above a sprawling city. Straight away you are introduced to the dogfight system, a mechanic that takes the emphasis away from shooting at dots in the distance (like previous Ace Combat titles) and places you in a close-up, more cinematic view. Assault Horizon is actually a very cinematic game, whether you are furiously chasing an enemy or watching your foes crash to the ground in a big ball of flames, you always feel at the centre of the action. The scenery is also very dramatic, from sprawling real-life cities, to vast deserts. During dogfights the scenery comes greatly into play, with all sorts of objects and buildings falling down around you as you swoop through in your jet. The demo also featured a section in which you man the gun of a Black Hawk helicopter, raining down bullets on a desert village. It’s an interesting change of pace, especially for a game based around going fast, but it doesn’t feel completely out of place. I thoroughly enjoyed Ace Combat: Assault Horizon, it’s my kind of game, fast-paced, explosive, cinematic, and most importantly, fun. It’s set to be the defining game in aerial-based combat, so look out for it on 11th (North America) and 14th (Europe) October.

Inversion

Inversion is a rather confusing game. It’s not the controls or visuals, it’s the gameplay. Inversion has you defying gravity in all manner of ways using the rather handy gravity-control device attached to you. Using the device the player can crush enemies and objects, send them floating around in the air and grab miscellaneous item (think gravity-gun from Half-Life). The gravity manipulation isn’t limited to personal use, enemies can make use of similar powers, and the world itself offers a variety of gravitational planes that characters can use. This is where the confusion kicks in. When you’re floating about from plane to plane it’s incredibly hard to tell which way is up, especially since enemies could be shooting you from almost anywhere. It’s certainly not one for the weak stomached as I was swinging my camera in all sorts of directions to figure out which way is down. The demo had me trawling through waves of enemies, ducking and shooting all the way. As third person shooters go it’s a pretty standard affair. What did strike me was the amount of gore. Enemies will explode into little giblets with the toss of a grenade, and you’ll be faced with pushing your way through numerous floating limbs and off-cuts. Again, not a game for the weak stomached. Inversion didn’t have me jumping off the walls with excitement, but the whole aspect of gravity manipulation adds a very interesting angle to this rather standard third-person hooter. One to look out for.

Ridge Racer: Unbounded

If Flatout and Split/Second somehow managed to reproduce and create offspring, that offspring would be Ridge Racer: Unbounded. Smashing up cars is the name of the game here, and the destruction isn’t limited to other vehicles. Players can strategically use boost, when prompted, to crash through various set-pieces, thus opening up nifty shortcuts. Despite this rather dramatic destruction mechanic, Ridge Racer is your average racing title. Despite it being such a simple game to pick up and play, I did struggle with Unbounded. No matter how well I was doing I always seemed to lose. Now this could probably be pinpointed down to my shoddy driving, but I would much rather point my stubborn finger at that tricky AI. They just seemed too good, especially for such a simple pick-up-and-play format. Ridge Racer: Unbounded will likely come into its element in multiplayer racing, but for now I am not too keen. Watch this space.

Dark Souls

As the spiritual successor to the infamously hard Demon’s Souls, I expected Dark Souls to follow in its footsteps and also be rather tricky. I was right. Dark Souls is hard, bloody hard. Dark Souls started me off in typical RPG fashion, with the character creation screen. In a way this feels like the most important screen in the game, as once you have chosen your desired path you must stick to it, come hell or high water. Ten minutes into Dark Souls and I was stuck. Just after the tutorial level finished I found myself thrown in at the deep-end, desperately trying to slaughter about 4 skeleton warriors. I was so stuck I had to create a whole new game as a different character. As frustrating as that may sound, Dark Souls is a very good game. The more time you are willing to put in, the more you will get out. It has a way of making you want to come back for more, and to not give up on the first try. This level of difficulty on top of a solid RPG format makes for a very entertaining game, with hundreds of hours of gameplay. Be sure to watch out for it in early October.

Dragon Ball Z Ultimate Tenkaichi

Where to start? Ultimate Tenkaichi is, well, odd. The version I played threw me right into the action, leaving any sort of tutorial way behind. It’s worth pointing out my previous experiences with the whole DBZ franchise have been very brief, so I had no idea what was going on. Not a great place to start. The fighting here is frantic, and often feels a bit more of a button-basher than a strategic fighter. Every so-often I managed to unleash some sort of super-attack, but due to the lack of tutorial I knew neither how I achieved this, nor what was required in order to use it. Dragon Ball Z Ultimate Tenkaichi is obviously made by fans, for fans, so it was probably completely lost on me. I imagine fans of previous DBZ titles will be more than happy with this instalment, but if you’re not? Well, then I wouldn’t recommend it …