TGS 2001 Fall: GUNVALKYRIE hands-on

Though it was in playable form at the last E3, Smilebit's upcoming action game GUNVALKYRIE seems to have recently come into its own in a major way. On display at the Tokyo Game Show was no less than a full playable mission, showcasing a variety of enemies, environments, and weapons. If this level serves as any indication, then GUNYVALKYRIE will turn out to be a game that's every bit as intense, in terms of minute-to-minute action, as we previously thought, with an element of exploration that is just as fleshed out.

The mission started out on the surface of an alien planet, with us being briefed by a mission-control android entity, of sorts. The first objective, we learned, was to collect a certain type of power cell from the inhabitants of the planet--a race of bloodthirsty insectoid creatures resembling arachnids, flies, and combinations of the two. Once that was done, we were to penetrate a building on the planet's surface and deal with what dwelt therein.

In practice, this involved a great deal of flying and shooting. The surface of the planet was fairly sprawling, and, in many areas, the worlds were as tall as they were vast. Tall, almost toadstool-like growths, as it happens, seem to occur quite frequently throughout this world, and in order to access some of the more remote areas in the game's environments, we had to boost our way up to their caps. In the end, it was not unlike the type of thing you do when playing many platformers.

The whole boost element mixes this up sufficiently, though. Rather than jumping, your character's exo frame is equipped with a powerful jetpack, whose boosts allow you to effectively fly for limited durations. This makes plotting your flights pretty essential, in many cases--there's nothing worse than running out of gas midway through a succession of platforms, falling, and then having to start the drill anew. The camera controls are mapped to the right analog stick, so you'll always be able to "look" your way into the right place. You can also use the jetpack to dash in any number of directions--activate it while pressing forward, and you'll dart outward, clearing great distances, do so while pressing both the movement and camera sticks in the same direction, and you'll execute an evasive lateral dash, which looks as effective as it is.

Much of the game's pacing revolves around midair battles, or so the TGS demo would have us think. A majority of the enemies we fought were ground-based--mostly hordes of giant spiders, some bigger and more ferocious than others--but fighting them effectively meant boosting high up and blasting them from above. Pulling this off means mastering both your own targeting and trajectory and getting the camera to behave in an efficient manner. Luckily, this is possible, due to both the boost and shoot functions being mapped to the right and left triggers. You'll only have to bother with the face buttons if you want to toggle through your weapons.

The weapons we got to use consisted of a pulse/machine gun type thing and a slick, destructive flamebolt hurler. The latter, of course, was most effective, and its effect looked marvelous. Incrementally increasing numbers of individual streams would blast out from it, and the end result was as destructive as it was pretty. We also had access to a special attack that was executed by pressing in both analog sticks. It was a close-quarters move that would cause our character to pirouette amidst flames that her suit would emit. Using the attack would drain the appropriate meter, but defeated enemies routinely drop power-ups for it.

In any event, once we got into the compound itself, things changed a little bit. While we still had to deal with a few wide-open chambers, there were a number of tight corridors that demanded strategies all their own. Populating the compound were spore-emitting creatures that would shoot forth toxic clouds in regular streams and literally erupt with them after defeat. There were also stationary enemies that would lock on to you with lasers if you stood still too long. Both types existed in the same rooms, on many occasions, which compounded matters significantly.

The pacing of the interior environments was a bit more deliberate than the pacing of exterior environments. A bit of exploration was involved, and the interior of the structure was fairly sizable, in terms of area, depth, and height. A map is provided to help further endear the game to fans of 2D adventures, and it was color-coded in terms of areas visited and those yet to be. There was even a bona fide inventory interface, with spaces for weapon upgrades, collections of power-ups, and the like.

GUNVALKYRIE may yet surprise those who were ready to write it off as a shallow shoot-'em-up. We were definitely surprised by what we saw, and we're eager to see more. The game is due to ship around the holidays, so expect more information very soon.