Gunvalkyrie
Sega continues to drop bomb after bomb, kind of like the US in the middle east - without the loss of life of course - and the Xbox seems to be getting more than its fair share. We are delivered Gunvalkyrie, an originally Dreamcast bound title from Smilebit who also brought us JSRF. It seems that they've just about mastered game development on the X; you could look at Gunvalkyrie as the 'silent' bomber sneaking in just under the radar and leaving only devastation in its path. I'm not sure anyone saw it coming, amongst the various mixed reviews ranging from horrible to grand, its hard to tell whether Gunvalkyrie is a game that's worthwhile or not. Once playing it, its easy enough to see that if you're a fan of shooters, old school gaming, or even if your just hardcore, this game is for you. Certainly Gunvalkyrie takes influence from old school plat-formers, multiple anime series/styles, and even carries surprising influences from the movie Starship Troopers. In turn it makes this title highly unique by providing a continuous atmosphere of intense action, mixed with perfect camera direction, a dibble from the story an eccentric sci-fi thriller and a dabble of difficulty that's been missing from the gaming world in the past couple years.
Everything about Gunvalkyrie screams next generation, highly inventive, looks great, and controls like a dream. The premise of the game was somewhat confusing (more so to explain than to understand). Gunvalkyrie is set on the planet of Tir Na Nog, 4 years have passed since the disappearance of Dr. Hebble - the most influential, and highly celebrated scientist in human history. In 1870 AD he had the foresight and intelligence to harness the power of energy cells deposited on the earth left by Haley's Comet. With what he produced the world experienced its fastest growth in terms of intelligence they've ever seen; the secrets of the human genome, the discovery/power of the physical building blocks of nature, and space exploration would soon follow in a matter of decades.
Hebble basically created a highly intelligent and powerful nation in a matter of years, and with his technological advances, he basically controlled it all. Then one day, he just disappeared; the Gunvalkyrie HQ and the British Empire Space Intelligence Agency (BESIA), are now trying to locate the Doctor. You take control of the doctors daughter Kelly, and are going into the last known place the doctor was seen, a colony once populated with many people, but now they've all disappeared, and the place is infested with lots of large nasty bugs. Your mission is to infiltrate the planet of Tir Na Nog, find the colonists, or at least find out what happened to them, and then find the doctor. As events unfold, certain unsettling issues arise, quite possibly all of these bugs could be the former colonists - but that's all speculation.
The world of Tir Na Nog is simply something to be seen, the level of design is innovative and the visuals are quite jaw-dropping, yet highly chaotic at every turn. Gunvalkyrie sets a new precedence on so many levels, its really hard to describe, everything from gameplay, to graphics, to control, to camera direction, all an amazing job and surely something to marvel at.
The gameplay is simple, Gunvalkyrie is a missions/objective based game, you are given a task to complete and you go out and do so. The only problem that stands between you and that objective are the simply the massive size of these levels, varying heights of terrain, and amounts of bugs that makes you feel like you're a lieutenant in Starship Troopers with ten times as many opponents. The story is kept to a minimal during play, this keeps a level of intensity high, and the action just about remains constant. The levels are just as difficult to navigate as the bugs are, often I found myself saying "do they seriously expect me to do that?" Reminding me of old school titles where, impossible jumps, and tricky feats reigned supreme. After beating each level - because they're hard as hell first time through - you really feel a level of accomplishment that seems almost non-existent in today's gaming industry. Most games today are filled with non-difficult tasks, and I think Gunvalkyrie really brings back that flavor. After finishing certain tasks you'll just want to throw down the controller and run to brag about what you've just done.
With the completion of each level, the player will earn credits that they can spend in-between missions on all kinds of upgrades and equipment. Kelly and her optional partner Saburouta are equipped with hi-tech Gear Skins; this suit contains 3 available guns that are augmentable at the outset of each mission. Depending on the number of credits you earned in your previous performance, you can buy a selection of various offensive and defensive weapons; BIG guns, shields, and other items that allow you special powers making for a varied amount of strategy depending on what you've selected.
This level of excitement is only complemented with the beautiful display of visual effects. Thanks to the abilities of the dev gods Smilebit, Gunvalkyrie looks incredible, moment after moment you'll be salivating for more. They are truly masters of their art, particle effects, bright colorful explosions, high frame rates, beautiful character designs, and breathtaking environments. The canyons in the game seem almost alive because they're infested with massive swarms of arachnid life. They are filled with bright colors, and highly intelligent minds; these bugs can kill you quite quickly, which is why you need dexterity of the hand, and nimbleness of the mind - you'll often be stuck in nasty situations between a rock and hard place, that you have to get out of somehow. These nasty bugs attack in swarms, and from all directions. Sometimes you'll even be tricked with a decoy and the destroyed by other various bugs. They come from the sky and all around with deadly speeds. They look just about as good as they act, highly detailed, and creative. Who would have thought there were 'smart bugs,' looks like we'll be taking a trip to see the brain bug soon enough. The stunning graphics work in unison with remarkable controls; Smilebit has really brought a new level of gameplay with its hover/boost methods.
Once you've adapted to the controls of the game, you'll see how Gunvalkyrie has made Microsoft's controller better. While design of the controller itself is poor, Gunvalkyrie is made solely for this controller alone, each and every nuance of the controller works perfectly with this title. I've developed a new found respect for the X controller because of this game, every feature on it is used and is valuable during the games play. The left trigger produces a boost, which the left analog stick controls the direction - pushing in the stick allows you to boost in mid-air (almost indefinitely), the right trigger fires, the right analog stick adjust the view of the camera to extreme measures, and the buttons have various tasks: menu, change weapons etc. Though the actual uses of the controls are straight forward, it takes a certain amount of finesse to use them fluently in battle. You can flip left, right, forwards, backwards, boost diagonally, just about in any direction you could imagine, making attack patterns versatile, and making battles not only a test of intelligence, but of agility, and acrobatics as well. Each and every element of Gunvalkyrie feeds into this massive level of amusement and exhilaration; Sega and Smilebit have really been focusing on this aspect in gaming, rather then just some kind of gimmick.
Amazing graphics, precision controls, and an almost non-existent camera - meaning you barely notice it. During play, most 3D adventures suffer from one simple thing, the camera. There always seems to be an evident and innate problem with cameras, whether it's the movement, or the fact that it gets stuck, its jerky, doesn't adjust well in all situations, swings wildly, or whatever. Never have we had a camera that acted just as it should - 'perfectly' so to speak. Well, I think Smilebit has figured it out, they came close with JSRF, but Gunvalkyrie is truly on a next level. Any game developer trying to make a 3D action/adventure title should gander at this one for a while. Just watching it in motion will throw chills down your spine. You don't even notice the camera when your playing, the only times it really becomes evident are when you need to use the right analog stick to check all angles. I can't even count the number of times I've played games with camera problems, most games have some amount, but this one takes the cake, its perfect, there really isn't much more I could ask for, because it performs amazingly. It's just simply impressive, once you've played the game, you'll understand, it looks fantastic, and that's the bottom line.
Gunvalkyrie has more substance than most titles out today, and it really shows all the effort they've put into it. From the current standpoint it seems that Sega is the number-one 3rd party developer to date, with their a consistent flow of terrific titles they are dominating the scene. They are producing level of quality that's just about unheard of from any other company. With the release of game after game, it becomes clear that Sega has no intentions of releasing its hold on the industry. With games still to come I don't know what will be next, but if they are all this good, then I'm going to be pulling my hair out trying to find the time to play 'em all. For the hardcore, and the old school, this ones for you! ;)~