A few weeks ago, Xbox 360 kiosks started popping up at select retail stores across the country. Among the retailers to house these sexy displays are Wal-Mart, Target, EBgames, GameStoo and possibly others. Below, you’ll find in-depth hands-on impressions from Xbox 360 Advanced Co-Editor-in-Chief Phillip Levin.
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Phillip Levin’s Impressions
If you would have told me six months ago, a year ago or two years ago that Kameo: Elements of Power would be an Xbox 360 launch title, I would have told you that you were out of your mind. Indeed, I think most journalists and gamers would have felt similarly. Rare – for a lack of a better way of saying this – has trouble finishing and releasing games in what most would call a reasonable amount of time. Then again, the company hasn’t exactly shown any change in this regard with Kameo. After all, it’s been on three different consoles now — GameCube, Xbox and Xbox 360 — and it has seen more delays and gameplay changes that Michael Jackson’s nose and face has in the last five years.
Don’t get me wrong, though. Rare has in the past demonstrated that when it delays a game it does so for the better, and there are only a few minor exceptions to this truth. The company has hit homeruns time and time again with titles like Donkey Kong Country, Golden Eye, Banjo Kazooie, Conker’s Bad Fur Day and Perfect Dark – many of which saw countless delays leading up to their painfully distant release dates.
If the rather lengthy demo Microsoft has on display with its Xbox 360 kiosk campaign across the nation is any sign of things to come, then you can add Kameo to that list. The demo shows off one level of the upcoming 360 launch title, a huge castle, that demos the some of the elemental warriors Kameo can transform into and the unique abilities she can utilize as them..
The castle level on display – Thorn’s Castle — is pretty darned huge. In fact, it’s enormous, and there is constant commotion surrounding it – enemies swarming its floors, dragons flying around it and other things here and there – and the framerate is absolutely silky smooth. Kameo’s family has been kidnapped, and she must scale this gigantic castle to save them.
The 360 controller works seemingly perfect with the Kameo control configuration. It feels like Rare designed a control scheme and Microsoft created a controller around the needs for the setup. This is in fact exactly how every game should feel when you first play it – or that’s at least what I think. Essentially, one word describes the arrangement: intuitive.
You move Kameo – or whatever elemental warriors you’re playing as – with the left analog stick. She moves beautifully across the screen, animatedly bobbling to and fro. The right analog stick works to control the camera system in a very similar fashion to any other 3D action game released in the last generation. The A, B, X and Y buttons all serve to transform Kameo into different elemental warriors. In the demo, three different creatures were usable in addition to Kameo herself, who has a number of important abilities.
Kameo
First up, there is Major Ruin, a rock creature that’s slow but powerful. Press the L trigger, and he will hop. Press the R trigger down, and he rolls up into a ball. While in ball form, he can unleash bursts of speed that will send him flying at enemies and up ramp ways. In one instance, you must use Major Ruin to reach an upper part of the castle. By holding down the R trigger, you can charge up a spin attack that sends him flying up a ramp way and onto another tier of the area. In another area of Thorn’s Castle, you must use Major to slam into enemies and send them hurling into a bowl of scorching hot lava. What’s more, by holding down both the L and R triggers simultaneously, he will begin to pound his giant fists into the ground, sending any icicles or other objects above him crashing to the floor.
While Major Ruin is a useful creature for platforming and doing large amounts of damage, he isn’t all that practical for all the combat that you encounter in the demo. More suitable is Pummel Weed, a flower-like animal that can be used for combat purposes with its assortment of attacks. The L trigger is the primary way of attacking, causing the weedy creature jab at foes. If you hold down both the L and R triggers, he will burrow into the ground, submerging himself stealthily. Press the R trigger while in this stance and he will shoot up from the ground with a nasty uppercut. One scenario Kameo finds herself in while exploring Thorn’s Castle involves Pummel Weed having to go into this stealth mode and wait for the right time before using her powerful uppercut to kill an enemy. In fact, this is actually the same strategy you use to defeat the final boss of the demo.
In addition to both Major Ruin and Pummel Weed, Kameo can also transform into Chilla, an icy creature that sometimes resembles the abdominal snowman. Chilla has a very cool and valuable move. He can throw icicles at anything he wants. While in this first-person perspective, you can use the main analog stick to look around, though you can’t physically move Chilla around while in it.
While using all of these creatures is absolutely necessary to traversing the dark castle of Thorn, Kameo also has some just-as-vital moves up her, uh, skirt. Or something. The R trigger causes her to leap into the air, while the L trigger lets her hover in the air for a short time. She can also use a pretty powerful flip kick when you press down both the L and R triggers. Not bad. At the very least, she’s never sore on the eyes.
While each elemental warrior has their own abilities that make them a must-have on an independent front, there were many situations in Thorn’s Castle that required we use two of the warriors back-to-pack to progress. Late in the demo, you come to a walkway that abruptly ends. On the other side of the highly-placed walkway is one of the castle’s many towers which just happens to be covered in ice. You must roll into your ball form as Major Ruin, shoot yourself off the bridge and at the ice-covered tower, transform into Chilla, and use his ice-climbing ability to grab onto the wall. The puzzle requires spot-on timing to succeed, and it’s pretty rewarding all the while.
While puzzle solving and platforming are probably the largest part of Kameo, the demo also showed off the combat side of the adventure. To be honest, there is nothing wildly new here. The system feels very arcadey, rewarding you points based on each hit you get on an enemy. You can build up combos and lay down some nice moves too. That being said, the system sometimes feels out of place. Kameo is a fantasy game, and Rare has introduced a very arcade-ish system to its universe. That said, the system is more than competent.
Visually speaking, all you have to know is that Kameo is a Rare-developed title, and thus you should realize that it’s downright beautiful. If there is one thing the UK-based development house can do, it’s textures. In this sense, Kameo is one of the best looking games I’ve laid eyes on. But it gets better. Every character model looks richly-designed and colorfully animated. Next-generation shadowing — including detailed self-shadowing — and ambitious lighting effects are top-notch. Further, the game’s particle effects system is jaw-droppingly good. When you kill some monsters, their guts will splatter across the screen. While it sounds pretty gory, blood and remains are usually an unrealistic color, like green, so it feels very cartoony. Other particles, like fire, look very remarkable too.
What’s more surprising about all this is that the framerate is very smooth. Kameo always has a lot going on on screen, thus you’d expect the framerate to take a hit, but it never seems to. Instead, with all these special effects hammering away, it remains fast and unfailing.
Kameo
And musically, Kameo is also impressive. It’s one of the best parts about the game. Rare posted a few of the compositions on its website a few weeks ago, and it blew me away. The music in the final game is just as satisfying. Sound effects also deliver plenty of variety, personality and realism to get the job done. Toss in Dolby Digital support? I’ll wet myself.
The demo wraps up when Kameo reaches the room where her family is being held captive. She walks in and an enormous creature slams its fist onto the screen, officially ending the demo.
All in all, the Kameo demo on display with the Xbox 360 kiosk was every bit as good and entertaining as I had hoped. There’s been a lot of talk about Rare losing all its talent – and after its last few projects, I was starting to think it was the case – but Kameo seems to contradict those assumptions. Kameo seems to be of the same caliber that we used to expect from Rare. That’s pretty damn exciting.
