Last night at an extremely green-tinted event in Los Angeles, Microsoft finally allowed the world to play Xbox One games for the first time. Here are some quick impressions of the games I got to try out at the event. Look for more detailed takes on other Xbox One games throughout the week.
[h=2]A hearty “meh”: Ryse: Son of Rome[/h]The very first game I ever played on the Xbox One was a pretty awful way to show off a new system. This title was originally designed as a Kinect-powered game, and it shows a bit in the highly linear, simplistic, button-mashy battles that are sprinkled with tons of quick time event style button prompts to activate brutal finishing moves. The faces on the enemies looked better than we're used to and the smoke and fire effects in the background looked great, but the gameplay on display felt like a sub-par Xbox 360 game.
A phalanx in Ryse: Son of Rome.
A portion of the demo has you marching with a phalanx of spearmen, alternating between marching, blocking incoming arrows, and charging up to throw auto-aimed spears. While the graphics and sound of ducking behind a wall of shields were thrilling, the on-rails, simplistic gameplay did not really sell the "next generation" vision very well.
Microsoft was also showing off some new SmartGlass integration for this title. The tablet here basically acts as a somewhat interactive strategy guide for the game, showing you achievements and hidden objects and tips from other players at various points in the level. You can customize the level of detail in these hints and tips to get help when you need it, but you can also find things on your own. It also provides easy access to shared videos from friends and strangers in certain areas.
[h=2]Better translation: Crimson Dragon[/h]
A shot of Crimson Dragon from yesterday's liveblog event.
Another Xbox One retrofit, Crimson Dragon originally started as an Xbox 360 title exclusively for the Kinect. The developers at Grounding Inc. have updated the game for the Xbox One's controller and graphical capabilities. They've made the most of the switch, with some incredible fire effects and super-smooth and detailed animation on the game's fantastical dragon characters.
Gameplay is like a mix of Panzer Dragoon and Rez, with on-rails flying that lets you move on the TV plane with the left analog stick and move your aiming reticule with the right analog stick. The main weapon in the demo automatically targeted points on the enemy dragon as it passed over them and then unleashed a barrage of missiles with the right trigger. The secondary weapon, meanwhile, sent a nice-looking set of lightning arcs out toward anything in a small target area.
This is the kind of game I can see chilling out to, letting the beautiful graphics and easy shooting wash over you (there seems to be little penalty for getting hit or taking too long to kill an enemy). But there's also a strong focus on playing perfectly to maximize your score. This definitely isn't the kind of game that will sell a system, but it has the marking of a solid, unobjectionable way to show off the new Xbox One hardware.
[h=2]We’ll take our time on this one: Project Spark[/h]The Xbox One's answer to Little Big Planet is all about making game creation easy. In the short demo I received, I was able to use the controller (and an optional connected tablet) to paint beautiful forests, deserts, and icy landscapes in seconds. Changing the size of the "paintbrush" changed the size and thickness of the trees that were dynamically generated as I washed across the landscape, an amazing and addictive effect.
A created landscape in Project Spark.
The game makes use of a simple visual programming language to add direct if-then statements to objects in the world. In less than a minute, I created a rock that hopped toward me happily when he saw me, then I modified him to attack every time he jumped, turning a friend into an enemy. There is a wide variety of built-in objects with pre-set variables, but you can edit everything from gravity effects to specific friction to weight, changing how the objects behave.
Past raw mechanics, there's also a mode in Project Spark that creates entire gameplay scenarios for you by asking simple multiple choice questions. As you answer, the game chooses from pre-set environments, buildings, characters, and goals, which you can then go in and edit. The developers are working on an extremely open framework as well, letting users tweak and modify the creations of anyone else in the community (with credit to the original maker, of course).
This is a hard game to get a handle on in a short show floor demo, but it seems to have struck the right balance between pick-up-and-play creation and programming depth to get console gamers interested in tinkering with game design.
[h=2]Good old-fashioned combo-heavy fun: Killer Instinct[/h]It's been a long time since I tried to string together combos on the Nintendo 64, but to my eyes this game played almost exactly like the nearly two-decade-old classics it's based on. The effect of the Xbox One's graphics updates are even more apparent when you are comparing them to pre-rendered sprites on '90s arcade hardware. The jump is similar to that of Street Fighter II to the full 3D characters of Street Fighter IV.
Enlarge / Killer Instinct.
Microsoft
Gameplay wise, it's the same button-mashy combo-fest you probably remember. If you know what you are doing (like my opponent) you can string together 17-hit combos that the opponent can do precious little about. If you don't know what you are doing (like me) you are lucky to string four of these together by accident after a jump kick.
Killer Instinct was being shown with a branded Xbox One Mad Catz fight stick, which seemed perfectly functional, but without more time with it, I couldn't say more about it.
Stay tuned for more analysis when we get our hands on the console and its games.
[h=2]A hearty “meh”: Ryse: Son of Rome[/h]The very first game I ever played on the Xbox One was a pretty awful way to show off a new system. This title was originally designed as a Kinect-powered game, and it shows a bit in the highly linear, simplistic, button-mashy battles that are sprinkled with tons of quick time event style button prompts to activate brutal finishing moves. The faces on the enemies looked better than we're used to and the smoke and fire effects in the background looked great, but the gameplay on display felt like a sub-par Xbox 360 game.
A portion of the demo has you marching with a phalanx of spearmen, alternating between marching, blocking incoming arrows, and charging up to throw auto-aimed spears. While the graphics and sound of ducking behind a wall of shields were thrilling, the on-rails, simplistic gameplay did not really sell the "next generation" vision very well.
Microsoft was also showing off some new SmartGlass integration for this title. The tablet here basically acts as a somewhat interactive strategy guide for the game, showing you achievements and hidden objects and tips from other players at various points in the level. You can customize the level of detail in these hints and tips to get help when you need it, but you can also find things on your own. It also provides easy access to shared videos from friends and strangers in certain areas.
[h=2]Better translation: Crimson Dragon[/h]
Another Xbox One retrofit, Crimson Dragon originally started as an Xbox 360 title exclusively for the Kinect. The developers at Grounding Inc. have updated the game for the Xbox One's controller and graphical capabilities. They've made the most of the switch, with some incredible fire effects and super-smooth and detailed animation on the game's fantastical dragon characters.
Gameplay is like a mix of Panzer Dragoon and Rez, with on-rails flying that lets you move on the TV plane with the left analog stick and move your aiming reticule with the right analog stick. The main weapon in the demo automatically targeted points on the enemy dragon as it passed over them and then unleashed a barrage of missiles with the right trigger. The secondary weapon, meanwhile, sent a nice-looking set of lightning arcs out toward anything in a small target area.
This is the kind of game I can see chilling out to, letting the beautiful graphics and easy shooting wash over you (there seems to be little penalty for getting hit or taking too long to kill an enemy). But there's also a strong focus on playing perfectly to maximize your score. This definitely isn't the kind of game that will sell a system, but it has the marking of a solid, unobjectionable way to show off the new Xbox One hardware.
[h=2]We’ll take our time on this one: Project Spark[/h]The Xbox One's answer to Little Big Planet is all about making game creation easy. In the short demo I received, I was able to use the controller (and an optional connected tablet) to paint beautiful forests, deserts, and icy landscapes in seconds. Changing the size of the "paintbrush" changed the size and thickness of the trees that were dynamically generated as I washed across the landscape, an amazing and addictive effect.
The game makes use of a simple visual programming language to add direct if-then statements to objects in the world. In less than a minute, I created a rock that hopped toward me happily when he saw me, then I modified him to attack every time he jumped, turning a friend into an enemy. There is a wide variety of built-in objects with pre-set variables, but you can edit everything from gravity effects to specific friction to weight, changing how the objects behave.
Past raw mechanics, there's also a mode in Project Spark that creates entire gameplay scenarios for you by asking simple multiple choice questions. As you answer, the game chooses from pre-set environments, buildings, characters, and goals, which you can then go in and edit. The developers are working on an extremely open framework as well, letting users tweak and modify the creations of anyone else in the community (with credit to the original maker, of course).
This is a hard game to get a handle on in a short show floor demo, but it seems to have struck the right balance between pick-up-and-play creation and programming depth to get console gamers interested in tinkering with game design.
[h=2]Good old-fashioned combo-heavy fun: Killer Instinct[/h]It's been a long time since I tried to string together combos on the Nintendo 64, but to my eyes this game played almost exactly like the nearly two-decade-old classics it's based on. The effect of the Xbox One's graphics updates are even more apparent when you are comparing them to pre-rendered sprites on '90s arcade hardware. The jump is similar to that of Street Fighter II to the full 3D characters of Street Fighter IV.
Enlarge / Killer Instinct.Microsoft
Gameplay wise, it's the same button-mashy combo-fest you probably remember. If you know what you are doing (like my opponent) you can string together 17-hit combos that the opponent can do precious little about. If you don't know what you are doing (like me) you are lucky to string four of these together by accident after a jump kick.
Killer Instinct was being shown with a branded Xbox One Mad Catz fight stick, which seemed perfectly functional, but without more time with it, I couldn't say more about it.
Stay tuned for more analysis when we get our hands on the console and its games.