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Deadly Creatures

by Jonathan Metts - July 24, 2008, 9:24 am EDT
Total comments: 14

You've never played a game like this before.

As I left the Deadly Creatures demo at E3 2008, the word in my mind was "immersive", even though it was never uttered by the representatives showing the game. Deadly Creatures is a typical action game in some respects, but the story concepts and presentation are truly unique. You play alternative levels as either a tarantula or scorpion, and their stories intertwine at key points. Not only do you have the story of these creatures' survival and journeys, but there is a parallel crime saga going on with human characters. The cool thing is that you observe the human story entirely from the creatures' perspective, and eventually, you get involved in some way as the creatures emerge from their desert homes into human civilization.

The idea of everything happening from the creatures' perspective extends to the gameplay, as the entire game design fits within realistic environments and behaviors of the two main characters. There are no meters on the screen. Instead of collecting coins or musical notes, you find helpless larvae. You eat prey to regain health. Traditional game elements have been presented within the context of the creatures' world, and it makes a huge difference. You won't find this tarantula wearing sneakers or shooting web platforms to reach higher spaces.

I got to play the game myself for a few minutes, and the controls felt great. Rainbow Studios is being very smart with the controls, mapping the standard attacks to buttons and reserving motion controls for more specialized actions. Oddly enough, there are no camera controls – as with Super Mario Galaxy and Too Human, the intelligent camera follows your character automatically. I realized the magnitude of this achievement once the tarantula started crawling on the walls, because the camera never got confused and always showed the action from a useful angle.

The tarantula is a quick character, more agile in combat and able to crawl on the ceiling. The scorpion is limited to wall crawling and is slower, but its combat abilities include a pincer-enabled block and poison attacks from the stinger. These are the only two playable creatures in the game, but there are some cool bosses, including a huge rattlesnake that was the original inspiration for the game. We don't yet know if you'll get to fight humans, but it would be a battle of Colossus-like proportions from a scorpion's point of view. We did learn that Deadly Creatures will be a single-player game with light RPG elements (you can upgrade combat abilities), and the adventure is expected to last around eight to ten hours. This Wii exclusive is due out in the fourth quarter of 2008.

Talkback

CericJuly 24, 2008

This sounds like an interesting niche title.  Which if done well will earn a reputation that will have it  being described a long time after it is no longer available.

NinGurl69 *hugglesJuly 24, 2008

Game of the Half Year

AVJuly 24, 2008

this game interests me. Seems like a good concept however less than 10 hours. UMM NO unless its cheap.

any concrete release date? I heard a guy interviewing about this game say december and IGN says its coming for Halloween release. Anybody know?

CalibanJuly 24, 2008

Quote from: Mr.

any concrete release date? I heard a guy interviewing about this game say december and IGN says its coming for Halloween release. Anybody know?

It's been delayed to late December or early January. I'm not kidding. Watch the live demo from Livewire on IGN, it should be on the menu of Thursday July 17.

ReverendNoahWhateleyJuly 25, 2008

Everything sounds great, except for the 8-10 hour lifespan.  Still, that beats Yoshi's Story.

That's about the same length as God of War.  I think it's totally acceptable for a full price game, if the game is high quality.  I'd rather have eight to ten hours of dense action and ingenuity than have it padded out to twenty hours with a lot of unnecessary collecting and fighting.

However, if the game is really more like three or four hours and is padded out to eight with a lot of unnecessary collecting and fighting, that's a big problem.

AVJuly 25, 2008

Quote from: Caliban

Quote from: Mr.

any concrete release date? I heard a guy interviewing about this game say december and IGN says its coming for Halloween release. Anybody know?

It's been delayed to late December or early January. I'm not kidding. Watch the live demo from Livewire on IGN, it should be on the menu of Thursday July 17.

I had a feeling it wasn't coming so soon. Why even bother to be in December or January just do a nice Valentines day release. Spider and Scorpion battling under a tree, K--I--L-L-I-N-G, first comes blood than comes guts than comes a thorax.

ShyGuyJuly 25, 2008

Were the demo levels inside the house or underground?

decoymanJuly 25, 2008

Quote from: Mr.

...than comes a thorax.

thorax, awesome.

I wasn't originally interested in this title in the least, but these impressions are making me take a second look. It at first seemed like this "XTREME" low-budget-but-over-the-top game, but these seem like some interesting twists to the formula.

GoldenPhoenixJuly 25, 2008

Quote from: decoyman

Quote from: Mr.

...than comes a thorax.

thorax, awesome.

I wasn't originally interested in this title in the least, but these impressions are making me take a second look. It at first seemed like this "XTREME" low-budget-but-over-the-top game, but these seem like some interesting twists to the formula.

That is exactly how I felt at first, in fact when I first seen it I was thinking "What is this, a low budget fighting game with insects?" now the game looks really interesting and unique.

D_AverageJuly 26, 2008

Has anyone heard the way the spider sounds when it attacks??!  It sounds like a damn horse getting kicked in the nuts, WTF were they thinking?

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/37548.html

I nominate this for worst sound used in a video game in 2008

AVJuly 27, 2008

Quote from: D_Average

Has anyone heard the way the spider sounds when it attacks??!  It sounds like a damn horse getting kicked in the nuts, WTF were they thinking?

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/37548.html

I nominate this for worst sound used in a video game in 2008

LOL. When i watched that video I just imagined a horse getting kicked in the balls every time.
I don't mind the noise, but that will become annoying after an hour of gameplay.
They should do a more spiderly noise if one exists.

D_AverageJuly 27, 2008

Quote from: Mr.

Quote from: D_Average

Has anyone heard the way the spider sounds when it attacks??!  It sounds like a damn horse getting kicked in the nuts, WTF were they thinking?

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/37548.html

I nominate this for worst sound used in a video game in 2008

LOL. When i watched that video I just imagined a horse getting kicked in the balls every time.
I don't mind the noise, but that will become annoying after an hour of gameplay.
They should do a more spiderly noise if one exists.

Like that sound Charlotte makes in Charlotte's Web as she's dying...

CalibanJuly 28, 2008

Quote from: D_Average

Has anyone heard the way the spider sounds when it attacks??!  It sounds like a damn horse getting kicked in the nuts, WTF were they thinking?

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/37548.html

I nominate this for worst sound used in a video game in 2008

If you get the chance to watch some direct feeds, you will notice that the sound isn't quite what you described.

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Deadly Creatures Box Art

Genre Action
Developer Rainbow Studios

Worldwide Releases

na: Deadly Creatures
Release Feb 09, 2009
PublisherTHQ
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