Post E3: Fairytale Fights Impressions

On Wednesday, day 2 of our E3 ’09 experience, we had booked an appointment with Playlogic to see what they had in store for the Xbox 360.  While they only had one game available, it came as quite a surprise to both Rob and I.  This one game they had on display was called Fairytale Fights, which we expected to be some creepy but very kid-friendly game. (The game website is not yet up, but we expect it to soon be.)  Boy were we wrong.  Let’s get you started off with a trailer that has just a hint of what the game is about.

Okay, so we’ve probably piqued your interest right?  Okay, let’s get on with the preview, it’s quite a lengthy one, packed to the brim with information.

Fairytale Fights is a hybrid game that mixes both the hack and slash genre and the platforming, and will definitely be aiming at the Mature category of games while it may not be evident at first.  It is built on the Unreal Engine 3, and the fluid dynamics or the “Volumetric Liquid System” (I’ll use VLS for easier referencing) highly depends on the engine to help it with blood spatter.

Wait, did I just say blood spatter? Yes, Fairytale Fights will be a very, very bloody game.  This VLS helps control the blood spatter and stains all over the environment you are playing in as well as having it interact with any objects within the environment.  Also, the VLS helps the blood blend with other liquids that are present in the game like water and acids.  The acid can be used by players to melt enemies flesh off, leaving only a skeletal structure.  The blood can be distributed as well by walking through it or even sliding through it.

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The game is simply controlled by both analogue sticks, using the left one to move your character around, and using the right one to swing your weapon of choice at your enemies, or even co-op partners.  The game will feature over 100 different weapons, with the classic melee blunt and sharp, as well as ranged weapons available for players to use.  We’re not sure whether or not this was the build itself, but it seemed as if only the sharp melee weapons actually generated blood spatter, meaning they were the most fun.

Each weapon will have its own special feature as well as a “glory mode” that you can unleash when you build up a meter, which allows you to go into a sort of “hyper” picture-in-picture event where you can make unlimited cuts to an enemy’s body.  Why is this so important? The Unreal Engine The team has built the portion of the game that allows the player to make dynamic and unique cuts to the body, so that when the event is over, the body will fall to the ground in a unique cut up form.  Also, small enemies, such as slugs and squirrels can be used as weapons, and bosses will ‘sport’ some of the larger, environment-based cuts on their body.

Fairytale Fights is based in a fictional, fairytale world, where everything is built upon books, and has a very fairytale feel to it.  Even leaves that fall off of trees are pages from a storybook.  The game features a “story-teller” of sorts, who watches you play through the campaign and later recites what you did, presumably once you’re done that level.

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Also, the game will feature full drop-in/drop-out co-op that you can play in either a player vs. player battle arena or in Story Mode. In story mode, “friendly fire” is enabled meaning you can whether accidentally or on purpose, hit your teammates.  Currently, the game supports 4-player offline co-operative play, while online, only 2-player co-op.  The team is hard at work at making 4-player online co-op work over Xbox LIVE.  Any pick-ups and rewards that you receive while in a co-op game, will count towards your own game.

Last but not least, here are some other random tidbits about the game:

• Some characters to be included: Red Riding Hood, Snow White
• Gingerbread men drop crumbs rather than spurting blood
• The achievements will be silly
  • Ex. Slide 10 meters in blood

The only real problem both Rob and I had with the game, at the state we had seen it at, was that it would be a retail release, at full price.  It seemed to us that this was more of an Xbox Live Arcade-like release, similar to Castle Crashers.  When we asked them about it we were assured that the game would provide more than enough content and levels, as well as be supported by DLC.

Other than that, we were really surprised by the game.  It seemed like a ton of fun, especially for an on-the-couch setting when you could play with friends at a “party” of sorts.  The game should be coming in Q4 of 2009, and we hope it doesn’t get lost amongst the sea of other blockbuster titles, because this one is quite awesome.