 |
Buy this game at EBGames
|
|||
|
Reviews/Previews/Features/Goodies/Anime/Classics/Links/Contact |
||||
|
|
||||
 |
||||
|
Platform: Xbox |
Developer: SouthEnd Interactive |
Publisher: Ubi Soft |
||
|
Genre: Sport/Fighting |
|
ETA: Fall 2002 |
||
Deathrow
Contact sports are nothing new – not by a long shot. However, in these days of extreme sports, a 10,000 channel TV universe, and daytime talk shows, contact sports have experienced a kind of renaissance. Besides the usual sports titles, there are precedents like Unreal Tournament (UT) that take extreme sports one step further by allowing lots of fatalities, heavy weaponry and blood-soaked arenas. Enter Deathrow from SouthEnd Interactive, a kind of UT without the weapons.
Deathrow is a mix of rugby and Ultimate Fighting Championship – only with more deaths and victory coming from wiping out the other team (or scoring more points). The rules… well, there aren’t any, same for referees. Any method used to get the hovering disc through the opponent’s goal is fair game. Obviously this won’t be a cakewalk. SouthEnd is promising that AI opponents will seek retribution “for not only themselves but also for their fallen teammates.” Anyone who has played box lacrosse or hockey should be right at home here – except you don’t use sticks. Everything is hand-to-hand and a fight to the death, so much so the sports aspect might be overshadowed by the extreme fighting – as there is practically no details on passing the disc, switching characters on the fly, etc. But this may not be a bad thing.
With the amount of detail SouthEnd has put into Deathrow, even if you hate sports games the fighting should be a joy to watch (and play, but we’ll see). Just a few stats to keep in mind: 120 unique characters, 13 playable teams (and some hidden ones) each with detailed backgrounds, 800+ animations, characters modeled with 55 bones for life-like movement, and subtle facial animations that look to mimic real life. Well, holy crap! Plus there are 15 arenas to fight through, with varying themes (and tactical considerations) since different futuristic corporations sponsor each team.
The action takes place in the 3rd Person, like any good sports game does (just imagine playing a football game in 1st Person) and is rendered with a new 3D engine that SouthEnd created for Deathrow. So watching characters punch, block, kick, jump, grab and combos of these, we’ll get to see it all in bold bright color. Just look at the screens.
Deathrow began its life in 1999 as an online PC game but switched to Xbox. The multiplayer aspect supports up to 8 players but it’s not stated whether it will be available through Xbox Live or simply networked. Sports games by their nature just cry out to be played by a bunch of friends but what often kills the pacing – at least for me – is fellow players that take freakin’ forever to pick a play or continually call time-outs. That will not prove to be a problem with Deathrow. Once the match starts, it’s not over until the time runs down or one team in completely wiped off the map.
If you like your fighting games with an emphasis on teamwork or sports games with an emphasis on brutality (enhanced by music ripped from the hard drive), Deathrow looks to please when it ships Fall 2002. (At the very least it will be interesting to see how a 9-person team fairs on their first game.)
- Omni
(September 6, 2002)
|
||||
