A few weeks before E3 I got what appeared to be a ransom note telling me that someone had somethings I wanted and that I should contact their PR person to schedule an appointment. Given that most kidnappers and robbers don't hire PR firms I felt reasonably safe in sending an e-mail and getting an appointment setup. It turns out that this was one of the best decisions I made as the game turned out to be
Shank, a fun new side scrolling game.
If you want the full details of what's going on with
Shank check out the interview with Klei CEO Jamie Cheng below as he's going to do a much better job of tell you about his game than I ever could. Instead I'm going to tell you about how much fun I had playing this animated comic book.
Shank plays like a class beat-em-up game of the past but with more weapons and a ton more gore. As Shank you've got access to a grenades, guns, knives, and a chainsaw which you can use together to take out everyone who attacks you. We didn't get a lot of information on the plot behind Shank but I'm not sure it matters as I got lost in the silky smooth animation and art direction of the game.
The game has personality in spades and controls very easily as the weapons are mapped to the face buttons of the Xbox 360 controller (Cheng didn't disclose which platforms the game will ship on but I'm guessing the 360 will be one of them as that's what was hooked up at their booth). The triggers controlled the lunge attacks and you tapped the right bumper to toss a grenade. One of the fun things you can do is grab some one and then force a grenade down their throat which is just as awesome as it sounds.
The demo at the booth was over way too quickly and I'm looking forward to seeing more of the game in the future. Klei isn't talking release dates yet but hopefully they'll have something nailed down by this time next year.
