Child of Eden Preview at London MCM: No Co-Op + Playstation Move Bound?
Child of Eden is a curious character. It’s a bizarre, rather psychedelic take on a first person shooter that is billed as the ‘spiritual successor’ to the Dreamcast’s highly popular REZ, utilizing Microsoft’s Kinect in a very appealing, unique way. I was a bit indifferent towards the title until I saw it in action today at MCM - Ubisoft representative Pete Closs took to the stage, the many vivid colours and patterns that make up Child of Eden’s core gameplay showcased behind him as he began hyping up the title. I began, as my eyes swam with colour, to be converted.
First and foremost, the most important information gleaned from the press event is that Child of Eden has been ‘considered’ for Playstation Move support, as the title will also be being released later in the year for the PS3. Pete wouldn’t part with any more information than that, as he’d been sworn to secrecy, but it seems as if his very indifferent answer and lack of flat-out ‘no it won’t be on Move’ seems to indicate that it should be in development for Sony’s motion peripheral.
At the showcase, Child of Eden was played by members of the audience as well as some of Gamespot’s staff (who are hosting the event). I was astonished by how easily people who’ve never played it before actually managed to pick up and play the title – the intuitive controls used with Kinect are pretty simple to utilize and everyone seemed to gather very quickly what exactly they were meant to be doing. To control the game, you actually have to utilize both of your hands; the right hand is used to highlight a wide variety of enemies before you finish them off with a flourish (namely a flick of the wrist), whereas the left hand is used as a constant shooter, generally used for shooting smaller enemies. To play Child of Eden effectively, you have to develop a balance between using both of your hands, switching between each routinely as you progress. Thankfully lag is totally non-existent; from both my own hands-on with the game and the people playing on stage, I noticed absolutely no inaccuracies as Kinect tracked a player’s movements with almost pinpoint accuracy.
I Have The Power.
On screen, as you’re busy waving your hands around like some sort of demented Jedi, there plays out a surreal collection of visual landscapes that is described by Pete as being ‘multi-sensory gaming.’ Basically what this means is that Child of Eden assaults all your senses at once, playing music according to where you shoot, as well as offering immersive control through Kinect and a visual delight for the eyes. Getting back to the music of Child of Eden, the title itself utilizes a catchy and extremely varied collection of noises (over 100 different sound affects alone, according to Pete) that work in tandem with the pulsing tones of the backing track to create a unique music experience each and every time you play. For example, shooting a smaller item may make a noise that resembles a triangle note; hitting a load of these in a row will then produce a rather melodious tune.
If you don’t want to use Kinect (simply because you can’t be bothered to get off your bed or because you don’t like motion control) Child of Eden will also support the Xbox 360’s normal controller. If you do decide to go down this route though I have to tell you you’re missing out on a whole lot of fun using Kinect – this is easily the most intuitive and exciting title I’ve had the chance to play for Kinect since the device’s November release.
Pete also confirmed that the game will contain some varying degrees of difficulty as well as offering unlockable items. There’s also apparently a few secrets buried in the crazily beautiful landscapes you’ll be flying around, although how to find these - shockingly - remains a secret.
The only gripe I had with Child of Eden is the health system. Half the time there’s so much going on on screen it becomes almost impossible to tell when an enemy is about to attack – often I would find myself depleted of health without even noticing as the pumping music and the visuals had firmly sent me into ‘Eden’ zone. Suffice to say, I ended up dying quite without warning as I had little idea I was being attacked – the screen does flash red (I noticed later at the press event) but to be honest this is very hard to notice because of the plethora of colours already rushing across the screen.
The levels themselves are various incredibly diverse locales rendered from a wide variety of different shapes and bizarre creatures, like giant worms made of light. They’re meant to be visual representations of ‘a human matrix of memories’ that has become corrupt – it is your job as the force-wielding Kinecter to clean out the virus that has corrupted this matrix and free the human memories trapped within (which are represented by the girl you may have seen in trailers – she pops up every so often towards the ends of levels).
With regards to DLC and User Generated Content, Pete also remained tight lipped. He said he ‘didn’t know’ what the plans were for this stuff, which means we probably shouldn’t rule it out just yet. The game will be purely a single player experience – Pete says that they tried cooperative play but it simply didn’t work – so the developers decided to focus entirely on making a stellar single player experience that isn’t quite like anything else that’s currently on the market.
Why not stick around and view our exclusive coverage of the Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition?
Also check out our coverage of our favourite MCM Cosplayers.
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