Deadly Creatures has intrigued me for a number of months, mainly for the basic concept as playing as a spider and a scorpion. After seeing a developer’s diary and a couple of trailers, my son was hooked, and even though it’s not a multiplayer game, we decided to take advantage of the two playable ‘characters.’ He would play the scoprion and I’d play the tarantula.
After a couple of levels, I’m pretty impressed by the game. The story, the music, the human story, the models and graphics, combat are all very solid, at least, and excellent in some places. But there’s something that reminds me of Super Mario Galaxy. At first I thought it was the visceral reaction the games evoked. Then I thought, oh, Deadly Creatures allows you to climb walls and ceilings, just as some Galaxy levels do. But I realized that it’s more than that–it’s that both games have well designed, fascinating levels.
While both are somewhat linear, there is an exploratory element nonetheless. You can play each straight through and not see a bit of the game. But the environments are so well designed that I found myself wanting to explore, not just to find grubs or other goodies but even to see what I could see, what interesting spaces the level had, which is a reward in itself.
In contrast, Force Unleashed had some uninspired levels–run down a ship corridor, run through an outdoor corridor, run through a wooki village corridor. It was a game where I badly wanted to explore the area, not to find all the collectibles but for the hope that a game world had areas just for the fan to enjoy. Alas, that was not the case.
In Deadly Creatures, I feel that it’s the opposite. Yes, it has some underground tunnels/corridors, but even there I’m finding spaces to explore. As the spider, I climb on the walls, viewing the room from a different perspective and sometimes accessing a space I couldn’t see from the floor. Outdoor areas have paths and flows, but again, I have areas to explore.
The other point about the level goes to the focus of the game on small ceatures because I often had a sense of both a small, often unnoticed world of bugs but also the large, even gargantuan world. Often, when we play shooters and action games, we notice how well designed maps have excellent architecture. Deadly Creatures does, too, but a natural architecture of rocks, cacti, logs. There are a variety of wall types, even in the little that I have played.
- A curve that appears to stop my progress, although if I follow it, it leads to another space, giving me satisfaction at not falling for a ‘trick.’
- The variety of walls also suggest movement and time–progress slowly here, move quickly here. At certain points, I’m clearly invited to pause and look around, like when I reach a vertically rising wall.
- I’m aware that the level is making me feel relaxed at some spots and tense at others. For example, right before I leave the tunnel and have the first snake-boss fight, I feel tense, even though I’m going out into the open, thanks largely to the squat design of the opening and the way the floor rises up to the opening and then slopes downward.
Loading ...