A Giants Step for Planet Moon (Page 2)
- January 01, 2000 00:00 AM PST
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Only there?s a complication: Baz falls in love with Delphi?the beautiful daughter of the Sea Reapers? queen.
"In the middle of a battle, he can just stop and stare in complete awe," says Williams. Love and rockets do not mix.
Eventually, you?ll learn that there?s a whole other land, with a whole new kind of threat. The threat?s name: Kabuto.
How does it end up? Well, not to give anything away, but Planet Moon is planning a grand conflagration involving all three characters. "It?s going to be of epic proportions," says Planet Moon vice president Bob Stevenson. "It basically ties everything together into a big knot."
All this will be carried off from a third/first-person view in a 3D world ripe with possibilities for humor and interesting destruction. The giant, of course, is likely to be chaos unchained. Delphi will have access to an array of intimidating spells. (We?ll get to one in a bit.) And the Meccs, the foundation of the game, currently have about six basic weapons? ranging from handguns to shotguns to lasers.
Now, humor in computer games has never been particularly easy to relate in print. Usually it?s better experienced than described.
But let me give it a shot. Wait?ll you hear about the shrubberies.
Giants starts off with the player in control of a single Mecc, name of Baz. Have mouse-and-keyboard combo, will travel. Yes, I know we stipulated a squad of five. But nobody except non-delegating, testosterone- heavy types like James T. Kirk send their whole executive staff down to the surface of an unknown planet. (Eggs in one basket stuff, y?understand.)
The Meccs were bound for a "lad?s holiday" on Planet Majorca when they ran afoul of a giant space fish. After making their way through its digestive system, they put in for repairs and two of ?em just have to check out the planet?s surface. The other Meccs are still hanging out on the ship (and probably drinking the rest of the Guinness, reading the boss?s email, and pushing all the red buttons).
Unhappily, the two sent down to scout out the surface have?well, no self-respecting Mecc would admit it, but they?ve gotten hung up. Specifically, by the ankles.
Sigh. If you want something done right, you?ve got to do it yourself. So off goes Baz, gun hot in hand, down to the lush tropical island. And, ostensibly, it looks as though we?re in for a third/first-person shooter with a slightly silly premise (and maybe just a touch of Bullfrog in its throat).
Your comrades in arms aren?t far away from the landing zone and, once freed by a judicious blast or two, will take up positions at your sides. They are smart and will get smarter with experience. They?ll watch your tail. They?ll provide covering fire. They?ll attack aggressively with a press of a function key and without a raft of wingman-style commands. (The game is simplicity itself. You?ll be allowed to grow slowly into each character. The camera, Zelda-style, stays centered on your target as you circle via jetpack. And you won?t have to worry about memorizing an array of orders. As Giants develops, each compact command set is replaced by another.)
"When you start doubling up on commands in an action game?fire up one and then, during that, hit another action key?we begin to lose people," says Planet Moon president Nick Bruty.
This would be a good time to go back to the ship. Baz radios for a pick-up. Hello? Hello? There?s no answer. The two remaining Meccs are totally wasted and probably have the radio tuned to Iron Maiden.
So you explore. At length, your travels will bring your little threesome to a defended gate. This is Giants? first challenge. Now, this isn?t a one-solution situation. The Meccs can storm the gate, fire up their jetpacks, shoot down the Cyclops guards, and win the battle at the possible expense of their physical well-being. Or they can finesse it: They can disguise themselves as shrubbery. (Again, these disguises are just a keypress away.)
Now, it has to be said, these shrubs would not fool anyone. They don?t look quite like anything else around. They sort of appear out of nowhere. They look as though someone just bought them for $29.99 at The Island Nursery. And they move.
But they?re enough. They?ll get you through the gate, if you observe a little caution and don?t make any sudden movements while the enemy is looking at you, and you?ll be able to blast them from behind.
