E3 2005: Hip Games Booth Tour

Written by Matt Swider  on June 08, 2005

Special: Hip Games has an interesting mix of titles at E3, including George Romero's City of the Dead, Call of Cthulhu: Destiny's End and Ghost Wars, all three previewed by Chris and Matt.

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George Romero's City of the Dead (PS2, Xbox, PC)
The Burnout of first-person zombie shooters is what Kuju Entertainment is billing the first game longtime zombie movie genre director/definer George A. Romero ever worked on. It's easy to see that when you match a very arcade-like embodiment with that of a horror-oriented direction. In City of the Dead, players will find themselves as a group of survivors in a city that's overrun by zombies. These things are everywhere. They'll be lit aflame and torch other zombies, objects, and you as they slowly approach your yumminess. There are cop zombies who fire random shots off at you or other zombies, as they were cops in the previous life and here they are too. There are even zombies who crawl called leapers that slowly inch your way and then hastily spring to life right in front of your very eyes. The idea is just to survive this nightmare by blocking doorways and using weapon combat and such in a nonlinear world. That means the city is yours to find the best way route to weed through. There will be missions in this structure, which will tie into your own agenda -- in terms like basically getting from point A to point B and living some more.

Staying true to the zombie lore inspired from George Romero's own vision of it, one nice element of the game will be that zombies can't die until their head explodes. If you shoot off a leg, they'll come crawling. If you shoot them in the chest, that'll just mess them up some. If you shoot off an arm, another zombie can pick that right up and toss it your way. No, the head must be removed as that is the rule of the zombie. It's their vigorous spark if you will (being tied to the brain and all). How you kill zombies is another interesting tidbit, as what was seen of the game had a pump-action shotgun at work. Every time this weapon is fired, it must be reloaded again to be able to continue fire. That's some more realism for you. And even more authenticity happens to be surrounding the Havoc physics engine that will power the visuals of the game in a very creative way. For example, let's say you're perched on a building top. Take out the sniper rifle and see a gathering of zombies congregating around a stack of ignitable crates. What happens next is a big kaboom and zombie parts blowing left and right affected by the true-to-life physical detail. Besides a single player experience, City of the Dead will also feature multiple modes including online (1-4 players) where players will even get to change into the living dead as well. In these moral situations the game ponders upon players: do you kill your friend now who will eventually mutate into a carnivorous abomination, or wait and let them help you survive as long as they still can while they can? Targeted for a spring 2006 release, City of the Dead is shaping up to be a most interesting game by far.


Call of Cthulhu: Destiny's End (PS2, Xbox)
Recognized as one of the greatest fictional horror writers of the 20th Century, H.P. Lovecraft still lives on today immortally with the memory that's continually revived in the now through his bizarrely inspirational tales. Particularly in this case with one game and the lore it resonates from that sprung from his literary works entitled the "Cthluhu Mythos." Stemmed from the ideas represented throughout H.P.'s chronicled novels, Headfirst Productions will resolve the fantastical creatures and the state of which people fear and survive against them in this upcoming horror game, Call of Cthluhu. It is in the game that the obscure town of Innsmouth was tattered into ruins by a government raid taken place in 1928. 80 years later, Call's two protagonists (Emily and Jacob) will show up to uncover the truth about what really happened to this town's past. Naturally, ungodly creatures will be mixed as a part of the formula, designed from H.P.'s pages. One such monstrosity looks to be a walking mushroom of some sort, with lots of teeth. Another is in human form, but diseased in some way that will chase after Emily or Jacob if he's to spot them.

The main drawing point of Call of Cthluhu is that players will actually split these two up, but will be able to play as either one of them from one part of a level or another. While one character may be finding the solution to progress ahead (like Emily who was seen sneaking into a cabin to locate a key, and then hid under the bed as the creature slept), the computer will control the other for whichever character isn't under the player's use. They'll automatically engage in attacking the enemy if they need to. But the trick about that is, both characters come with a sanity gauge and only so much reasoning before they descend into madness. The weaker of the two, Jacob, has an even less stability stage than that of Emily. Leaving him alone for too long won't be the best idea. Ominous and well done, the visuals of Call of Cthluhu are actually coming along quite good. A dreary forest surrounding was one setup seen for effective looking deformed creatures and the babe and dude who are trying to struggle through their world. Call of Cthluhu was one of the most appetizing dishes at E3 I'd say, and hopefully it ends up turning out great just as interestingly as it was shown in Hip's booth.


Ghost Wars (PC)
At first glance, Ghost Wars seems like your typical real-time strategy game with a military theme. However, upon closer inspection, it also ventures into the action department with third and first perspectives in addition to an overhead view. So, along with standard RTS gameplay, players are able to select and zoom in on individual units or vehicles to micromanage the action from the ground. Although the game isn't expected to release until next year, it's definitely one to look out for.