BOSTON – "You should go in the meat grinders. It's fun to die."
The first annual PAX East, a Boston gaming convention produced by the webcomic juggernaut Penny Arcade, will throw its doors open at 2 p.m. Friday. One of the games sure to attract attention on the show floor is Shank, an Xbox Live Arcade downloadable game described by its creators as a "cinematic brawler."
"It's a Robert Rodriguez, Tarantino kind of thing," says executive producer Jamie Cheng (pictured). In a hotel suite before the show, Cheng had me play a newly-unveiled level of Shank, which will be published on Xbox Live this summer by EA Partners. The game's striking visuals, which won it an Independent Games Festival nomination this year, are the product of Jeff Agala, who'll be sitting on the PAX East show floor all weekend cranking out sketches of the violent main character.
Shank is like Double Dragon, but with lots more gore. The level on display at PAX is a meat packing plant, and Cheng wants me to jump in the grinders. I demur, deciding instead to leap over them, swinging on meat hooks to safety. It's easy to pull off all of Shank's big leaps and acrobatic moves, since a lot of them are handled automatically. You're just making sure your jumps are timed right. Occasionally, the game will slow down to heighten a dramatic leap or near-miss.
Combat is richer than what you'd find in your average workaday side-scrolling brawler. Shank has knives, guns, and a big ol' chainsaw, and by pressing different button combinations, he'll chain them all together in gorgeous, smooth animation, alternately ripping enemies to shreds and punching holes in them. Cheng walks me through a few of the less obvious moves. You can pounce on a prone enemy, then use your guns to shoot the other enemies, keeping them at bay, alternating gun shots with knife stabs to the guy you're currently sitting on. Grab an enemy and press your grenade button, and Shank will shove the grenade down the poor sap's mouth.
It's just fun to watch Shank. Agala's gleefully violent Saturday-morning-cartoon-gone-bad animation pulls no punches; it's even fun to watch the main character meet his grisly end. That's why Cheng wanted me to jump in the grinders. When he took the controller after I was finished, it was the first thing he did.
Photo: Chris Kohler/Wired.com
