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Magic, technology, and raw strength… which path do you wish to follow?
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The single player game in Giants will be one large campaign, consisting of five levels per race (and five missions per level). For those of you not familiar with the three races Giants features, here's a quick guide to each of them (the rest of you can skip ahead, because you've already done your homework):
Kabuto - Kabuto is the giant… he's both fearsome and awe-inspiring at the same time, and to see him in action is really something special. The giant represents brute force, and uses his immense strength to smash, maim, crush, or pummel the other races and their buildings.
Meccaryns - Called Meccs for short… this fun loving group of five aliens crash landed on Kabuto's island and is only looking for a way off…
Sea Reapers - Don't let their beauty (or National Geographic style nudity) fool you, this race of evil sea faring women are agile and powerful in the ways of magic. They are responsible for the creation of Kabuto, and are the initial enemy of the Meccs.
Although specifics about the story aren't being given out yet, the general idea is that you'll start the game using Baz (the leader of the Meccs). Baz was separated from his companions when the ship they were all cruising around in crash landed on Kabuto's island, so your first interest is to locate your fellow Meccs. You then encounter the race of Smarties, and they offer to help you find your friends in return for something. Eventually, the Smarties end up telling you tales of how the nefarious Sea Reapers are out to kill them all, so the Meccs step in and battle the Sea Reapers. Down the road, to stand a chance against the numerous Sea Reapers, Delphi (the daughter of the queen of the Sea Reapers) switches to your side and helps you combat evil. And somehow Kabuto ends up playing a role in it all too, as you'll eventually use him along with the Meccs and Delphi.
The story is advanced through cut-scenes using the in-game engine. I had originally planned on discussing the opening cut-scene in detail, but then I realized it would spoil the humor. I can say though, in all honesty, that the movies are very impressive looking and really funny to watch as well. Unfortunately, we'll all have to speculate on story specifics for now and put our faith into the experienced hands of Planet Moon.
Each race has many of its own merits and downfalls, and they all fit neatly together to create a balanced game where no single race has an unfair advantage. The single player game will be mission based, and requires the player to think things through before going into battle to accomplish some goal. In one mission Planet Moon presented, you were playing as Baz (the Mecc leader) and trying to take out a troop of Sea Reaper henchmen (tall land dwelling aliens with big guns that are employed by the Sea Reapers). When the mission began, the Mecc used his bush backpack to disguise himself as a bush. Standing still for a couple of seconds made the bush turn transparent so that it was harder to see, and he began his approach towards two of the henchmen who had stayed far behind the moving troop of enemies.
The henchmen aren't the most intelligent creatures, but they aren't stupid either. Once one of them spotted a moving bush, he ran over to it and banged its top with his gun. Seeing that it didn't move and reacted like a bush, the creature walked away from it. So even though the alien is too stupid to question a bush being in the middle of a barren desert landscape, it was smart enough to double check and make sure it acted like a bush. Sooner or later, as the energy for maintaining the shrubbery disguise was depleted, the Mecc was forced to take on the two henchmen. Instead of trying to duke it out with them up close and using futuristic guns, the Mecc quickly dropped a popup bomb next to them and jet packed with amazing speed away from it. A second later, the popup bomb bounced in the air, then destructed in an amazing display of pyrotechnics that sent ripples through the very ground it had exploded over.
Needless to say, this weakened the henchmen enough for the Mecc to kill them. This kind of strategy makes the action in Giants something you don't find in most other action games.
The game's graphics are definitely one of Giant's most noticeable aspects, and they command attention immediately. When you hear the footsteps of Kabuto plummeting into the earth around you, you just know something big is coming your way, but it isn't until you actually see Kabuto in full motion that you start to question the wisdom in your continued stay on the island. Whether Kabuto is tossing vimps (read: alien cattle) in the air and catching them with his teeth (the ensuing blood spray makes for quite a display, I might add) or roaring to create an immense sonic boom, the giant just exudes feelings of brutal power like no other in-game creature I've seen to date.
The island environments themselves are beautiful and provide a platform for bloody action and carnage. Between the game's locales and the high polygon count models, it's amazing Giants runs as well as it does. The Planet Moon team has a few tricks up their sleeve though. One of the more notable tricks was small, maggot like creatures that rise from the earth to devour slain creatures and reduce the polygon count. If that sounds like a cheap tactic to any of you, would you really be happier if the creatures just turned transparent then disappeared like in most games? Of course not. And also, the addition of these funny little maggot creatures has a bonus effect; showing them to family members will allow for some interesting conversation the next time you sit down to a macaroni and cheese dinner.
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