Web Video
Is Vertical Combat The New Shotgun?
June 23, 2008
A handful of games feature altitude as a prominent gameplay fixture. It kind of makes us wonder, is massive vert the new shotgun? We’re stealing the phrase from Morgan Gray, Capcom’s producer on Dark Void. He threw the line out during our demo on the upcoming third person action/massive platformer in reference to a blind fire from cover feature in his upcoming title. But, considering that sheer height plays such a role in Void, we figured he wouldn’t mind if we borrowed it to describe the new trend getting high. Hit the jump to see the full list.
The Incredible Hulk
Besides providing the visceral pleasure of razing the New York Metropolitan Museum to the ground, Hulk allows you to scale every building in Manhattan and then jump off the fucker. Yet somehow hopping into the Central Park Resevoir results in an invisible force spitting you back out.
Spider-Man: Web of Shadows
Peter Parker never came close to these heights in the comics. Watch the trailer and you’ll see Spidey chain together some combat moves between a few Green Goblins before dumping on the Vulture at what appears to be 14,000 feet…over New York Harbor. Apparently you won’t need buildings to get high in Web of Shadows.
Dark Void
The latest game to come out of the team that produced Crimson Skies definitely works in the fear of heights and even some freeclimbing. Vertical combat is stressed in every aspect of the game we’ve seen so far from climbing rock faces to taking on flying saucers after strapping on a jetpack. No chalk bags necessary, but they are a fantastic conversation starter with the hippies.
Tom Clancy’s HAWX
OK, since this game features planes, altitude is not such a big surprise. Still it’s way more ups than we ever saw in Splinter Cell, Ghost Recon, Rainbow Six or any other Clancy cash cow.
Damnation
We don’t have a trailer to show you on this one but during our demo with Codemasters they stressed the epic scope in terms of distance as a key element to their upcoming steampunk Civil War-style shooter. There aren’t any jetpacks involved but there are zip lines and massive tramp stamps.
Tags: Damnation, Dark Void, HAWX, Hulk, Spider-Man, vertical combat
