Kameo: Elements of Power (E3)

[foogledricks]

Gamespy seemed to be very impressed by the visuals for this game. And since everyone judges games by visuals at E3, I thought it was interesting that people didn't give this game more coverage.

I've not seen anything like this level of visual fidelity in a game before.

the demo on the show floor really showcased the disparity between the power of the 360 as opposed to the power the of current-gen Xbox by running builds of the game right next to each other. The difference in visual fidelity is absolutely amazing. The Xbox game is no slouch, but running on 360 was like watching something that Pixar might be well be proud of.

Kameo: Elements of Power will be an awesome game, there's no doubt. Running on final hardware, I can't even being to imagine how impressive the game will look, feel and play. Running at 720p on an HD-capable display with proper surround sound will mean that the next level of immersive gaming will truly be here. And Kameo: Elements of Power will probably be the first title to make it across the finish line.

http://xbox.gamespy.com/xbox-360/kameo-elements-of-power/617858p1.html

 

This game may very well be one of my two launch titles. Perfect Dark, DOA4, and Kameo are my candidates right now. I'm guessing I'll only buy two.

[MastaRedSnappa]

I posted my impressions of this game in my E3 thread.

 

To go into further detail, the demo consisted of two people-- a presenter providing a running commentary (describing the gameplay, graphical highlights, etc.) and a guy controlling Kameo with a 360 controller.

 

Graphically, the game looked incredible. Every blade of grass and tree leaf beautifully moved with the wind. The graphics were not photo-realisitic but very stylized like World of Warcraft. Kameo, the main character, could change into 10 different forms and the cool thing was that the other forms were slightly transparent so you could still see Kameo inside of the other forms. All the forms I saw were animated very well and had their own unique moves and powers. Some examples:

 

- The ice yeti form could throw icicles or use the icicles to climb up walls.

- The pile of rocks form could shoot the rocks that composed its body at enemies and the shot rocks would slowly roll back toward the pile to reform itself.

- The plant form could burrow underground to get by doors and spring up from the ground for uppercuts.

- The dragon form could fly and breath fire.

- I briefly saw the fairy form but didn't really see what it could do.

 

They also showed off a beautiful throne room with all kinds of stained glass and crystal and when they panned up towards the ceiling, you could see all of these luminescent particles as the light from outside hit the dust floating in the air.

 

The gameplay seemed to follow a Zelda-type adventure style (the more recent 3D Zeldas, not the 2D ones). You were free to roam, run, jump, fight, solve puzzles, etc. and at certain key areas, something scripted might happen. One of the scenes they showed was Kameo on her horse at the top of a Stonehenge-like hill. The camera moved back to reveal the hill was surrounded by orcs. As the camera pulls further and further back, more and more orcs were shown (probably in the 500-1,000 range). The camera flew around the hill back to Kameo, at which point, the view changed to a helicopter view from behind Kameo and her horse. The demonstrator made Kameo ride down the hill with orcs bouncing off her horse and flying through the air. When she reached the bottom of the hill, an army of elves formed to come help Kameo fight the orcs. A full scale war between the orcs and elves went on with Kameo in the middle of it. She got off her horse and was able to battle the orcs while the war raged on in the background. Each orc and elf seemed to have its own AI (several times, an orc would try to get on Kameo's horse!). I watched the demo twice and it didn't seem like just some canned animation of an orc and elf fighting repeated over and over.

 

The game had some slight framerate issues at times and some objects (like a stone pillar) would abruptly pop into view when the camera was doing the fly-by of the hill. It didn't seem like anything major that wouldn't be fixed by the final release. They were sure to mention that the demo was only running on the alpha dev kit which is only 30% of the final hardware's performance. They didn't say how far along the game was and I honestly couldn't venture a meaningful guess. From what I saw though, I think this game could be the sleeper of the launch titles.