For those
that revel in the bone-jarring impact of games like the one that has gamers
piloting a car into a wall to hurl the driver through the windshield and towards
a target, well, Sony is about to deliver on that idea in an extreme way. Coming
soon (as in Thursday) to the PlayStation Network is an arcade title from SCEA
and Idol Minds called PAIN.
This is
rag-doll physics to the extreme. Basically, this is the idea: You have a
character that is in a large slingshot. The farther back you step, the more
speed you have at launch. Trajectory is important as well. The character is
launched at targets, cause as much damage as possible, and then flops around to
tag other environmental elements or to make certain he is in the middle of the
road so cars and trucks can hit him – thereby causing more damage and garnering
more points. To vary this, you can grab objects, like the one single-player
level where you fling yourself in the direction of a mime, grab him and then –
while airborne – hurl him through targets that are panes of glass. Of course
this is a timed event and if you score well enough, you unlock the next
difficulty level.
The mime toss.
There are
skins to unlock and players can post high scores online.
The
multiplayer element plays a game of horse. One player selects a target and –
assuming the target is hit – tries to score as many points as possible. The next
player then tries to hit the target and outscore the first player. Should that
happen, the first player has the opportunity to raise the scoring bar yet again.
And so it goes until one person spells out horse and loses.
The game
itself is not overly complex. Once you hit something, shaking the controller
activates the ‘ooch’ power up. And as you perform certain elements, you will
unlock other skills. Fall down a smoke chimney at the factory in the downtown
setting, and you will unlock a skill.
Guy on a bike? That should be worth decent
points.
There are
also ways to earn style points. The L1 and L2 buttons, in concert with the
hotkeys will have your idiot … err, your ‘adventurous individual’ performing
aerial acrobatics, including the one where his legs are spread above him in an
inverted flight path and he spins like a helicopter.
Part of the challenge for
any arcade game is to do something a little different the more you play it.
Unfortunately, PAIN fails in that regard. Sure, you can find new ways to injure
yourself, but the fascination of flinging a body around and crashing through or
into things wears off quickly. The levels where you are challenged to grab
objects are challenging, but the novelty wears thin quickly.
PAIN does do a great job
graphically with the rag-doll physics. Certainly some of the movement is rather
too free, but when you have a character flopping around, clipping objects while
flying past, with audio that punctuates each painful blow, you have a title that
has some appeal.
Look for this title to
launch on the PlayStation Network Thursday.
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Gameplay: 7.0
The multiplayer
elements are fine, but the single player – while challenging – gets a bit old
after a while. The controls are easy to manage, though.
Graphics: 8.0
The game is bright,
bold, colorful and over the top in terms of rag-doll, but then that fits
perfectly with the theme of the game.
Sound: 7.0
The sounds do give
this game an added sense of personal carnage. It’s all done well enough.
Difficulty: Easy/Medium
Concept: 6.0
The idea is fine,
but there is just not enough diversity here to make this a sustained gaming
experience.
Multiplayer: 7.0
Challenging and fun,
the game has a decent multiplayer element. The only problem, though, is that it
can seem to drag on after a while.
Overall: 7.0
This is a decent
enough game, and for the first 10-20 minutes you may find yourself grimacing at
the rag-doll antics of your far-flung friend. Then it gets redundant. The
challenge is still there but that is about all the game has going for it once
the ‘impact’ of the graphics wears off. The score, in this case, is for the
physics engine and graphical quality of this downloadable arcade-style title. It
does not have much depth and requires a certain warped sense of humor to enjoy.
