Quantcast
PAX Prime Hands-On: Warp | PSNStores

PAX Prime Hands-On: Warp

Posted by on August 28th, 2011 | 0 Comments | Tags: , , ,

We haven’t heard anything from Trapdoor’s debut digital title Warp since PAX East back in March. I’m happy to report that it’s coming along splendidly. Along with Dungeon Defenders and Renegade Ops, Warp was my favorite PSN game this PAX. The extended demo allowed me mess around further with the Warp mechanic and check out some of the new features.

If you didn’t take the time to read my PAX East impressions, I’ll take some time now to explain Warp. It’s a top-down puzzle-based stealth action game where you play as Zero, a cutesy-looking orange alien. Zero has been abducted from his home world and is now being kept in an underwater research facility. The objective of the game is to escape, but the way in which you do so is based on how you want to play the game. Zero’s ability to warp allows him to teleport into most human beings, including the scientists keeping you captive and the guards who will kill you on site. When you’re in a human, you have the option of wiggling the left analogue stick to explode out of his chest. The whole ordeal is extremely gruesome, especially since the art style is so cartoony. As is the case in many stealth action games, you can also make it through the game without killing anyone. The only ability I got to use was called the frag warp, but the person showing me the game told me there will be many more abilities, including an echo ability that allows you to duplicate an image of Zero to distract guards. I’m assuming that one will come in hand for the no-kills stealth players like myself.

Zero’s powers can be combined and upgraded by collecting hidden grubs. I think the grubs will also be used for something else in the game besides for just currency, but I’m not sure yet. There are also challenge rooms and bosses, which means the game will be fun in more ways than just stealthily completing puzzles. What got me all hot and bothered was the in-depth stats screen that appeared at the end of the demo. Things like time, enemies killed, and much much more will be tracked and will likely play a role in how you’re scored on the leaderboards. Yeah, leaderboards. Warp is due sometime this Winter on the 2012 side of things. I thought Warp was pretty cool when I got to play it back in Boston, but it’s now become one of my most anticipated titles. Oh, when one of the guards shot me, he did the DX suck it motion. That’s one of the few ways to win a spot in my heart, so kudos Trapdoor; give your animators a high five for me.