It's always special the first time you pull off your own arm and throw it to a demonic dog as if it were a stick. It's even more special when you do an army roll over said detached limb to chuck it back on.
NeverDead is Rebellion and Konami's cartoonish and goofy third-person action title for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The game is produced by Shinta Noriji, a veteran Konami designer from the mid-90s and key figure in Metal Gear Solid production, as a joint production between Konami Japan and Rebellion UK. Noriji wanted to ensure a Japanese feel for the art direction and gameplay that would contrast with the Western humour.
The base concept is that it is near impossible for your character to be killed, as he is essentially immortal.
However, you are not indestructible and this is where the key game mechanic comes in. Frequently you lose body parts and have to retrieve them so you can proceed through the action unhindered. But rather than spend your time hopping around chasing your own leg, your body can be regenerated hastily when required.
Our protagonist is Bryce, a once noble warrior whose partner was killed by a demon, which subsequently cursed him to live an eternity of regret. Thousands of years later, it is the present day and the earth is once again at the mercy of a demon scourge. Similarly, he is paired up with another female partner, Arcadia Maximille.
Arcadia is essentially how you will die. Spending an entire game keeping an NPC alive doesn't sound like the best use of one's time, but Arcadia is fairly robust and won't keel over without putting up a good fight. Even when I reduced Bryce to his most vulnerable, a rolling head, Arcadia was still cracking wise at him from afar.
Bryce's head can be consumed by creatures and taken out of commission, resulting in the closest thing to a death that occurs in this game, but it took some effort to get him dead in this demonstration.
There were a handful of camera problems arising when you are reduced to a rolling head (or, my personal favourite, a rolling head with a single arm attached holding a gun).
The scenario played at E3 today culminated in being prompted to pull off your own head and throw it through a window. The gameplay is fun, the mechanics are new and we're cautiously optimistic as to how the story will pan out based upon some of the flashback cinematics.
Definitely a title to keep an eye on.
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