By Jim Rossignol on August 18th, 2009 at 12:56 pm.
This is an interesting trailer for Dreamkiller, if you’re interested in poorly imagined juxtapositions of media. It goes a bit spooky bed-time story to start off with, setting up a splendid atmosphere of psych-horror and then: Painkiller-esque ultra-death. According to the brief “Gamers will take on the role of Alice Drake, a psychologist with the extraordinary ability to enter the minds of her patients and combat the ravenous foes haunting their dreams. Utilizing a host of fantastic weapons and her own special abilities, Alice confronts our common demons only to discover an even deeper menace reigns within.” And that means dreams of miniguns, dreams of bulbous-headed baby monsters being fragged into the beyond, dreams of baddies going boom.
Actually I used to have FPS dreams when I was playing Quake III regularly, but these days I seem to have more RPG and RTS dreams. That means something, but I just don’t know what.
18/08/2009 at 13:02 fishmitten says:
So it’s FPS Psychonauts, but with terrible, derivative character design?
18/08/2009 at 13:11 Sinnerman says:
Moody, brooding even. Also, shooting things. Very current gen.
18/08/2009 at 13:12 tycho says:
Am I the only one who thinks the protagonist sounds almost copyright-infringingly like Alex Drake – Psychologist-copper from ‘Ashes to Ashes’?
18/08/2009 at 13:13 Adrian says:
looks kinda outdated tho id appreciate a psychonauts with guns ^^
18/08/2009 at 13:13 Hmm-Hmm. says:
The premise okay, but why on earth make it into (such) an fps?
The first and second part of the trailer (the cinematic and the gameplay) seem entirely disconnected.
18/08/2009 at 13:24 Bongo says:
Giant babies with axes, I’m getting this.
18/08/2009 at 13:25 skizelo says:
Ashes to Ashes nothing, that name stinks of people surprised when Alan Wake came out of vapour-ware. The chronology doesn’t work out, but anyway.
18/08/2009 at 13:28 Howard says:
Never really been that convinced by People Can Fly (that’s them, right?). They always struck me as a low budget Croteam, and lets face it, Croteam have never done well.
As to the plot. While it may be derivative of Ashes to Ashes and of Psychonauts, both of those are rip offs of the ideas laid down in the book “Queen of Angels” by Greg Bear.
18/08/2009 at 13:30 Nighthood says:
Looks fun, you can’t go wrong with an FPS, but one thing that got me is the last message. What kind of release date is “Holiday 2009″. I’m on holiday at the moment, there are holidays in autumn and winter too. So, what’s the actual release date? (I’m assuming it’s winter/christmas time)
18/08/2009 at 13:48 Jim Rossignol says:
No, this isn’t the original Painkiller team, afaik. Different studio.
18/08/2009 at 13:55 westyfield says:
I just hope there’s a level in which you endlessly drive round a roundabout, trying to turn left but never quite managing it.
18/08/2009 at 13:57 MonkeyMonster says:
Quake spidery skreecher thing anyone? I guess someone did the humanish body on spidery legs before them… An endless loop of copying just more pixels each time.
18/08/2009 at 14:05 James O'Hare says:
Bit of a shame, really. It’s a premise that seems to warrant being more than a kill everything with stupid big guns Serious-Sam-a-like effort. It’d be much nicer to see it realised as a thriller/horror type game. Sort of what you’d get if Penumbra and Psychonauts were combined… with the first half of Call of Cthulhu mixed in.
Tycho – Yeah, the name reminded me instantly of Ashes to Ashes, too.
18/08/2009 at 15:06 Shadowcat says:
Now “Christmas” would be useful — it’s a specific date — but “Winter” and “Autumn” are every bit as uselessly vague as “Holiday”. The range of dates associated with a season is utterly dependent upon where in the world you live, which is a next to pointless approach on the internet. Sadly, this fact fails to prevent a seemingly endless stream of press releases from doing it.
18/08/2009 at 15:19 Shadowcat says:
Psychonauts is a brilliant game because of the way it executed this same concept — levels representing the psyche of their ‘host’. Most people agree that the platforming itself was fairly unremarkable.
If Dreamkiller can achieve anything remotely close to Psychonauts in terms of level design and execution, then I greatly look forward to playing it — unremarkable FPS mechanics will be fine by me, if they can really nail the settings.
Too many games are set in ‘realistic’ spaces. This is a ticket for the designers to go nuts, and I’m keen to see the results.
18/08/2009 at 15:37 ZIGS says:
Before I saw the gameplay: “Wow, this looks like it might be original and intriguing!”
After I saw the gameplay: “;_;”
18/08/2009 at 15:46 overlordubiquitous says:
That looks quite crazy, and possibly awesome.
One point of note, that no-one seems to be picking up on – a FPS with a *female* protagonist. An element that’s probably far too overlooked for our own good, but important nevertheless.
I’m endeavouring to think of other examples – thus far I have Cate Archer, Chell, and then the list dies out. I suspect I’m missing at least a couple, but, still, quite a short list.
So, just as long as they don’t oversexualise Ms. Alice Drake, I might have a little shred of my faith in video games be restored.
18/08/2009 at 15:56 Reddy says:
It’s simply a painkiller clone (read: dumb fps), don’t expect anything remotely psychonautish.
18/08/2009 at 15:57 Marty Dodge says:
Someone really liked the dream bits of Max Payne so turned them into a game?
18/08/2009 at 16:04 Chizu says:
So this is the Painkiller Overdose guys?
I loved Painkiller, but Overdose always felt more like a mod than a commercial game. I hope this fares a little better, as I’m all for the mindless shooters like Painkiller.
It’s nice to just turn off your brain and shoot hundreds of baddies without cutscenes every through minutes to explain some new lot development.
18/08/2009 at 16:11 Xercies says:
You know the start of that video was pretty good and siturbing(despite the name which nearly nicks from Ashes to Ashes) but then when they showed what the shooting was like I turned off. Could of been quite the psycological horror game to be honest.
18/08/2009 at 16:29 Spludge says:
@Overlordubiquitous: You missed a couple of the console shooter heroines, Joanna Dark and the futuristic, converted-from-a-platformer Samus. Still a short list.
Maybe it’s a reflection on the stereotypical number of males in the hobby, and the first person perspective meant to embody the user (Think about how well Valve does that). Perhaps this is the wrong comments thread for that discussion. Che sera sera.
18/08/2009 at 16:37 A-Scale says:
Circle strafing while taking tons of hits and using ridiculous weapons. Maybe for some, but not for me.
18/08/2009 at 16:57 WJonathan says:
This could be hilariously bad. I’m rooting for it.
18/08/2009 at 17:25 CJohnson03 says:
But.. does it have a shuriken gun that also shoots lightning?
18/08/2009 at 18:10 Swaraj Thakker says:
Looks really creepy.
Really creepy…
Might be fun though.
18/08/2009 at 19:02 diebroken says:
@Spludge : I’d like to add Zaya to that list from Thief 2X: Shadows of the Metal Age. :)
18/08/2009 at 19:17 sockpuppetclock says:
Mindware Studios?!?! The same one that made Painkiller: Overdose?!! OH NO OH GOD OH NO OH GOD OH NO OH GOOOOD
18/08/2009 at 19:53 diebroken says:
@diebroken : Damn it, I forgot to mention Faith from Mirror’s Edge (note to self: pick up a copy of said game…).
18/08/2009 at 21:01 amoe says:
this is sad. the first 55 seconds of the trailer got nothing to do with the rest. i was hoping for something more psychological and clever but then it turned out to be just another FPS…
18/08/2009 at 23:35 Biz says:
haha that’s awesome
painkiller was great
19/08/2009 at 00:32 tapanister says:
Sometimes, blowing shit up in a Painkiller/Doom-esque way is all you need to have fun and blow off some steam. I’ll be sure to get this one.
19/08/2009 at 00:51 ZomBuster says:
Feels like a Painkiller mod, they even got a minigun/rocketlauncher combo.
19/08/2009 at 01:39 Meatloaf says:
Awww… It looked so good, and then someone started playing it. Ugh.
19/08/2009 at 03:13 Moses2k says:
I think someone has forgotten that Croteam owns.
19/08/2009 at 03:28 Jad says:
Alright I’ve decided I want two games: I want the creepy psychological/fantastical game of the first two-thirds of that video.
I also want another Painkiller.
At least I might get one of those wishes, from the looks of this. Now how about the first?
19/08/2009 at 06:28 vicx says:
No. I guess I’m not “interested in poorly imagined juxtapositions of media”. and thats what I took from the trailer. What was surprising is that the mood setting charcter development part was actually quite well done.
19/08/2009 at 09:04 spliter says:
so this is what is born when Painkiller and Psychonauts have a baby…
19/08/2009 at 09:09 Malagate says:
Ahh man, the first part of that video made it look super awesome, what with the eyes in the dark travelling through the corridor towards you…made me shiver that did.
The rest, with the circle strafing and gibbing with big guns…bleh. Bindun. A lot. I’d be more impressed if the weapons were a bit more abstract rather than looking like guns. Fighting dream creatures could be a lot more imaginative than it’s currently showing.
19/08/2009 at 11:57 mpk says:
If this was a B-Movie I’d be all excited in my pants. As a B-Game… not so much. Wonderful premise – face up to your demons and shoot them in the face – but the brief glimpses of game in there looked dodgy as hell.
The game would get extra points though if you feel like you’re floating and not walking while in the dream world, and if there are points when your character randomly panics and decides it can’t move and/or has no clothes on.