Project Origin: Shootage Footage
Since the previous post was eye-rolling at a game's unfortunate name, we'll let Project Origin off from its RPS-traditional moniker-mocking and just deal with it seriously. Or, at least, as seriously as we ever get. Monolith have released some "Pre-Beta" footage of their forthcoming not-sequel-but-yes-but-no to their FEAR shootage. You'll find it, along with second-by-second analysis, beneath the cut.
But firstly - "Pre-Beta" footage? Man, that's an interestingly insecure stance, as if they want to show people something but want to make sure there's an out in case people don't like it. I mean, obviously it's early footage. It's early. It's footage. It's early footage.
And I don't know why they're being so paranoid, as it's the best Project Origin footage they've released yet anyway...
Let's break this down:
00:01: "May be inappropriate for children". I bloody well hope so.
00:04: "Pre-beta footage". Yes, we know. Actually, another thing about "Pre-Beta". It's a completely meaningless term. Well, it's not - Beta and Alpha and whatever have specific uses, but they're uses which have been blurred into absolute nothingness by people applying them wherever they feel like. In this case, for a preview video, it's particularly ill-thought out. It's marketing. Since most people don't know what "Beta" means, they'll just shrug and judge it anyway. Using a phrase which didn't originate with a bunch of coders - like, y'know - "Unfinished" or "Early" and you'd be clearer. Pah. Er... tad grumpy this morning. Don't judge me though - this is Pre-Tea-ta Gillen.
00:11: Running up a staircase and...
00:12: Hard-cut into some shooting! Big FEAR-styled explosion bubble echoing out. This shit just got real, etc.
00:15: Fucking hell! We appear to be in some kind of ED-209 exoskeleton. Except the image of the robot on the HUD makes it clear that you don't look anything like ED-209 at all, even if the big machine-gun arms to either side of your cockpit may suggest otherwise.
00:17: Not-ED-209 fucks shit up with multiple rocket launchers. That's the way to do it.
00:18: Another FEAR-Trope gets shown off, with the slow-motion in action. It looks like slow-moving motion.
00:24: Worth looking at the billowing smoke in the background of this shot, because it's pretty. Aww.
00:26: Not-ED-209 firing its rocket-barrage thing again.
00:29: Some kind of glowing thing running towards the camera. The first sight of something obviously supernatural in tone in this video. Looks a bit like the Aliens in Cacoon when they take off their people suit. 80s-film Spoilerz!
00:31: I have no idea what happened here. It looked like tadpoles fired out in a stream, except they were tadpoles.... OF DEATH. Like that scene in The Filth where LA gets attacked by a killer bukkake wave of 2m spermatozoa which burrow into any and all women's bodies. 00s-vertigo-comix Spoilerz!
00:33: Red sniper beam coming down from the top of a rooftop. That looks like a fun level, because sniper ones always are, red-beams or not.
00:35: Extreme slow-motion carnage which gives plenty of time to examine the blood effects. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it seems reminiscent of the digital-splatter effects currently popular in films which can't be bothered dragging a load of Corn-syrup around on set.
00:42: That phut-phut-phut sound effect seems similar to the high-powered nail-firing gun thing which was at least forty-awesomes. Good to see that come back.
00:46: Lots of hard-cut with shooting. Whole sequence ends with glowy thing jumping at the camera.
00:59: "PROJECT ORIGIN" That's a bit of an unfortunate name, innit?
Overall: Project Origin is looking set to be a first-person shooter.