Hands-onGunvalkyrie

We recently got our hands on a playable version of Gunvalkyrie, and we've been playing quite a bit of it. This has allowed us to learn a good bit more about the game than we'd previously known, in regards to its basic structure. Gunvalkyrie, it seems, is a mission-based game--you progress through a series of scenarios, with more becoming available the further in you get. You'll often have a choice of missions to take on, as multiple new missions are usually unlocked whenever you clear one. We can also confirm that there is more than one playable character in the game. There are two available in the game's early stages, both of whom have been seen in movies and screenshots. Kelly is the principle character, and she's the female soldier who's been most frequently featured in Sega's media updates. Saburota is the second character, and he boasts the sleeker samurai-like exosuit. Kelly is much more maneuverable, and Smilebit recommends her for novice players. Saburota is less agile, but his default weapons do much more damage.

There's quite a bit you can do between missions. You earn cash (called "GVP") after each successful mission, and you can use it to upgrade your characters' weapons and exosuits (or "gearskins") or purchase altogether new items. You're able to upgrade many different aspects of your weapons, ranging from the lock-on speed to the damage output. In regard to exosuits, you're able to increase their fuel capacities, their shield ratings, and the like. Fuel, for the record, is what dictates how often you can jump and boost. You'll never run out of it, though it takes a few seconds to replenish after you execute longer jumps or dashes.

From a gameplay standpoint, Gunvalkyrie doesn't seem to have changed a great deal since 2817665the last time we saw it . Its "unique" control scheme is essentially unchanged, and it forces you to approach the game on its own terms. In other words, you shouldn't expect to play Gunvalkyrie as you would any other third-person 3D game. Combat revolves around thrusts and boosts, both of which you can execute quite well. The typical battle is as follows: You'll get surrounded by a horde of creatures, at which time you thrust into the air and point the camera downward, in the direction of the horde below. You then proceed to pelt them with whatever weapon you have equipped. Though we haven't spent that much time with the game yet, we can confidently say that this is indeed the closest a game has come to making us feel like we're guys strapped to huge jetpacks, wielding enormous superpowerful guns. Those prone to motion sickness should be wary of the up-and-down dynamics, though, which aren't helped by the extremely oversensitive camera. In fact, if we were to pick out one flaw in the game, it's that the camera is too twitchy. Since you'll be aiming with it most of the time, it can get pretty irritating.

Still, the 70-percent-complete build we have is looking pretty sharp, overall. Though there are some spots with some sketchy-looking textures, the world overall is quite cool, and the eye candy is applied pretty consistently. The audio, in one particular area, feels like a static-ridden, reverb-washed mash. Hopefully Smilebit has some plans for it. In any event, we'll have a full preview next week, so enjoy the media in the meantime.