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Galleon Preview
Mark Simons
00/12/0000
We take a look at Galleon, it has been a long time in development but is it looking any good?
Galleon is a very interesting title that we here at TVG have been anticipating for quite some time. The development team Confounding Factor was started by Toby Gard, the name may not ring any bells but you will certainly have heard of the game he helped create â“ Tomb Raider. After the first of Laraâs outings â“ which many regard as the best â“ Toby founded Confounding Factor and started work on Galleon which is an extension of some of the ideas first demonstrated in Tomb Raider.
The main protagonist is Captain Rhama Sabrier a hardy chap who is a dab hand with the sword and very good when it comes to leaping about in high places. The plot follows Rhama as he and his crew endeavour to find out what turned an entire shipâs crew into wood. A healer called Areliano found the ship and he sends his daughter, Faith, to accompany Rhama as he tries to find out what happened to the crew of the mysterious ship. Thus begins an epic adventure full of swashbuckling action, magic and platforming.
Essentially Galleon is a third person adventure; you travel over several different islands each with its own climate and inhabitants, both human and animal. The way in which you progress through the game should be rather non-linear however meaning that there will hopefully be an illusion of discovery throughout. Each of the islands will have numerous puzzles for you to solve and these should be very much linked to the landscape that surrounds you. Rhama is blessed with very good climbing skills due in part to a great animation system that allows him to accurately climb practically any surface as well as perform many leaps and grabs. A combination of physics and traditional animation methods coupled with some excellent blending techniques mean that all of Rhamaâs, and indeed all the other characters, actions look extremely fluid and natural, fitting in with the heavily stylised graphics of the game.
Rhama is smart and animation is context sensitive for instance if you jump for a ledge but land slightly short he will automatically grab the ledge and pull himself up. This smart animation extends to every aspect of gameplay you will encounter with Rhama, from swimming to jumping from the highest cliff and the combat system. Utilising a lock-on system you can smoothly run up to enemies and attack them, either with a simple slash or a combination of leaping and slicing, indeed whatever takes your fancy. The combination of lock-on and advanced animation means that fluid fights between multiple opponents can be easily achieved and will not only look good, but also be easy to play.
Although it has been in development for a long time we still do not know that much about the plot and the other characters that you will be able to take control of. Rhama seems to be the main focus and he seems to have a good balance of platforming skill and fighting muscle. Faith seems to be a more magical character, able to heal and use spells to aid Rhama and his crew. There is also a female ninja character called Mihoko, who we assume will be more stealthy than the others, probably by virtue of increased agility and an ability to move inconspicuously through the landscapes. We also presume that the combat for Mihoko will be markedly different than the sword fighting of Rhama.
Technology wise Galleon is very impressive, the animation system as we talked about is very advanced allowing for very smooth gameplay. During cutscenes you will be able to see some great facial animations that fit in with the stylised look of the game. The graphical style of Galleon is interesting, it is technically impressive with large draw distances and some glorious lighting effects but it is not realistic. It looks mature but the angular nature of the characters makes it look rather distinct, although it just occurred to me that the characters look akin to the style seen in TimeSplitters 2 â“ which is very impressive. Having a stylised rather than realistic look should help Galleon when it comes to being superseded in the technology stakes â“ a risk with development times this long â“ but the use of lighting and artistic quality displayed in the texture work and character design should ensure that Galleon makes an impact when it is released.
Perhaps the most impressive thing will be seeing everything come together, the environments are genuinely massive as are the puzzles and some of the enemies. Solving a puzzle that results in a huge graphical shift in the level coupled with some epic fights should ensure that there will be gaming moments etched on your mind after playing.
