Artificial Studios and Immersion Software & Graphics are developing a new title for the Xbox 360, Monster Madness, a 4-player cooperative online-enabled action game that promises to splash original gameplay onto the 360 like never before.
The story revolves around four friends, Zack, Carrie, Andy, and Jennifer who were all about to enjoy a party when some uninvited guests arrived. Monster Madness follows the story of these four kids as they try to kill the monsters before they take over the world!
Xbox Live is covered by the 4 player online coop mode, you can mix offline and Live players as you try to survive the Monster’s attack. Each character in the game has unique items and these items affects how the storyline rolls out. So you do have some replayability in the game, because you can play it all over again as a different character.
In the game you can find abandoned vehicles and mod them with deadly weapons and then, naturally, kill the monsters with these monstrous machines! The game has 5 unique environments for you to battle through. These range from the “Suburban Nightmare” to the aptly named “High School Hell. At the end of ach enormous level is a hideous boss. Take back your town from these evil monsters to complete this bizarre game.
Running on the “reality engine”, Monster Madness looks very impressive. This engine enables Artificial Studios to take full advantage of Shader Model 3.0, which means it includes high dynamic range rendering and fully dynamically lit & shadowed worlds, in other words, the game pack in some sweet graphics!
The best feature this game has is its 3D environments, its totally engrossing, nonstop fun. Aim in any direction, you can shoot up and down and all around as the monsters attack you from all sides. However, you can also utilize quick dodge-moves to avoid them. You play from a top down perspective which gives the game an original feeling to it. The gameplay is brilliant, you are constantly fighting, driving or chasing monsters, and the action is thoroughly good fun for both the young and the old.
To make killing easier you can get weapon parts by killing monsters and by finding them in your environments. Then, you can use these parts to build more powerful weapons and upgrade the ones that you already have. You can carry these customized weapons over between games, and find rare weapon parts at the greater difficulty levels to build the ultimate weapons.
Because this game is still in development it will have new features being added to it almost daily, so expect this game to have a lot more beef to the bones on show already. It’s slated for a 2006 release, so you may have to wait a while for it to be ready, but from what I’ve seen already, Monster Madness is definitely worth waiting for.
