Voodoo Nights is a stylized action extravaganza being developed by Mindware Studios that looks set to deliver a truly original third person shooter experience.
In the game you play two reckless cops. Jack and Samuel are on the trail of a deadly gang who mix guns with Voodoo magic. The two cops have a trick (or dead chickens?) up their sleeve as they too can do Voodoo. This startling revelation certainly adds another layer to this game and will definitely spice up the gameplay. Talking about gameplay, this looks to be based on fast, dynamic, teamwork fighting where keeping the team together is of the most importance. Teamplay can be used to wipe out the gang and to keep you alive for example, when one cop runs for shelter, the other gives covering fire or when Jack levitates an enemy out from cover with a Voodoo spell, his partner can shoot the enemy down. Voodoo Nights is fast, furious and visually impressive.
If you hadn’t noticed Voodoo Nights is a ‘Buddy Game’ concept. Basically two heroes working together to bring down the enemy, think of Starsky and Hutch and then throw in Marilyn Manson into that disturbing picture and that’s the game! At the core of gameplay is the fast coordination of two characters. Players directly control one character (they can switch between the two at any time) and can assign simple commands to the second character (“go here”, “attack him” and “cover me”).
Picture in picture works great with the two-player gameplay. Player’s can always see what both characters are looking at or what they are up to. Without this feature the concept to this game would have been lackluster to say the least; however with it, it seems to light up the Pagan dark and set the game on fire. When a situation is really challenging, a player can use the DeadTime mode, which helps him to control his actions in slow motion mode. Is it just me or does “bullet time” get called so many things these days? DeadTime looks like another Voodoo power that could be a lot of fun to play around with, but whether it’s a novelty feature or a necessity remains to be seen.
Graphically the game looks to be grappling the power of the 360 quite well, with epic gunfights looking like something straight out of Hollywood movies. The environment is destructible, with the latest rag-doll physics being implemented to show you what happens if you shoot a man with a shotgun in the back.
If Xbox Live can be used for the “buddy” concept of the game then this will definitely be a hit, however just playing it alone looks to be an enjoyable experience, with its release slated for 2006 the developer’s have got plenty of time to refine and define this game — and with the foundations they’ve got so far, this should be a stunner!