A while ago, The Grinder was announced for the Wii. High Voltage Software noticed the tragic lack of Left 4 Dead style games on the Wii and decided to make a first person shooter in a similar vein. Well, a few months later, they announced plans to release the game for the Xbox 360, too. Since then, it seems that the 360 version has become the main focus while the Wii version seems to have been put on a temporary hold. The 360 version is pretty different from the Wii version, too. Where the Wii version will still be a first person shooter, the 360 version is a top-down shooter and a spiritual successor to Hunter: The Reckoning. The fine people at High Voltage were nice to give Holly and me an early look at the 360 version.
I haven’t played Hunter, so that didn’t really come to mind when I was playing The Grinder. It’s a top-down shooter with melee attacks and a focus on multiplayer play, and it reminded me of Gauntlet. There are plenty of interesting weapons to choose from, including but not limited to a multi-directional laser and a lightning gun. You can transform into a werewolf to really kick some ass if the situation calls for some mauling. (The final version will feature multiple transformations, but only one was available in the demonstration.) Money is shared but the upgrades you buy with them are not so you can balance all players evenly or be like a chump I was playing with and just buy everything for yourself. It’s fun with multiple players, but I don’t really know what kind of single player experience it would be, honestly. I get the impression it wouldn’t be so much fun alone, but I haven’t had the opportunity to really test that theory.
The game is pretty far from finished (it won’t be out until some time next year, at the earliest) so everything is pretty unpolished at this point, but the graphics have a really cool grainy film effect. It’s even dynamic and gets more or less intense in certain situations. Even at this stage, The Grinder is pretty visually impressive. Keep an eye on this game, because it definitely has potential.
Holly: I really enjoyed the character design for this game, which caught my eye the minute we entered the private viewing room for High Voltage Software. I could see the proud glint in their eye as I pointed it out; they were certainly proud of the aesthetic they achieved. I hope it remains in the final product. I’ve included some screen shots below, but since they’re kind of rough and don’t do the character art justice, I also have snap of the business card they gave us, which has the same images as the posters that adorned the booth.
The Grinder doesn’t have a publisher yet, and as Rhody pointed out, the Wii version of the game has been put on the back burner for a bit while they push the XBOX 360 and PS3 versions forward, but it’s a game I can see myself anticipating, should they work all the kinks out. I was reminded of Marvel: Ultimate Alliance as I watched Rhody play the demo; the four person isometric-ish top-down style was very similar to that, an observation our demonstrator seemed to appreciate. From what I understand there will be an online co-op multiplayer experience for this game, but they are as yet undecided on a versus mode, as the game is still in its early stages. This also accounts for the rough visuals, which they promise will be better by their projected 2011 release. Check ‘em out in the gallery below.
