E3 2010 Hands-On: Splatterhouse

So how does this revitalization look? Well, let's say that there is a reason E3 is suppose to be an 18+ show. The trailers placed out in the wilds of the internet are just under a perfect representation of how gore-filled and blood-soaked Splatterhouse is going to be. In fact I would venture to say that all of those assets were "blood orgy lite" compared to actual gameplay. I mean the way you heal and charge your magic/special abilities is by absorbing the blood of the fallen into your skin.

Amazingly gore-ific visuals aside, how does it handle? If you have played God of War or Darksiders, you have the basic overview of the game play structure. You have a big hulking mass of a main character to control and you run around smashing things to find your dear love. It is very straight forward and Namco doesn't play around with it at all; you get what you expect. So don't go looking for anything too new in forms of game play.

Well, ok, that isn't entirely true. During my playthrough of the demo, I got to a place where it seemed it would have ended. I fell through a floor and everything faded to black. When the screen came back up I got the nice throwback to the original 1988 Splatterhouse. That being, when the screen returns, Nick says something along the lines of "This is familiar" and then you get a short side scrolling smash-em-up with the high end graphics. Think like what they did with Street Fighter IV - motion on a 2D plane, but with all 3D characters and environments.

Time was limited on the demo for Splatterhouse, but from what I did get to play and explained above, the only thing greater than my anticipation for the game is the level of gore and viscera in the game. It only took them a 22 years to get it done in 3D and to the level of fun (read: violence and gore) we all expect from a game titled Splatterhouse. Halloween is going to be filled with blood, and I am not talking just the Saw films.