CES 2001Malice Impressions

During Bill Gates' unveiling of the Xbox, which took place towards the end of his keynote address, Seamus Blackley took the wraps off of a 3D action game currently in development at UK-based Argonaut. Called Malice: A Dark and Comic Fiery Tale, the game appears to be a typical platformer with what's easily the best use of lighting and shadows seen in any game to date.

Supposedly, you assume the role of a girl named Alice. Alice, as well as the rest of her surroundings, are all rendered in a very cartoony fashion, with vivid detail and bright colors being the norm. Alice herself has huge green eyes, short red hair, and carries a hammer that's clearly too big for her small stature. The demo of Malice took place in a single room populated by giant pipes and with a floor made of cracked marble tiles. Skittering across the floor were a number of gigantic cockroaches that, despite their appearance, seemed to be harmless. Regardless, Blackley immediately took control of Alice, using her hammer to mercilessly crush the roaches, causing gobs of green slime to explode away from their decimated exoskeletons. Alice can use her hammer in many different ways, including swinging it in an overheard arch and sweeping it horizontally to clear out nearby enemies. The hammer can even be transformed into what Blackey described as a "death roller," which looks and acts like a mini steamroller.

But standing in stark contrast to the outlandish nature of the rest of the game are Malice's truly amazing graphics. The demo shown by Blackley was beautifully lit, and boasted objects - inlcuding Alice herself - that cast shadows that moved, bent, and folded in complete real-time. The room's colored lighting wasn't overbearing either, but instead had a natural glow that's been nonexistent in the current generation of games. The entire visual presentation of Malice is impressive. At many times during Blackley's demonstration, we were convinced that the real-time demo was prerendered. Even more surprising is that Malice was running on an Xbox dev kit that supposedly only has 20 percent of the processing power of the final console.

Malice is scheduled to release alongside the Xbox this fall. In the meantime, be sure to take a look at the attached screenshots of the game, and trust us, none of them are prerendered.