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Constantine Hands-On

We dipped our hands in holy water before tangling with this new movie-licensed game.

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Demons, half-demons, evil humans, whatever... John Constantine's down to rumble. Keanu Reeves currently depicts the witty paranormal sleuth/gunfighter (first seen in the Hellblazer series of comic books) in the Warner Bros. feature film--but while Reeves' wooden countenance is gracing big screens nationwide at the moment, perhaps Warner Bros.' new Constantine game for mobile will be even more entertaining than the motion picture, what with its overhead-style action adventure gameplay. There's no telling what kind of impact the movie's going to have on the masses, but the playtime we got with the game indicated that Reeves may have a promising career in mobile to fall back on, just in case he's spent all that money he earned from A Walk in the Clouds and Little Buddha.

I need an old priest, a young priest, and John Constantine.
I need an old priest, a young priest, and John Constantine.

Constantine shares the movie's film-noir setting and scenery, so most of the action through the first couple of levels takes place on the uncomfortably dark streets of Los Angeles or in a club that's tricked out like some kind of Victorian bordello. Constantine moves easily through the game's environments, which are typically set up to guide you through a series of objectives. For instance, we had to make it through the club in one piece to earn a chance to deliver a relic to a character named Papa Midnite. Most of the demonic denizens didn't hassle us at this early stage in the game, but if we bumped into one accidentally, we'd have to fight him or her off with Constantine's superpowered fists.

According to the developer, Constantine eventually gains access to more-puissant weapons, such as a shotgun imbued with holy powers and ampoules of holy water. Odds are you won't want to venture into the nastiest of Constantine's eight levels--which include such delightful venues that represent the depths of hell--without some increased firepower, though. Constantine will also have access to some magic powers through a pop-up menu, like a spell that will fry a demon instantly. If you're the kind of player who prefers to skip the preliminaries and just wants to start killing things, Constantine will also offer an arena mode, where the idea is to put the kibosh on 52 "half-breeds" before they tear you to pieces. On the other hand, the story mode makes the most of its objective-driven gameplay. For instance, we had to perform an exorcism fairly early on by playing a Simon-like memory minigame. It's great to see that the maker of Constantine wants to add depth to the experience, even if it's relatively simple.

Before you go to hell, you'll get some practice in John's apartment.
Before you go to hell, you'll get some practice in John's apartment.

Constantine's presentation looks like it will also be refreshingly high quality. The build we played on the N-Gage QD was full of the kinds of little touches that can mark the difference between a good game and a great one. For instance, if Constantine's just sitting around, he'll light up a cigarette while he's waiting. By the same token, vaporizing a demon is a lot more satisfying when you can see it turn into a little pile of powder before your very eyes. You rarely see details like these in mobile games, so they stand out boldly whenever they appear. The environments and character art are less remarkable, but they're still good, and they're quite large, to boot.

We really liked what we saw from Constantine. By all indications, Warner Bros. Online is putting a lot of attention into this game, and it seems likely to be an extremely impressive debut for the new division. We'll have a full review when the game comes out.

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