Hands-onDeathrow

We recently had a chance to stop by the Ubi Soft offices to try out Deathrow for the Xbox. Currently in development at SouthEnd Interactive, Deathrow is essentially based on a sport whose main objective is for two teams made up of four players to score as many goals against each other as possible. However, Deathrow incorporates a twist to the traditional sports-style gameplay by incorporating a combat element that lets you knock out members of the opposing team.

There are a number of different modes to choose from, including a conquest mode that essentially functions as Deathrow's season mode. The individual statistics of your players will improve as you continue to use them throughout the season, and you'll earn money that can be used to unlock additional teams. However, the conquest mode will give you a few twists and turns by forcing you to complete objectives that go beyond simply scoring goals. For example, at one point in the game, you'll be asked to keep one member of your team--who also happens to be the nephew of an important individual--alive over the course of a match. If he dies, then you've lost. Other secondary objectives can be even more difficult--in one match, you might have to avoid being knocked out entirely, which you'll find is not an easy task.

Unfortunately, we didn't get a chance to play through much of the conquest mode, but we did get a taste of the game's versus mode, which splits the screen vertically. Deathrow supports up to four players on one Xbox, but if you're not particularly fond of split-screen, then you can get eight Xboxes, link them together, and then bring in eight televisions for some full-screen multiplayer Deathrow action.

The gameplay is pretty straightforward. Most of your time will be spent running toward the goal with glowing disc in hand, looking for the opportunity to score, and while you're doing so, either a green line or a red line will appear on the screen. The green line indicates where other teammates are in the arena and if you can make a clear pass to them. The red line reveals the path for a shot on goal, making it easy to determine whether or not it will be blocked by members of the opposing team or by obstacles in the arena. However, you'll quickly realize that your computer-controlled teammates can handle most of the dirty work. They can score goals and defend your own goals, but more importantly, they have a better chance of finding the disc in the arena and scoring cheap goals. Meanwhile, you can spend your time distracting multiple computer opponents with your fists, making it even easier for your comrades to lead you to victory.

The combat element in Deathrow is relatively basic at the moment. Characters on each team were able to perform a flurry of kicks and punches, but nothing that was overly spectacular. If you happen to knock out an opponent, or if you're the one who gets knocked out cold, then you'll be forced to stay out of the game for a few seconds. This can be useful, especially if you successfully knock out more than one opponent. If you feel like your NPC teammates aren't doing enough or that they're not playing good defensive, you can tell them to become more aggressive or to sit back near the goal and prevent any opponents from getting into the area.

As far as graphics go, they looked solid even in the split-screen mode. Character models are all pretty detailed, though not quite to the extent of the models that were shown in some of the earlier shots of the game. The one environment we saw looked like a space station area with a central core and windows that looked out into space--nothing too spectacular. We'll get a much better look at the game when it's shown at this year's E3.