Hands-onPanzer Dragoon Orta

At Microsoft's X02 event, Sega showed off two new levels of its forthcoming shooter Panzer Dragoon Orta, which featured great graphics and also gave us a better feel for the variety in the gameplay. The pre-alpha levels were still early and featured incomplete elements such as some half-finished enemy AI and some graphical elements that still need tweaking. However, despite lacking the polish seen in the game's earlier E3 demo in May, these new levels impressed because of the gameplay they showed off.

The first new level follows along a river that runs the length of a valley bordered by a thick forest. The majority of the enemies erupt from organic constructs that continue to spawn them until they are destroyed. During our trip down the river, we hit a branching point, much like in Panzer Dragoon Zwei, that let us head down an alternate path by staying as far to the right as we could. The new path carried up the side of the valley wall that boxed in the river we were following. We were accosted there by yet another batch of enemies, this time featuring a new opponent--a bizarre manta ray-like creature. After following the valley wall, we descended to the water again, this time to a stretch of water that featured overhanging trees that were home to nests of pesky enemies that would drop from the foliage as we passed underneath them.

Eventually we ended up in a section of the river that was protected by a canopy of trees and served as home to a very unfriendly mid-boss. The centipedelike creature's body was protected by armor that needed to be blown off, much like a boss from Phantasy Star Online, before it could be dispatched. Following our ordeal, our trek through the level then took us behind a series of waterfalls that eventually delivered us to the level's end boss, a massive terror that looked like a genetic experiment gone horrible awry. The monster bore a fleeting resemblance to one of the first bosses encountered in Panzer Dragoon Saga for the Saturn, thanks to its egg sac-like appendages. At the end of the level we were ranked according to a variety of factors, much like in the Saturn games. Earning higher grades will require a fair amount of discipline and accuracy as well as actual practice.

The level after initially appeared to be a bit of a downer. We started flying out above the clouds and were underwhelmed by the sparse amount of detail. Our complaints about the lack of activity were silenced pretty quickly, though, when we found ourselves in the middle of a group of airships eager to smoke themselves a dragon and rider. A few well-placed lock-on attacks and a berserker rage later, the skies were safe--but soon presented us with a new hazard, an enemy unit that was vulnerable only in a specific point. In order to target and do damage to this enemy, we had to adjust our speed to position ourselves properly. Following the new enemies, we tore through a heavily armed fortress in the sky that we eventually attacked.

Although the new levels looked great and featured impressive bits of eye candy, they were still early, which left us wondering how much more developer Smilebit is going to pull off before the game ships. The gameplay is solid and a refreshing mix of the previous Panzer games, though, and we hope the full game is reasonably long. Look for more on the game soon. Panzer Dragoon Orta is set to ship this fall for the Xbox.