Haven: Call of the King impressions

Traveller's Tales' upcoming action game, Haven: Call of the King , has quickly found its way on most players gaming radars since Midway first announced this past May that it would be publishing the game. Best known for its work on the Genesis, SNES, PlayStation, Saturn, N64, PlayStation 2, and Xbox with high-profile licenses such as Disney (Mickey Mouse, Toy Story, A Bug's Life), Sonic R, Sonic 3D Blast, and, most recently, Crash Bandicoot, the UK-based developer will be shifting gears for Haven, which will mark its first original game in quite some time. Though first announced in early May, the game was shown in playable form at E3 later that month because Traveller's Tales has been working on it for nearly three years now by funding the development itself. We had a chance to check out the PlayStation 2 version of the game during a visit to Traveller's Tales' UK studio in Knutsford, England. Featuring a deep story, polished and varied gameplay, and detailed graphics, thanks to a graphics engine that does some incredible things on the PlayStation 2 hardware, Haven looks extremely promising.

The game's plot centers around a young man named Haven, who, like all his people, has been enslaved by an evil lord named Vetch following the king's departure on a crusade. To ensure his slaves' compliance, Vetch has infected them all with a deadly virus that will kill them if they escape. Although Haven's situation is about as dire as it gets, there is a sliver of hope in the form of an old legend revolving around an ancient bell whose tones will summon the people's king. Dreams of the bell haunt Haven's sleep and eventually drive him to undertake an epic quest that will span worlds in order to summon the king and free his people.

Haven: Call of the King looks like your standard 3D platformer. You'll control Haven from a third-person view and do all the sorts of things you'd expect to do in a platformer, such as collecting items, smashing jars, and flipping levers. However, spend a bit of time with the game and you'll find that Haven's platforming elements are just a small part of what the game has to offer. For instance, while playing in the third-person view, you'll encounter action sequences that are more along the lines of shooters such as Contra rather than Mario or Sonic. You'll also find yourself piloting a variety of vehicles that you'll use to traverse land, sea, air, and space.

When controlling Haven you'll find that the game's controls feel comfortable and are intuitively laid out. You'll be able to jump, double jump, and do a bash attack. An energy shield that you'll be able to trigger will protect you from harm until its meter runs out. You'll also be able to use it to attack foes when crouching in order to silently sneak up on them. Your main attack will come from a drilling laser that Haven, being a rather industrious slave, has modified. You'll be able to fling it like a yo-yo to take out enemies. You'll also be able to use it to swing on objects to access out-of-reach places. During the shooting sequences, you'll collect power-ups that will let you fire different types of energy blasts, such as ricocheting bullets and blasts that cover a wide area. When you're piloting a vehicle, the game sticks to a basic setup that is accessible.

Haven's varied gameplay is reined in by the game's structure, which will be determined by its story. Real-time sequences--which use the game's engine--will not only move the game's plot along but also give you an idea of what to expect from the gameplay. While the sequences incorporated into our demo weren't done yet, their informational fly-throughs and deliberate camera angles did a nice job of communicating what we needed to keep our eyes on as we played through a level.

Graphically Haven is pretty amazing, even in its unfinished state. The years Traveller's Tales has spent developing the game's graphics engine have resulted in one of the most impressive graphics engines we've seen on the PlayStation 2 The game manages to transition smoothly from third-person gameplay to piloting a vehicle, and the camera seamlessly moves in and out of the onscreen action, such as by pulling back into outer space after focusing on characters interacting on land.

The fractally generated landscapes showed off a great deal of detail that you could still make out for quite a distance as you backed away. The various worlds you'll encounter in Haven will sport distinctive appearances and feature native life that reflects its surroundings. Details in the various character models are well done and are made all the more impressive by the sheer volume of life-forms you'll encounter. For example, one level found us confronted by a seemingly never-ending horde of beetles that were all modeled and animated very well as they filled the screens. The worlds themselves feature the distinctive touch of noted artist Rodney Matthews whose style blends beautifully with the versatile graphics engine, lending the game a distinct look and feel. The game's visual atmosphere is helped along by the day and weather cycles that you'll experience in the game.

As for Haven himself, you'll find his character model to be nicely detailed, with clothing and accessories that move realistically with his actions. His eyes and mouth are fully modeled, allowing for a wide range of facial expressions, which add quite a bit of personality to his look. When left to his own devices, Haven will run through a series of idle animations, shifting from foot to foot and looking around. However, if he's idling outside and it starts raining, he'll pull his hood on to keep from getting wet and leave it on until the rain stops. Granted it's nothing earth-shattering, but it adds to his personality. Adding to the game's already-impressive look are a host of special effects, such as lighting and real-time shadows that rarely caused the early build of the game we played to falter from its high frame rate. However, the most impressive feature is likely to be the game's loading, or lack thereof. While still hard at work optimizing the code, Traveller's Tales intends for the game's loading to be invisible to players after the initial startup, thanks to carefully managed memory usage and constant streaming. While unfinished, the demo of the game we played didn't noticeably load once we were playing.

In addition to the PlayStation 2 version of Haven, Midway and Traveller's Tales will be bringing the game to the GameCube, Xbox, and Game Boy Advance. Traveller's Tales intends to push the GC and Xbox hardware as far as it's pushing the PS2 hardware. Both versions of the game were still quite early but were looking incredibly sharp already. As for the Game Boy Advance version of the game, Traveller's Tales views the portable incarnation of the game as the perfect opportunity to put the team's finely honed 2D gaming experience to work and craft a game that offers as varied a gameplay experience as Haven's polygonal cousin.

From what we've seen so far, Haven: Call of the King seems to be living up to its promise. The game's epic story, varied gameplay, and stunning graphics are showing a nice layer of polish that reflects its time in development. At the moment, the PS2 and Xbox versions of the game are set to ship later this year, with the GameCube version to follow next year. Look for more on the game in the coming months, and keep an eye out for a video interview with Traveller's Tales.