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Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas Hands-On Impressions

We spend some time with Atari's upcoming cartoon-inspired PC action game.

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At ECTS 2003, we were able to spend some time with Atari's upcoming third-person action game, Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas. As you might expect, in the game, you play as the titular sailor, who is armed with a curved sword and a few acrobatic feats. Surprisingly, the game's default control setup resembles that of Diablo or Dungeon Siege--there's an actual mouse cursor that you can left-click and hold on your destination, which lets you run continuously. Right-clicking your mouse button causes Sinbad to perform a cartwheel forward or backward depending on which direction he's moving, and the game's default control setup uses the Z and X keys on the keyboard to attack (Z performs a quick slashing attack, while X performs a thrust attack).

Standard slashes can be used to smash up everyone's favorite video game fixture, crates, and everyone's second-favorite video game fixture, barrels. These time-honored wooden containers can contain health-increasing items, as well as power items that increase Sinbad's "special" meter. Sinbad can use this meter to perform a spinning sword attack, as well as an improved version that turns his sword into a bolt of lightning with a longer attack range.

We played through a level that took place in an undersea cove. Sinbad and his enemies had, as you might expect, a simple, cartoonlike look to them set against plain backdrops intended to resemble those of an average Saturday-morning cartoon show. We fought against swarms of batlike gargoyles, as well as skeletal sailors that popped up out of the ground dressed in ragged pirate clothes and wielding curved swords. After valiantly dispatching an army of nefarious skeletons and dastardly crates, we reached the docks and set sail on Sinbad's ship, which apparently came under attack by ghostly pirates. It was then up to us to man the harpoon turret in a sequence that was very much like a standard arcade-style shooter on rails. It didn't seem especially difficult to gain passage to the docks, or to use the harpoon turret to dispatch the slow-moving pirate ghosts, as you might expect from a game that's clearly intended for younger audiences. Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas is scheduled for release later this year.

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