GC '07: Totems Impressions

10tacle Studios shows off an early work-in-progress version of its recently announced action adventure game in Germany.

LEIPZIG, Germany--Earlier today, during a visit to 10tacle Studios' booth at the 2007 Games Convention, we had an opportunity to attend a brief presentation on Totems. Announced for the PC and the Xbox 360 just last week, Totems is an action adventure game in which you'll assume the role of a parkour expert named Gia. We weren't told too much about Totems' story, but we were given a great demonstration of how incredibly agile the aforementioned protagonist is.

Gia's expertise in parkour comes from one of the four totem spirits whose powers she's able to use. Her agility comes from the monkey spirit, her speed comes from the cheetah spirit, and her combat skills come from the bear spirit. We weren't told what powers the songbird spirit will afford you, except that they have something to do with creativity. Interestingly, each of the four spirits is mapped to a different face button on the Xbox 360 controller, and so each button can be used to perform a massive number of different moves depending on the context in which you press it.

Using only the monkey button during our presentation, the player was able to navigate a number of different obstacles, including high walls, columns, wide gaps, and narrow ledges. The animation was seamless, and the one-button control system is purportedly possible because of how aware Gia and other characters in Totems are of their surroundings. This was demonstrated to us in a number of different ways. When slowly moving toward the corner of a rooftop, for example, Gia automatically stopped and leaned over the edge to look down, and when left standing idle next to a low wall, she casually brushed her hand along the top of it.

The anthropomorphic tigers that attacked Gia at one point were also very aware of the geometry around them, and were incorporating parkour-style wall jumps and the like into some of their own combat moves. Like Gia's, their moves were occasionally superhuman, including cat leaps and muscle-ups worthy of the Agency operatives in Crackdown.

We didn't get a whole lot of information from today's Totems session, but we saw just enough of the game to make us hungry for more. We look forward to bringing you additional information on this one just as soon as it becomes available.

11 Comments

  • maddox76

    Posted Jan 28, 2010 8:28 pm PT

    looks cool
    love parkour
    ill get it if it ever come out ?
    cos that dosnt says any date ?

  • Express_Diablos

    Posted Apr 8, 2009 12:38 pm PT

    Hmm wonder if the game is still in production.

  • fightgarr

    Posted Sep 29, 2008 10:53 am PT

    This has the potential to be the greatest game ever. Lets hope 10tacle does an awesome job.

  • Rizhall456

    Posted Aug 30, 2007 2:03 pm PT

    pakour? the next assassin's creed? =P (even though it sounds completely different >.>)

  • Faceless_Grunt

    Posted Aug 27, 2007 6:37 pm PT

    Looks interesting. Hopefully turns out to be a great game.

  • curua02

    Posted Aug 27, 2007 12:43 pm PT

    Show me a trailer; if those animations really are as snazzy as they say, I might look into getting this.

  • mashom

    Posted Aug 27, 2007 8:07 am PT

    looks good, let c what comes from inside....

  • mack10

    Posted Aug 27, 2007 12:45 am PT

    Well game developers are moving forward with the AI and stuff and i'm so glad. Its so important now to have believable and realistic characters in video games so they can pull you in...it just makes for better gaming. Like Assassin's Creed like fmobliv06 mentioned where Altari pushes people out of his way when walking between them, that's so much better than the PC character sliding out of the way when you run into them. There's room for improvement, even in AC from what we've seen so far, but its really cool, and this game looks like its incorporating similar mechanics. I'll track it, hopefully it'll be something worth waiting for.

  • Squirrelman5674

    Posted Aug 25, 2007 9:26 am PT

    cool. can't wait. Hopefully it wont suck.

  • fmobliv06

    Posted Aug 24, 2007 6:17 pm PT

    i came into this preview expecting Totems to be some crappy Live Arcade game, and i got a game that actually shows promise. sounds kind of like they lifted a few concepts from Assassin's Creed when it comes to controls though.

  • truemattyz

    Posted Aug 24, 2007 6:04 pm PT

    looks ace cant wait

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