E3 2002Tork Impressions

During our visit to a batch of Microsoft developers, we met with members of Tiwak interactive. Formerly known as Yeti Interactive, the company was founded by ex-members of the Rayman and Rayman 2 development team. At the moment, Tiwak is hard at work on its first Xbox platformer, Tork, a third-person action platformer starring a multitalented little prehistoric dude on a mission to deal with an unpleasant sorcerer named Orgus, who attacked his village and kidnapped his father. Following an attack by the surly mage, Tork slaps on a helmet in homage to his old man and sets out to pay him back for all the trouble he's caused.

The gameplay in Tork will focus on action and fast combat and actually feature a score system that will come into play during the game by rewarding you with another life and access to secret levels. The tiny mask-wearing powerhouse will come packing a pair of bolas, which will serve as your main weapon in the game. They'll offer you two attack options--a short swipe or a longer ranged attack. You can also charge the attack by holding down the button for a bit. Tork will also have the ability to morph into three different animal forms for limited periods of time, and each will grant him special abilities and special attacks. The armadillo form will enhance his defense abilities, the Yeti form will enhance his attacks, and the flying squirrel (a rather eclectic selection from the animal kingdom) lets him fly. While the majority of the game will find you adventuring on foot, you'll also find segments in which Tork will also use other means of transportation, which range from his pet T-rex and a pteradactyl to an aerogyro and a submarine. You'll note that the last batch of travel options seem rather out of place in a game where the lead character is running around in animal skins and looks like 561516this . However, before you try to imagine a bizarre world where cave people operate heavy machinery, it would help to point out that the game does involve time travel. As the game progresses, Tork will hop eras in his quest for Orgus. You'll explore several themed eras, including the two we were able to see: a medieval time period and Tork's own prehistoric era.

Graphically, despite the early state of the code, the game looks quite good. Tork sports quite a bit of personality in his character design, with some nice detail on the moving bits of his helmets and bolas. We were able to check out his Yeti-form morph and caught the subtle detail of his fur and facial expressions as he went about bashing things. The enemies we encountered, prehistoric bugs in Tork's era and knights in the medieval era, were nicely detailed. The environments looked very good but were still a bit sparse.

In terms of gameplay, Tork is all about smacking or crushing anything that moves--just like the good old days of gaming when anything that looked remotely weird had to die. The control was already quite solid and bore more than a passing resemblance to the polished feel of the Rayman games. The Yeti form controlled equally well once you compensated for his lumbering gate.

Overall, Tork is looking very promising. The experience behind Tiwak's staff and the tight control evidenced in the demo of the game, which isn't due until spring 2003, bodes very well for the game. Look for more on the game in the future.