EyeToy: AntiGrav Impressions

EyeToy: AntiGrav is the upcoming PlayStation 2 game, which is the third game to use the EyeToy peripheral. While the first two games to support the USB camera peripheral, EyeToy: Play and EyeToy: Groove, have been solid showcases for the device, AntiGrav marks a significant evolution in these titles. Although we got our first look at the game at this year's E3, Sony and developer Harmonix have refined the title even more. We got an updated look at the game at a recent press event that showed off Harmonix's additional work, which has added an impressive layer of polish to the already promising game.

For those unfamiliar with EyeToy: AntiGrav, the game is a departure from the minigame-oriented approach taken by Groove and Play. AntiGrav takes a more conventional approach to its experience. The game is essentially a futuristic action game that puts you in control of one of eight characters, each with their own unique attributes and abilities. You'll be challenged to explore areas while riding atop a hoverboard and earning points by performing combos and tricks.

The game's control scheme relies on the EyeToy peripheral to track your movement, but it dispenses with the gimmick of projecting your image on the screen. You'll still get visual cues on your position and movement from an indicator in the lower right-hand corner of the screen, but you won't see your mug anywhere in the game as you play. While it's a bit daunting at first, given how accustomed we've become to seeing ourselves when playing the previous EyeToy games, the system ends up offering a seamless immersive experience.

Once you have the game target your face and compensate for your movement, you'll be off and rolling. You'll choose from one of eight riders, four male and four female, and head out. You'll find five large areas to explore, with several different paths through them, and you'll progress through the paths by earning a set amount of points during your runs. While steering your character through his or her runs is cool, earning points by performing tricks and combos is where the EyeToy control scheme shines. The system is simple and just requires you to move your arms up, down, and around to perform tricks. You'll even be able to modify the tricks by performing grabs and adjusting your position as you pull them off. For example, you'll initiate a grab by bending low and performing the trick by moving one of your arms above your head. Another way to perform combos is by holding your arms at low, mid, and high positions, which has your character do the same thing in order to collect icons at those levels. The basic system works well and makes for a pretty fair workout by game standards.

The graphics in the game are a solid assortment of appropriately spacelike locales and futuristic environments with all manner of rails and jumps for you to zip off of. The animation on your character is pretty good albeit a little too stiff in a few spots, but it handled the movement pretty well overall. The work-in-progress version we played was still a little rough in a few spots in the frame rate department, but otherwise it moved smoothly.

The audio in the game is one of the highlights, as the use of music by Apollo 440 adds to the experience. The UK-based group has crafted five original pieces of music for the game, which actually becomes a legion of new tracks, thanks to a music mix that alters the track as you play based on what you're doing in the game. The combination of the strong tracks, which definitely hold up with some of Apollo 440's catchier tracks, and the music mix add quite a bit to your experience in the game.

All told, EyeToy: AntiGrav is shaping up to be an impressive new kind of EyeToy game. The game's conventional structure and gameplay make it more of a proper game than the previous EyeToy games. EyeToy: AntiGrav is currently slated to ship for the PlayStation 2, packed with the EyeToy peripheral, this November.