I-8 E3 2005 Preshow Impressions

Before Insomniac Games became famous for its excellent, kid-friendly Spyro the Dragon and Ratchet & Clank games, the company created a first-person shooter for the PlayStation called Disruptor. It seems Insomniac will soon be getting back to its roots, judging by one of the brand-new games revealed at the impressive E3 2005 Sony press conference. Featuring World War II-style infantry combat along with an equal helping of horrific creatures--from zombies to scary spiderlike behemoths--this yet-unnamed first-person shooter's hook appears to be its great-looking, atmospheric visuals.

The minute-long demo consisted entirely of what looked like basic gameplay. You can tell that the game is far from being complete, since the character is armed with the same one automatic rifle throughout all the numerous gameplay sequences shown, and the action itself seems quite basic--this is straight-up run-and-gun combat. Still, a smooth frame rate and some impressive visual effects make this video quite suggestive of the power of Sony's next console. It certainly looks much, much better than anything of the sort on the PlayStation 2 and resembles the latest crop of cutting-edge PC shooters more than what you'd expect to see on a console. With that said, I-8 isn't as striking as the incredibly impressive demo for Killzone 2 that Sony also showed during its press conference.

Nothing about the plot or premise of the game has been revealed, which maybe isn't a surprise considering we didn't even get the name of the game from the press conference. Still, look at the volume of troops in the video, how the broken-down cars get rocked side to side from explosions, and some of those creatures, and you'll see that this looks like it has a lot of bite to it. Insomniac has built a reputation for making games with a lot of charm and personality, so you'd never really expect the company to come out with something like this. But, who knows, maybe being clever for so long has caused the company to want to bust out with something a little more mature-themed and unbridled. Check out the video to see for yourself, and stay tuned to GameSpot for more information.