Mindjack Updated Impressions

Mindjack's premise is an interesting one, even though it may take awhile to wrap your mind around it. We saw it at the Electronic Entertainment Expo this year, and it was difficult to get a handle on what was actually going on when we were let loose to figure things out on our own. Square Enix came by our office to show us the same demo once again but was able to walk us through the intricacies of the game and set the story up for us a bit better. At its basic level, Mindjack was described as a hybrid perpetual multiplayer game within a single-player environment. If you're not really sure what that means, then read on or view the interview below.

Before delving into specifics of the gameplay, the story follows Jim Corbin, a member of the FIA--a federal agency--who is in charge of tracking down a woman named Rebecca Weiss. Early in the game, when he finds her, they are both attacked by Nerkas soldiers. These soldiers are affiliated with a military group that is part of a technology company of the same name. You play as Jim Corbin who must protect Rebecca and find out why they're being targeted. The demo level we saw was set in an airport in San Mira. The place was littered with enemy soldiers and drones, as well as civilians who were all conveniently heavily armed. The year is 2031, so there's definitely a futuristic feel to the area, even though some of the civilian's clothes may suggest another era. We saw some juiced-up guy sporting a very pink tank top and some butt-hugging underwear.

An important element of the story revolves around a headset that was invented by Nerkas, who used it for practical applications like allowing people to turn on the television or use the microwave. However, once the military got a hold of it and used it to control the minds of people that wore these headsets, this technology was then leaked, so that any person wearing one could be hacked into and used. This is a major component of the game because when you play in your single-player campaign, you can hack into practically anyone and have him or her do your bidding. For example, we watched as Jim hacked into a couple of soldiers who then turned on their own. You can have up to three slaves working for you until an area is cleared or they die from injury. There's also a timer on how often you can hack, so you can't just keep hopping around. If you want to jump into someone else's body, you can do that too. Using the bumper buttons, you can pick and choose which civilians in the area you want to mentally control. Your body is taken over by the computer AI, and you can control a drone or a random civilian. If you die in another body, you'll be sent back to your own, so you're essentially using others as a temporary meat shield.

The multiplayer portion of the game occurs all the time. If you're online hosting your own game, you can have up to five other players join in on your single-player campaign. When they come in, they are assigned to either the blue or red team. The blue team means that they will help you cooperatively; if they're on the red team, they are likely hacking into enemy soldiers and bosses to take you out. You'll continue to make progress in your single-player campaign and earn extra experience by defeating live players. Whatever experience these other players earn in this hacking mode can be taken back with them when they play their own single-player game. If you want to join in someone else's game, you can enter the hacking mode from the main menu.

The experience you earn can be put toward arts, which enable you to equip certain skills to make hacking easier. An example we were given showed an ability that let us become invisible to players on the map, making it obviously harder for them to find us. These talents enable you to customize your character as you progress through the game. We were told that the campaign will last about 10 hours, and you can select any scene to play in once you've completed the area.

We're curious to see how this game shapes up as we only had a chance to play it at E3. The multiplayer within the single-player campaign is intriguing, but from our last experience with the game, the controls need to be tightened. We'll be sure to update you with more information as soon as it becomes available. Mindjack is set to come out in October on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.