Dark Escape 3D Impressions and Gameplay

If you have been reading this blog since the start, you may remember that I posted what I thought of the upcoming rail shooter scarefest called Dark Escape 3D.  Well it came out, and the good folks at the mall near my apartment installed a machine, so I managed to get a go and record some footage.

There isn't really a lot to say about a rail shooter, and I did do some commentary in the video to say what's up, but one thing that I noticed is that in this game, your aim has to be fucking immaculate.  In games like House of the Dead, if you hit the zombie, they would recoil a little bit, so even if you weren't landing headshots you would have still bought yourself some time to not get hit.  In Dark Escape 3D, you get no such luxury so if you're not landing headshots CONSTANTLY, you're fucking dead.

Also, I didn't play it with the 3D on, because I would have been impossible to get decent footage for the damn thing if I had, so when I go and play it again, I'll do another little post about how good (or bad) the 3D effects are.

So yeah, the rest of what I want to say is in the video, so watch that for more info.  There is a little bit of glare on the screen despite the whole thing being pretty much sealed off, but this is due to the fact that the game centre near my apartment is lit by super powerful floodlights, but it doesn't affect things too badly I don't think.

Before the video, have a little bit of a photo gallery.

The Gun!

The Glasses

A screen saying that you can switch between 2D and 3D

The stage select screen

Alrite, alrite, enough fucking photos, VIDEO TIME!

Dark Escape 3D Pre-Release impressions

If you remember my post a while back about game centres in Japan, you probably know that I love me some coin-op games.  One thing back from my childhood that I used to play a lot of was light gun games such as Virtua Cop 2, Time Crisis and House of the Dead.  Unfortunately, these games have become a bit of a rarity even in Japan, and maybe I have the case of the old nostalgia goggles but the newer light gun games just don't seem to be as fun anymore.

The last light gun game I had a good amount of fun with was Time Crisis: Razing Storm

A fun little arcade game in the Time Crisis franchise that drops the pistols and lets you go nuts with machine guns killing huge robots and whatnot, it was a solid game and was worth every Yen in I dropped into it.

So while browsing some gaming websites today, I came across Dark Escape 3D, a new lightgun horror game due to hit game centres some time soon I think. Take a gander at the trailer below

My Kanji dictionary is dead so I'm unable to give a full translation of it (given the fact my ability to do Kanji is awful) but you can get the general idea with the visuals anyway.

Just to give you all a little bit more detail, the game is one of those sit-down shooters like Deadstorm Pirates and the machine comes kitted out with vibrating seats, surround sound, 3D Specs and things that shoot air at your face, neck and legs in order to really try and immerse you in the game.  Sure, it doesn't look that scary, but trying to combine the light gun shooter and horror genre together is a cool idea and if done right I can imagine the arcades rendering the old haunted house idea obsolete.

The big gimmick with this game though, is the heart sensor in the gun that makes an attempt to gauge just how scared you are while playing.  Sure, we all laughed at the heart sensor that popped up at E3 a few years back, but I guess now they've finally found a way to put it in a proper game.  Sure it may sound like a crap gimmick, but if you play this game multiplayer, then not only can you test your shooting skill, but also who's got the biggest balls.

When this game comes out and I eventually find it, I'll try and get some footage for it, so watch this space.