Dog's Life - First Screens Revealed

Wait until you see this - Dog's Life is the PS2 adventure where you live, play and - er, poop as a dog! First ever screens inside.

Forget the "man's best friend" and "bitch" gags - Dog's Life provides all the amusement you need. Developed by the creator of Elite at Frontier Developments, Dog's Life delivers an innovative spin on the traditional character-action genre, with the creation of a lead character who looks, plays and misbehaves like a dog! It's an action-adventure game that invites kids to experience a day in the life of a dog.

Allowing the player to do anything a dog can do - from digging, chasing, fetching (that's fetching), herding, swimming, begging, hunting, marking territory and more (so bring along your poopie scoop!) - Dog's Life provides the opportunity to become your favourite pet! You can even steal saussages from the butchers when you're hungry.

The game follows the adventures of Jake, a mischievous young dog who sets out on an epic journey across the USA to track down his best friend Daisy, and finds himself embroiled in a nefarious dog-napping plot. Travelling from his home in the sleepy Mid-West countryside, through scenic ski resorts, all the way to a bustling metropolis, Jake uncovers a sinister plot hatched by the evil Miss Peaches.

And even with development way off completion yet, the game looks fantastic with a sharp, comical visual style, a faultless 60fps refresh rate, and some marvellous touches. These first screens don't give much away in terms of what it's like in game on the bigger scale - but just imagine running around as this dog, all over town - it seems to be huge, and with so many abilities at your disposal, he's a dog on a mission.

Dog's Life features huge interactive environments that allow players to wander around at their leisure, interacting with a wide variety of both animal and human non-player characters. With "Smellovision" - a unique mode that provides a first-person canine view of the world, in which smells stand out as colours in an otherwise sepia environment - dog lovers can experience the world through a dog's eyes.

Dog's Life features more than 20 different breeds of dog that players can control and interact with. Success in the game is influenced by how well players take care of Jake. Eating unhealthy scraps from the bin causes Jake to slow down, and poor grooming makes it more difficult for Jake to enlist assistance from humans. You often need to carry out tasks for other humans and dogs, using different dogs for different tasks, to progress through the game.

With a compelling storyline and tongue-in-cheek humour, Dog's Life should appeal to all age groups. SCEE is promising a completely original gaming experience, and we love it already - so stick with us for the latest on Dog's Life.

Adam Doree
This game looks like serious fun...