E3 2003: Sudeki Hands On

Brand new info and screens in our hands-on impressions from the gorgeous-looking Sudeki.

If RPGs were measured in military strength, the Xbox would be Canada. Or maybe France. The point is, since launch, the only viable RPG for Xbox has been Morrowind, and by now the troops are badly in need of reinforcements.

Fortunately, high caliber RPGs will soon roll onto Xbox like M1 tanks into Baghdad, and not a moment too soon. Near the head of the pack is Sudeki, a fantasy epic from UK-based developer Climax.

Sudeki flaunts all of your traditional RPG trappings - a mythic storyline, character progress, and oodles of magic - but it doesn't carry any of the traditional baggage (e.g., tiresome turn-based gameplay and substandard graphics).

While this isn't the best place for a thorough overview of a massive RPG, here's a rundown of what we learned from the demo at E3.

First, Sudeki looks marvelous. The color palette is vibrant and colorful, and it's brought to life with rich, intricately detailed textures. Take a gander at the pics, and you'll see a game infused with distinctive visual style.

Sudeki also features incredible dynamic lighting, especially for a game of this scope. There's a lot to see and do in this game, but we spent a good 5 minutes running around a forest just to see the latticework of shadows the branches cast on our characters.

We climbed to the edge of a cliff in a village and were afforded an exquisite view of the community, without any draw in or fog. This sort of visual proficiency does more than make your jaw drop - it helps immerse the player in an alternate reality.

Sudeki employs a real-time combat system, meaning you'll earn your salt hacking and slashing rather than selecting attack icons. Whether this is good or bad remains to be seen.

There was a certain visceral appeal to pulverizing an enemy with a button-mashing combo, but the appeal, and your fingers, may become tired over the course of a 30+ hour game (actually, the developer clocks the main quest at 20 hours, with several additional hours of side quests).

In the short run - a 5-minute battle sequence - the combat played out fairly well. Sword strikes are dished out mainly in three swipe combos. For extra muscle, players can summon spirit strike magic attacks. With our character, this special attack summoned a fiery minotaur that smote nearby enemies with a blast from its staff.

The only noticeable drawback, so far, is that the game chugged noticeably when the action became particularly intense. However, the developer has ample time to smooth out the framerate between now and the game's release.

Unlike many RPGs, which tend to be more serious than a hungry Rotweiler, Sudeki flashed a hip sense of humor on more than one occasion. In the village, a priest smooth-talked us out of our pocket change, and later a "fair" maiden offered to show us a good time. Hey, no one ever said you can't have a little fun on the way to saving the world.

Overall, Sudeki looks a success-story in the making. Many questions remain unanswered - will the story line deliver? Can the hack-n-slash combat stay fresh? - but we think Xbox may finally get the RPG arsenal it so sorely needs.

Expect lovely, fresh, new E3 videos of this title shortly.

Tony Scinta
Staff writer, Kikizo Games