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Brevity
05-14-2003, 07:43 AM
Hot caveman action that'll make you want to club someone.
By christian "ferricide" nutt | 5/13/2003



All screenshots Developer: Intrepid Games
Publisher: Microsoft
Release Date: 2002
Genre: Action




Perhaps the most surprising thing about Lionhead's BC is that star developer Peter Molyneux says, "People still won't believe it's a platform game. It's a platform game with power-ups." Well, there are reasons for that -- it's gritty and violent, dispensing with the stereotypical cute and fluffy themes you'd expect from a platformer. Even the in-your-face attitude of Ratchet or Daxter is nothing compared to the prehistoric world of BC.

I honestly have to differ with Mr. Molyneux slightly; it's not the running-jumping-climbing trees adventure you'd expect from that moniker, but it's true that at the core it's an action game that offers a hands-on window into a "savage, brutal world" -- and a unique one. Caveman games used to be hot stuff in the old days -- Joe & Mac, Bonk, Chuck Rock -- but the genre (if one can even call it that) has died. But this proud tradition is nonetheless embraced by BC.


Of course, being a Lionhead game, there's a bit more to it than that. By "power-ups," Molyneux means your living, breathing caveman community. In BC your main character is the head of a fledgling community of primitive man. As you play through the game more and more characters will join your town or be born and grow, and their special abilities contribute massively to the gameplay. In a sort of Pikmin-esque way you can have them tag along behind you and help you out in battles or accomplishing tasks as you explore the lush and realistic world.

They're not dumb units like Pikmin, though. Each potential character has a skill and will act under his or her own will; better yet, if you demonstrate a strategy while they're following behind you, they'll watch and learn. During the demonstration, the main character rolled a boulder down a hill to attack some dodo birds. The computer-controlled characters soon adopted this tactic.

This sort of "emergent behavior" is key to the design philosophy behind the game. As with Fable, the interface of the game is extremely simple and easy to play, but the underpinnings of its functionality are rich and innovative. All of the animals you encounter in the prehistoric land operate in ecosystems -- and their behavior is based around their A.I. and not pre-scripted. In the demo a pack of warriors were taken out of the village and encountered velociraptors; the archer stayed a distance behind and fired flaming arrows from afar while the other warriors got up close and personal. You can also switch from one follower to the other on the fly, and use their skills yourself.


BC's world is very beautiful; and every vista is a place you can visit. The preview code being played at the show wasn't exactly up to final release quality just yet so it's unclear how smooth and gorgeous these visuals will be. The locales, though, have a vibrant organic style -- this is a natural world, with A.I. behavior, and the environments are as evolved as you'd expect to match. Whether this experiment will gel, and managing your evolving town is entertaining, remains to be seen. There is little doubt, though, that the team behind the game is taking disparate, creative ideas and stewing them. Hopefully it'll taste good.