Circuit Jerk

One of the most interesting things about Platinum Games is how little we actually know about it. It’s a development house that took the leadoff, contact and cleanup hitters of Capcom’s sublime run in the fifth- and sixth-generation hardware cycles. All three have been involved in turns at the development of Resident Evil properties as well as Devil May Cry, Viewtiful Joe, Pheonix Wright, Okami, Steel Battalion, Killer 7, the list goes on. So what happened? It would be easy to muse that Capcom had simply mismanaged talent, leaving these auteurs without some measure of creative freedom or monetary assurance.

But the reality is that these guys had simply taken their eye off the ball. They were loss leaders, they were fascinating articles for the press and curious novelties for elitist gamers. But their games were becoming less and less comprehensible and accessible, more and more insular and abstract. The story is likely as simple as it was told in 2006, when these developers were found huddled in a flagging art-house division that suddenly no longer had a place in the larger business model.

Their first effort as a breakaway, Madworld offered little assurance that the company intended to play down its aggressively psychotic zeitgeist, and the ocular goo of tepid Capcom purists could be heard squishing around as they rolled their collective eyes. And Bayonetta, while more forthrightly an entire game and not simply a stylistic exercise, still feels two clicks to the left of palatable. But there is a sense that they’re getting serious and that somewhere down the line there will be a product that may rival the swoop and scope that these developers have delivered in the past.

That’s why I’m excited that Mikami’s name is out front on the latest project. He’s the one most accustomed to guiding a barge-size design document through perilous development. His eye for pointed visual design and his knack for balancing kitsch with carnage is unmatched. I’ve been leering at that trailer, trying to dissect its tone and intent. It’s hitting all the right notes on a subjective level: drop ships, armor suit, chunky assault rifles. But something doesn’t feel right. In fact, two things.

Mikami’s greatest trick is taking something that feels intimate — a mansion, a rural Italian town — and then subverting your sense of scope by offering layers of collusion that exist underneath what once seemed like such a manageable mystery. But Vanquish doesn’t look like that. The trailer takes the macrocosmic approach of widespread destruction and focuses inward, not the other way around. It makes me reflect on the problems I have on a superficial level with the rest of Platinum’s products: They’re too eager to insist that their game is gonna wreck your shit. I’d be happier with quieter introductions to more meditative experiences. But, then, this company is on the clock to make some serious cash or be forced to admit that Capcom was right.

Second, this space marine stuff isn’t easy to pull off, and these guys don’t have much on their resumes to suggest that they can feel their way through it on the first go. While it’s true that Resident Evil 4, Mikami’s true masterpiece, influenced a lot of the third person shooting going on today, it did with its feet firmly planted in tank controls. This game can’t be all running and gunning, and the catch that’s on its way is scaring the piss out of me. What if they turn around and say, “Oh, yeah. You only control the right shoulder of your guy, exploring the limitations of biotic joints and creating a heightened sense of tension.” This project could get real rank real quick.