UK, May 10, 2010 - LittleBigPlanet: the closest thing to a hug in videogame form. Yet, as gooey as the first game made us feel, we'd be lying if we said we thought the world particularly needed a sequel. After all, it's a game that prides itself on its near-infinite playability, thanks to its sprawling creation tools and ferociously inventive community. Indeed, with over 2.3 million user-created levels floating around the internet, it's going to take even the most dedicated player quite some time to exhaust what's already on offer.
Which begs the question, what's Media Molecule got up its sleeve to make us hand over the cash a second time? Unfortunately, the answer's not particularly succinct, unless you're happy to settle for, "A lot". You see, to really understand Media Molecule's ridiculously grand ambitions for its follow-up, you kind of have to start from the inside and work your way out.
Core to LittleBigPlanet 2 is the notion that it's no longer simply a platform game - it's a platform for games. Take a look at the trailer and you'll see everything from horizontal shoot-'em-ups to top-down racers vying for you attention - and it's the brand new tools at the heart of this sequel that makes it all possible.
The biggies here are intelligent characters known as 'Sackbots', direct-control vehicles and a completely overhauled camera system, all working together in a way that really does seem to suggest that the only limits are your imagination (and, probably, an awful lot of your time). LittleBigPlanet 2 features 30 new developer levels and it's a sure bet that most of these new features will speak for themselves as stages are revealed over time. Until then though, you'll have to use a bit of imagination to understand the developer's new direction and the possibilities on offer.
With LittleBigPlanet 2's new camera system, for instance, budding directors are able to create full cinematics, whether as stand-alone movies or sequences in levels. Cut-scenes are no longer simple affairs with talking marionettes; you've full control over camera position, movement (including tilt, zoom and shake), transitions and timings. You can even record full voice work for your happy parade of Sackboys, should you want to really set your directing chops noshing. Cameras alone add a whole new level of polish to the game - and can significantly alter the action itself with a bit of creativity. Yet they're only the first phase in expanding LittleBigPlanet's scope exponentially.
Of course, if you're making movies, you need actors - and that's where those Sackbots come in. Starting off as square-headed Sackboy drones when you plonk them into a new level, they're blank canvasses waiting for instructions - and the instructions they're willing to learn are quite staggering. With a simple flick through your inventory, you can make Sackbots indistinguishable from their Sackboy brethren but it's their tweakable behaviours that open up whole new possibilities in the game.
First and foremost, Sackbots are LittleBigPlanet's take on non-playable characters - and can be friendly, hostile, or mere background detail if you prefer. You've a huge number of behaviours available for your Sackbots, ranging from straightforward (follow or flee, for instance) to more elaborate, such as the ability to have them patrol certain areas of a level. You can set their walk speed, flag if they can jump or even define their personalities - some might be scared of heights, for example, while others might crumble in the face of danger. If that's not enough, you've even access to multiple animations styles - from zombies to robots - or you can define a Sackbot's movements yourself by recording SIXAXIS input to waggle legs, arms and head.
To give you some idea of what that means for gameplay potential, Media Molecule showed off a level called 'Pipe Dreams' from an area known as "The Factory of a Better Tomorrow". Its scope is far grander than anything in the original game and you're tasked with freeing hamster-like hostages from cages throughout the level. Each hamster is really a Sackbot in disguise and, as you set them free, they follow you through to the end of a level. Cleverly, while you're expected to find your way through various devious platform sections, hamsters take a safer route, crawling through tunnels and spilling into pipes. As you progress, they zip around a predetermined path until you've moved far enough on, at which point the pipe opens and they head along with you.
Behind the scenes, the level uses one much-requested creator feature to ease the design process - the ability to copy and place multiple versions of the same object in a level. There's a new drag-style selection tool at hand for this meaning you can tweak individual instances of the same object without having to start again from scratch. If you wanted to follow Media Molecule's example, why not scale up a copy of an existing Sackbot for an instant boss character?
Getting down to the real nuts and bolts of NPC creation though, you've also got a new circuit board tool at your disposal. It's essentially the brain of your NPC – though it can be slapped on pretty much any other object in the game that needs AI. It's a convenient storage area for all the logic bits that drive your creations and Media Molecule's solution to space issues in the previous game. Previously, more complicated level set-ups required myriad switches and wires to achieve, meaning all that circuitry took up a ton of physical space in a level. Now, it all goes on your circuit board which, in turn, can be attached to any object as a single, tiny microchip, making for minimal clutter.
Circuit boards are especially useful for what's arguably LittleBigPlanet 2's most important addition - direct control vehicles. While previously you could fudge custom vehicles by applying lever or switch controls to trigger wheel movement and the like, direct control vehicles take this idea to whole new levels. Now, you can stick a direct control seat to virtually any object which automatically adds SIXAXIS control, making tilt movement a doddle. That's not all though - by opening up a direct control circuit board, it's possible - and easy - to assign specific functions to each input on the controller, meaning you could, for instance, use the analogue stick to move around or hit a button to honk your horn.
Cleverly, you can use direct control seats to assign unique movement settings to an object. This is Media Molecule's solution to the first game's slightly-maligned 'floaty' control system. Although controls are unchanged by default so that those 2.3 million user-created levels still work as intended, you can now tailor controls to suit your needs. Essentially, you can custom-build a character, stick on a direct control seat and have it behave exactly as you choose - you can even hide Sackboy entirely if you want a brand new protagonist
To give some idea of the things all these new features make possible, Media Molecule showed off a quick demo level. Direct control vehicles ranged from a floating chicken that could raise its altitude with a tap of the jump button and a flap, a dragonfly that could shoot as it tore through the air and a shaggy caterpillar. These last two really showed off the true potential of the new game with the camera flipping round the dragonfly at one point, turning the whole thing into a vertical retro shoot-em-up, complete with pixel enemies and even a sprite skin for the dragonfly. Even more impressive, once on the caterpillar the camera flipped to an over-the-shoulder view, giving an into-the-screen perspective as you race against two Sackbot opponents - it's all a clever illusion though, with the action still technically built on a 2D plane, but it gives you some idea of just how powerful an overhaul the game has seen. We even caught a glimpse of a top-down racer for good measure too.
Even better, Media Molecule has overhauled its level sharing system and it's now possible to distribute your creations as multiple levels - and even cut-scenes - effectively meaning you can chain together entire games. And of course, they're no longer just platform games either. Alongside that, LittleBigPlanet 2 also features 75 new costumes, dozens of new sticker packs and a host of new themes to pep up your creations. The latter all take significant periods of art of development throughout history as inspiration, given them their own LittleBigPlanet twist. Thus, there's Techno Rennaisance, Steam and Cake (steam punk meets Victorian decadence), Neon Propaganda, Designer Organic (Eden project meets age of art nouveau), Fluffy Hi-tech and Handmade Arcade, combining the classic art-and-craft LittleBigPlanet aesthetic with retro videogame inspirations.
If that wasn't enough, Media Molecule has also added new game mechanics to the mix - a grappling hook being our only glimpse of these so far - an overhauled graphics engine which incorporates lovely new fur and adjustable real-time lighting (the latter automatically added to levels made in the first game, meaning they look better than ever before), plus a host of new sharing features, making it easier than ever before to publish and promote your creations.
These new tools are designed to connect players with creators more closely than ever before. From within the game, you can check out individual players' fully-customised planets with all their offerings, plus new activity streams, keeping you up to date with your PSN friends and followers you've hearted. Outside of the game, there's even more and Media Molecule has whipped up a new website known as LittleBigPlanet.me. With your PSN user id as your own individual subdomain, you can check out those activity feeds away from your PS3, browse other users and check out new levels you're your PC or phone. If you see something you like, it's even possible to add a level to your LittleBigPlanet queue which will start downloading when you turn your PS3 back on at home. For creators too, this ready-made mini URL - which can point to individual levels - is perfect for distributing on messageboards, Facebook or Twitter for a bit of shameless self-promotion.
And that's what we know about LittleBigPlanet 2 so far. Much of our time with the game focussed on those under-the-hood additions which, at this stage at least, are probably of more interest to creators rather than more casual LittleBigPlanet consumers. However, it's clear having given Media Molecule's sample levels a go that these upgrades are going to have a radical impact on the game itself. With the developer promising its own in-game levels will quickly shift away from standard platform fare as its story mode progresses, we can only imagine what's in store thanks to LittleBigPlanet 2's new features. And when the game ships and we start to see what the game's dedicated community comes up with, prepare to be truly mind-boggled.
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