I’m not ashamed to admit I was very late to the party with checking out Dexter on Showtime. I missed the first season and caught on somewhere in the middle of season 2 and am still in the process of catching up on all the episodes from the beginning of the series. I knew enough to hold my own while checking out the Dexter game coming to the iPhone from Marc Ecko Entertainment and Icarus Studios this week at GDC.
The game is still very early in development with a planned Summer 2009 release (most likely after the upcoming v3.0 update, since it takes advantage of the new accelerometer APIs), but it already looks amazing for the platform. You’ll very easily be able to recognize all the characters from the show. While not in the build I saw, almost all of the original actors will be lending their voice talent to the game, so the authenticity level will certainly be there.
The story will follow the events of season one, so if you’ve seen that, you’ll know what to expect. Even if you haven’t, you won’t be lost and will still have just as much fun. The first of four episodes coming this summer will offer around 8-10 hours of gameplay, which is huge for an iPhone game. You’ll assume the role of Dexter, obviously, as you find clues and follow your serial killer motives. In the kill room we saw, you have the choice of a few weapons to make the final kill, all utilizing slashing moves on the iPhone screen. It was very visceral and cool as hell. The game eschews a points system for the Mask, Dexter’s way of hiding his true nature from the world. If you screw up and lose your Mask, everyone will know you’re the one killing all these people and the game will be over.
We were shown a few different control schemes employed in Dexter. The default has one button in the bottom right corner that you press to move forward and a button in he bottom left to move back. You then tilt the iPhone left or right to turn and tilt forward to run. Another option is a joystick in the bottom left corner of the screen that you can use for all movements. In either of the schemes, you can use your finger to pan the camera around the environment to reorient yourself or check out what’s going on in other places. There is also an option to change from third person to first person gameplay if you so choose.
There are a few mini games built in that will give a nice change of pace. One that I got a chance to see was the Blood Splatter mini game, where you have to recreate blood splatters you photograph at a crime scene to determine the weapon type, collide angle, and direction of attack. It was simple, yet pretty fun.
Most licensed games aren’t very good, but Dexter looks to be a great deal of fun on the iPhone. There’s a great story behind it and it’s nice to see the developers taking their time and not rushing out a crappy licensed title. I have high hopes for the game once it hits the iPhone later this summer.
I have high hopes for this one. It’s great to see more fleshed out games coming to the iPhone.
Glad to hear there are multiple control layouts and the ability to switch between first and third-person.
Dexter is one of the best shows on T.V. Now all we need is a Weeds game.
You could a mini-game for digging that tunnel from CA to Mexico
Nice impressions, Matt. I’m definitely looking forward to giving this game a go.
where you been tyler? miss your iphone reviews dude!
I have been working on other projects that have kept me way too busy. I will be attempting to make a come back here hopefully sooner rather than later. I am glad you enjoyed my iPhone reviews, but I think Matt and Steve will be able to pick up the slack soon enough.
“Now all we need is a Weeds game”
I second this. :8-)
Yep, can’t wait for Dexter iPhone game to be released. The video trailer I’ve seen is awesome too…
@odie… Heh yeah Weeds game would be wicked too… For now you just have the classic “Drug Wars” game…
[...] The Dexter game for iPhone blew everyone away at GDC (wait… gun metaphors don’t really work for Dexter, do they?). Sandbox kicked things off by working with Speck Products and Marc Ecko Entertainment/Showtime on limited edition custom iPhone cases, complete with blood splatter. These quickly caught fire, showing up on sites like Destructoid, Gizmodo, Kotaku, and even the Mirror (UK). Hands on demos continued throughout the week: IGN said “Dexter is looking good — very good. It is an ambitious game with a lot of ideas and content stuffed in a single download.” USA Today covered the game on the front page of the Life section and online, GamePro listed the game on their Best of GDC list, TouchArcade said “Overall, we were very impressed with what we saw. There is typically a bit of a stigma against these officially licensed games, but Marc Ecko Entertainment appears to be delivering a very high quality game in both iPhone experience as well as loyalty to the television show itself.” Check out other previews on Destructoid, Joystiq, PC World, iPhone Game Network, and Loot Ninja. [...]
[...] of Creative from Marc Ecko Entertainment to check out Dexter. In case you don’t remember, I loved the game. At E3, I met up again with Marc and was blown away at how far the game had come in such a short [...]