It doesn’t even take 30 seconds to realize what ReCore is doing differently from the rest of the third-person shooters out there. In these 10 minutes of footage, courtesy of Gamespot, we see that Comcept and Armature Studios have toned down the reliance of dual-analog shooting and resorted to the ancient relic of lock-on targeting for combat.
Lock-on targeting was more of a product of the PlayStation and Nintendo 64 days, back before games like Halo and TimeSplitters found a more comfortable way to let players control their guns. It has since become seen as a restriction of movement and freedom, and it is not smiled upon when relied on for modern shooters. That doesn’t mean all developers have shied away from using it, though.
Dark Souls also does something a little similar with lock-on combat, and E.X. Troopers is an excellent game that employed it yet never made it to the States. Lock-on targeting is very much a Japanese trend these days. The 3rd Birthday on the PSP is the most recent example of a game that employed it that I can think of which came to North America, and the Metroid Prime games were the last critically successful ones.
Makes sense, though, since Armature Studios is made up of ex-Retro Studios employees, all of whom worked on the Nintendo trilogy.
However, I think ReCore is going to get a pass when it comes to lock-on shooting. I’ve never been against the use of it, and it’ll be a nice throwback to Mega Man Legends, a product of Comcept leader Keiji Inafune. I get the feeling that this game will have the vibe of an old-school, pre-Gears of War third person shooter, and that’s kind of what I’m in the mood for.
What do you think? Dual analog shooting the only way to go? Or, will ReCore prove that lock-on still has a place in gaming?
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