GDC '09: America's favourite serial killer Dexter comes out of the shadows
You have a morbid sense of fun, Dexter
Being a hopeless Dexter fanboy, any news about the serial killer with a conscience is quite exciting, even when it’s just a new themed case from Speck (which has to be said, knows a lot about iPhone style).
And IGN managed to get its blood-stained fingers on the game adaptation of the Dark Passenger. A couple of new screenshots have found their way out of the dark (mildly interesting), though the hands on gives more away about the gameplay we’ve so far heard almost nothing about.
Stealth mechanics have apparently been built into Dexter’s repertoire, enabling him to sneak up on his predatory victims (that probably sounds like a contradiction if you’re not familiar with Dexter’s own brand of poetic justice), and active blood physics have been added to the gruesome action of the murder rooms.
There’s even a blood spatter mini-game, in which you take on Dexter’s professional guise and attempt to determine a series of facts from the blood left over at a murder scene. This involves detecting which kind of weapon was used, then demonstrating the throw and collision angles of the attack by swiping your finger across the blood soaked screen.
Dexter sounds like a pretty big game, going as far as to add specially written cases for Dexter to solve, including the back story of the car he gave to his damaged girlfriend Rita, all packed into this first episode.
It’s still hard to imagine quite how all this will make it through the App Store submissions process intact, however. One of our favourite previews of the year, Hysteria Project, is evidently causing Apple to incessantly deliberate as it’s been in approval for about a month now. All the psychological thriller aspects are implied in that game, rather than shown in the graphic detail we can expect from Dexter.
Hopefully, between these hot titles and other mature content being sent to the App Store, Apple’s opinions on suitability (or the introduction of a ratings system) might help us get the games we want.
