This is a story about a “warped” out little dude named Zero who isn’t as friendly as his appearance would suggest.  Zero is a little orange alien with a big score to settle!  Abducted by the villainous Commander from his home world and taken to an underwater research facility, Zero must escape by relying on his arsenal of unique abilities and the help of a mysterious ally.

When I first played EA’s Warp, I expected a cute little friendly character who sort of ho-hummed his way through levels.  I expected nothing but smiles and marshmallows but that’s not at all what I received.  Well I had a lot of smiles after I finished playing but let me assure you there were no marshmallows.

Warp puts you in control of Zero who just so happens to be able to warp into places and into things … and into his enemies!  Yes, I said that right.  You can not only warp to different places of the game but if you so choose, you can warp right into someone and literally blow them to pieces.  The control scheme is simple.  You have a spot that you control with the left stick and you aim it for warping.  Once you warp into something you can wiggle the left stick to explode whatever it is even if it’s a dead body.  Yep, it’s pretty damn fun.

Warp is a puzzle-based stealth action game but when you realize the power that you’re wielding with warping, you won’t be too stealthy I assure you.  But that’s the beauty of the game.  It gives you a choice to play how you want.  I asked Julia Pung from Trapdoor if you could get through the game without exploding anyone and she said yes.  But who wants to do that right? (smiles)

I got a good chunk of gameplay to get me excited.  You’ll even be able to compete against friends via Challenge Rooms and Leaderboards.  There isn’t any multiplayer co-op which would fit the game perfectly but trying to get the best “warp” action should be fun.  I’ll have to dig into the game more as the months come so stay tuned because I plan to bug Trapdoor about it.

Warp is easily one of the few games that I was left with a lasting impression of here on Day 2 of PAX Prime 2011.  I didn’t know too much about it before stepping up to play but what I did know was that the central character, Zero, looked pretty cool and interesting.  After playing the game what I know now is that Zero can kick some serious ass despite being so cute.

I’m gathering candidates for my Best of PAX feature and this shot up pretty high.  I promised Julia that I would be as sadistic as I could be with the game so hurry up and get here Warp! … Deacon’s got people to explode.  I have a sneaky suspicion that warping into people will be the new thing to do when this game hits later this year.