Last year, I was invited to see a game called Defense Grid: The Awakening in a hotel room before PAX began. I was nervous, since it seemed a bit strange not to just have the game on the show floor, but was pleasantly surprised when the tower defense ended up being one of the best things I saw at the show. This year, a similar situation occurred, and I was invited into the Shraton Hotel to see a wholly unknown game called Shank. It was described to be as a flourish-filled shooter in the style of Devil May Cry mixed together with the art style of the Venture Bros. My intrest was piqued.

The demonstration started off with title-character Shank watching as a man stepped out of the shadows and fired a rocket towards his location. With a flying leap he was able to avoid the explosive, and land next to the man, cutting him apart. Quickly, I was given control, and began to learn the game's combat. Their descriptions couldn't be any more on the nose. Combat plays like a 2D mixture of Devil May Cry and, uh, Devil May Cry. It's all about style, with Shank changing between dual-pistols, a chainsaw, and a shank in order to quickly and effectively take down opponents. He's able to dive onto enemys and stab them in the chest while shooting oncoming opponents with a pistol, always looking as cool as possible. I continued on to some platforming, which did a good deal to seperate it from Devil May Cry with almost parkour-styled movements. Shank can use his knives to climb walls and swing from ledges, something that tied in well with the demo's final boss, who needed to be dodged using the surroundings.

Everything about the combat is based around being as fluid as possible, which meshes together well with the art style. It's incredibly smooth, there's no other way to put it, and it looks as good as any other 2D art on the system. What system is that, you ask? I have no idea. Though I was playing with an Xbox 360 controller and the buttons on the screen were obviously those found on Microsoft's system, the actual console was in a black box with question marks all over it. This mystery will have to wait, sadly, since the folks at Klei weren't talking.

Honestly, for as much as I'd like to go on and on about Shank there's really not much more to say. I can tell you that it looks wonderful, I can tell you that it plays extremely well, and I can tell you that I'm excited, but that's it. If Klei wants you to know more, then the ball is in their court, and it's up to them to announce more information. The press release next to me promises "An engaging, integrated storyline." Will that pan out? I have no idea, it says to "Look for more details soon!" If the goal of showing the game at PAX was to get some early buzz going than job well done, because I can't wait to hear more, no matter how long it takes.