Target: Anatomy
"It doesn't rumble; it gives you an impact," Ombrellaro is quick to point out about the 3rd Space Vest. The word resonates with a tone that's equally ominous and enticing.
The device looks akin to a military-style flak jacket; it's sexy in an "I'm about to get my guts pummeled" sort of way. Jungle camouflage and bright pink versions of the vest are also available for those who want to get pounded in style. Then there are the umbilical cords that power the thing. One cable runs out from the vest into your PC's USB port, and another connects the vest to an air compressor that plugs into the wall. A total of eight active pneumatic zones, four on the front and four on the back, react when information is sent to the vest from the game. The vest also differentiates between knife stabs, punches, single shots and automatic weapon fire, explosions and other impacts.
Designing the gaming version of the vest, the team put some serious thought into which areas of the body would be targeted if someone were trying to shoot you. The vest's active zones are located over the heart, lungs, kidney, liver and intestines: all the bad zones where the organs are.
Awesome.
Stuck Like A Guinea Pig
The first time I took a hit with the vest on was a jarring experience. After slipping on the device, my immediate inclination was to take one for the team as quickly as possible to see what it was like, and running head-first into the gun barrels of some pissed-off mutant cyborg warriors in Incursion seemed as good a place to start as any. They were quick to oblige.
The few initial pot shots that struck my nameless, faceless virtual self manifested physically as a forceful poke in the front and back of the lower left region of my gut (presumably to replicate the lovely feeling of the bullets entering in one direction and exiting out the other). It's an odd sensation that - under more intense gaming circumstances - could prove rather startling if you didn't expect it. Within seconds I was getting hit all over. I even tolerated being punched repeatedly by a daft beast simply because it provided a slightly different impact.
After dying a few times at the hands of my quasi-robotic adversaries, I turned my attention to a series of explosive barrels. Why hadn't I noticed them sooner? A few quick prods from my laser rifle elicited the response I was looking for: self-immolation. The screen was engulfed in a concussive, fiery explosion, and it felt like my entire body was being kneaded like dough.
The range of sensations continued to vary as I picked up additional armaments. My torso thumped from the recoil of higher caliber weaponry, and the kickback from a giant rocket launcher was extremely satisfying. But the best was firing a Gatling gun. My chest thundered mechanically as I sprayed a room's inhabitants with lead.
Re-sensitizing The Desensitized
Feedback on the 3rd Space Vest continues to be encouraging, says Ombrellaro. Everyone involved in TN Games plays videogames of one sort or another, and this made it easier to design the product around gamers' needs. "We started with what we want, and it's resonating with everybody else," he says, adding the real magic comes from watching hardcore gamers and new players alike enjoying the vest. "Everybody's been really excited about it."
