A few weeks ago, we were invited out to a Santa Monica hotel suite to check out Deep Silver’s new and, at that time, unannounced title Nail’d. Developed by Techland (Call Of Juarez) Nail’d was booted up on an Xbox 360 debug unit and off we went. Check out our impressions of that pre-alpha build, After the Break! 
An arcade racer in the over-the-top style of games like, SSX, Nail’d is set to bring the fun back to action sports titles in the fourth quarter of this year. The game is all about speed and height as you make your way through outdoor courses filled with obstacles trying to smash you to bits. We were shown a map running through Yosemite National Park, and the first thing we noticed was the vast scope of the environments. Everything going on in Nail’d is big and by big we mean huge. The game moves at a break-neck pace and taking some jumps can give you an almost vertigo-like feeling.
As we sat and watched the PR folks make their way through the maps, we noticed that players were presented with several different possible paths to reach the finish line. One path may be a clear , straight shot while the other may have you swerving through giant saw blades. The game makes heavy use of ragdoll physics when you crash that are almost comically over-the-top. Not only do you smash into things but, in some cases, your vehicle would literally explode like in some action movie. If you feel like causing some extra chaos you can ram other riders off their vehicles or into obstacles. I am sure that will make for some fun living room brawls when you beat your friends. While there is no story mode in Nail’d, the riders to all have unique personalities. Nail’d is purely about getting out on he track and racing. We were also told that as you play through the game there will be tons of unlockable tracks, vehicles, and outfits to keep the game going for players. When asked about character tricks, we were told that this is something the developers are considering.
Keeping in mind that everything we saw was in the pre-alpha stage, the graphic style of Nail’d seemed to compliment the gameplay. A lot of the shading and lighting effects were not finalized and the sound used was placeholder audio by the developers. Deep Silver tells us there is a fully-licensed soundtrack which they are currently shoring up.
There is a strong community aspect to Nail’d as you will be able to compete in tournaments, leaderboards, and, according to the PR folks, ‘several unannounced’ modes. The game supports up to 12 player matches and, with several modes to choose from, that could mean some crazy races while playing online. One of the cool features we were told about was that players can design their own race. This adds some nice custom options for people who want to try different things in the game. At the time of the showing the PR folks did not have an answer as to weather the design feature would be community based.
For a pre-alpha version Nail’d looks like a game that you can sit down with a group of friends and have some fun with. It should appeal to both casual and hardcore gamers alike. We look forward to getting our hands on Nail’d in a playable build at this year’s E3 Expo.
We would like to thank Aubrey Norris of SouthPeak Games PR for inviting us down to check out Nail’d.
