Anarchy Reigns multiplayer preview: Funstration

You guys, I really want to like Anarchy Reigns. It's a ridiculous, over-the-top brawler and I really liked MadWorld -- like, a lot. So imagine my disappointment when I realized the only thing holding back Anarchy Reigns from being a whole lot of fun is the camera.
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If you played MadWorld or God Hand, then you have a good idea how the camera works: it's a third-person perspective, zoomed in over the shoulder of your character. It's functional, sure, but with so much action going on at once, it's hard to keep it all in scope.

You can target an opponent by hitting a shoulder button, but the inherent issue with that is the second you focus on one character, the other two are probably going to pounce on you. I mean, they're going to come after you anyway, because that's the whole point, but it's really the only way to focus on anybody.

But everything else is simply gravy. The action is over-the-top and accessible -- each character has a light and hard attack that can be chained together into combos pretty easily, plus a grab move and their own special weapon. Black Baron, my choice, seemed a good mix of power and speed. His ground smash move was particularly effective when everyone was bunched up and a spin move, which knocks any enemy unfortunate enough to be in its way once unleashed way back, proved incredibly effective when surrounded.

The multiplayer deathmatch mode in Anarchy Reigns was pretty much everything I expected. It was fast, it was fun, but that camera was a tad bit too frustrating. If it was zoomed out more, giving me a better look at the action, I might have been able to assess where my opponents were and where the danger was. As it was on the show floor of E3, the lack of threat indication and my general inability to see beyond what was right in front of me put a damper on an otherwise frenetic experience set to be one of 2012's most unique.