Klei Entertainment is an independent game studio, but don't let the indie label fool you into thinking that they lack experience. The team that's working on their upcoming brawler Shank has quite a few veterans who have produced major, successful games. They are very much independent though; as a privately held and largely self-funded company, they developed Shank for a year on their own, beginning in January of 2009. They've since hooked up with EA Partners via CAA (Creative Artists Agency), allowing them to achieve wider distribution, though even now they've stuck with the same public relations firm that they've been working with for quite some time, so I think it's safe to say that their indie cred is still intact in spite of EA's involvement.

At PAX East I got to sit down with CEO of Klei Entertainment and executive producer of Shank, Jamie Cheng, a stylish and personable guy with a very cool hat. In retrospect, it occurs to me that I should have photographed him, but I have a disorder which causes me to invariably forget that I have a camera with me when it would be useful. After a brief introduction, Mr. Cheng handed me the reins so I could shank my way through some bad guys myself to see what the game is all about.

My guide referred to Shank as a "2D cinematic brawler," and outlined some of the creative influences that he and creative director Jeff Agala shared. On the cinematic side of things, he mentioned film directors Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez, and I will admit that I would not have been shocked if a guitar case with a gun inside had made an appearance somewhere in the Latin American city through which I was traversing. As for the brawling, Jamie is a big fan of Double Dragon. Though the gameplay in Shank feels vastly different from Double Dragon, it does capture one of the most strongly appealing facets of that old series very well. I'm sure I'm not the only person whose fondest memories of Billy and Jimmy Lee's exploits tend to involve grappling thugs and mercilessly thrashing them before tossing them into a hole.

Shank takes that idea and runs with it. There are multiple ways to grab a bad guy, and a variety of terrible things that you can do once you have him, but let's back up a bit before getting to the gory details. In Shank, Shank, the protagonist, shanks people (with shanks). Other options for dispensing violence include firing a pair of pistolas, throwing grenades and chainsawing people. Each of these actions is executed with a dedicated button, making it easy to mix up attacks, which the game rewards with its combo system. As a result, Shank can seamlessly shank, chainsaw, shoot and then shank (again) an individual very rapidly, and thanks to the absolutely amazing animation, it looks sweet as hell. Further opening things up is Shank's ability to grab people, which itself is even broken down into two different methods. There is a grab button, which is good for putting the hurt on someone nearby, and there is the pounce button, which will close the distance and put you on top of an enemy, leaving them prone and helpless below you. All of the aforementioned attacks can be dished out from both of these positions, including the extra-super-especially gratifying maneuver of shoving a grenade into your enemy's mouth.