I think the best thing about the screenshots for Black Wing Foundation's new shooter Salvation is that they all look exactly the same, just in different places. Generic man with gun standing in dark city, generic man with gun standing in dark room, and generic man with gun standing in bright city. It wouldn't be so bad if he wasn't striking the exact same pose in each one.
To be fair, the main character can also be seen walking around a bit and holding his gun at a different angle, but upon first glance, Salvation looks like little more your regular third person shooter. Delving deeper however, the game's story -- that of rebellion against a future ruled by a staged and sinisterly orchestrated religion -- is enticing, and the promise of almost 20 bosses, some solid action and literary influences such as Orwell's 1984 hold a lot of promise.
"The protagonists of the game are people from various climes with different past, but common and terrifying present. They are bound together with the idea of overthrowing the Regime and destroying the Hell and Paradise virtual systems. They will have to overcome many obstacles on their way to the truth, hidden from people by the New World Government.
Throughout 14 missions grouped into 7 episodes, the player will take up roles of Narumi Amano, - a genetically modified assassin, Sergei Thor – the captain of east European resistance cell and Alexander Geist – a rather cynical psy-powered smuggler with his own motives to hate the Regime. The game is planned for release in Q2 of 2009 on PC and Xbox360."
When I saw the first screens, I expected another attempt at a "gritty" sci-fi shooter that may or may not be fun and was prepared to casually sit on it. As I write this, however, I can feel my saliva glands anticipating what could be a most notable addition to the action genre. For all the cynicism, I still love a typical shooter (screw yo' innovation), but if they decide to be a bit more intellectual than that, I'm certainly not going to object.
Time, as they say, will tell, and I shall be looking into this one as time goes on.
Contest:
9:28 AM on 03.11.2008
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over all genericness of both the description and screens make this look like bargain bin fodder
I love shooters as much as the next guy, but running into an area, shooting everyone and running into the next area to shoot everyone is beginning to make me cry.
It still doesn't look that bad though, maybe just not shiny enough for you guys.
It still doesn't look that bad though, maybe just not shiny enough for you guys.
Oh and everyone questioning why anyone would use the source engine, the answer is that it works on a very high percentage of computers and still looks pretty damn good despite it's age imo.
@Neonie:
@covah:
If you guys are equating 'the look of the game' with 'the outdatedness of the game engine that it uses' then you are wrong. Saying that the game engine that game X is using looks outdated simply because game X resembles a relatively old game is wrong. The solution lies in having a more distinct art direction for the game, and not necessarily using a newer game engine (although that can help too).
The game engine is the platform one uses to make a game, it doesn't dictate the look and feel for a game.
@Neonie:
@covah:
You heard the man. Internet badges. NOW. Engine has nothing to do with how a game looks, confirmed for Brawl.
Source is dead to me, give us idtech5 already!
But seriously, episode II looked great, I have no doubt the source engine still has some life in it. Also, the fact that the main chracter doesn't seem to have any animaton makes me think these could be pretty early development screens.
Also, Jim you forgot the most important part of the plot details!
"Year 2026. The World government resorted to stem cells and gene engineering to stage the Judgment Day. They created genetic replications of Christ and Antichrist and destroyed them right away in the course of events to set forth severe fundamentalism on Earth, propped by the idea of communicating with God via machines as well as by the army of cloned creatures, called Angels..."
THEY CLONED JESUS THEN MURDERED HIM! CLONED JESUS! MURDERED HIM!
I think that pretty clearly counts as the most important details of the plot. :P
I like the idea of the plot, but giving us a super soldier with some indescribable weapon doesn't seem the best way to execute it.