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StarCraft: Ghost By: Jerry Khalil "Chapel" April 21, 2004
Utter the name StarCraft and gamers immediately think of PCs, real-time strategy, and micro management of units; console gaming is usually the furthest thing from their minds. This fall Blizzard Entertainment hopes to shatter this perception with the release of StarCraft: Ghost. The latest StarCraft title is quite a departure from the multi-million selling RTS game in that it is a completely different type of game altogether. Forget the isometric God-like vantage point and be prepared for an all out third-person action stealth extravaganza. Nearly three years since its inception, Blizzard may quite possibly reinvent the genre, taking players to an all new level of depth and immersion in their latest creation, StarCraft: Ghost.
While Blizzard is being tight-lipped about the games multitude of layered details, we’ve done our own research and all signs point to StarCraft: Ghost being well worth the wait. So far we know that StarCraft: Ghost will take gamers to the familiar worlds of the Terrans, Zergs and Protoss races; those being the lush Mar Sara, volcanic Char, and the planet Aiur.
Utilizing the popular Havok physics engine, StarCraft: Ghost will be able to achieve incredible effects that gamers have become accustomed to in the likes of Deus EX: Invisible War, Max Payne 2, and Brute Force. The Havok engine provides localized ragdoll effects giving characters lifelike, realistic reactions. Havok technology is also being used by Valve in the development of the ever-elusive Half-Life 2. Not too shabby a line-up for Havok, eh?
As you’d expect from Blizzard, the visuals reveal a stunning level of detail, an abundance of dynamic lighting, and a virtual menagerie of interactive environments. This will be one of the games that people will have just as much fun watching as playing. StarCraft: Ghost will be fully utilizing the power of the Xbox with all those fancy effects like bump mapping, real-time shadows, transparency maps; you name it. Aside from the in-game visual goodness, Blizzard’s veteran artists are creating some of the best cinematics to date which will weave together the complex story of Nova, a specialized Ghost operative of the Terran military. Utter the name StarCraft and gamers immediately think of PCs, real-time strategy, and micro management of units; console gaming is usually the furthest thing from their minds. This fall Blizzard Entertainment hopes to shatter this perception with the release of StarCraft: Ghost. The latest StarCraft title is quite a departure from the multi-million selling RTS game in that it is a completely different type of game altogether. Forget the isometric God-like vantage point and be prepared for an all out third-person action stealth extravaganza. Nearly three years since its inception, Blizzard may quite possibly reinvent the genre, taking players to an all new level of depth and immersion in their latest creation, StarCraft: Ghost.
While Blizzard is being tight-lipped about the games multitude of layered details, we’ve done our own research and all signs point to StarCraft: Ghost being well worth the wait. So far we know that StarCraft: Ghost will take gamers to the familiar worlds of the Terrans, Zergs and Protoss races; those being the lush Mar Sara, volcanic Char, and the planet Aiur.
Utilizing the popular Havok physics engine, StarCraft: Ghost will be able to achieve incredible effects that gamers have become accustomed to in the likes of Deus EX: Invisible War, Max Payne 2, and Brute Force. The Havok engine provides localized ragdoll effects giving characters lifelike, realistic reactions. Havok technology is also being used by Valve in the development of the ever-elusive Half-Life 2. Not too shabby a line-up for Havok, eh?
As you’d expect from Blizzard, the visuals reveal a stunning level of detail, an abundance of dynamic lighting, and a virtual menagerie of interactive environments. This will be one of the games that people will have just as much fun watching as playing. StarCraft: Ghost will be fully utilizing the power of the Xbox with all those fancy effects like bump mapping, real-time shadows, transparency maps; you name it. Aside from the in-game visual goodness, Blizzard’s veteran artists are creating some of the best cinematics to date which will weave together the complex story of Nova, a specialized Ghost operative of the Terran military.
Though slated for a multi-console release, the Xbox version will obviously look better, though the final game resolution has not been set. It appears that the multiplayer component has been scrapped (boo!), but this has not been confirmed as of yet. There are rumblings of downloadable content via Xbox Live to possibly include new levels, skins, or weapons. Anything that gives us more bang for the buck…we’re in! Also, the game will utilize the Xbox’s Dolby Digital 5.1 capabilities.
StarCraft: Ghost is currently being co-developed by Blizzard and the folks at Nihilistic Software, Inc. Although this is probably the biggest title they’ve worked on to date, Nihilistic is made up of highly talented and veteran crew responsible for the acclaimed title, Vampire: The Masquerade. Released in 2000, Masquerade showcased the team’s talents in this dark, yet innovative RPG. This cadre of programmers, artists and designers coalesce to produce quite an impressive work history. Besides, Vampire: The Masquerade, the current staff has worked on familiar projects such as the Dark Forces series, Descent, Quake mission packs, Rogue Ops, and Escape from Monkey Island. With this variety of creative minds, whom all bring different development experiences to the table, there’s no doubt that they can help bring StarCraft: Ghost’s goals to fruition.
With two studios co-developing a single title, one wonders how such an animal can exist. Blizzard Entertainment is well known for their PC exploits, Warcraft and Diablo, but strangely enough their roots lay in console game development. However, the leap from The Lost Vikings for the Sega Genesis to StarCraft: Ghost is enormous. The StarCraft universe is essentially Blizzard’s baby, and one they are protective of, expectedly. Aside from their signature cinematic sequences, Blizzard serves a large role in oversight and creative input. As development has progressed, shifts in leadership and staff have also occurred. Many long-time Blizzard employees have since jumped ship to found Flagship Studios, while former senior artist and engineer, Andrea Pessino, left to co-found Ready at Dawn Studios. Fortunately, in Nihilistic’s capable hands, this shouldn’t be much of an issue, and changes in design and story are not unusual during the game development life cycle. Remember all the changes to the Crimson Skies development team? Yeah, we think that turned out quite well.
Despite changes in personnel, development has churned on and StarCraft: Ghost is starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Described as a “tactical action game”, the game does share elements of stealth found in games like Metal Gear Solid and Splinter Cell, but then turns the dial up to eleven. Early on, one of the major goals when creating StarCraft: Ghost was to give gamers a free-roaming world where they could explore and travel multiple paths rather than be restricted to linear movement. Although this concept seems to have been trimmed down a bit, gamers can still expect to have multiple approaches to the same objective. This concept is reminiscent of Deus Ex: Invisible War where a plethora of options were available so gamers could have entirely different experiences to a particular situation. For example, Nova can choose to climb past enemies from above, creep up behind for a Silent Kill, or try to disengage surveillance cameras for the more direct route. We are simply skimming the surface.
Nova, while looking sexy as ######, is a trained killer; think of her as a Solid Snake on steroids. Being a tactical action game, Nova will employ various skills and weapons in order to complete her objectives. Her innate abilities include stealth kills (or Silent Kills), cloaking, enhanced sight and Psionic powers, just to name a few. Throw in a host of weapons and Nova is one bad Mama Jamma. A psi-energy meter dictates how long she can use her powers which must be periodically recharged. Nova is vulnerable while to attacks while recharging, so an element of strategy is invoked. Nova’s cloaking ability masks her body in a stealth camouflage, much like the light-bending effects made popular by the movie Predator. The Second Sight ability serves as a thermal vision of sorts where players can detect heat signatures and identify character weak points. Speed mode is the standard bullet time-like ability to slow enemy movements down to a crawl while Nova remains at full speed.
When stealth isn’t an option, Nova must fall back on her years of training and apply the brute force approach. While the total number of weapons in the final game is unknown, we do know her arsenal can include an Energy Pistol, Canister Rifle, Flamethrower, and what appears to be a Psi Blade. The Canister Rifle gives players the option of firing off a multitude of grenade types (concussion, flash, etc.), and also the ability to fire ‘lockdown’ rounds to disable mechanical devices like security cameras. The rifle’s sniper mode will provide the familiar viewfinder scope where you can zoom in to get a bead on a target. You can also release a tiny spider-mine with remote detonation capabilities similar to that found in the recent James Bond game, 007: Everything or Nothing. If small arms can’t resolve the situation, Nova can turn to her Calldown ability. Calldowns basically act as large scale attacks when calling out the big guns is necessary. Even a killing machine like Nova needs a little help from time to time. Calldowns range in magnitude from canvassing a specific target with cannon fire from an orbiting Battlecruiser, to the end-all-be-all Nuclear Strike. You also have the option of calling upon Siege Tanks, scanning for hidden enemies, and disabling electronic machinery with an EMP blast.
As a change of pace in gameplay, some levels will give Nova the ability to operate vehicles, such as the heavy combat mech, Goliath, and the Vulture hover-bike. This even furthers the options open to Nova and we get all giddy when thinking about the various types of gameplay that StarCraft: Ghost will provide: stealth, action, shooting, puzzle solving…will this game come out already?!!!
There’s no doubt about it, expectations are very high for StarCraft: Ghost, especially after the many delays. Will it deliver on all promises? Well, that remains to be seen, but we’re keepin’ the faith. While no concrete release date has been set, the folks at Blizzard are aiming for fall 2004. As the dog days of summer grow closer, anticipation for this title is hitting near critical mass that will be fueled even further by the E3 hype machine. We’ll have much more on StarCraft: Ghost from the show floor next month to prove why this will be a gameplay experience like no other.
Source: http://previews.teamxbox.com/xbox/709/StarCraft-Ghost/p1
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