E3 06: Chrome 2 Preshow Report

LOS ANGELES--Released back in 2003, Techland's Chrome was a decent, if generally unremarkable, entry into the PC's vast library of first-person shooters. While some might have expected last year's Chrome Specforce to have been the proper sequel to the original game, it turns out that it was just a lead-up to Chrome 2, which will be on display at Techland's Electronic Entertainment Expo 2006 booth.

In Chrome 2, you're dead. No fooling. You're totally dead. See, in the future world where Chrome 2 takes place, death doesn't have quite the ring of finality as it does in our time. Dead folks can have their consciousness and memory reclaimed and placed inside a new body. The catch? It costs a good bit of cash for the procedure, and to pay it off, you're required to spend five years in military servitude. In a time plagued by corporate wars, you're definitely not going to find yourself in a cushy Coast Guard job. You're going into battle.

Like any good futuristic battle scenario, the action in Chrome 2 will offer plenty of cyber-technologies, genetic weapons, implants, and exoskeletons to be placed at your disposal. The game aims to include hundreds of different weapons and more than 10 vehicles of wheeled, walking, and flying varieties. You'll be able to develop and upgrade your character over time with specific implants, as well. The battlegrounds are to be huge in scope, with gigantic open spaces and living, breathing worlds that the developer claims will be similar in scope to a typical massively multiplayer online role-playing game.

Chrome 2 boasts that it will include strategically intelligent artificial intelligence for both allies and enemies, as well as a whole host of graphical boons specific to the Chrome 2007 engine, which has been special built for this game. Multiplayer support will be included for up to 64 players.

We'll bring you more on Chrome 2 from the E3 2006 show floor.