Galaxy Andromeda E3 2003 Preshow Report

CDV Software will be exhibiting its upcoming real-time strategy game Galaxy Andromeda at this year's E3. The game has a sci-fi, futuristic theme and is set in outer space with vast fleets of starships battling each other in epic space battles. You'll take the role of a fleet officer who has spent 70 years frozen in a state of suspended animation on a derelict spacecraft drifting through the universe. In 2112, a patrol picks you up, and you are promptly thawed out, trained, and conscripted as a frigate officer for a faction called the ISA. Your first mission in the vicinity of Jupiter begins a long adventure involving alien technology, wormholes, and a forgotten empire.

Galaxy Andromeda includes a lengthy campaign with 10 episodes, broken up into 30 different missions. The missions are set all over the universe, and you'll be visiting more than 100 planets spread across 20 different solar systems. You'll meet up with six different alien species and fight with dozens of different spaceships that can be configured with more than 200 different weapons and technology types. The different systems you can configure on the ships of your armada include weapons loadouts, energy sources, propulsion systems, and shield generators. As commander, you'll be able to define formations for your fleet and targeting priorities as well.

The game's graphics use a proprietary 3D engine that is capable of rendering ships of many different sizes and types, conveying a good sense of scale between the various spacecraft. Weapon effects like lasers and explosions help light up the darkness of space as you fight in a 3D environment adorned with planets, asteroid belts, dust clouds, and stars.

Galaxy Andromeda is currently slated for release in the second half of this year for the PC. We'll have more information on the game as it becomes available.