GC '07: WorldShift First Look

LEIPZIG, Germany--A huge ominous object hangs over the earth of the 21st century, emitting a strange cosmic plague into space. Without warning, the massive asteroid, known simply as "Shard Zero," crash-lands into the planet, effectively ending human civilization. Thousands of years later, humans have split into two distinct factions. One lives in huge futuristic cities, while the other represents the tribal remnants of civilization's past. In addition, a third faction enters the fray, an alien race for whom Shard Zero could potentially be the savior of its civilization. Such is the backdrop for Black Sea Studios' upcoming sci-fi fantasy real-time-strategy game, WorldShift, which we got a sneak peek of today in a behind-closed-doors meeting with the game's developers.

The game's producers use the descriptor "sci-fi fantasy RTS" carefully because WorldShift's three distinct races will feature powers and abilities drawn both from futuristic high-tech, as well as magic. During today's demo, we saw two of the available races in the game: the humans and the tribe. Typical human units include brawny-looking soldiers decked out in huge armor and automated rifles. In addition, we also saw a nasty-looking unit known as the ripper, which looked like a hulking robot warrior complete with long, lethal razors for fingers. Tribal units will be adept at magic, and one of the faction's most powerful units is the high priest, which can attack its enemies with powerful bolts of energy.

While there's much work yet to be done on WorldShift, what we saw today has us excited about the future of the game's look and feel. The demo level featured a thick jungle environment, presumably home to the tribe faction. A brief skirmish between a squad of humans and tribe warriors showed off the fast-paced action that will characterize the action in the game.

In addition to creating a satisfying RTS experience, developers behind the game are striving to ensure that WorldShift is approachable for those new to the series or the RTS genre in general. Part of this approach comes in the form of a simplified heads-up display and easy-to-use controls. When it comes to controlling individual units, you'll typically only need to use the mouse to move them. You'll also be able to choose from a handful of special abilities for units by clicking on a small menu in the lower left-hand corner of the screen. To shadow a boss unit with some underlings, you just choose the group you wish to order, then click on the unit you want them to protect. In addition, unit pathfinding looks to be slick, with large groups of units moving smoothly across one another's paths without any slowdown as individual units try to find their way.

Another nod toward the refined take on the RTS strategy in WorldShift is the ability grid featured in the game. There are no technology trees in the game. Instead, players can acquire powerful items and relics then attach them to various units to gain more impressive abilities. These relics can be collected in some of the cooperative player-versus-environment missions that the developers refer to as "dungeons." Here, you goal will be to take individual boss units (such as the humans' commander or the tribe's high priest) and navigate them through treacherous courses lined with enemies. These co-op missions are far removed from your typical RTS conventions. There are no buildings to construct or resources to gather; instead, they seem to play more like missions from such games as Diablo, where you and your friends work together to defeat the various enemies (as well as some tough boss battles), eventually reaping the rewards in the form of increasingly powerful relics.

Though WorldShift's approach seems to be friendly for RTS beginners, the game looks like it is well on its way to becoming a deep and immersive strategy game. We'll be keeping up with the game's progress over the coming months and reporting back with the latest information on the game as it becomes available.