Farscape Preview

The Jim Henson Company has given Red Lemon some freedom in developing Farscape.

A common problem for developers trying to adapt a well-known property into a game is that the company holding property isn't very flexible and won't let the development team expand on the license. Interestingly, that hasn't been the case for Red Lemon, the team currently working on the upcoming Diablo-like RPG based on Farscape, a popular sci-fi show in which an astronaut named John Crichton is caught in a wormhole during an experiment on his ship and is sent off to another galaxy. Red Lemon has not only been able to create a story by piecing elements of different Farscape episodes together, but it has also added 16 new alien races and around 40 new creatures that have never been seen in the Farscape universe. Of course, Farscape fans can also expect to see some familiar faces and locations. The storyline in Farscape takes place around the end of season one. Moya--an enormous organic ship where all of the main characters reside--has been attacked by a squad of peacekeepers, scattering its crew. As John Crichton, you have to find five other members of the crew and try to get back to Moya.

Red Lemon wanted to make Farscape as simple and accessible as possible so that both fans and newcomers to the Farscape universe wouldn't be intimidated. With that in mind, the game has been structured as an action RPG similar to Diablo--only now you can actually move while your characters are firing weapons. This is quite important because battles can become so hectic that you almost have to strafe and constantly move around to survive. An auto-lock on system has been incorporated as well, making it even easier to take advantage of a character's ability to avoid an enemy attack.

At the bottom of the screen, you'll find individual portraits of characters currently in your team, which can support up to three characters at once. Whenever you want to give orders or get basic information on a specific character, you simply click on that character's portrait. It's important to keep in mind that the characters can be told to stay behind, which is an incredibly helpful option for characters that can't really defend themselves, like Rygel--a self-centered alien character--who doesn't have access to any weapons.

You'll be able to strafe while firing your weapon.

The portrait area also lets you access the inventory where weapons and other items are located. Each weapon has been color-coded to indicate the type of damage that it can deliver to an enemy. Farscape's gameplay also involves the search for weapons that are more effective against certain species of enemies. Generally, you'll be able to secure such weapons and additional items by trading with NPCs scattered throughout the game--enemies will leave only shells, furs, and similar types of items behind.

While there's plenty of run-and-gun-style action in Farscape, a large portion of the game revolves around puzzles and your ability to recognize the special abilities of each character--abilities that could possibly be used to solve them.