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 Publisher: Eidos Developer: ION Storm Release: Late 1998/Early 1999 ION Storm has quite a few promising games in the hopper, but none comes close to matching the ambition of Tom Hall's Anachronox. This is the first game in many a moon from Hall, whose previous credits include the Commander Keen series, Wolfenstein 3D, Rise of the Triad, and preliminary work on both Doom and Prey. Anachronox is a sprawling science-fiction RPG that has been whispered about but never officially revealed to the public until this E3. What is known is that the game promises to be enormous: It will feature a reported 189 monsters, 449 non-player characters, and 168 locations to visit. The game is using the Quake II engine, but will be played from a third-person perspective. Hall is being quiet about the plot, but he revealed some slight details. You play a down-on-your-luck private detective who gets hired to research some ancient weapons of mysterious origin, and you uncover an epic tale of an alien civilization and a madman causing the universe to collapse in on itself. The game will feature eight main characters, and you will control three of these at a time. Hall promised that the game will exploit every possible means of using these three characters, implying that there may be times you will be controlling numerous characters in different locations. Reportedly inspired by console RPGs such as Square's Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy games, combat will occur in a turn-based real-time hybrid - much like Final Fantasy VII. Anachronox is scheduled to be released on two CD-ROMs and DVD in early 1999. |
