Project Eden Preview
The creators of Tomb Raider are working on another action game for the PC, and we've got all the details.
Though Core Design helped usher in the era of the full three-dimensional action game with Tomb Raider, the company has been the recipient of widespread criticism because successive iterations of Tomb Raider have done little to advance the genre in any particular direction. However, Core hopes to change all of that with Project Eden, a third- and first-person shooter that relies heavily on puzzle-solving and strategy rather than an all-out display of firepower, as in many first-person shooters. "It isn't a shooter in the traditional sense," says Adrian Smith, co-founder of Core Design. "More of its heart is in the mechanics of multiplayer and puzzle-solving--shooting is the second most important thing." Smith's words are almost immediately reinforced when the game starts--when four armor-clad characters step onto the screen and wait patiently to receive your orders.
Project Eden's story follows the same basic near-dystopian outline of other shooters. Earth becomes so overpopulated that there's literally no more room on the surface for constructing new buildings, so preexisting structures continue to grow toward the sky, and massive roads that wind in and out of buildings are constructed to accommodate the population on the higher levels. Unfortunately, the quality of life dramatically begins to decline--the people who live in the lower levels of these enormous cities are deprived of sunlight and clean air. Soon, the lower levels of the cities become a haven for criminals and other outcasts from society, and those who dare visit the lower levels are structural engineers that inspect the foundations of the massive buildings. Four members of the Urban Protection Agency (UPA) are sent to the lower levels to investigate the Real Meat factory, where there have been reports of mysteriously malfunctioning equipment. It's your job to guide the four UPA team members through the factory, but as you progress, a bigger plot begins to unfold. "As you get deeper and deeper, you start to learn new things," Smith explains. "You find out that there are genetic experiments taking place and that the Urban Protection Agency isn't as nice as it seems." Plot points like these unravel through the use of dialogue between characters, as well as cutscenes that use the in-game engine. The current build of the game includes cutscenes, but the dialogue portions are noticeably absent
Each of the four team members from the UPA has his or her own unique abilities, which you must be familiar with to solve any of the puzzles in a timely manner. First, there's the oddly named Amber--a huge Robocop-like character that essentially acts as the tank for the group. She has the ability to carry heavy weaponry and absorb plenty of damage. Another UPA member is Carter. "If there's a leader character in the game, it's Carter," says Smith. "He's responsible for receiving and gathering all of the information." Minoko, the third member, is the only female character in the unit, and she's probably the most valuable since she can hack into computer systems and operate cameras located in areas that can help solve puzzles. Last, there's Andre, the hardware wizard of the group--he can fix just about any broken object within Project Eden's environments. Each of the member's abilities has been specifically designed to encourage teamwork.
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- Eidos Interactive
- Core Design Ltd.
- Sci-Fi Action Adventure
- Release: Oct 8, 2001 »
- ESRB: Teen
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