E3 2001 Hands-OnZero-G Marines

Zero-G Marines is a tactical squad-based first-person shooter that uses its outer-space setting as a unique twist on the genre. The version demonstrated on the E3 show floor was sadly running on a laptop because the planned demo computer wasn't working properly, but nonetheless, we were able to take a look at its general gameplay.

The game takes place in outer space and within a series of space stations, and your character has Tribes-style thrusters as well as gravity boots, which let you stick to the floor when you're indoors. Some of your adversaries won't have these boots, so it's possible to engage in a firefight against enemies that float over your head. Because the game takes place entirely in zero gravity, large weapons, like the rocket launcher, will propel your character backward if you're not careful.

As in Raven's recent Star Trek: Voyager Elite Force, you're able to control other members of your team through a simple command system, and you can tell them to back you up or carry out other tasks, like welding doors shut to keep out enemies or to prevent them from following you. A number of different vehicles are at your disposal, including the outrider, a one-person craft that moves quickly, and a shuttle that can carry four people across the map.

Since we were able to see it running on just a laptop, many of the game's flashy GeForce 3 effects had to be disabled, but the game does have bump mapping, dynamic lighting, and other hardware-accelerated features. With more than a year to go in its development, Zero-G Marines is still at an early stage, but it does look like an interesting take on the squad-based shooter experience. The development team will be expanding over the next few months, and it expects the game to be nearly complete at next year's E3.