E3 2002: Arush Entertainment announces Devastation

Arush Entertainment announced this morning that it will be publishing Groove Games and Digitalo's new team-based first-person shooter Devastation, which is based on a heavily modified next-generation version of the Unreal engine. The game is set on a postapocalyptic Earth where teams of gang leaders, pit fighters, and ex-military operatives band together against the corrupt corporate police state.

Devastation offers players tactical control over non-player teammates, ranging from individual commands to team-based orders, allowing for precision strikes or run-and-gun styles of gameplay. There are 32 different areas in the game, 30 different weapons, and numerous multiplayer game modes.

"I was blown away the first time I saw this game," said Jim Perkins, Arush Entertainment's president and CEO. "Devastation is a gunshot-to-the-head kind of experience: it's edgy, it's raw, and it'll shock your senses."

Devastation's modified Unreal engine incorporates real-world physics models, allowing for rag-doll reactions and realistic object movement. The interactive environments allow players to make use of makeshift traps made from garbage and other objects found in the streets, and broken bottles can be used as makeshift slashing weapons. The game also makes use of dynamic audio features, allowing for muffled or stealthy sounds and movements.

Devastation's AI manipulates NPC enemies and teammates with micro-behaviors and heightened awareness. Teammates will cooperate and provide intelligent assistance, with different reactions from enemies every time the game is played.

"We have made significant enhancements to the already amazing Unreal technology," said Vic DeLeon, senior producer at Digitalo. "The graphics in Devastation are so in-your-face that you'll think you're in the latest Hollywood thriller, and the environments and gameplay will suck you right in."

Devastation is currently in the prebeta stage of development. We'll have hands-on impressions direct from the show floor.