E3 2002: Soldner: Secret Wars unveiled

At the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles today, German game publisher JoWood showed off an early pre-alpha build of Soldner: Secret Wars, its upcoming multiplayer action game. The game is set in the near future, after the world's superpowers have reduced their military forces to a point that most operations are carried out by highly trained mercenary forces. Players will assume the role of an elite mercenary soldier on a small team with access to advanced weapons and vehicles, including some prototype units.

The game will emphasize team-based play, and the multiplayer mode will support up to 32 players per match and up to 128 players on some special provider servers. The gameworld will span approximately 1,800 square miles, and everything in the environment can be destroyed. In addition to fast-paced team-based action, the game will feature a complex political simulation that forms a framework for its diverse array of missions and mission types. The player's actions in each mission will also affect future missions and mission objectives.

The game is built on a proprietary game engine that has been in development for approximately two years at Wings Simulations, the studio that created the tank simulation Panzer Elite. The current build is approximately 40 percent complete, and the developer expects to reach the beta stage of development near the end of the year and finish the game in the second quarter of 2003. We'll post more information about the game as it becomes available.