E3 2008: Jumpgate Evolution Impressions

Developed by NetDevil and published by Codemasters, Jumpgate Evolution is an ambitious new massively multiplayer online game set in space. Influenced by the classic Elite, the game will cast you as an intergalactic trader, visiting space stations to sell goods and services. You can choose an allegiance between one of three factions, and once you start to make money, you'll be able to buy new ships as well as upgrade your old ones. There'll also be a dash of combat, but as you travel through the jumpgates suggested by the title, your primary concern will be business and trading. To find out more, we met up with Codemasters to see the game in action.

You'll start out in the universe by choosing which faction you want to ally with. The Solrain are mafia-like and prefer backhand dealings that avoid conflict when possible. The Quantar faction are more free-thinking, with a strong belief systems and an interest in organically produced goods. The final faction are the Octavians, who are much more aggressive and militaristic in their outlook. Depending on your allegiance, you'll get access to different ships and missions, and people will react to you differently as you travel the galaxy. And though you'll start the game with a lowly light shuttle, you'll be able to upgrade to fighters, transporters, and haulers as you accumulate more funds.

When you jump into the game itself, a feed ticker informs you of what's needed around the gameworld. This lets cunning traders make more money by delivering much-needed resources, as well as keeping tabs on what's happening overall in the universe. Missions will be randomly generated depending on your location and abilities, and you'll be able to engage in player-versus-player battles in certain areas of the map. The three factions all control different areas of the gameworld, so you'll need to ingratiate yourself with different people to progress. There will be other nonplayable factions that you can run missions for, and sometimes they'll have questionable ethics. For example, one faction will hire you to take water supplies to a certain outpost, but you'll then find that it has contaminated and killed the entire colony. Eventually the story will reveal the politics and power struggles at work, and it will be up to you to decide who you want to work for.

Although you won't level up in the traditional sense of an MMOG, you will earn combat and exploration licenses that will help you progress through the game. There are also some cool community-oriented features, such as the Flash-based interface that modders will be able to tweak and adapt. Jumpgate is artistically impressive, with plenty of visual touches, for example how the Quantar faction have adapted their ships to piggyback on asteroids.

There's no official release date for Jumpgate Evolution as yet, but a beta signup is now active on the official Web site. There isn't any news on pricing or subscription either, but Codemasters claims that it should follow "traditional" MMORPG pricing models. We'll bring you more on the game once we've had a chance to play the beta.