GC '07: Parabellum Impressions

LEIPZIG, Germany--At last year's Games Convention, we were among the first people in the world to check out an early work-in-progress version of Parabellum, an online first-person shooter from new developer Acony Games. We came away from that show feeling excited about the new direction in which the team was looking to take Counter-Strike-style gameplay, so we made a point of paying the team a visit behind closed doors to find out how development has been progressing.

The premise of the game remains largely unchanged: The year is 2018, and a terrorist organization calling itself The Syndicate has planted a nuclear warhead somewhere in New York. The Syndicate team's goal is simply to safeguard the device's timed detonation, while the counterterrorist forces (CTF) must prevent it at all costs. That, though, is more or less where the similarities with the version of Parabellum that we saw last year come to an end.

Each game of Parabellum will still be a "campaign" that takes place on multiple maps. But rather than a simple grid that the CTF must navigate one map at a time while looking for the bomb, the campaign levels will be huge areas of New York that comprise between eight and 40 (yes, 40!) maps each. The bomb will be planted at one end of the map then the CTF will start at the other end and try to reach it. Moving from combat map to combat map, the CTF will encounter terrorists at every turn and have to move quickly because, depending on the size of the campaign, the bomb's timer will be ticking down from 30 minutes to two hours.

Every combat map will have at least two objectives, which for the most part will simply be exits to subsequent maps. It'll be up to CTF players to decide which route they want to take, and it'll be up to the terrorists to make life as difficult as possible for them. For example, on the small map that we were shown, the more desirable objective was a subway station that lets the CTF instantly move a couple of maps closer to its goal. But when that one was blown up by terrorists--played by bots on this occasion--the only alternative was to enter a large building via its lobby. Other maps will feature CTF helicopters that can be used to travel point-to-point across the city quickly, and others will incorporate special gameplay types, such as VIP protection.

Parabellum's visuals have come a long way since we saw the game last year, which may perhaps be because the team at Acony Games is getting more comfortable with the Unreal Engine 3 that powers the game. We only got to see a couple of minutes of actual gameplay during our meeting, but that was actually plenty. Our presenter was playing as a counterterrorist, and after walking down a dimly lit alley onto Harrison Street (the title of the map), we found that the sun-drenched buildings were mostly accurate recreations of those that are standing in New York today. The street's near-futuristic feel came courtesy of holographic billboards, which--had it been a rainy night instead of a sunny day--might have made the whole area feel like a locale from Blade Runner.

Perhaps the most surprising portion of our Parabellum presentation was being told that the game will feature a robust character-progression system that incorporates ideas borrowed from online games in Korea. Specifically, after creating your own unique character, you'll earn points for killing enemies and winning campaigns that can be spent on new items or upgrades. Furthermore, you'll be able to purchase items for your character online with real money, though we're assured that those of you with big bank balances won't be able to gain any real advantage over other the rest of us. In fact, many of the items you can pay for with cash will be purely cosmetic. Other items will offer you significant performance bonuses, and in some cases, you'll get an additional bonus for equipping an entire set of matching gear.

Parabellum doesn't have a publisher yet, but Acony Games has been meeting with a number of companies in Leipzig this week, and it'll surely only be a matter of time before this promising shooter is signed. We look forward to bringing you more information on Parabellum as soon as it becomes available.