GC 2008: Shattered Horizon First Look

Best known for its benchmarking software, Futuremark recently announced its intention to get into the game development business, and at the Games Convention in Leipzig, it unveiled its first title: Shattered Horizon. Earlier today we had an opportunity to meet with several members of the development team to see the multiplayer-only game in action.

It's unfortunate that Shattered Horizon doesn't feature any story-driven single-player content, not because we're unimpressed with the multiplayer (we're not), but because the game has a really great premise. Via a series of pseudo news reels from Japan, Europe, and America that were shown at the start of our meeting, we learned that in the near future--perhaps 30 or so years from now--humankind has taken to mining on the moon and, in a freak accident, has managed to blow up a huge chunk of it. Dangerously large pieces of debris have entered Earth's orbit, while others are still lying around what's left of the moon. Regardless, the company responsible for the disaster continues to mine, and depending on which team you're playing for, your mission will be to either protect the company's interests or put its mining operations out of commission.

At the time of this writing there is only one gameplay mode in Shattered Horizon, which pits two teams against one another in a race to capture a number of the "control points" that are scattered around every map. The game's hook is that all of its maps are located on and around what remains of the moon, where there's no gravity. Visually, this makes for some unique-looking levels that incorporate floating asteroids, tunnels, moon-mining facilities, and a great view of Earth. It's the gameplay that promises to benefit from Shattered Horizon's premise, though, because the lack of gravity is being used in a way that promises to add to rather than detract from the action found in more traditional first-person shooters.

The spacesuits that you wear in Shattered Horizon are equipped with thrusters that enable you to fly, at least for short periods of time. The controls are no different from those in other first-person shooters, save for the introduction of "up" and "down" keys that are used to manage your altitude. Floating in space is all well and good, but you won't find any control-point objectives, so at some point you're going to have to use your suit to replicate the effects of gravity so that you can walk around on the moon's surface. By default you'll always arrive on the ground in such a way that the ground is beneath you and you see the stars when you look up. Your suit doesn't know or care which way is up, though, and so it's possible to walk around on vertical walls and even ceilings if you get bored with the default horizon. This promises to make navigating the levels a lot of fun, but given that enemies have the same freedom of movement that you do, it's also going to be a lot more dangerous.

There were only four players competing for control of a single objective in the demo version of Shattered Horizon at the Games Convention, but we're told that the finished game will support at least 32 players on maps with, for example, seven or eight control points to fight over. Objectives that you control will double as respawn points for your team when you get killed, so unless a battle is raging there at the time, there should be no danger of your dying again before you've even had a chance to defend yourself.

Given that Shattered Horizon is a first-person game, we of course had to ask about the weapons that you'll get to play with. We weren't given too many specifics, but the guys from Futuremark made it very clear that they have no intention of including lasers, plasma beams, or any of the usual sci-fi requisites in your arsenal. Rather, the weapons will be reminiscent of current technology that has believably been adapted for use in space. Automatic rifles with sniper scopes appeared to be the weapon of choice in the demo, and we're told that some of them will be augmented with grenade launchers.

If you can steer clear of enemy fire for a time after taking damage, you'll find that your suit--like those in so many post-Halo first-person shooters--is able to repair itself. Your health won't be completely replenished, though, and if your suit's integrity has been compromised, you'll notice both a warning message on your helmet's heads-up display and an audible hissing. Killing enemies in Shattered Horizon is made more satisfying by the fact that their bodies get pushed backward by either the jets of air escaping from their suits or some kind of thruster malfunction. Seeing that happen every time as we did in the demo will no doubt get old, but hopefully the final moments of enemies will be a little more varied by the time the game is released sometime next year.

We look forward to bringing you more information on Futuremark Game Studio's first game as soon as it becomes available.