E3 2006 Preview

Christophe Watkins shows us see Fallen Earth in actions

The post apocalyptic world of Fallen Earth will herald a great new genre in the MMO market. No elves, no dwarves, simply the gun toting remnants of humanity now mutated and trigger happy fighting it out in the good old Grand Canyon. With influence from Mad Max and a multifaceted mutation system for players the game covers some great new areas.

One of the fun features we saw was real time “terrain deformation” with a huge hole created in the earth. The beginnings of the story line will start out with lower technology such as zipguns and crossbows. As a player progresses more technology will be uncovered, thus a character’s technology will mirror their level.

Not only are the weapons and armor fun to look at, but the character customizations in the game are different as well. You can set your character’s mood to angry, sad, or just plain happy. In addition to moods, players will have a number of stances to take as their character moves. A very important element to movement is sound. There is a sound bar in the game which can give you away if you are sneaking around. Expect a lot of immersive elements like this in game play.

“Your character will progress through skills and mutations, as you progress through missions, those missions will give you allocation points. Once you have allocation points you can go to your skills and increase them,” said Christophe Watkins.

We were lucky enough to see some of the mutations that developers are toying around with. Basically players can harvest genetic material from different monsters or places and use them to enhance their characters. The example shown was giving your character cat’s eyes. Basically you can get the genetic material from a feline and work up the mutation so your player can not only see at night, but alter the eyes on your face. Mutations cover a wide range of variety, which will also give players defensive abilities and enhanced combat skills.

The game has a very realistic feel, developers even mapped out the star patterns over the Grand Canyon to create the sky in the game. The NPCs talk out everything very well with a voice over and interact easily with your character. Not only do these elements add to the realism of a post apocalyptic world, they make the game fun.

The big PvP question was asked and yes it will be included in the game. The developers are going to have PvE and PvP. They are hoping for one persistent world, but will shard off if they have too. After seeing the demo, the game has a wonderful look and feel to it. Fallen Earth is still some time away from Beta, but the game is going on the right track.

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