Continuing our post-GDC review coverage, I had a chance to sit down with Bryan Davies and André Herbst for a review of the upcoming semi-massive multiplayer shooter Parabellum. Developed by ACONY and published by K2 Network and GamersFirst, Parabellum combines FPS gameplay familiar to most gamers from classics like Counterstrike, and marries it with some of the latest developments in MMO games.
First things first: Parabellum will be yet another passenger on the Free2Play train. Unlike many other F2P titles, however, it’s a AAA quality game, utilizing the Unreal 3 engine for development, and powered by Gamespy for networking. If you couldn’t tell by the genre that it wasn’t just another Asian-inspired sprite-based MMO, the level of quality that developer ACONY is putting in the game would instantly inform you. Frankly, even in early beta stages, the game exhibits an unusually high level of polish. I attribute it to the level of developer interaction with the game -- they love playing, and they regularly playtest and converse with their beta testers to further refine and polish the game.
You may recognize the name ACONY from somewhere: they’re the minds behind Desert Combat: Eve of Destruction; a privately funded 35 man lean and hungry development team with something like 170 years of combined experience at powerhouses like EA, THQ, and Square Enix. That ain’t small potatoes, but having big-name talent means you need to produce a big-name game. Parabellum really has the potential to do just that. At its core, Parabellum is an MMOFPS focusing on gameplay style, massive areas, weapon customization, and social features. In essence, there are really two games: a massive multiplayer social area, and a more instanced small server with 5v5 up to 16v16 action. ACONY were unable to comment too much on how the MMO and instanced servers would blend together, but the build I played had parallels to the Phantasy Star Online games: massive social areas serving as lobbies for players to meet and participate in instanced combat.
The combat plays out in a non linear multiplayer campaign, and map choice is determined by which objectives are completed on preceding maps. Think along the lines of certain Team Fortress 2 maps, but with a twist: for instance, completing (or failing) objective A would determine which maps were available next. For league and laddered competition, this obviously presents a whole new level of strategy: I’d anticipate players fighting heavily over objectives that might not win them that map, but cause them to be at a disadvantage in later rounds.
The gameplay in Parabellum will allow for hardcore, moderate, and casual players to be separated by skill, and there are plans to allow user created content including new campaigns. Now like most F2P games, there are microtransactions involved, but Parabellum is taking the high road by only allowing “vanity items” (the industry term for items that have no effect on gameplay) rather than “power selling” (items that give a player an in-game advantage). Players can buy stuff to customize how they look, but this won’t give them any other advantages against their competition; unless you can stun your opponents with your massive bling and pimp uniforms. The customization in Parabellum, unlike the ridiculous items in games like Battlefield Heroes, is actually worth spending your money on. For example, my character was a hardened mercenary with a boonie hat, and a vest. We were quickly able to add pouches and a radio to that vest for a more tactical look, tweak the colors a bit, and change the pants. The level of customization is really pretty unbelievable. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a game that allows me to pull pouches on and off of a vest before. For painting with vast strokes, you can also pick themes, such as a punk, military, special forces, etc. Unlike many other customization schemes, ACONY seems to have put a lot of effort into making sure that the customizations actually look GOOD. You won’t look like a retarded pirate with an inability to dress himself.
Once you’ve picked a customization, you’re off to the massive matchmaking areas. These areas have a 3rd person camera (while gameplay areas have you fighting in 1st person). Unfortunately, not much of the massive area was available to show during GDC, but we did get a look at the meat and potatoes with the combat maps. At release there are expected to be around ten maps (currently four in closed beta). The maps feature tight fighting quarters for a focused engagement, with some instances of destructible cover. Combat is fast and twitchy, and instantly familiar to any FPS fan. Death means you join the next respawn wave and pop in a few seconds later, again familiar territory for FPS fans. This familiarity is actually the best part of Parabellum: it seems like a layer of polish over an old friend, rather than an attempt to reinvent the wheel. And more importantly, it treats FPS players like grown ups. Parabellum is a big-boy game. It doesn’t provide you excessive violence just for the sake of excessive violence, it doesn’t turn on easy-mode to allow the noob to compete on the same level as the hardcore. It’s a traditional FPS, and that means some people will hate it, and some people will love it. Unfortunately, the game is in too early of a stage for me to offer a final verdict on it, but I’m extremely optimistic about this one. I can’t emphasize enough, as an FPS fan, that the game has that certain intangible feeling that you get when you know you’re playing a top-notch shooter. That’s big stuff, and I have to give ACONY props for the job they’ve done. We’ll definitely be keeping our eyes on Parabellum, and bring you the latest updates on how development is coming.
source: Stratics |
