Xbox: ENCLAVE!!

WOW! textures! textures! textures!  I think this one will be the most talk about game soon!! Got some info and screens!  

 We had the opportunity to sit down with some of the folks from Conspiracy Entertainment, which is bringing Enclave to Xbox. Namely, we spoke to Peter Berstrom, President of Conspiracy Entertainment, Dan Jevons, Producer for Conspiracy, and Jens Andersson and Magnus Hogdahl, both of whom work for Starbreeze Studios, the developer of Enclave.

Enclave started out as a PC title, but Conspiracy got hold of it, and found it to be a great fit with its products. After a while, it looked like Enclave would be better suited for consoles, and everything was scrapped. It is a testament to the people at Starbreeze that the game looks as good as it does in such a short amount of time. It appears as if these people truly care about the games they produce, instead of treating them like "products".

   Enclave is more than just a "deathmatch" style game as Dan was telling us. Everybody involved wanted to bring a level of depth to the gameplay that hasn\'t been seen in the FPS genre very often. Maybe putting Enclave in the FPS category is too easy. There will be many genres covered in the game, ranging from action to strategy.

There are two "sides" to Enclave, a light and dark. Each character class will have a corresponding equivalent on the other side. For example, the "light" side has the archer, while the "dark" side will have the assassin. Both will be good with long-range weapons.

The depth of play that was mentioned earlier comes about from the opposing sides. There will be certain scripted events to help explain the story thread, but don\'t expect to play the same level the same way each time. Throughout levels, the native creatures will be defending their territory. They don\'t care which side you are on. Objectives will be different for each level depending on if you are playing as either a dark or light character class. And of course, different characters will play differently.
 
 In a "rescue the princess" mission, for example, an assassin might scale up to a high point in the town and take out the guards from a distance. Playing as a Wolf Rider might allow you to zip in and get out before people notice.

One of the biggest changes that the developers made (other than ditching the keyboard and mouse) in bringing Enclave to a console was to change the perspective. While in development for PC, Enclave was to be a first person shooter. Since bringing it to Xbox, the perspective has changed, along with the FPS emphasis. Changing the perspective to third person has allowed Starbreeze to shift the gameplay in order to include more elements of strategy. One of the goals with Enclave was to mix not only the long-range weapons of the FPS, but melee combat as well.

The developers are well aware of the pace most FPS games enjoy, and wanted to keep that same sense of speed in Enclave. From what we were shown, it would appear as if they are succeeding quite well.

The environments look dark, not because they suck, but because they are created that way. Dark is good. Dark corners look like dark corners should. Alleyways look like they could hide any number of thugs waiting to take you down. Basically, the environments look fantastic.

Characters look really detailed as well. Clothing moves, it isn\'t just part of the skin. Buckles and buttons have their own pixels, and don\'t ride piggyback to the person. Each character will earn money throughout the game with which to upgrade their armor. Having seen some of the upgraded armor and the amount of pixels it took to create them, all we can say is "Wow!" Truly, amazing stuff to behold.

Enclave will cache some of the textures onto the hard drive to help reduce load times. That should help because there are a lot of textures.

Starbreeze and Conspiracy hope to have online play when Enclave is released (currently scheduled for the first quarter of 2002). This would be dependent on Microsoft\'s broadband network plans. If, however, Microsoft does get their planned broadband gaming network up and running in time for Enclave\'s release, you can look forward to possibly playing in teams, with ten players per team. As it stands now, there will definitely be four-player split screen.

Also in the possible online plans is the consideration of having additional levels for download. While this may sound like just another PC trick (a common complaint about the Xbox), it should be noted that people have been doing it for years without complaints. Heck, even Dreamcast owners want to update their Phantasy Star Online.

We asked the Starbreeze folks what they were most proud of so far in developing this game. They told us, "Getting the engine up and running." Andersson said they "...expected to run into difficulty, but we didn\'t." Modest guys.

Everybody involved would like to see the game go online. If for some reason it doesn\'t happen this time around, expect to see Enclave 2 have online support, no matter which platform it ends up on. As it is, online or not, Enclave is looking like it could break away from the action/FPS pack on Xbox and become a surprise hit.








More screens here!
http://xboxmedia.ign.com/media/previews/image/enclave/bg27.jpg
http://www.teamxbox.com/images/games/ss/47/image1949.jpg
http://gamespot.com/gamespot/images/2001/vgnews/102901/enclave/enclave_screen005.jpg
http://www.xboxweb.com/media/enclave/01.jpg
http://www.xboxweb.com/media/enclave/02.jpg
http://xboxmedia.ign.com/media/previews/image/enclave/bg44.jpg

I have been reading and watching this game for a long time. It looks awesome.  The textures are great.  This game will be a must for all xbox owners. Looks and sounds great.

This is my kind of game; dark, twisted, evil.  I\'ll get my roomie to buy it for his box.

I\'m really bored of the Quake texture pack and look.  It doesn\'t look that great to me.

Now thats what i call "texturazilla"!!!!  Thanks for the pics and info pstwo.

"Hi there beautiful, what\'s your name?"

"I\'m Heretic II..."

"My name\'s Quake, let\'s have a baby."

"Sure."

"I wonder what it\'ll look like?"

"Who cares, take me!"

...the rest is history...

This game looks like crap!







nah... actually it looks too good to be true.. get it Bladez, so I can play it;) :rolleyes:

Looks fantastic

again I can;t wait to see all these great looking Xbox games in motion

So this is a FPS with a twist .

sounds good to me

its 4 PS2 2!

I\'m pretty sure it\'s exclusive.