Black is a first-person shooter currently in development at UK-based Criterion, the company responsible for the outstanding Burnout series of racing games, and the purveyors of the RenderWare engine found used in everything from Burnout 2 to Grand Theft Auto III. The company has no previous experience making first-person shooters, but as design director Alex Ward explains, the company views that as an advantage rather than a disadvantage. Rather than strictly adhere to the conventions of the genre as most first-person shooters do, the makers of Black are starting at ground zero, bearing in mind a few key, detail-oriented design philosophies--namely, that the shooting aspect of a first-person shooter needs to be exceptionally intense and satisfying above all else.
But let\'s back up for a moment. Black is still very early in development for the PlayStation 2 (an Xbox version is also planned) and will not ship any earlier than late 2005. It will be a modern-day first-person shooter, featuring authentic weapons and locations, and its main character will be an American soldier battling other, American opponents in Eastern Europe. Alex Ward cited television shows 24 and Alias as inspiration for the game\'s story, which should be a gritty and plausible techno-thriller--so expect Black to be a serious, mature-themed game. Criterion didn\'t talk about the specific features of the game, dismissing the entire notion of early talks about multiplayer options and things like that, and instead opted to focus on the game\'s core look and feel.
What they actually showed us behind closed doors at E3 was basically a shooting gallery, in which we had the opportunity to test out several weapons--a pistol, an assault rifle, and a shotgun--against a few foes. No artificial intelligence had been implemented as yet, and the sequence was not predicated by any story elements. So what was so great about it? The fact that the deafeningly loud gunfire affected the environment in a manner far more spectacular than we\'ve seen in any shooter to date. Criterion acknowledged that what the developers are attempting to do with Black is to capture the sheer, gut-wrenching drama of intense Hollywood gunfights. That means, as bullets all hit their mark, they do what you\'d expect bullets to do from growing up watching action movies--cause debris, dust, and smoke to spray every which way, glass to shatter all over the place, or maybe sometimes ricochet and hit something that the player wasn\'t even aiming at. The logic goes like this: In Black, missing one\'s target ought to be as thrilling as actually hitting one\'s target.
At any rate, we were able to blast all the masonry off of walls, crush the letters off of large signs, blow doors off of hinges, shatter car windshields and headlights and blow their tires, ricochet bullets off of steel gratings, and more. The destruction remained; the bodies did not fade away, and shell casings littered the floor along with all the bullet holes from errant fire. And the intensity of the visuals was met if not exceeded by the sound. Gunfire was exceptionally loud and clear. The sound of bullets striking all the various types of surfaces was pronounced and realistic. After gunfire ceased, we could hear the fire echoing way off in the distance for several long moments.
The result of all this? We had more fun playing what was simply a technology demo than we\'ve had playing most of the other games we\'ve tried so far at E3. It\'s just that simple. You get the feel of the action down right, and build everything up around that. The Criterion developers take a straightforward, even humble approach when talking about this. But from seeing their technology in action, we can add one important note--their talent must be extraordinary. If other game developers could pull this type of thing off, they would.
We did notice that some of the apparently realistic physics on display in the demo were in fact scripted sequences set up to be triggered by our fire. At any rate, though, the demonstration level was still very impressive indeed. Now all Criterion has to do is build a game around it--but from what we\'ve seen of the company\'s past work, we\'re fairly confident that they\'ll pull something off that\'s well worth playing. After all, it already is. Unfortunately, no screens or video on Black is available at this time, so you\'ll just have to take our word for what we\'ve reported here (or not, if you like). But we certainly hope to bring you more on this game as it develops.
Topic: BLACK Impressions Criterions FPS (Read 540 times)