Stalker: 無聲殺手
International distributor: THQ
Local distributor: Interwise Multimedia Corp
Platform: English for PC
Taiwan release: summer 2004
The battle for the dominant first-person shooter (FPS) is heating up this summer with the release of STALKER, a new concept game from THQ, which aims to bring FPS excitement into the Diablo game environment.
The back story of STALKER is that there has been a massive nuclear explosion that has created a region that for many years was totally inaccessible. This highly radioactive environment contains many valuable artifacts and naturally has many hidden dangers -- such as mutants -- and these have all kinds of special abilities. The player character is a stalker who enters this zone to collect artifacts and attempts to keep mutant life forms from expanding out of the radioactive zone.
The new X-Ray game engine that powers STALKER allows for incredible graphics both for confined spaces and the highly atmospheric exteriors, said Dell Yu (余如山), CEO of Interwise. "With the right hardware, a single character can have up to 3 million geometrical planes."
In addition to the expected graphical upgrades, this FPS also brings in many of the features from RPG games, with a flexible exchange of weapons and equipment between player and non-player characters. These NPC characters are all highly developed and interact intelligently with the player, all exhibiting their own unique qualities. The non-linear storyline and the game's unique life-simulation system provide a high level of replay ability.
All of this and you still have the excitement of blowing away your enemies in the first person. Does it get much better than that?
Chronicles of Sealing Gods 蕩神誌
Local distributor: Interwise Multimedia Group
Platform: Chinese for PC
Release: currently available
Chinese mythology gets a splendid showcase in Chronicles of Sealing Gods , a new release for PC by Interwise. The background for this game is based on the novel Chronicles of Sealing Gods and allows the gamer to take part in a conflict in which gods in heaven and demons in the underworld all want to take part in determining the fate of mankind.
The rich literary background provides an amazing range of characters for the player to interact with in the fantasy game. The demo was released last November and Chronicles of Sealing Gods was quickly voted the most highly anticipated game for Taiwan in Internet polls, greatly assisted by its strong story line, big battle sequences, and of course, magic. The graphical complexity of the big sequences have previously only been seen in PS2 and Xbox for those Japanese-style action games, such as the Sangokumusou series (三國無雙).
Chronicles of Sealing Gods has taken Interwise two years to develop and has drawn heavily on literature, legend and history. The magic system in Chronicles of Sealing Gods draws on the Chinese philosophical theory of the five elements, with the addition of necromancy -- and the story is one that is familiar to most of the Chinese-speaking world. Welcome to Dungeons and Dragons with Chinese characteristics.
Republic: The Revolution
International distributor: Eidos
Platform: English for PC
Release: already available
The republic of Novistrana has been taken over by a dictator and your family executed. Your task as the player is to build an underground political party and set about causing as much anti-government sentiment as possible, with the aim of eventually overthrowing the tyrannical government and establishing a Utopian workers' paradise.
While it all sounds like a great scenario for a truly kick-ass game Eidos' Republic: The Revolution falls rather flat and is riddled with more problems than the game's fictional ex-Soviet satellite state.
Part strategy, part action, the latter of which is somewhat questionable, the player must undertake a series of time consuming, clumsy and at times downright boring missions such as leafleting, surveying and investigating individuals.
Graphically the game works well. Viewed in 3D the town's environment is spot-on. People walk around the city and sometimes interact, cars will drive by and stop at lights and the buildings look incredibly real. A 2D-overview map mode allows players to see enemies while keeping an eye on the town's numerous districts.
Player friendliness on the other hand rates an absolute zero. There is no tutorial and the learning curve is steep and will have anyone with a whim for quick action giving up and uninstalling Republicwithin minutes. The game's interfaces are easy to see, but not easy to understand. The sheer number of them makes managing them and following events almost impossible, and certainly far from enjoyable.
The bottom line is that if Castro, or Lenin for that matter, had played Republic: The Revolution before they set about instigating their own insurrections, then they'd have probably given up and settled for a nice exciting job at a haberdashery instead.
Unreal Tournament 2004
International distributor: Epic
Local Distributor: Atari Taiwan
Platform: English/Chinese for PC
Release: already available
Fantastic graphics, oodles of blood, loads of explosions, bad guys galore and more imaginary military hardware than it's possible to comprehend make Epic's Unreal Tournament 2004 a real gem of a game for anybody with a psychotic love for first-person shooters packed with mayhem and wanton destruction.
There is a wide variety of maps and modes to choose from, graphics that include wonderfully detailed skies and dreamlike planetary landscapes and a selection of great sound effects and stirring atmospheric music. The game's interface is faultless, easy to see, easy to use and the on-screen info isn't distracting and doesn't impede play.
In addition to the out-of-this-world audiovisual feast, the game allows the player to use some awesome killing machines to lay waste to enemies, which, after all, is the whole point of Unreal Tournament. Armored vehicles such as the Goliath tank, the raptor fighter and the five-man leviathan supertank are great fun to run amok in.
There's no limit to the number of hand-held weapons you can carry, which means you can carry a weapon that fires a high powered plasma-like grenade and still be able to strafe your way out of a tricky situation with your basic assault rifle.
The only draw back to Unreal 2004, is its sheer size, as it requires a monstrous 5.5GB of hard drive space in order to install it.
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