Here's better news. Also from November Next Generation, a review of the Turok Rage Wars Alpha release. Rich
TUROK RAGE WARS
Release Date: November 1999
Will this deathmatch-based title frag its way into the hearts of N64 players?
Unless you live in a cave, or refuse to follow first-person shooters, you know there's a slew of multiplayer-intensive PC titles in the works, including the highly anticipated Unreal Tournament and Quake III: Arena. But this type of game isn't sticking only to PC - Turok: Rage Wars will bring home multiplayer components in place of a longer single-player adventure.
"The entire game really is a deathmatch," says Dave Dienstbier creative director for Acclaim Studios Austin, and designer of the original Turok and Turok 2. "Our scenario mode is the single-player mode, but it can also be played cooperatively with another player. Essentially it's deathmatch; you go from level to level trying to attain certain goals - for example, get a certain amount of frags, get a certain number of team frags, or get them in a certain amount of time."
The bots in the scenario mode will begin as very easy to beat, with simple level designs, but the game will ramp up considerably, training players to be highly competitive deathmatchers. The maps will become more sophisticated, with staple obstacles such as lava and new ones like a poisonous liquid that eats away not at your health, but your ammo. The bots will increase in skill and number, and players will also face four bosses with superior firepower.
Aside from the scenario mode, the game includes standard multiplayer deathmatch, team battles, frag tag, and a time trial mode. In frag tag, players can now be turned into a monkey, chicken, or compy dinosaur
"There are also 50 awards that you can win in the game," says Dienstbier The awards are based on various criteria, including total victories, total frags in a certain amount of time, total lifetime frags, etc. Dienstbier feels the awards, some of which will unlock hidden characters and skins, are an important way of getting players to build what he calls "career characters."
"In deathmatch, you obviously have to come to grips with dying a lot," says Dienstbier, "but at the same time, we felt that it's too bad that people's characters are totally disposable to them. So we've made decisions that let people tailor character's more to their own tastes."
If over time, players can deck their characters out in new skins, win medals, and advance in rankings, they will assuredly grow more attached to them.
"If a week after we've both bought the game, and you came over to my house," Dienstbier hypothesizes, "and I have this cool futuristic Turok skin, you'll want to know how I got it. And it might be because I'm a better shot, and the skin was the result of an accuracy award."
While he's not designing levels for Rage Wars, Dienstbier knows from past experience that deathmatch map design is a complete departure from traditional single-player maps. ("It requires very, very focused design," he says - especially considering the limitations a four-player split-screen imposes.)
'When you split a screen," says Dienstbier "you exponentially increase your overhead, both in CPU and draw time, so the levels have to become simpler in many ways."
After a recent editor's day, some of the game-industry press told Dienstbler that some of the levels felt too small.
'We've expanded some of the maps." Dienstbier replies, wisely noting that game-industry joumalists give some of the best feedback "Still, our goal is to deliver more of a Quake-style deathmatch than a GoldenEye-style deathmatch. We want a faster pace and higher frag count, which is part of the reason why we've condensed the maps."
Sounds good to us. - Tom Russo |
