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Preview  X-Isle
- By Mike Schneider [Editor In Chief]
Does a Turok-esque first person shooter featuring both dinosaur and human enemies set in a tropical setting, with superb graphics, viciously scary AI, mystifying sound effects, and a focus on team based multiplayer gameplay sound enticing? The relatively new up and coming German developer Crytek aims to one-up the big boys with their little-known game X-Isle, a high-octane shooter primed to challenge the likes of Rare’s best.
From the beginning, X-Isle’s developer emphasizes the point that the shooter’s primary focus is on team-based arena battles. With that said, however, there still is a gripping storyline to speak of.
Some distant cousins of dinosaurs are responsible for the sudden appearance of several small islands in the pacific. These beings have been there since the dawn of man’s existence, but only now do they reveal themselves by means of uncloaking the island and making it visible in the light spectrum. The UN sends in the marines to scope out the island and their strange inhabitants, only to lose total contact. Enter you, an elite soldier – whom is sent to these islands with the purpose of rescuing the missing marines, and discovering the intentions of the dinosaurian-reptiles. Obviously, the dinosaurs don’t much like your presence, and you’ll be able to try to defend yourself with a plethora of weaponry.
On the mission front, Crytek is focusing on creating a totally non-linear experience. X-Isle itself will feature five different islands. On those islands, you must first locate a leading officer, who will then give you somewhere between 3-6 objectives to complete. Some tasks might require traveling to one island and then back to another, and there’s no one set way for you to make your way through the adventure. Taking Crytek’s own description of the one player missions, “The [gamers’ whole] goal is to survive while completing specific mission-tasks. It is like a real interactive cinematic experience combined with deep immersion and innovative gameplay.”
Thus far, the screenshots released reveal the game to be a showcase of tropical ecstasy. Rivers and lakes glisten and gleam very realistically, and trees look particularly impressive. Dinosaurs are astounding – their skin textures are photo realistic, as are the animations associated with them. The dinos in the PSX Dino Crisis look like work from a 1st grade art class in comparison to these fierce creatures.
In addition, X-Isle will contain complete 3D atmospheric sound rendering – essentially meaning surround sound – assuming you have a rig of your own to utilize this feature. So if that dinosaur is stampeding in from your back, you’ll hear him coming from behind you. If you fire a weapon off into the distance, you’ll hear the sound gradual dissipate into the air.
As already mentioned, it appears that the meat and potatoes of X-Isle will be multiplayer play. Right now, we can only speculate, but there’s every reason to believe that X-Isle will be one of the first games to put online play to use on this system. Would a good guy verse bad guy team play ala Counter Strike be out of the picture? Who knows? Most likely not, and Crytek has confirmed that team-based multiplayer will be the primary focus of X-Isle. It only seems logical to make an educated guess that the envelop will be pushed far in trying to make X-Isle stand out against the likes of Metroid 4, the Saffire Shooter, or whatever Rare may or may not produce as a first person shooter.
Clearly, despite what we do know, there are still a lot of unanswered questions about X-Isle. As more information becomes available, we’ll be sure to add on to this preview of an intriguing game.
- 5.2.2001 |
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Looks like trouble
Flying in the air
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INFO |
Developer: Krytek
Publisher: TBA
Number of Players: 2 or more
Release Date:
December 2002
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