Editorial: Tr.. Fallen Empire: Legions

Many years ago, Dynamix released Tribes. Tribes became one of the most recognised and critically praised FPS games in the world and spawned two sequels – Tribes 2 and Tribes: Vengeance. The former went down, yet again, as a breakthrough in the FPS genre. The latter got laughed off the Internet but that probably had something to do with Vivendi poison.

Recently, a team of developers who consist of many of the ex-Dynamix crew announced that they have been, are and will be working on a brand new Tri… erm… I mean FPS game that is, to the common onlooker, very much like Tribes. That game is Fallen Empire: Legions.

Now I personally have never played Tribes, Tribes 2 or that other game they did. I have it on good authority that Tribes and Tribes 2 are very good games (and we shall talk about how I have good authority later on). Needless to say, this is the only reason I am going to cover the development cycle of Legions.

That and the fact that it looks really, really good.

Why am I interested?

I’ve never really been a massive fan of FPS games. I did like Quake and I have played several UT titles but I’m not one for that sort of game-play. At least not on a level where I would keep a close eye on the genre. I’m more of an RPG man. Three years ago, I didn’t have regular Internet access so I was limited to games like Neverwinter Nights and this is where my RPG addiction came from. Now I play MMOGs, I have a more competitive opinion of things, preferring to kill real people than NPCs. My friends argued and argued with me and eventually convinced me that FPS games, like Tribes, are far, far better for this type of game-play than World of Warcraft, for example.

One of my friends played Tribes and Tribes 2 quite religiously. One of my other friends wrote quite a well-known mod for Tribes 2. The first friend went by the handle Shadowrage and the latter wrote Ninja Mod, which I am told was quite good. Some of you may recognise one of the two or both and when you have people of that capacity throwing propaganda in your face, your interest is going to peak. Of course, FE:L was announced and they instantly started up their War Machine against my love of MMOGs… again.

Now we have got the, “why is that guy on that site interested in that game,” part of things out of they way, its time to tell you a bit about the upcoming FPS.

GarageGames – Fallen Empire: Legions

Tribes 4: Le… I’ve really got to stop that. Let’s start again.

Fallen Empire: Legions is an Online-Only (aka AMMO (aka Almost MMO)) FPS being developed and distributed by GarageGames. It has been in the works for the last 2 years apparently and, in many respects, seems a lot like Tribes (again taken on good authority). It has some of the standard features of an FPS title and interestingly omits a lot of features in order to focus on better combat mechanics. The game will be distributed through GarageGames game portal – InstantAction. You won’t be able to buy a retail version from the shops or other sites and the game will not install to your hard disk. Instead, they are going RuneScape on your arse and it will all be played… through your web browser.

Firstly, GarageGames have specified that FE:L is not Tribes 4 or related to Tribes in any way, shape or form… just, “influenced, “ by it. Interestingly, they mention Tribes but no other FPS as an influence but claim there are others. I’m not linked with GarageGames so I’m going to use artistic rights here. What they mean is, “Fallen Empire: Legions is the spiritual successor to Tribes and Tribes 2 but not the filth they released for a third game. Sadly, we don’t own the Tribes license so we can’t call it Tribes 4 or whatever, so we had to come up with another title that had a word in it [Legions] that was similar to Tribes in its implication. We are also using an updated version of exactly the same engine we used on Tribes and most of us made Tribes and the original engine. It ISN’T Tribes 4.” That would have made much more sense. Anyhow, technicalities aside.

Legions is going to be a straight up FPS. I’m sure some of you will have seen the leaked test videos that have been flying around the Internet like Angry German Kid on Speed and these videos do feature a third person camera mode. Apparently, the game is being designed for a first person camera mode so no third person mode for you. There will be the usual array of weapons (but no word on whether there will be a disk-launcher). Sadly, there will be no vehicles or (it looks like) deployable stuff in the initial release with the team at GG claiming they want to get the core right before they add the diesel-powered tinsel. So effectively, the game will be limited… initially. Don’t be afraid however. If they have the technology behind the web-based game-play correct, there is massive potential for expansion. You could log off and an hour later, come back to find Optimus Prime riding round on a Shrike, spraying people in the face with hair spray – the possibilities are endless. What I mean by that weird yet beautiful analogy is that they could quit easily add vehicles to the game, as well as new maps, armour classes, weapons and a host of other interesting additions without the need for you to sit around for four or five hours waiting for a 6,000 GB patch to download and install itself.

Now, for those of you who are sitting around screaming at me to get to the only juicy bit I can think of – yes, there will be skiing. Not, however, as most of you who played Tribes, will remember it. Skiing in Tribes was a bug that never got fixed and in Tribes 2, it was simply left in with some minor alterations. Skiing in FE:L has been massively diversified. Firstly, it will be multi-directional; 6 different directions to be precise. Each direction will have a different speed. For example, you could go backwards and move far more slowly than you would forwards. Sadly, this is about all we know of skiing so far. There have been hints at fall damage as well. Also, momentum will decline if you don't have energy to keep nudging yourself forward. Water skiing is going to be there but it looks like if you go to slow, you'll go underwater. GG are keeping this card close to their chests at the moment.

Deployment

The game will not be released to the shops. There will be no CDs and there will be no installation time and patching time. Instead, GarageGames will be deploying the title through their online gaming portal - InstantAction.com. You will go to the site and buy the game but the game will never actually install itself on your PC. Instead, the game will be streamed to you through your web-browser. This has obvious advantages such as the ability to play it from any PC you can get access to InstantAction on (depending on the sys. reqs. of course).

This news is generating some concerns however. The most well known browser based game I can think of is Runescape and whilst it is stable, it isn't beautiful. GG claim that FE:L will be beautiful and will run perfectly on their streaming technology but I still have my doubts.

Time will tell.

So far, that's all there is to really talk about. It seems GarageGames have only revealed all of this due to the leak that occured from the stress tests and initial beta testing.

There is so much more I could discuss and I will but if I do it now, I’ll have nothing left to talk about on another day, so for now, I’m going to register for my beta access after reading this interview with GarageGames.