Shattered Horizon closed beta finishes

Brian Ambrozy 19 Oct, 2009 at 12:21pm ET Article published in Gaming

Futuremark, a company most well-known for their 3DMark suite of benchmark software, has been working on a zero-gravity FPS called “Shattered Horizon,” which has been in closed beta for seven months now.

Today, new screenshots and in-game footage were released for the game.

If you’ve ever benchmarked your computer using 3DMark, you have probably wondered “Why don’t they make a game? I’d play that!” whenever you’ve seen one of their “fake” games during the benchmark run. Watching the footage for Shattered Horizon, one realizes that they have finally made that game.

Set in a near-Earth space of forty years in the future, the game pits ISA astronauts against MMC (Moon Mining Corporation) guards in an armed conflict surrounding a catastrophic mining accident.

Multiplayer mode will allow 32-player maps, with extensive online leaderboards and stats tracking.

The game is PC only, and will run on Windows Vista and Windows 7. Futuremark are known for their punishing, boundary-pushing benchmarks; could this be the next “Crysis”?

The website reveals some details about weapons and gameplay, but one worrisome thing is that it appears there is only one gun available to the players, in addition to grenades. The gun has ranged, close-up, and melee modes, but the lack of variety could become tiresome very quickly.

Video Games | Shattered Horizon | Raid on Moondust Trailer HD

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

Comments

19 Oct 2009 ~ 12:39pm Ryder That trailer looks graphically fantastic, if it is "in-game" footage. Need to see more regarding the actual gameplay though.
19 Oct 2009 ~ 12:40pm Thrax Wow, what a completely unique premise. The all-axis combat seems like a total mindfuck. I'm intrigued.
19 Oct 2009 ~ 12:46pm CB The enemy base is down.
19 Oct 2009 ~ 2:33pm GHoosdum +rep CB for the Ender's Game reference.
19 Oct 2009 ~ 3:04pm primesuspect Ryder, it is indeed in-game footage
19 Oct 2009 ~ 3:51pm Obsidian The next Crysis? I think not but it's hard to tell what a game is going to look like at 1080p from a 540p video. It doesn't look all that fun to me either.
19 Oct 2009 ~ 4:30pm shwaip I never realized how shiny space was.
19 Oct 2009 ~ 4:42pm Obsidian The more you know.
19 Oct 2009 ~ 6:11pm On Not entirely unique
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/zerogmarines/index.html
21 Oct 2009 ~ 1:19am UPSLynx This looks spectacular.

Zero G concept is cool and all, but the all-axis control is killer. THEN add in the ability to 'snap' to any direction surface.... wow.

Visually it's exactly what you'd expect from Futuremark. Though I don't believe they're using ambient occlusion.... at least not on character models, which kind of blows my mind. Perhaps I'm wrong, but I don't think I am.

I like that they don't have sound. I just wonder how they'll present that to the player. You can't have an all-silent game, there needs to be some sort of feedback to the player. Maybe all you'll hear is ambient music and your character's breathing in the mask...
23 Oct 2009 ~ 3:46pm Gate28

CB wrote:

The enemy gate is down.

Fixed.

Regarding sound, if the game is accurate (and I'm correct), then the player will be able to hear the sounds of their own gun, jet pack, breath, and maybe footsteps and nobody else because the character's own body would be the medium for the sound waves to travel.
24 Oct 2009 ~ 12:50pm CrazyJoe That game looks awesome!!