Cold War stealth action to slip past un-noticed? Screens inside
Can Dreamcatcher get any attention in such a crowded genre?
It must be a difficult thing to argue the case for another stealth-based third-person action adventure. The market is already saturated with creep ‘em ups of a fairly high standard. There’s the MGS series, and the Splinter Cell games. There’s Tenchu, Thief, Hitman, Sly Racoon and a whole horde of inferior imitators. So when UK developers Dreamcatcher announced that it was working on a stealth-based third person action adventure, it certainly wasn’t life-changing news.
However, now that Cold War: Behind The Iron Curtain has peeked its face out beyond its shroud of unremarkability, we would be inclined to think positive thoughts. Set during the Cold War, and featuring environments like the Chernobyl wreck, the mausoleum and the dank confines of the Ljubljanka prison, the player takes the role of a western journalist who has been imprisoned by the KGB. The stealthy escape will require the extensive use of homemade booby-traps and weapons, as well as more traditional journalist tools like a camera and, er, a biro.
Cold war is set for a PC release towards winter this year, and Dreamcatcher has also expressed an interest in porting the title to Xbox: although news on this has yet to be confirmed.
Here are some screens for the interim.
However, now that Cold War: Behind The Iron Curtain has peeked its face out beyond its shroud of unremarkability, we would be inclined to think positive thoughts. Set during the Cold War, and featuring environments like the Chernobyl wreck, the mausoleum and the dank confines of the Ljubljanka prison, the player takes the role of a western journalist who has been imprisoned by the KGB. The stealthy escape will require the extensive use of homemade booby-traps and weapons, as well as more traditional journalist tools like a camera and, er, a biro.
Cold war is set for a PC release towards winter this year, and Dreamcatcher has also expressed an interest in porting the title to Xbox: although news on this has yet to be confirmed.
Here are some screens for the interim.
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Comments
Joji 27 Jul 2004 10:12
1/1
Do we really need anoother stealth game? This is the problem at the moment, developers hitching a ride on MGS/SC coat tails. It's tricky to tell what is actually good anymore as graphics progress.
Something has to be done because all these stealth games are like a production line of Solid Snakes' all being dispatched on the same mission. In the cold dark and shadows it's becoming harder to tell them apart from one another. You shoot and kill one stealth game and another one sneaks upon you, knocks you out and takes your money.
This begs the question, are developers playing it to safe now? Where are the inventive ground breaking games? Perhaps some means of market research needs to be carried out yearly because several developers have no idea what we want to play. What I'd like to see happening is more demos pitching ideas to the public. Come to our site and test this demo of a game we are considering, then once you've tried it fill in the questionaire and return it to us, so we know if you want this game to buy or not. Is this so hard to do? Ofcourse it isn't. Developers need to do this research themselves every six onths to a year, in order to get a clear picture of their user base, becase games like this make me feel they are flying blind, with fuel running very low. It's only a matter of time before someone crashes and burns the hard way.
I can understand MGS started something. and it's now an important part of gaming genre, but do we want it all the time? Splinter Cell is enough of an altenative without stuff like Rogue Ops hanging about waiting to pick at the left overs.
Meanwhile look at the games coming from japan. You have games where you can play as a fireman, an earthquake survivor, a dung beetle rolling stuff or play golf with frogs, or frolf as it's called. These are ideas and this is imagination, and creative thinking. Perhaps the suits are the ones stifling developers from trying something new by playing it safe all the time. Whatever the problem it needs to be sorted and fast.
Something has to be done because all these stealth games are like a production line of Solid Snakes' all being dispatched on the same mission. In the cold dark and shadows it's becoming harder to tell them apart from one another. You shoot and kill one stealth game and another one sneaks upon you, knocks you out and takes your money.
This begs the question, are developers playing it to safe now? Where are the inventive ground breaking games? Perhaps some means of market research needs to be carried out yearly because several developers have no idea what we want to play. What I'd like to see happening is more demos pitching ideas to the public. Come to our site and test this demo of a game we are considering, then once you've tried it fill in the questionaire and return it to us, so we know if you want this game to buy or not. Is this so hard to do? Ofcourse it isn't. Developers need to do this research themselves every six onths to a year, in order to get a clear picture of their user base, becase games like this make me feel they are flying blind, with fuel running very low. It's only a matter of time before someone crashes and burns the hard way.
I can understand MGS started something. and it's now an important part of gaming genre, but do we want it all the time? Splinter Cell is enough of an altenative without stuff like Rogue Ops hanging about waiting to pick at the left overs.
Meanwhile look at the games coming from japan. You have games where you can play as a fireman, an earthquake survivor, a dung beetle rolling stuff or play golf with frogs, or frolf as it's called. These are ideas and this is imagination, and creative thinking. Perhaps the suits are the ones stifling developers from trying something new by playing it safe all the time. Whatever the problem it needs to be sorted and fast.