Horizons on the, umm, horizon

Atari today announced that it will publish Artifact Entertainment’s Horizons, one of the most closely-followed and highly-anticipated massively multiplayer online role playing games (MMORPG) in years. Currently in development for the PC by Artifact Entertainment, Horizons will allow players to experience online gaming like never before in a single massive online world primed for exploration, brimming with adventure and rife with danger.

“Artifact Entertainment has spent the last few years making sure that Horizons will present MMORPG players with an experience like none other,” said Jean-Philippe Agati, senior vice president and head of Infogrames, Inc.’s Los Angeles studio. “Just imagine beautiful, massive, zone-free environments, epic level combat encounters on a scale never seen before, an extremely intuitive, deep and self-sustaining trade skill system, extensive support for player run communities and guilds within the game world and, for the first time in any MMORPG, playable dragons!”

Horizons takes place within the world of Istaria -- filled with cities and towns, castles and strongholds, villages and mystical structures, in environments ranging from tropical jungle and arctic tundra to windswept plains and mountainous wilderness. Whether adventuring by themselves or questing with a group of friends, players are free to choose their own path and encouraged to create their own stories. Fierce warriors, arcane spell casters and challenging combat will rule the frontier lands, but skilled craftspeople will play an absolutely critical role in overall character and world development.

“With Horizons we wanted to create a world where players would have a massive impact on their environment -- a dynamic place where cataclysmic events could change the appearance and function of the world in real time right before your eyes,” said David Bowman, Creative Director and Co-President of Artifact Entertainment. “And, that’s exactly what players can expect. Our advanced world building capabilities, the seamless integration of changes into the Horizons universe and, most importantly, the inherently dynamic nature of extensive player-run communities are sure to deliver a level of immersion and interaction not seen before".

Nine playable character races will be available when Horizons launches this Fall; Humans, Dwarves, Elves, Fiends and yes --- Dragons are among them. Each player character can be further customized with a near endless variety of visual tweaks, including gender, ethnicity, age, skin color, body and facial types, hair styles and color as well as wings, horns and other exotic alterations associated with select species. In Horizons, players will be able to select from a number of base adventuring schools such as, Warrior, Healer, Wizard and Scout as well as base crafting schools, including Blacksmith, Gatherer, Outfitter and Scholar. Guilds and player communities have become the lifeblood of today’s MMORPG and Horizons will revolutionize support for these critical game play elements with a number of new and innovative features as well as refined and improved approaches. Friends and guild mates can cooperate to build frontier towns, bustling merchant communities or even mighty defensive castles along the borderlands.

Horizons will be available for PC CD-ROM Fall 2003. Additional information about Horizons can be found online at www.istaria.com, which features Istaria history and lore, character race and skill information, downloadable and streaming game play movies, screenshots and much more.