Kotaku
While the press release for Ukraine developer Black Wing Foundation's new 3rd person shooter is a bit muddled, the website for the game paints a very interesting back story.
Year 2026. The World government resorted to stem cells and gene engineering to stage the Judgment Day. They created genetic replications of Christ and Antichrist and destroyed them right away in the course of events to set forth severe fundamentalism on Earth, propped by the idea of communicating with God via machines as well as by the army of cloned creatures, called Angels...Talk about your high concept! The game, in development for the Xbox 360 and PC using Valve's Source Engine, puts you in the role of three heroes fighting against a New Government run by technocrats watching over a sever linked-up to heaven, where crime can have you sentenced to virtual cybernetic hells designed to provide constant torment. As far as gameplay goes it's a mix of stealth and action with RPG elements wrapped around what promises to be a highly dramatic storyline. Hell, I'm sold on the concept alone. Check out the gallery for screens and concept arts from what promises to be a very interesting game indeed.
Salvation project. Official announcementPress-release. Kiev, 10.03.2008
Black Wing Foundation is glad to announce its Salvation project currently in development for PC and Xbox 360. The game, powered by Valve's Source Engine, is developed in cooperation with N-Game Studios.
Salvation is a third-person shooter game set in the near-future. The world government, making use of genetic engineering managed to successfully imitate the Judgement Day and establish new stiff rules - a new 'Regime'. World war and death of genetic replicants of Christ and Antichrist drastically changed the mindset of people. Now they are creatures without the right of opinion, they are slaves of the 'Regime'. An army of Angels, genetically cloned humans, are watchful of keeping the order. Any dissidence threatens either death or exile to Hell - a cybernetic virtual reality system, causing a human to suffer unbearably.
The main characters are people from various climes, with different past, but common present, united by one key idea and goal, the desire to topple down the new Regime, destroy the system of Hell and Paradise. To return peace and order to earth, revenge for themselves and their folks,... but accomplishing this is not easy, the forces are too unequal in this fight...
The path of the heroes lies through multiple challenges leading to the truth hidden in the lies of New Government. Taking up roles of Narumi Amano, a genetically modified assassin, Sergei Thor - captain of east European resistance cell and Alexander Geist - a rather cynical psy-powered smuggler, the player will play through seventeen missions grouped into seven episodes, ultimately defying lie and injustice.
Key game features
- Detailed atmosphere of cybernetic dystopia of the future inspired by such masterpieces as "1984", "Brand New World" and "Us"
- Diversified and various gameplay combining best elements of stealth, action and arcade in a totally new, exiting way
- Abut 20 original bosses, each with its own strategy and story
- Seven episodes, from Tokyo to London, combined into a great dramatic story
- High cinematics factor
- Use of multifunctional original weapons of the future
- Original but simple in use RPG system
- Usage of advanced licensed technologies, realistic physics, 5.1. Sound
- Technological and detailed graphics. Use of parallax and normal mapping, cinematic full-screen pixel shader effects, HDR lighting, dynamic light, shadows and more.
- Inverse kinematics
- Great soundtrack featuring live orchestra, licensed content and original materials
- 8 to 32 multiplayer mode, new areas, new weapons, ability to play for enemies and NPCs.
Visit the official web-site of Salvation project at www.bwf-game.com
Comments
MMMMmmmm. Sacrilegious.
Im diggin the concept art!
Glorious.
Jeez, it's Neon Genesis Evangelion all over again.
Is the main character a teenage boy who pilots a mech?
I expect a statement by the Vatican within a week of its release. Perhaps they'll add "Playing Salvation" to their new list of sins.
I think the concept is awesome, and the graphics don't look bad for the Source engine. I'm eager to see how the gameplay is though.
sounds cool
I hope we get The Rocket Launcher of Destiny as a weapon.
@Yuki: Who has to fight his best friend in the end right? ;D
@Ashurahori:
along with the holy hand grenade of Antioch.
Why the f%$#! is it not being developed for PS3? I hate when small budget developers go the easy way and ditch the PS3.
On another note, It seems like these guys are inspired a lot by MGS lol "original bosses with their own strategy and story" "stealth" "high cinematic factor"
It would take a video game - or the Wachowski brothers - to come up with a concept this pretentious and dumb.
I mean, parts of the plot sound like they could be cool, but not when they're all mooshed together, like cloning the Antichrist, then killing him/her, as though that would trigger some flag in real life...oh wait, triggering a flag, just like a video game! Cybernetic hell! A server linked up to heaven? Wonder what their ping is....
All they need are some wires sticking out of peoples' heads and a trashy death metal soundtrack and the artistic vision will be complete.
@Ashurahori: As well as the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch.
I hope the localization is better than the press release translation. =P
@ExistentialEgg: I can't believe you beat me to it. :(
In-game CROSS media bar confirmed?
see what i did there?
it was lame.
*leaves
sounds like a mess. there's so much that could go wrong with this.
This game better come with the manual in the same binding and using the same paper as a standard Bible, because for some reason I think that would rock.
Remains to be seen if it will actually be worth playing ;)
@Ashurahori:
Beat me to it! I don't think you get to defeat the 'Angels' in this in big mechas though :(
so what's the Church of England have to say about this game?
Hey now! Part of that sounds like the plot to another game - Hell: A Cyberpunk Thriller!
The overall concept sort of sounds cool, but the details screw it up. Like someone said before, what in the hell is the purpose of cloning Christ and the anti-Christ? Not even mentioning who in the hell is the Anto-Christ and then they top it off by killing them. It makes no sense.
mmmmm Now thats some bland nondescript post apocalyptic Scifi concept art.
@icepick314:
Not sure but I heard the Archbishop of Canterbury was politely asking the devs to involve Sharia law somewhere in it, 'to get with the times'.
I thought there was supposed to be three antichrist?
They make it sound like matter and antimatter.
The trio of characters they have planned for the player remind me of the three base classes in Mass Effect.
That's a very touch and go idea for a game... it'll either rock or suck horribly.
On the flip side, I could see some biological/genetic engineer trying to steal one of the famous "relics of Christ" that supposedly have his blood on it to try and clone him. I mean, if they're trying to clone a wooly mammoth, why not the poster-boy for Christians?
Mmmm... sacrelicious. :-)
I love the concept of Technology and Religion, A server-link to Heaven? Awesome.
How on Earth did they figure out who the Antichrist is? Or get Christs DNA? =O!
The concept art looks like an uninspiring half-life 2 clone (cover everything with crucifixes!) and the plot is riped right out of some pseudo intellectual anime (or high school wapanese fanfic). Also, generic protagonists archetypes!
Its so over the top and derivative! How could it possibly fail?
I'm lovin' this concept. It's like the Anti-Left Behind.
This sounds so, so stupid.
@DrLight: Anti-Christ they could just make up. Christ? Well there are an infinite number of "Holy Relics" that are supposed to contain his DNA (blood, skin, etc) Even if they don't match, they just have to get it close enough to make people believe that these are the real things. Hell, just flip a few things around and make the Anti-Christ from the same DNA, like an evil twin.
Reminds me of an old web comic called "Fat Jesus about an attempted Jesus clone that turns out to be seriously flawed.
Golly, this doesnt sound like the plot of a certain anime at all. Nosiree.
I wonder when people will start coming up with their own material and stop ripping off the Japanese >_>
i assume that the "Regime" would have to correlate to one of the two 'sides' in the conflict, (Good/Evil)...
but from the sound of it, it's acting on behalf of both, and the protagonists operate as a separate entity altogether...
something tells me at least half of this concept is unnecessary and superfluous...
if the point of it all ends up boiling down to "judging people as being good or bad is wrong"...that's slightly ironic
so far though...it just looks like someone forced the Matrix to breed with the paranoia that Christianity is going to take over the planet and kill everyone
:-P so far i'm not interested
(also, in the press release, do they mean "BRAVE New World"? ...i've never heard of "Brand New World")
@Ashurahori: That was my first thought. My second was, "Wasn't that pretentious enough the first time?"
So whats the title of the game? Jesus Christ Superstar?
@tenken: Sweet cloned Jesus am I glad to hear those sentiments. I just do not understand why so many gamers have horrible, tacky taste.
On an unrelated note, "high concept" is about the most misleading phrase ever...
Can you imagine what would have happened if (speaking about fundamentalism) they decided to clone and kill a particular middle eastern 'prophet' instead? And I don't mean in the game... I call them cowards.
It seems like every upcoming game that was revealed recently has a chick in leather. I'm just sayin'.
@mind in rewind: That's because every single gamer is in his teens and loves to see a woman in leather. Right?
i have a question. Why is it that valve only likes to release games for pc and Xbox 360? am not a fanboy but i just want to know why they don't work in the ps3
@Beelzebozo:
Dna decays, plus those relics are all fake, several churches compete with eachother over who has the real holy foreskin. No relic has stood up to scientific scrutiny. I don't believe the figure is historical, but if he was, I don't think godliness could have been coded into his DNA, he would've had to have some seperate system for that.
The Source engine is still a wonderful tool to work with, but when masterpieces like CryEngine2 exist, which has as much functionality as Source or Unreal 3 and looks amazing to boot, I don't understand why any company would go with a less-sophisticated engine. Source offers some unique development tools but it's a bitch to get assets into it, among other things.
Although I suppose Cryengine2 hasn't been optimized for the 360 yet, which could be a part of it.
Those pics remind me of a FEAR FACTORY video for their song RESSURECTION.
I love the concept, but if critics had a problem with Mass Effects, this is going to have their heads spinning. Fortunately, there's no reference to Islam, otherwise the game developers would have to watch for assasination attempts. If they can maintain the feel of the concept art in the finished product, this game will be a hit, otherwise it will be relegate to another attempt at sensationalism.
Wasn't that many episodes of Dr. Who?
I like the ideas. Very dark-future-like. I will be watching and waiting for this game.
...and praying for a PS3 release... if the Valve Source engine works on PS3... eh, phooey.
I wanna kill Jesus!!
What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic?
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