Solar - First Look Preview

It appears that Brat Design, the Britsoft team, which appear to shun publicity and now has a number of games in development, is progressing forward having received some great feedback from Breed, their current title.

Brat Design is a unique company headed by Ed Scio and Jason Gee, who previously worked at Psygnosis, which at the time was with a very small dev team, continues that philosophy at Brat. The current project, Solar, has already presented an early avi demo which has received great feedback, comes across as stylish and moody, new FPS utilising the Mercury II engine. Bratâ??s conceptualising of a game and their attention to technology, which also offers a host of game features and inventive ideas, has probably come from their early grounding at Psygnosis.

The Brat team also is complemented by ex Acclaim and industry experienced personnel. Solar is set across three theatres of war, The Earth, Moon and Mars. Solar follows the progress of the Eastern Collective Democracy (ECD) and the United Western Alliance (UWA) as they clash in a decades old struggle for resources. The back-story is that Earth is now a shattered wasteland, a huge battlefield, where the warring factions compete for scarce resources in a quagmire of trenches and fortifications. Mars is a partially terraformed mining world, it's vast red surface littered with wrecks and ruin from the bitter conflict. The Moon has become a dumping ground. Its huge network of tunnels, excavated in the early days of the lunar colonies, now crammed with the filth and waste of the human race.

The customary spec and featureâ??s list - certainly one to pay a little extra attention to - will include:

• Vast terrains with huge viewing distances
• Interactive environments with fully destructible buildings
• Weather conditions including fog, acid rain and snow
• Three Campaigns (Earth, Mars and the Moon)
• Two warring factions each with their own technology set
• Advanced bot AI and path finding
• Battlefields containing up 32 AI or Human players
• Ground, aerial and aquatic vehicles capable of multiple crew members
• Called in air strikes and artillery bombardments
• Weapons of mass destruction (ICBM's and Orbital laser platforms) chemical, biological and radioactive
• Cooperative MP modes including, Interdiction, Retrieval, Assault, VIP Escort, Search and Destroy, Recon, Rescue and Sabotage
• Standard MP modes including Last Man Standing, Death Match, Team Death Match, Capture the flag, Assault and King of the Hill
• Advanced shader technology
• Advanced lighting and shadowing
• Expansion add on capability for new weapons

Solar will offer a tightly focused, near future, battlefield gaming experience allowing both single player and multiplayer modes over vast terrains, with up to 32 players in a game. Single player games use multiplayer maps with the addition of advanced AI bots to simulate multiplayer gaming styles. Solar has two warring factions, each with it's own set of weapons and vehicles, varying from trench mortars to long range bombardment cannons with payloads of neurotoxins.

Transportation in Solar varies by faction, each with a unique range of land, sea and air units, providing varied game play choices. In addition to this are the Necro. An army of undead soldiers, re-animated by a toxic brew created by fallout from decades of nuclear, chemical and biological war. Mostly chaotic by nature, these troopers are a constant threat to both sides, but can be a useful resource if brought under the influence of one faction.

Interactive environments add another game play element to Solar. Buildings crumble as they are hit by shells or are crashed into with vehicles; gun emplacements can be manned to cut down the opposition in a hail of bullets, trees and other incidental scenery can be cleared by a well placed grenade. All this leads to a dynamic, ever changing battlefield.