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Zero-G Marines at E3 2001

The Specs

This first person shooter takes place entirely in zero-G environments, in and around a series of space stations. The game is striving for a more realistic feel, so you're fighting other marines rather than aliens and you're contending with things like intertia. When you're floating in space, your powered suit uses little jets and intertial dampeners (which can be toggled if you want to slide around more). When you're indoors, you have magnetic boots to keep your feet on the ground. Outside the station, there are space motorcycles and small shuttles to cover longer distances quickly. In combat, you can have up to four squad mates who can be commanded with a menu and configurable hotkeys.

The Speculation

Mark's Comments: There were a few of things about this first person shooter that intrigued me. First, it's got a bit of that Tribes/Starship Troopers/Warhammer powered suit thing going for it. Just as some women have a thing for a guy in a uniform, I have a thing for a guy in suit that will let him blast through steel walls. Next, Zero G is set in a big space station — not one of those tiny Russian Mir stations that breaks down more often than a Yugo on a transcontinental roadtrip, but a big space station just the right size for lots of fighting and manly violence. Finally, it models some realistic physics. Maybe the most interesting touch is that the game will model recoil, so your marine will hurtle backwards if he shoots while in the air. Could be wacky. Could be cool. Beyond that, I can't say that I saw much in the game that grabbed me. Of course I'm the guy who thought Starseige would rule and Tribes would be some minor mod-like game that only a few people would play.

Tom's Comments: The technology doesn't look particularly dazzling and the zero-G concept is dumbed down so that you can't spin. Up is always up and down is always down. So much for zero-G a la Descent. But Zero-G Marines does look like it'll have one thing missing from a lot of recent shooters: a sense of place. Each level is a self-contained space station. You fly around the outside, then you land and walk around inside it. In Zero-G Marines, it's all there in one great big chunk with no loading screens cutting it apart. At a time when so many good first person shooters are just linked corridors (Half-Life, No One Lives Forever, nearly any map in Quake III), Zero-G Marines looks like the equivalent of a first person shooter playground instead of another linear maze.

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May 22, 2001