Archangel Preview

The gloominess of the Middle Ages has seemingly inspired more game developers than anything other era. This time period is to be depicted once again in the upcoming fantasy action RPG Archangel. People who were following the development process of this game are well aware of the fact that the former publisher Fishtank Interactive passed on Archangel and all other game projects over to JoWood Productions. JoWood backed up the crew at Metropolis Games, who demonstrated some of the gameplay from Archangel at the E3 2002.

Cross-town traffic can be quite deadly.

Arghh, someone help me find my contacts!

Archangel is an action-RPG that takes you on a journey through three different settings - Old Age, Futuristic Berlin, and City Of Evil. At the beginning of the game, your character knows very little about himself and the role he plays in the strange Middle Age setting he finds himself in. So, naturally, the more of the game you complete, the more you get to know about your character's identity as the plot progresses.

Throughout your character's trials and tribulations, he gets to use diverse combat moves and a variety of special abilities, which he gains along the way. The game allows you to choose two different paths: the path of the Ghost and the path of the Warrior. Recently the developers have revealed a couple of things about these character sets. If you choose to be the Ghost you will be able to confront multiple weak enemies at once, while the Warrior path gives you the potential to successfully oppose a single strong foe.

Each and every enemy you come up against will have specific strengths and weaknesses. Your job is to probe those weaknesses and decide which weapon is best suited for a specific type of foe. Alertness and strategy is also crucial to your success in combating the enemy. So far the developers were pretty vague on what they're doing with the AI, but as far as we know both enemies and various NPC's will act intelligently offering a heightened challenge to the player.

The game lets you shift the point of view from 3rd person to first person, which may prove useful when you're using different types of weapons. Players will have access to various medieval weapons, as well as a wide range of technologically advanced weaponry - naturally, the weapons are particular to the era you are currently playing in. (Sound familiar? It should. It's like Daikatana - only better - Ed.)

For a few years Metropolis Games has been working on what they call their Wireframe Engine, which they plan to utilize in Archangel. This engine allowed the developers to use various rendering, texturing, and environment-mapping techniques simultaneously. But, what's more interesting is that it puts a unique procedural animation system to use. It's basically a system that makes the upper and lower body parts on the models move individually.

And, since there will be three distinct environments, you'll see a variety of distinct architectural styles, not to mention weapons and models that blend in with the settings. Also, the game will be chock full of juicy visual effects that have been beefed-up and optimized to make the most out of your graphics card. One thing that may disappoint some of you is that the developers mean to reduce the in-game violence, keeping bloodshed and chopped-off limbs at a minimum. As was verified in a recent interview, the game will maintain an emphasis on fighting abilities and tactics rather than presenting just another gorefest.

That's about all that can be said about the title for the time being. We're anticipating more media and info from the publisher, so be on the look out for more features on this game. Archangel was initially announced for a Q2 2002 release, but has now been delayed to Q3 2002 (it will possibly hit the US market this November).