Echelon Preview

The games that place the player in a cockpit of a futuristic plane, with fantastic characteristics and incredible firepower, as a part of a future clash between two opposed factions were always interesting. We have seen a lot of these games, some created history, most passed unnoticed (especially in the last couple of years). This is why a new game like this didn't cause too much commotion. Still, Echelon (Storm) created by MADia, even though it basically used all the things other games in this genre have, added one new feature: a highly realistic aero-dynamic and physical flight model.

The story begins in the distant year 2350. The Galactic Federation becomes a great force that unifies most of the planets. As it develops, it comes in touch with another civilization: the Velians. The Velians had a highly advanced technology called the Zero-T. Federation found this quite useful because it was capable of creating a portal from one planet to another, hence it decided that it would accept Velarians as its members. Once the Zero-Ts were placed on all planets, the Velians decided to rebel and used their technology to acquire all the ports and defend themselves against all attacks.

Formation changing to Coloumn!

Over the hills...

The player has been given a role of a Galactic Federation Air Forces' pilot, who tries to regain control of the Zero-T portals, whilst fighting the troublesome aliens and their technology (the worst of which is shutting down all electrical "appliances" in the vicinity of portals).

Two thirty-mission campaigns combined with a good story promise a long and enjoyable playing experience. As the player advances through missions, his shoulder pads will grow ever more stripy and his chest get covered in medals. Higher rank means, of course, greater responsibility. The player had been given the chance to progress from an ordinary pilot to a squadron leader, or even a force commander (having control of several squadrons) depending on his performance. If your performance is poor, you won't get promoted but you won't loose the game either as it is not obligatory to complete a mission successfully. This adds certain non-linearity to the game.

As the time goes by, you will be able to access more new weapons, aircrafts (if you can call them that). You can choose from guided missiles, ballistic missiles, various cannons, and other things that scientists should obviously develop in the next 350 years. There are altogether over 20 scientific masterpieces, about 12 crafts that will deliver the load in more than 100 peaces of the war machinery.

As I already mentioned, the flight model is completely realistic, with one slight problem. How do you know what is realistic about a plane that is due in a couple of centuries? Apart from this a real-time damage system had been conceived: the level and type of damage will directly affect your crafts' performance. Realistic physical model will make the game hard to fly so I think it should attract all players who liked F14, F22 and similar games. As for the players who dislike to think about a manoeuvre possibly causing lack of stall and a possible crash, they can choose the arcade mode where all you have to do is avoid rockets and shoot enemies.

The graphics look promising. The crafts have between one and two thousand polygons, where as some ground objects reach twenty thousand. Realistic lighting effects, large and good textures, and spectacular explosions look great and deserve admiration. Different time of day and the weather effects can but improve the overall impression. Huge terrains give you all the space you need for air combat. Only the hardware requirements could turn out to be a problem, but I did not find the DEMO too demanding.

The sound should also be of highest quality. The game should provide a good 3D sound support combined with the new notions like changing the engine sound depending on how and how you're your engine got damaged.

The AI in this game should be more advanced than what we are used to seeing. Various types of crafts and whole convoys will interact with each other and act in a realistic fashion. The feeling should be similar to Falcon 4.0 where the players can really he is but one small soldier on a big battle-field, but he can still make a difference. Above all, the player will have to use his craft more wisely because the common strategy of rushing into the crowd with your finger tight on the trigger will generally cause his instant death.

Any game that plans on being played for some time has to have a well developed multiplayer system and the guys from BUKA Entertainment and MADia have certainly not forgotten that, and so, up to sixteen players per game will be able to compete over LAN (and only eight over internet) in various deathmatch, capture the flag or teamplay modes.

This game can be expected at the end of August this year. The game does seem promising, but we'll have yet to see if it will live up to it's promises.