Project Snowblind Preview

The game's designer Zak McClendon has revealed that the engine used for the game represents an evolution of the existing technology at Crystal. He stressed that Crystal has included a number of fancy screen effects and an integrated physics system based on their existing technology. Snowblind does have pretty darn good physics and some neat visual stuff, like the use of lightning and filter effects. One of the most annoying effects, however, surely is the noise on the screen, which is used in-game as a sign that something has gone wrong. Hence the name Snowblind, which according to Crystal is military jargon for a complete system shutdown of all internal electrical systems, generally created by an EMP blast or similar electrical disturbance in the local vicinity.

4th of July, WOOHOO! We're German, you idiot, these are grenades detonating!!

All right, which one of you motherfuckers drank my coffee this morning?!

Snowblind will also boast some large and realistic levels, which are very open, giving a nice freedom of movement. With such an open-ended level design, you will have a nice playground in which to carry out your duties. Another great thing is the character animation, which is very smooth. Actually that smoothness should carry over to the frame rate as well, as, from what we've seen of the game, it should run smoothly even on mid-range rigs.

The enemy AI is still in testing so it is hard to get a clear picture of what that will be like at this point. As for who those enemies are, it appears there will be some evil Chinese guys, a couple of augmented guys like yourself and many others. The soldiers of the evil Republic under the regime of General Yan Lo (oh, the ever-evil Chinese!), as well as the Republic Elite, whose units have been BioEnchanced like Frost. Then there will be several types of robotic opponents, ranging from ordinary to the plain freaky ones.

As for the multiplayer, Chowanec said in an interview that Snowblind would feature all the standard multiplayer options, as well as some additional modes. So we're talking Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch and CTF, but there are also modes like Assault and Hunter. Assault will see you and your team going after certain targets inside of a fortified location, so it's tactical and about capturing strategic points. Hunter mode is pretty cool, but somewhat inaccurately named. In this mode, one player is heavily outfitted with all the weapons and special abilities; the idea is that scores of poorly equipped guys will go after that one dude. Online multiplayer will support 16 players, and will have a voice option. As we found out, multiplayer as well as other game options is being developed simultaneously for all three platforms - PC, PS2 and Xbox.

So far, Project: Snowblind has received a good response from the gaming community; the only question now is whether Crystal is going to put the needed effort into it in order to make it a great title. In any case, we are promised a game that looks and plays well, with a *cough* compelling story, cyber-punk surroundings and some nice features and weapons that we can put to good use. We expect no less.