Shattered Galaxy Preview

During some routine dig ups, a group of archeologists finds a mysterious and obviously alien artifact. After detailed examination, the scientists realize that using this object will change the world forever, as it is a teleportation device. However, an experiment in which the scientists tried to use the artifact to teleport a rat from one place to another went catastrophically wrong, and results in one part of the Earth's surface to be teleported to a planet light-years away. The survivors on the distant planet quickly adapted to the life conditions, and formed numerous fractions, which fight one against other and against hordes of hostile aliens.

This is the plot of the latest game from the Korean-based Nexon. This game is in act a mixture of genres, and the most precise description I could provide is that it is a massive multiplayer on-line action-oriented RTS game, with RPG elements. The game is practically finished and should be out any day now, when the developers close the beta testing phase. We found its original concept worthy of our attention.

Shattered Galaxy is an ambitious project: an on-line only game, which can simultaneously support tens of thousands of players on the net. On the very start you will be offered to choose one of the fractions in the game. There is still not much data on the fractions, but I am sure that will change as the players will need something to go on when making their choice.

Now if you think of the number of players I mentioned and if I add the fact that there can be up to forty players in one battle, you will have to understand that this game cannot be expected to have perfect graphics and animation according to modern standards. The developers focused all their attention on providing maximum playability and smooth gameplay even to the people with slow Internet connections.

When you choose a fraction and enter a game, you first have to pass through the tutorial which teaches you the basics of the game. The tutorial is very poor in useful information and you won't find out much about your avatar, or how to purchase equipment and upgrades there. Your only chance in getting the hang of it is finding a somewhat more experienced player that would introduce you to the way this game works. Come to think of it, the interface was the greatest downside of this game. There is simply not enough in-game help for certain features! You will just have to listen to all good advice you get and learn as you play. You will surely get the hang of this game after a couple of battles, but certainly does not justify the ambiguous interface...

After you finish the tutorial, you will find yourself standing in your faction's headquarters area, with other members of your faction. This is where you get prepared for the action - you can buy or upgrade units, check out the situation on the map, or get some practice and experience points in the caverns where you can fight the AI driven aliens. Shattered Galaxy isn't just about exterminating bug-like alien bots, and this is introduced only to prepare you for the fight against other live players. The aliens are just convenient cannon fodder for the newbies to practice on.

HQ is where the political life takes place. I mean, can you imagine a faction with no leaders? The leaders in this game are called overlords and they have several important functions. Their most important function is to coordinate the activities of their faction members. Therefore, they are given some special abilities: the overlords have the ability to shout to all faction members at once, regardless of where they are, declare martial law, thus forbidding solo fights for an hour, and punish players by muting their chat. Overlords will spend most of their time deploying other players in the areas they wish to attack or defend or grant combat bonuses to his troops when a certain player actually enters a battle with other faction members. Overlord position is far from absolute power, as the players can easily incite a rebellion and elect a new overlord.

Just like in any RPG, in Shattered Galaxy you are represented by your Avatar which cannot be killed or participate in combat. Your avatar will be able to develop his characteristics as you advance through the game. The primary characteristics in this game are Tactics, Clout, Education, and Mechanics.

Tactics determines how many combat units you can control in a battle at a time. Initially, you can control only six units simultaneously, with your army counting up to 48 units. If you enter a battle and lose all six of them, you will have to retreat from the battle and then rejoin with six new units, if you have any of them left back in the base. As you make some progress and get your tactics score increased, you can add additional units to the maximum of 12 you can command. For every 10 tactics points you earn, you can control an additional unit, but you gain only one point to distribute to the tactics attribute for every level advancement, so it will take you at least ten levels in order to be able to control seven troops. It means there is no large number of armies you can control! Those six or so of them are everything you'll have on a battlefield, which implies an extreme caution on the way you engage them.