Venom Preview

How does that saying go? 'A diamond in the rough?' No...that's not what I'm trying to say... ahh yes, an uncut, raw diamond. That's exactly what I think of GSC: Game World's Venom! You know, I was kinda reluctant to play the demo, being that I hated that late 80s black metal group with the same name (I think their greatest hit was a song called Megalomania), but I guess black metal and Venom - the game don't have much in common after all. Well, apart from the looks of a tank when an anti-tank missile hits it.

I approached the demo with no prior knowledge of who's developing the game, or if the game has a publisher; or even what type of gameplay I should expect. And to my surprise (a good surprise not that 'bend over and fetch me that soap' prison inmate type o' surprise), I must say I enjoyed the heck out of this demo! Now that I've played through the two single player missions and seen some MP action, I can easily describe it for ya - Venom is what Delta Force: Land Warrior should've been in a sense... It's an excellent tactical FPS that adds some innovative and advanced technical features to this sub-genre, but with a distinctive sci-fi, team-based twist. Yeah, Venom is like Land Warrior set about 20 years into the future (maybe even less) with semi sci-fi guns, heavily equipped and armored soldiers, and with the added bonus of a teammate (squadmate), i.e. team AI, which follows you into battles and watches your ass (Daikatana style, only much, much smoother). That's right, you can issue commands to your squadmate, and he'll try to do his best to cover your back while you're engaged in some heavy fire fighting. The good thing about this is that the teammates (there are more than one to choose from, but that option is not accessible in the demo) aren't indispensable, like the infamous Superfly Johnson or that other character, that girl - what's her name. They reminded me more of the ephemeral teammates in Rainbow Six, and I guess the greatest thing about the team AI is that it is hardly a nuisance during thick action. Although this should go without saying, experience has taught us otherwise, so it's actually cool that your partner is a valuable asset, not a liability during the missions. And as for the guns, the demo features a single gun, albeit a highly versatile one. A high-tech, modifiable M36A1 Assault Rifle, weighing in at about 20lbs, which can be modified and used as a sniper, laser, rocket launcher, grenade launcher, and a conventional automatic assault rifle.

But the main thing about Venom is the amazing 3D engine technology behind this puppy.

People talk about vast maps with lots of open spaces in Project IGI, and Delta Force games (especially the first two voxel-powered games). You ain't seen nothing yet, folk! Talk about lush outdoor 3D environments! Venom redefines the damn term! The outdoor environments are spectacular in many ways. First of all, my frame rate was much smoother than in the voxel-powered Deltas or in Project IGI, but instead of running around in half-barren landscapes (yeah, even voxels can't compete with the detailed outdoor environments in Venom), you find yourself stranded in the forest somewhere on the Kuril Islands in Russia with only bushes, trees, and your teammate to protect you from the armor piercing slugs. The whole tactical concept of Delta Force games is taken to the next level because of the vast and green terrain, and not just because of that. Unlike the brain-dead idiot terrorists in DF: Land Warrior, this AI means business. It can duck, hide, look for cover, go prone, see you, and hear you... Venom's damage model is halfway between R6 and Counter-Strike in terms of how many bullets you can take, which makes the cunning enemy AI quite deadly and tough during scrimmage. Not that I know much about combat, but from what I've heard from our spec. ops guy, Lobo playing Venom is the closest thing to an actual combat experience in a PC game. Spank me silly and call me Jar-Jar, but I definitely got the impressions that the Ukrainian development team, GSC: Game World employed the services of a military expert. Bullets buzzing inches from your skull, and your frantic search for the shooter hidden some 250 yards from yourself while your teammate is dying next to you seem damn close to the real thing in my book.

And that's only the outdoor environment. The amazing thing about this engine is that it handles indoor environments just as good. The interior looks a bit monochromatic, at least the scenes we saw in the demo (kinda like the early id work), and the models need work both on their general appearance and on the animations (a bit more originality wouldn't hurt, fellas), but the texture detail and the dynamic lighting are really spectacular, especially the highly detailed textures. I think if we look at the 3D code in its entirety, we can safely say that this technology works much better than any other available 3D code tailored for this genre. The relatively smooth frame rate combined with the highly detailed (almost Trespasser like) outdoor scenes, and the good handling of indoor scenes make Venom's 3D code an obvious choice for a tactical warfare 3D shooter.

So, there you have it... these are our first rather technical impressions of the game. Stay tuned, as we plan to cover Venom in more detail (interview with the lead designer coming soon). I think my conclusion regarding this demo is: "damn, if these guys had enough resources to stage huge hype generating campaigns (LithTech 2.5 anybody), and more money to tweak their technology to make Venom a well-rounded, highly professional project (the voices in the game for example sound godawful, and the interface could use some work), there's no telling what kind of a boom they could make on the tactical shooter market."