Warpath Hands-On

A while ago, a preview copy of Groove Games and Digital Extremes' upcoming FPS title, Warpath, arrived at our offices. Months have passed since, and now that the game is close to its release (the official site states July 18), we've decided to share our somewhat limited impressions with our readership.

Only one will live to tell the tale.

The rockets go KA-BOOM!

With their glory days behind them (namely the fantastic job that they did on Unreal Tournament 2004), DE has struggled to produce a hit ever since. Titles like Pariah were good, but they never quite crossed that fine line between mediocrity and excellence.

Obviously, the team at Digital Extremes has become quite familiar with the Unreal 2 Engine tech, so it comes as no surprise that Warpath is based around that same code. The upside to this is that it's (upsides) outweighs the downsides in those regards. Simply put, the game doesn't look as dated as to nullify the smoothness of the performance that the current Unreal tech offers on mid and lower range systems.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

The most basic thing about Warpath is that it plays very much like (you've guessed it) Unreal Tournament 2004. "Three alien species: The Ohm, The Kovos, The Coalition. One planet... Kaladi, a veritable utopia rich in resources and beauty, one of the galaxies most coveted, guarded and hidden treasures. Until now. Three conflicting agendas: life, faith, a new beginning. One option... You must choose your side and claim this world for your race, laying waste to your enemies as you strive to attain dominance on a futuristic battlefield. Three different paths... One war... WarPath is a fast-paced FPS game featuring a unique single player mode that allows gamers to battle for control of different territories, each providing distinct strategic advantages. Once players have honed their skills in the single player missions, they can jump online and let the real action begin."

From my experience with the game, I can tell you that the single-player segment (though important to the game) seems somewhat redundant, as the main action will surely take place online. The bots exhibit fairly simplistic behavior, so there's not much to say about this. The game types that I tried included the standard DeathMatch, Team DeathMatch, Capture the Flag and Assault modes, each offering a very familiar map design depending on the game type. As I said, the Unreal tech works great, and the implementation of the HAVOK physics is on the ball - with very few truly outrageous rag doll situations. The final game will feature three different vehicle types (yes, vehicular combat is included on the larger maps) and 8 weapons, including the Wolverine, Tyrant, Javelin, Judge, Vanguard, Vibro Blade, and EMAD. The secondary mode of fire didn't seem to make that much of a difference, nor is it very creative, so, as it stands, all of the weapons will seem fairly conventional for this sort of game.

The chopper's just part of the scenery.

Take the flag!

The trick to all of this is that the single-player campaign will offer certain resources and weapons for unlocking that you'll be able to use against other players online. This makes the single-player component more important to the gameplay than in other similar games.

Warpath takes place entirely on the Kaladi system. Something like 25 multiplayer levels will be available in the final game, ranging from the industrial-looking outdoor settings (that I got to play in), to the more expansive outdoor environments where vehicular combat comes into play.

Playing Warpath felt almost as straightforward as the features presented in this preview seem to suggest. Granted, I've played a preview build, so the final code might be very different and offer more features. Once we are in possession of the full retail version, we'll be able to offer a more substantial opinion on Warpath. For now, this is all there is to say about it.