By Jim Rossignol on January 23rd, 2013 at 6:00 pm.
Scivelation. BluesNews spotted that the Unreal-powered sci-fi action game from Ukrainian devs Black Wing, which was first announced in 2010, now has a “Q4 2014″ release date from Germanic publishing house Topware Interactive. The game itself consists in controlling two characters: the shooty man, and the stealth lady. Getting through the levels apparently relies on employing the skills of both. Also, because I cannot be accurately described as an objective journalist, I can’t resist posting this auto-translated sentence from the German press release: “This game combines two of the most successful styles of the genre and combines them into one incomparable masterpiece full of action, tactics and emotions.” We can only pray that this is true.
You can see an early trailer of the game below.
23/01/2013 at 18:04 Snargelfargen says:
loading…
analyzing…
23/01/2013 at 18:28 LionsPhil says:
Well, people kept complaining that trailers aren’t an accurate enough depiction of the final game experience!
23/01/2013 at 18:53 Snargelfargen says:
They missed a few details then!
Connecting to server…
Error: Connection interrupted
…
HUD not available in offline mode
23/01/2013 at 19:27 Hoaxfish says:
beep boop
23/01/2013 at 20:42 Lord Custard Smingleigh says:
He’s a robot! Kill him!
24/01/2013 at 10:24 surv1vor says:
And then an actual bot appears…
24/01/2013 at 14:18 Bullitt says:
You cant kill a robot! Fly, you fools!
23/01/2013 at 18:08 karthink says:
Ah, stealthy lady is appropriately scantily dressed and shooty man is appropriately power armored and toting a big gun.
Takes whatever effect the trailer was supposed to have down a few notches.
23/01/2013 at 18:19 dontnormally says:
Sideboobular.
23/01/2013 at 18:19 Bhazor says:
Hey to be fair the scantily clad thief trope makes sense.
I mean people pay alot less to attention to women who wander around like they were standing right between Hot Topic and Victoria’s Secret when a bomb went off.
23/01/2013 at 18:27 LionsPhil says:
She forgot to wear trousers underneath her chaps.
23/01/2013 at 19:07 Eddy9000 says:
My best friend is a girl and she always wear scanty clothing when she goes on stealth missions so it isn’t sexist, bloody white knights blah blah blah.
23/01/2013 at 19:59 Milos says:
Showing your tits is an essential part of being stealthy. I thought we already established this.
23/01/2013 at 22:44 codename_bloodfist says:
You’ve obviously never been to Ukraine. She is not scantly clad.
24/01/2013 at 12:04 karthink says:
Indeed, I haven’t.
24/01/2013 at 00:43 Runs With Foxes says:
Are you serious, scantily-clad? You people are starting to sound like the fucking Taliban.
24/01/2013 at 01:39 Bhazor says:
She has cleavage down to her belly button.
That is ridiculous how ever you look at it.
24/01/2013 at 07:04 Runs With Foxes says:
You must be stricken with outrage every time you visit the beach.
24/01/2013 at 10:41 Grygus says:
One need not hate women to resent the idea that males are Pavlovian simpletons willing to spend money on anything that has boobs printed on it.
23/01/2013 at 18:11 Syra says:
SCIVELYFACE
Yeah but really that voiceover was just a bunch of pointless generic made up Orwellian style jargon. Why bother making a trailer.
23/01/2013 at 18:11 ZIGS says:
The game itself consists in controlling two characters: the shooty man, and the stealth lady.
This was exactly the same premise of that other game, Shadow Harvest: Phantom Ops. If that’s any indication of it’s quality, then… yeah
23/01/2013 at 18:17 EPICTHEFAIL says:
Wow, 10/10 most informative trailer 2013. At least I know enough to avoid it like the plague, what with the setting being an apparent ripoff of evry cyberpunk work ever, a third-person shooter (yay more stupid cover nonsense) and generally standing out by its sheer boring mediocrity. If this manages to be any more interesting than the average Modern Military Shitter I will be very surprised indeed.
23/01/2013 at 18:20 dontnormally says:
Oh, come off it. Standard cyberpunky whatever is better than Modern Manshoot VII.
23/01/2013 at 18:23 Shooop says:
That’s not exactly had to achieve.
24/01/2013 at 10:44 Grygus says:
I read your post in John F. Kennedy’s voice. It changed from a post with a typo to deep wisdom.
23/01/2013 at 18:56 Ross Angus says:
I wonder if 2013 is going to be the year of cyberpunk (if 2012 was the year of Huge Robots and Old Franchises Getting A Second Wind). There’s this, there’s CD Project, there’s that Ubisoft hacking / shooting thing. Any more for any more? Personally, I’d like to see Prey 2.
23/01/2013 at 20:15 SuperNashwanPower says:
Prey 2 would be awesome. I want me some bladerunner. A flat-out Bladerunner game .. hmm … do I want that? YES, but we all know how movie tie ins go. Open world future city with great sci-fi story and philosophy. That would be awesome.
Just don’t let Ubisoft make it, because FarCry3 has sadly made them think that the worlds gaming press will again mistake a game, full of QTE’s and dross but with 20% open world tacked on thats over in 4 hours, for pure awesomeness.
CDProjekt are good guys. Maybe Bethesda, but they are presumably working on Fallout 4. Maybe some random russian company will appear from nowhere and make something utterly unexpected and unique that applies the more soviet sensibilities to technology. Something that focuses more on flawed, ordinary, even weak people making the most of a unique situation (a high tech future), rather than the typical western “awesome people in an awesome situation doing awesomely whilst being stunningly good looking and possibly rich but having to make at least one moral decision”.
23/01/2013 at 20:34 Matchstick says:
There was already a rather excellent Bladerunner game back in the 90s so I clearly isn’t completely impossible (maybe EA might want to reboot it as a painfully generic FPS) :)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blade_Runner_%281997_video_game%29
23/01/2013 at 21:00 Ross Angus says:
Brrr. Clearly SuperNashwanPower has hacked into my brain with that Russian Cyberpunk idea. That is a game I would love to play.
23/01/2013 at 21:11 SuperNashwanPower says:
Ross (great name by the way, guess what mine is ;) )
This is the article that got me to see how blind I am to culture in things. I am reading Roadside Picnic on and off, and its always struck me as different but without understanding why. Realising the way in which western culture laces everything with connotations of exceptionalism, aspiration, and hero / celebrity worship – and that it could actually be any different to this – came as quite a surprise. It suddenly made me feel incredibly weary of how things are, or rather perhaps my relationship to it all.
http://www.sfsite.com/11b/rp93.htm
23/01/2013 at 23:56 Askeladd says:
I got that book sitting in my bookshelf since I saw the movie Stalker (1979) which is based on it.
Never got time or passion to read it, but every time I come across it, I immediately regret to not have read it.
I found that you first have to get into Russian literature to enjoy it… I always feel like I’m not ready yet/ don’t have the time.
I first need to finish Gibbons Fall of the Roman Empire, which doesn’t get easier in this fast paced world.
24/01/2013 at 08:54 Ross Angus says:
I didn’t warm to Roadside Picnic (both it’s spin-offs seemed much better, in my opinion). It felt like a very macho world – more Alistair MacLean than Paul Auster. I’m happy to accept that I might have read it completely wrong. The Strugatsky’s seemed more interested in world building, than character, which is why I lost interest in written sci-fi in the first place.
But I find the idea of the protagonist as helpless a very underused theme in games. Plus I’m a big soviaphile.
23/01/2013 at 18:18 ecat says:
Not much on show but the article pic did make me wonder what is the best/most amusing bus stop advertising sign, billboard or poster you’ve found in a game? The two that spring to my mind are both from VTM:Bloodlines
A billboard advertising cigarettes with the line ‘A taste to die for’.
A poster in the internet cafe depicting a young boy at play with the line ‘Extreme stick and hoop’, the hoop needless to say was ON FIRE! Youngsters will be lost at this, even I just know of the game from older relatives, honest.
23/01/2013 at 18:23 Bhazor says:
My favourite background joke in VtM:B were the magazines.
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/571/hwsinbin10001.jpg/
23/01/2013 at 20:13 Bluerps says:
Huh. A couple of days ago I remembered the “Chin” magazine for some reason, but I couldn’t recall where it was from. Now I know, thanks.
23/01/2013 at 18:32 D3xter says:
Google tells me that the Trailer displayed is at least from back in ~2011 and there’s been some other Trailers too, like this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBBYT0BVRPE
23/01/2013 at 20:26 SuperNashwanPower says:
I am 98.3% certain that:
1) The trailer is voiced by the lead singer of Scooter, the German Techno ‘Musicians’
2) Due to the above, and the fact the trailer sucks monkey balls, there is probably a good reason we haven’t seen much of this one before.
ITS NICE TO BE IMPORTANT
BUT ITS IMPORTANT TO BE NICE
thumm thumm thumm thumm thumm thumm thumm thumm thumm thumm thumm
24/01/2013 at 17:41 Bork Titflopsen says:
Are you sure?
24/01/2013 at 06:17 Henke says:
Are you sure that’s the same game? It looks completely different and has the title “Salvation” at the end. :|
Also, it looks like shit.
23/01/2013 at 18:33 Marik Bentusi says:
As a German native I feel it’s my obligation to translate some bits from their website
STORY
- future set after ultimate apocalypse between the “forces of light and darkness”
- two super nations with lots of dakka neutralized each other
- new world government that unironically calls itself “the regime”
- it’s as evil as it sounds
- male protagonist is an elite soldier, female one a genetically enhanced scientist
- it’s actually about some sciency conspiracy
GAMEPLAY
- third person
- action for male protagonist, stealth for female protagonist (including assassinations)
- earn points to upgrade and unlock weapons, skills, equipment
- you can solve levels with both chars and replay them differently
- cybernetics eat your soul/upgrades diminish your “humanity”
- skills include holo projections, rage mode, bullet time, energy shields and turrets
MISC
- mostly set in cities, cities and cities, tho a library in Bethlehem was mentioned
- RPG-level of worldbuilding in the background
- some guy from Disturbed is on the futuristic sound & music crew (which ranges from heavy metal to orchestra)
- over an hour worth of cinematic cutscenes. yaaaay
23/01/2013 at 18:51 Shooop says:
- earn points to upgrade and unlock weapons, skills, equipment
It’s a no-go.
- cybernetics eat your soul/upgrades diminish your “humanity”
Basically a “sanity meter” thing. What a lazy way to tackle what should be a fascinating concept.
Thank you for the translation.
23/01/2013 at 18:54 Snargelfargen says:
Thanks for the translation. I don’t suppose co-op is mentioned anywhere?
23/01/2013 at 19:03 Marik Bentusi says:
No problem and no, it doesn’t mention co-op. In fact, I took a second look at the page and it said “players: 1″.
So maybe it’ll be like Trine? The text mentions teamwork, so I doubt you’ll have to decide on a char before starting a mission. On the other hand, a “move camera and controls to the other char” button would cause the question of “what if my inactive char gets shot at or outright dies while I’m crawling in a vent somewhere?”
23/01/2013 at 19:14 Snargelfargen says:
Bummer, seems like a missed opportunity to add a two-player mode.
23/01/2013 at 19:34 MiloticMaster says:
I’m really hoping this is a literal translation :D
Sigh… the trailer might as well scream “BORING DYSTOPIA” at the top of its lungs…
I just hoping they nail the gameplay Trine-style and the story doesnt make me puke-
23/01/2013 at 18:44 Turkey says:
Attention all citizens of Fututuristic Gloom Town: There will be a bakesale at the Gideon Shephard memorial recreational center between 13:00 and 14:00 hours. Anyone caught not attending the bake sale will be shot and forced to work in the offworld mines… in that order. All proceeds will go towards furthering global warming and killing the last panda. Dresscode for the event will be casual dystopian. Thank You.
23/01/2013 at 19:17 Mario Figueiredo says:
Oh, and Citizens of Futuristic Gloom Town: Let’s follow the rules this time. Only beautiful people allowed. Ugly or fat people please report at the nearest reallocation facility for transportation to the offworld mines. According to directive 123 dash BA failure to do so will carry a penalty of death.
23/01/2013 at 19:32 Hoaxfish says:
Anyone caught with fried consumables or salads will be assigned to re-education.
23/01/2013 at 20:06 Milos says:
Any and all non-grey articles of clothing carry with them a penalty of immediate relocation to off-world mines of grey dye.
23/01/2013 at 19:37 EvaUnit02 says:
I found this dev commentated (work in progress) gameplay footage from 2011.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6aas0ltzvI
The gameplay looks alright.
My god though, they’re really blatant with showing off their female protagonist with that shower scene, ass shots in the cutscenes and the “chest window” on her skintight catsuit.
23/01/2013 at 20:25 Iskariot says:
I am certainly interested in this. I love cyberpunk. I will have to wait how it turns out. There’s so much they can f*ck up in building a perfectly good game.
23/01/2013 at 20:43 Rhin says:
My brain wanted this to be a Civ parody.
23/01/2013 at 20:58 Timeyy says:
b-but… maybe its gonna be decent ?
23/01/2013 at 22:28 Davee says:
Was I the only one to think all of the dully grey-clad people looked like they were completely drunk off their asses/suffering from some kind of serious muscle condition?
23/01/2013 at 22:34 strangeloup says:
It sort of looks like it might be alright. I dunno, Cyberpunk Dystopia is a whole lot more interesting than your standard manshoot, which isn’t hard.
I’m pretty sure that the thing in the video is meant to say “surveillance” rather than “surveyance” though.
23/01/2013 at 23:29 MrTambourineMan says:
A bit off topic, but Blue’s News should really update their site gfx-wise, it’s the same for god knows how many years, I used to frequent it in Quake days…
24/01/2013 at 08:24 Harlander says:
Wasn’t this (“shooty man and stealth lady”) trailed ages ago, but called Duality or Singularity or something, and not German?