By Alec Meer on February 20th, 2013 at 8:00 pm.
I’m playing Crysis 3 at the moment, more on which soon, but one of the thoughts pinballing around my head is that it’s made so much world, with so much detail, then provided almost no purpose for of memorable interaction with it. Watching the latest alpha footage of physics combat game Son Of Nor made for a timely comparison: a stark desert setting, unfinished art, but a world you interact with and deform dramatically. Rather than just jump over bits of.
It’s early doors for the game, so don’t judge it on its looks just yet, but you can see the sort of stuff it’s trying to do – boulder-lobbing, ground-deforming, fire-starting. It puts me in mind of Black & White a little, but with vaguer elements and the RTS buts removed, focusing only on using the environment to meet your own action-needs. These are not new ideas, but they are sorely overlooked ideas. As first-person shooters show no signs of leaving their glorified corridors, games which are prepared to chase something more than mere spectacle feel more vital than ever.
Son Of Nor hails from Austria (which is why the video sounds a little as though it’s narrated by a more cheerful Werner Herzog) studio stillalive, and we’ve covered it in the past, but it seems to have come on a long way since then. There’s clearly still work to do, and no release date as yet, but I’ll be keeping a close eye on this one.
20/02/2013 at 20:18 guygodbois00 says:
“I’m playing Crysis 3 at the moment”. Bloody bastard.
20/02/2013 at 20:37 Morph says:
Doesn’t exactly sound like he’s enjoying it…
21/02/2013 at 01:38 ffordesoon says:
Crysis is the prettiest game I hate playing ever.
Crysis 2 was good fun, if not particularly great.
Crysis 3…
I’m sorry, what were we talking about?
Whatever, I’m going to go play more Torment.
20/02/2013 at 20:26 jonfitt says:
It all looked a bit “We’ve got a gravity gun”, until he started messing with the sand. The boulders were discrete objects that didn’t seem to deform the sand or the stone walls they were placed against.
20/02/2013 at 21:08 dogma7 says:
I have never heard of this game. This is one reason I stay away from these sites. Now have to try it.
20/02/2013 at 22:12 onomatomania says:
Can’t wait for the sequels “Son of Nor : At the Gates of Nand” and “Son of Nor : The Cypher Battles of Xor”.
20/02/2013 at 22:37 jmexio says:
TRUE
20/02/2013 at 22:43 onomatomania says:
Your avatar, sir.
20/02/2013 at 23:03 Sigvatr says:
that render
20/02/2013 at 23:56 LTK says:
I’ve seen footage of this game before. Feels like a long, long time ago. When did they first show this?
21/02/2013 at 01:49 Davie says:
That is some glorious narration, I have to say. Game looks interesting enough, too.
21/02/2013 at 10:00 R10T says:
“Werner Herzog joke” didn’t make my day. It made my week.
21/02/2013 at 10:48 Deadly Sinner says:
I cannot think of a good way to combine the names Half-Life 2 and From Dust, so I’ll just say it looks like Half-Life 2 and From Dust.