By Paul Philleo
Hi-Rez Studios has been a stealthy Atlanta-based studio that has been flying
under the radar for a few years, but it became much clearer what their payload
was at GDC, with the public unveiling of
Global Agenda. On the
Hi-Rez Studios
website you can see the company has noted they’ve retained developers who were
behind The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, City of Heroes and Call of Duty, because you
can absolutely see the influence from these gaming mainstays.
A futuristic science-fiction action massively multiplayer online game, or
“spy-fi” as the developers term it, Global Agenda has a familiar but highly
refined Unreal Engine 3-powered look and feel many gamers have come to expect in
visual standards. The back story describes a futuristic 22nd century world
replete with chrome, steel, and glass where players create and develop their spy
character through role-play and combat. While
Global Agenda offers persistency,
guilds, grouping and community engagement on a scale typically associated with
slower MMOGs, it helps to remember that fast-paced action definitely owns the
driver’s seat with this game. In the greater scheme of the things, players will
simultaneously face an overarching PvE scenario against a totalitarian regime
and PvP scenarios against player-created spy agencies. So far so good, but it
seems like something seen before on paper -- until you actually sit down and
play Global Agenda.
First things first, to start at the beginning: I was given the opportunity to
customize my character. As with City of Heroes and Oblivion, character creation
proved to be a distracting form of entertainment in itself. Players are given
the opportunity to craft every detail in their character’s head, eyes, ears,
cheek bones, nose and so on. If a player wishes, he or she can randomize the
character also. After sculpting the perfect look for their character, players
then choose their class and assign specialty bonuses to class-specific
categories from a limited pool of starting points. Players may choose from the
Assault, Medic, Recon or Robotics classes, which allows players to specialize as
tanks, healers, spy specialists and engineers respectively.
Having taken the opportunity to try the game twice, courtesy of Hi-Rez Studio’s
Michal Adam, I explored the training level and a PvP level. The PvE level was a
snowy wasteland, and I as a pre-configured medic, jumped in to support my squad
of bots in taking down a slow-moving armored vehicle. My weaponry was largely a
pistol, but my healing ability was what kept enough of us alive until we
accomplished the relatively basic objective.
Now, I have to confess my team and I were pretty much handled in PvP (against
the developers, in my defense), but I am actually pleased to say I can’t hide
behind the interface, lag, or control as a reason for getting my smoldering tail
handed to me. The capture the flag PvP level I played, Ice Gorge, felt as
well-designed as any standalone first person-shooter (FPS) game one can think
of, such as, say, Call of Duty. The level was complex, with snowy, craggy open
air environments to tunnels and mechanized interiors, with a high level of
detail, logical design for a CTF map, with no cheap sniper points and dead ends.
Given the moderate learning curve, a seasoned FPS or MMO gamer shouldn’t have
any problem absorbing the controls and interface. Personally, I was most
comfortable in the Assault class and camping in an open air corner above the
floor-level action, using my rocket launcher with a zoom-able targeting scope as
often as possible to pick off more agile opponents, while running and using my
jetpack to re-position myself when the enemy team closed in. I can describe it
best as simply a lot of fun.
While Global Agenda is nearing the end of alpha testing, the game is already
showing almost as much polish as a washed and waxed Ferrari. That’s not to say
there aren’t a few visual quirks you’d expect from a game at this stage of
development. There were issues with collision detection, a few strangely meshed
polygons in the characters and environment and a need for greater visual
distinctions when engaging friendly and enemy team members in PvP play, which
are minor concerns likely to be squashed in the next few months. Looking ahead,
if Global Agenda can at least maintain the same quality of game play experience
I observed at GDC, as further development and polish is incorporated, then this
sci-fi MMO game will be a serious force to be reckoned with.
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