Latest Thought On Huxley

[gobbly2100]

Even though it's based on a 73-year-old novel, this upcoming online first-person shooter has got a state-of-the-art next-generation graphics engine behind it.
A 1930s novel about a dystopian future based on eugenics and mind control wouldn't seem to be prime fodder for a game, but South Korean developer Webzen is going to take a crack at the idea with the really impressive-looking Huxley, an upcoming online first-person shooter scheduled to come out in 2006. The game, named after author Aldous Huxley and based on his most famous work, the 1932 novel Brave New World, was on display at Nvidia's unveiling of its latest GPU earlier this month. We've got the latest details.

Though not much about the game is known so far, what we do know is that it simply looks fabulous. The very impressive gameplay trailer that was shown off was running in real time on the latest graphics cards. Of course, the demo focused heavily on the technical aspects of the game, such as the depth-of-field effect that realistically blurs objects in the foreground or in the distance, depending on what you're focusing on. The characters themselves are rendered in vivid detail. For example, you can see the bulging forearms of a soldier, as well as facial self-shadowing, like the shadows on his cheeks and neck. A swarm of giant insectlike creatures then entered the scene. The game was paused so that the designers could show off the incredible amount of detail on each creature. They zoomed in on the skin, which looked like flesh and not some kind of textured polygon.

The designers then showed off the size and scale of the world by jumping into an exotic-looking vehicle and driving around a city that represented only a small fraction of the actual world. The city itself reminded us a bit of Half-Life 2's City 17, but with a more vintage feel to it. For instance, there's a mass transit system in the game that looks like something from Edwardian England, and low-level characters who can't afford vehicles can use the system to travel around town. We also saw some impressive-looking soldiers on patrol through a marketplace, while some other characters stood around chatting or just minding their own business. There was also a tunnel, which acts as a portal to leave the city and enter a battle zone. To demonstrate this, an armored personnel carrier screamed up and infantry disgorged and entered the tunnel.

The overall look of the game can be thought of as a fusion of Eastern and Western influences, which isn't surprising since this is a South Korean-developed game based on a Western novel. It has a fairly unique look and feel to it, though, and there aren't animelike elements that gamers have come to expect from Asian games, but rather more of an Unreal-like vibe. This isn't too surprising, since Webzen licensed Epic's Unreal Engine 3 for the game, modifying it to allow up to 3,000 to 5,000 concurrent players on a server at a time.

Huxley really looks amazing, and if you've seen what Unreal Engine 3 is capable of, then you have an idea of just how good the game looks (Sony's PlayStation 3 demo of Unreal Engine 3 or the upcoming Gears of War for the Xbox 360 are good comparisons). You'll undoubtedly need some serious hardware to run the game. The developers are currently aiming for a 2006 release, though, so this should allow plenty of time for the next upgrade cycle to kick in. We're intrigued by the idea of a massively multiplayer first-person shooter, especially one using next-generation graphics like Huxley does. Keep an eye out for future updates on this game.

By Jason Ocampo

[eaglefive]

Note on origin of game and background taken from IGN preview:

"Regarding the game's title, you're urged to get over it. Dystopian as its setting may be, the game known as Huxley has next to nothing to do with Brave New World, however tempting such comparisons may be. During candid conversations, however, Webzen employees might admit to you that they had, at one point, toyed with a subtitle that referenced Huxley's novel, but decided against it lest they rouse the late author's possibly-litigious estate."


The only similarity I can locate in the design other than the title is in the Hybrids being classed out Alpha-Epsilon as were the citizens in Brave New World. Brave New World dealt with a strict cradle to grave goverment control system. Huxley the game appears to be a near anarchy state of life.

Just an addendum :D

[vnicker]

Well when I look at the game it reminds me a lot of Gears of War 2. A lot of the time the only time I'll try getting info on games is when am looking for a new game to download or waiting for game to come out. So I don't know the comparison fully or what Gears of War was based of, if anything, but the monsters I've seen in pictures of Huxley reminds me of GoW2 monsters.

Meh as long as its rpg and good amount of ppl want to do the 100vs100 battles imma love it

i know not much to do bout how Huxley compares to the book o.o

[Clark Kent]

I guess there's no public beta for me to try, pity. So many of the posts in these forums are old I wonder if the game will be worth the hype.