Parabellum

We recently had a preview up on Parabellum, the upcoming next-gen game that has some amazing new gameplay features. This first-person shooter will house destructive environments in multiplayer and single-player maps, as well as a cool new feature to customize your own weapons. The game will support up to 32 players and will be released in 2007 for the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. Here’s a Q&A with Acony about some of the details of the game.

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VG Core: The title seems, in some ways, very physics driven. Can you tell us just how much destruction we can cause in multiplayer sessions?

Acony: Entire parts of the city are destroyable. And blown-up things remain blown-up throughout the campaign. Buildings, platforms, bridges and other stuff. It has considerable impact on the way the campaign is played. For instance, players can take out a bridge that is a major pathway through a level. If you came back to that area later in a campaign, the bridge would still be f**ked up. Bullets and materials are another physics driven thing. Bullets in Parbellum are so real that they might blast your monitor. You can shoot through cars, doors, walls and other crap. An armor piercing bullet could go right through a solid brick wall, then bounce off from a metal door and then hit a guy right in the face and kill him. Steal, wood, brick, concrete and other materials behave as expected.

VG Core: In addition to that question, what sort of physics engine is the game running on?

Acony: AGEIA's PhysX engine.

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VG Core: Aside from standard multiplayer modes, will Parabellum support objective-based modes such as Counter-Strike?

Acony: Parabellum has two original campaign modes which are the main innovation. Campaigns are non-linear and feature one main objective and secondary objectives. The main objective is finding the bomb and disarming it before it destroys New York. Secondary objectives can differ a lot, for example taking out a terror cell to retrieve information about the bomb locaiton.

VG Core: Following up on that question, there was mention of a single-player mode. How long will the single-player portion of the game be?

Acony: The SINGLEPLAYER mode enables players to play all multiplayer game modes (including the warfare campaign ) against bots - also in COOP to play with your friend against the computer. The singleplayer content is comparable to other tactical shooters, but it offers players more replay value due to the variety of strategic possibilities. Instead of the typical sequence of predefined singleplayer maps, PARABELLUM offers a strategic campaign that can be played completely different each time.

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VG Core: During one scene in the trailer, the player takes out a stairwell with several guys on it. If a pathway or route to a certain area gets blocked or destroyed, are the maps designed to have alternate or multiple routes for getting around?

Acony: That's right. Although paths can be destroyed permanently, all maps are designed with alternate routes. Teams may need to adjust their tactics on the fly if their favorite path is blown to smithereens.

VG Core: Weapon modifications appear to be a big part of the player's weapon cache. How many different variations of a weapon can players come up with and what sort of modifications are available?

Acony: As an example, the M4 5.65x45 NATO carbine has 9 possible modifications or attachments light stock, standard stock, drum mag, standard mag, iron site, laser site, aimpoint, 4x or 8x scope, recoil compensator, & muzzle remover. Some of the mods are obviously mutually exclusive like you can't equip an aim point with a scope. But after doing the math, that's 32 combinations for
the M4. Each combination results in different tactical options. That’s why choosing the right equipment for yourself and adapting it to changing combat situations is a big part of Parabellum. You'll enjoy tweaking your loadouts to increase the enemy's mortality on the fly.

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VG Core: Graphically, even in pre-alpha stage, the game is shaping up well. What more graphical effects can we expect to see when the product ships?

Acony: We haven't started to polish graphics yet in this state of the project. You can expect more "next-gen" effects as motion blur, depth of field, High Dynamic Range lighting (HDR), Bloom, cinematic post-processing and realtime reflections. There will be more major events in the game like collapsing buildings or a crashing airliner. In campaigns, these major events are - of
course - persistent. I mean, anything else would suck. There will also be more environmental effects like heat haze, rain, fog, over bloom, and glow effects among others. There will also be major game ending climactic effects like the nuclear explosion.

VG Core: Will the console versions of the game support any features that will be different from the PC version?

Acony: We would love to talk about consoles soon, but right now we can't say anything about whats gonna be different in terms of features or content.

Our thanks go out to the Acony team for answering our questions. And remember to stay tuned in with VG Core for more news, and information on all the latest and upcoming games.

Article By: Cyguration