Huxley, MMOFPS

July 23, 2006 | Filed Under Art, Gaming, & Fun, Blog

Huxley looks awesome. See for yourself:

Huxley is a Massively Multiplayer Online First Person Shooter (MMOFPS) - built on the Unreal 3 Engine - scheduled for release sometime in 2007 (date not yet announced). Its the first of its type and has grabbed my attention both from the backstory, graphics, and game style.

Its got some sweet features:

I. FPS IN A PERSISTENT WORLD.
Huxley delivers the excitement and rich gameplay experience of an MMORPG while combining the knuckle-whitening action of an FPS. Players can communicate with each other in a virtual online city, and participate in side battles with the intuitive PvP (player vs. player) system. Everything a character does in the Huxley world directly affects the success of not only the individual, but also of their race and party; from battles to behaviors, all interactions are linked to the survival of a character’s entire race.

II. LARGE-SCALE BATTLES.
Huxley goes past traditional death match FPS gameplay by challenging players to adapt to new forms of combat to protect the interests of the camp. Servers will be solely dedicated to accommodate millions of users engaged in fast paced, large-scale combat. Players will require strategy and cooperation to achieve victory. Extensive multiplayer battle modes are available each with a variety of unique fighting techniques and special characteristics.

III. ADVANCED A.I. AND QUESTS.
Huxley has advanced A.I. that rivals other online games. Enemies in Huxley demonstrate remarkable intelligence, which can be used to a player’s advantage or demise. Quests in Huxley will take players on paths of intrigue to uncover conspiracies resulting in confrontations. Each quest is continually updated so players feel as though they are enjoying a new story mode every time they play.

IV. CHARACTER GROWTH AND UNIQUE PLAY STYLES.
The characters in Huxley are continuously growing, which is rare in FPS games. Players are able to enhance their own combat styles by obtaining out-of-this-world weapons and new skills, which in turn continuously challenges players to adopt different gameplay styles as they progress.

As bullet IV mentioned, there is a leveling system and differences between lower and higher level characters which isn’t too common with FPS games. Wikipedia has a better description on the leveling system:

Huxley’s advancement system is actually separated into two. In the early part of the character advancement player system, players can shape their character in the style they like best. After that, players can then add depth to their characters. ‘Experiences’ and ‘Battle points’ are two elements of character advancement. ‘Experiences’ will affect the earlier part of character development and ‘Battle Points’ will affect the later part of a character’s development in a big way.

In the earlier part, by acquiring licenses, characters can have opportunities to use upgraded weapons and armor. In the later part of the game, players will concentrate on developing their characters to be more effective under any circumstance. One developer has stated, “We are planning to make the earlier part of character development relatively fast and the later part of development a bit slower but more abundant. This is because we decided that too much difference between characters abilities that affect combat result is not good for an FPS game.”

Webzen has considered the fact that in most MMOGs the players at earlier levels have no chance of beating those at the higher levels, and therefore they have adjusted the game to make skill more significant than long periods of playing the game and leveling up. Leveling up will give players advantages, such as more slots for upgrades and perhaps faster aiming, but a lower level player can still measure up to a higher one.

This MMO is a pay to play game with a price yet undetermined. I’ll most likely be picking this one up and giving it a run for its money. I want the Beta.