Gameloft announced the cancellation of their Unreal Engine powered first person shooter…
Sad news for FPS fans, and those of you looking forward to playing Gameloft’s Vietnam based shooter. Not only did it show lots of promise in terms of gameplay (including an underwater level) and a licensed rock soundtrack, but it was also to be their first attempt at an Unreal Engine powered game. It sounds like they want to concentrate on other titles and have decided to shelve the game entirely. However, I’m sure we’ll see elements of the game end up in a future release, and if not then it was a good first stab at Unreal development which Gameloft state they are still pursuing. Having already played Modern Combat 3 though, I can vouch that their own in-house graphics engine is now slouch! Below is our ordinal hands-on writeup and video from E3 back in June.
Original hands-on
We go hands-on with Gameloft’s first Unreal Engine game, an FPS set during cold war era…
Only two levels were on show, and interestingly were only playable on an iPad 2. First up was a jungle level, which opens with a helicopter approach to a landing zone which is cut short by an enemy grenade attack. From there you must make your way on foot to a rendezvous with your team, taking out the enemy along the way. Much like NOVA and Modern Combat you control your hero using a virtual analogue stick and look around by dragging anywhere on screen. Duck and cover is on the left, while sprint and actions buttons on the right.
The second level we tried changed the gameplay to a less action orientated pace, putting you in an underwater environment as you explore a downed enemy submarine on an intelligence finding mission. Here you had to avoid underwater mines, jelly fish, eels and sharks, as well as navigate the submarines halls as you are joined by the floating drowned bodies of the enemy. Controls here were a mix of manual control and quick time events requiring swipes and taps when prompted.
So, the question on the majority of your minds is no doubt how does it look. Well, you can take a look for yourselves in the video below. But to me the visuals look more fluid than those seen with Gameloft’s own graphical engine (although their engine is improving with games like 9mm). One of the downsides to Gameloft’s engine though is the fact that the lighting and shadows are baked onto the games geometry… with March of Heroes however, the Unreal Engine allows for true dynamic lighting and shadows, as well as a higher degree of texture and geometry details. The animation was more realistic too, particularly in the enemy movements.
There is an interesting use of music in the game, particularly in the jungle level. When you think of Vietnam war films, the majority of cool rock soundtracks. March of Heroes is no different, and even has the music play as you plough through the enemy units, with real licensed music from the likes of Fleetwood Mac, Santana, Bowie and Jefferson Airplane. It’s nice to see the game not taking itself too seriously.
The was quite obviously still in the early stages of development, with some glitches here and there. But it shows a lot of potential and it’s great to see Gameloft investing in the Unreal Engine to offer up better and deeper experiences for games on iDevices. The final game will run at 6-8 hours for single payer, and also include multiplayer with up to 10 players.
Check out the video of the game in action below.
