It seems like Perfect World Entertainment is very successful in pulling off surprises recently, with the sudden purchase of Cryptic Studios from Atari as the opening sequence. In an email I received earlier, Perfect World revealed its first online shooter the company will be publishing for the English market, Blacklight: Retribution. It is a sci-fi online shooter developed by Zombie Studios and it will be released as a Free to Play (F2P) title by Perfect World. More information by IGN here.
(Excerpt from IGN) Blacklight: Retribution is set in the same sci-fi universe as the original, with the many of the core mechanics of Tango Down, but it builds them into something that borders on MMO territory without making the leap. Players get experience and a currency for scoring kills and during usual gameplay actions. As players level up, they can spend points on a skill tree reminiscent of the sort of thing you’d see in an RPG. The currency can be spent to buy new weapons, armor and weapon customizations.
Players can customize every aspect of every weapon they get — the stock, the barrel, the scope, the clip, everything — to tweak how it fires, aims and recoils. Players can even tweak their secondary weapons, typically some sort of pistol, to the point where it resembles another assault rifle.
Zombie says rather than have a class system they would like players to be able to customize their characters exactly how they would like to play them in the most situations. Stacking on some heavy armor and a powerful, rapid-fire weapon and you might lose some mobility, but they’ll probably be able to provide a strong frontal assault. Or you could keep your gear light and equip some digi-grenades and other disabling weapons and act as a scout or assassin, keeping the enemy blind and only going in for a kill when it’s safe. Or you can flip it around and be a fast-but-fragile machine gunner, or a lumbering, tanky sniper.
The flexibility of the customization even stretches to the mechs. Wait, I didn’t mention the mechs? Oh, well, there are frickin’ mechs. Technically they’re called Hardsuits, and they’re launched from a console for credits earned mid-match and fall from the sky to a location of your choosing. Then you can jump in and cause mayhem throughout the map. Even these Hardsuits can be tweaked with the ability to regenerate health or launch rockets. There are actually 12 different customizations that can be mixed and matched in five slots. (Full article here)
