Second-person shooter demo

Those of you bored of first- and third-person shooters might be interested to learn of and sample a project undertaken by a chap named Julian Oliver. Having spent a lot of time discussing the idea, Oliver has put together a small demo of a second-person shooter.

The idea is very simple: instead of seeing through the eyes of your character, or even over his shoulder, you see the world through the eyes of your enemy. Your movements are still governed by WASD, mouse and space bar, but they apply to a character you can only see when your enemy chooses to look at him.

It's a fascinating idea, and you can already download a limited demo of it. In this version, your enemy is controlled by the computer, although in future versions Oliver hopes to add proper support for a second player.

We had only limited luck with the Windows demo (the bot we were playing with refused to budge), but it's still worth checking out. The possibilities and questions it raises are certainly interesting - since your skill in the game is based to some extent on your ability to feel your way around an environment, should it have some sort of first-person training ground? Can our other in-game 'senses' support an idea like this? And so on. We'll be keeping an eye on it - if it continues to look in our direction, anyway.