Brat Designs unveils Solar
It's Soldiers meets BF1942. (Can we have Simpsons meets BF1942 next?)
UK-based Brat Designs is busy working on a sci-fi FPS called Solar, which sounds a bit like a cross between that Paul W.S. Anderson flick Soldier and Battlefield 1942. Utilising the developer's own brand new Mercury II engine, Solar locks up to 32 human or AI-controlled players into battle over the war and pollution ravaged hulks of Earth, the Moon and Mars.
Like BF1942, the two sides - the Eastern Collective Democracy (ECD) and United Western Alliance (UWA) - will have plenty of weapons and vehicles to fight with on the ground, in the water and in the air, and will be able to call in air strikes featuring chemical, biological and radioactive WMD. However all this sustained fallout has apparently coughed up a third race of disparate, reanimated corpses known as the Necros, who are described as a constant danger to both sides.
To keep the action interesting, Solar will take the likes of us on a whistle stop tour of the shattered wastelands of Earth, the dumping grounds and tunnel networks of the Moon and the partially terraformed surface of mining planet Mars, throughout environments full of fully destructible buildings and scenery, changing weather patterns (fog, snow, acid rain, etc) and so on. Give us an FPS with the same attention to destruction as MechAssault and we'll certainly be up for it.
Brat is also casting its net much wider than BF1942, incorporating more multiplayer modes than any mere stick could be shaken at. On the way are - deep breath - retrieval, VIP escort, search and destroy, interdiction (no clue), recon, rescue, sabotage, last man standing, deathmatch, team deathmatch, capture the flag, assault and king of the hill. Sheesh.
While German publisher CDV already handles Brat Designs' oft delayed debut shooter Breed, Solar has yet to attract a publisher and has no current release estimate. It does sound like it could be a bit of fun though, and these early (and mostly textureless) screenshots demonstrate plenty of ambition on Brat's part. We'll let you know if anything else Solar-related, er, flares...