Stargate Worlds

The idea is to provide a lot of flexibility and, naturally, loot-lust, as access to equipment is levelled. Stargate is essentially a big arms race, after all, so it seems fitting that players will all be lusting after new, better-looking gear, including the series' iconic staff weapons, ubiquitous P90s, zat'nik'tels (that's stun-guns to the uninitiated) and Goa'uld hand devices, which essentially shoot pain at people and/or cause them to go flying into the nearest wall. There's a lot of inspiration for inventive and fun-to-use weaponry throughout the series; it's hard to imagine that this area of the game will disappoint.

Equipment will define skills and abilities both on a superficial level and more significantly; it's obvious, for example, that wearing anti-radiation armour on a planet with high radiation levels might prove a good idea, but the fact that armour has far more of an influence on hit points, damage resistance and other such character fundamentals means that much more time will be spent hunting new equipment than agonising over assigning your attribute points when you level up.

Crafting is going to be a big part of this, although it's not clear at this point how exactly it will work. Stargate Worlds' quests will often be a search for new technology, like the TV episodes so often are, and evidently it's possible to specialise in the technology of the different races - Goa'uld, Asgard or human - to either improve existing weapons and equipment or discover new types. More technical character classes will evidently be better at this, but every player will be capable of crafting their own superweapons, to a certain extent.

The character class system is the aspect of Stargate Worlds that both interests and concerns us the most at this point. Humans can choose between archaeologist, scientist, commando and soldier. Archaeologists specialise in languages and diplomacy; scientists in deploying things like turrets and shields; commandos in sniping and traps; and soldiers in human weaponry and party ability-boosting command skills.

The other three archetypes - Goa'uld, Asgard and Jaffa - are based on the other three primary races in the television series. Jaffa are essentially tanks with massive weaponry and healing capabilites, but the Goa'uld and Asgard are more technical classes. The Asgard, being little naked grey men, rely on technology in combat, and can bring drones, beaming technology and other technological advantages to the party. The Goa'uld are Stargate's big baddies from the first eight seasons of the series; they're creepy, parasitic worm things that move between and act through human hosts, and it will evidently be possible in the game to emulate this behaviour in the game, though not on other players' human characters. Their combat strength comes from technology and their ability to command Jaffa.

If you're a Stargate fanperson, this sounds, theoretically, amazing. But, without serious playtime, we can't be sure how the classes are going to fit together. As in the series, even archaeologists and scientists have to run around packing enough weaponry to blow up an alien mothership (just in case), so those two character types will evidently be differentiated from the others by their ability to solve puzzles using mini-games. For instance, like Daniel Jackson in the series, archaeologists will be able to infiltrate the enemy with their language skills; success will depend on walking up to enemies and playing a quick card-based mini-game. Scientists, meanwhile, will be fixing hyperdrives and trying to get through locked doors by rearranging crystals and suchlike.