Announced yesterday, it seems that in the wake of the very promising looking Mechwarrior Tactics, someone felt they should be making their own humongous isometric mecha game. Having been given the go ahead by Games Workshop, European video game developer Zattikka has announced that they are planning to make a title based upon the Titan Legions. That universe's mechanised weapons platforms and a frequent fan favorite since they were introduced in Adeptus Titanicus back in the late 1980s.
The plan at the moment is for the group to develop a isometric 3D free-to-play title which will feature both a single player, multiplayer and social mode for people to use their legion in. Zattikka is planning for the game to be released across a broad range of platforms with Mac, PC and tablets being announced thus far.
The company's CEO was quoted saying "We are delighted to be working with Games Workshop on such a prestigious and important gaming franchise, Warhammer 40,000 is one of the most globally recognisable science fantasy genres, appealing to a broad cross section of gamers." Head of licencing for Games Workshop, Jon Gillard, gave a similarly enthusiastic responce stating that "Seeing these massive engines of destruction fight it out in an online game is going to be fantastic."
Speaking personally for a moment, this is something which looks very worrying. Mostly for one specific thing: the developer and their history. Zattikka has developed frequent social network games over the years, some of which are on Facebook, along with tablet, simulation games and iOS titles. None of this really suggests that the developer can really do the licence justice or that what we will get is something worthy of 40K. I'm not saying that creating a decent title would be impossible for them but with no outstanding or well known titles from the RTS or turn based strategy genre it seems unlikely.
Something else which is concerning is the mention of the word "social" in the articles covering this announcement. It could just be a personal viewpoint but this seems to scream Facebook game or something which will be stuck onto a online social website as a cheap title or turn out to be something worse. Like another Command & Conquer: Tiberium Alliances game, something which seems only to exist and is used to milk fans of the licence of a little more cash.
Or if that doesn't work for you, to me this is as foreboding a revelation as hearing that Zynga had been given rights to create a Starcraft game.
Whether or not this will prove to be bad news remains to be seen but for the time being i'm personally hoping for the best but expecting the worst.
The game is expected to be launched sometime in 2014 and already a DLC map pack is supposedly being designed. Whether or not that is an ill omen for what's to come is up to you.
No comments:
Post a Comment