14 DAY TRIAL // Fracture, coming from publisher LucasArts, is getting its website and community portal, and LucasArts is talking a bit about the sci-fi shooter that Day 1 Studio is developing.
The year is 2161 and climate change is not a distant prospect anymore, but rather a grim reality. Its most catastrophic (and dare I say, unlikely) effect was that the United States are now separated in two by a massive flood lake. As the two sections, the East and the West, developed separately, a civil war ensued, with each of the feuding factions having different philosophies regarding the war. The Pacificans use genetic modifications, sometime creating new beings specifically for war, while the Atlantic Alliance is using cybernetic implants for its soldiers.
The game protagonist is a guy called Jet Brody, a soldier for the Atlantic Alliance and his weapon of choice is terraforming. Yup, you read that one right. While Brody is capable of wielding classic weaponry, such as a machine gun, his greatest asset are the weapons with which he can change the very earth he walks upon.
There's an entrencher weapon that can be used to create mounds of earth in front of the enemy or in front of the player. The mounds can be used for cover or to throw enemies off balance. There's a gun that freezes the ground and the enemies, letting you shatter them in true Duke Nukem 3D style. There's also a spike grenade designed to create columns of earth that tower above the battlefield, allowing the player a tactical advantage. And there's even a vortex gun that literally shoots tornadoes that eat up everything in their path. The game developers say that the variety of terrain transformations will allow the player a lot of freedom when it comes to choosing how to approach a tactical engagement with the Pacificans.
The game is set to launch on both the Microsoft Xbox 360 and the Sony PlayStation 3 sometime during October.