Battlestar Galactica
Preview
From the T.V. screen to...the T.V. screen?
by Marko Susimetsä
previewed on PC
Get it out of the door, ASAP!
NBC Universal has apparently only recently realised that they have been holding a gem in their hands for the past couple of years. A gem called Battlestar Galactica. Thus, in a development period far shorter than modern games usually get, Auran Games is developing a space shooter for the next fall. Yes, you heard it right: Fall 2007. There isn't a lot of information out about the game yet, but we decided to take a look at the upcoming title in any case.
The world ended with no warning, and all that was left... was hope.
The basic premise of Battlestar Galactica the new series is the same as the old 70's show: Battlestar Galactica and a fleet of civilian ships are running away from Cylons, intelligent robots, who have destroyed the twelve colonies that humans used to inhabit. But whereas the original series featured happy-go-lucky fighter pilots and pretty inane plots, the new re-imagined series opted for a grimmer style with faulty characters and tragic, spanning story lines. Rather than explain the series in detail here, however, I'll merely order you to go and watch it. It's one of the all-time best sci-fi series out there (alongside Firefly and Babylon 5) and you will be sorry to miss it.
How to turn a space drama into a space shooter?
As the series is very character and drama driven it is worth asking how it can be turned into a space shooter. Wouldn't an RPG have been a better choice? Well, yes it would. In fact, the series creator Ronald D. Moore was saying the same thing at the 2006 Game Developers Conference. But, whereas it takes years to produce a decent RPG, an action shooter takes only, it seems, a few months. And NBC Universal knows that the iron must be wrought when it is hot. Although the idea of the RPG is still current, a space shooter will give the fans something to chew on while other games are in development.
However, although Battlestar Galactica has less action than some other series, it still offers a nice portion of space battles between Colonial and Cylon ships. It is these battles that the crew and pilots of the battlestar have fought over the first two seasons of the series that will form the backbone of Battlestar Galactica the game. These incidents will be turned into various levels in the game that the gamer has to survive in order to beat the game. Also additional content will be added, evidently to counter the relative lack of space action offered by the series itself.
