CellFactor: Revolution
Preview
Having been built around the AGEIA physics card, this will be one of the first games to truly support this new technology
by Howie Howard
previewed on PC
Ripping the scenery
CellFactor: Revolution is a new first person shooter that can only be described as revolutionary! It is revolutionary in that it will allow the player to use his or her character's mind instead of simply using brute strength or BFG-like weapons such as other, more traditional shooters do. Game characters will interact with their environment like no other shooter has in the past.
One of the most exciting aspects of CellFactor is the ability to literally rip up the surrounding environment and to use it as a weapon for either offensive or defensive purposes. How does one go about doing that you may be wondering? Well, you use your characters? mind, which inevitably means 'psychic' powers. When I say psychic powers I mean God like powers. You won't go around simply reading other people's thoughts or levitating small objects, you will be able to literally lift up enormous objects and throw them at your opponents. Of course there are drawbacks to this approach and you will have to be careful. Say for example you decide to pick up a bridge or some other humongous object and fling it at your enemy. Now say that said bridge hits a tall building and this building topples over on to you? That's what I mean by powerful and by using that power with restraint..
Bridge build... err... destroying
Earlier I mentioned the possibility of interacting with the environment in a revolutionary way. Given the fact that characters can have enormous psychic powers it follows that there will have to be numerous objects in the game world to use those powers on. In fact the word numerous is an understatement. Try using the word thousands to describe the various objects that can be used as weapons in this game. As in real life, every action has a reaction and that statement holds true in CellFactor. The game engine uses real world physics in such a way that it will cause things to break. If we use the aforementioned bridge and building as an example then who is to say you can't pick up a piece of the shattered building and use it as a weapon or shield? Well, you can! In fact you can do just about anything and you can use just about any object you can see within the game.
You may be thinking that this game is all about mind bending psychic powers and the destruction they can do. Well that is very far from the truth. There are in fact three different character classes. The first is called the Bishop and he is the pure psychic as described earlier. The second character class is your typical brute strength, weapon-wielding hero and the third class is a combination of the two. The non-psychic class character is called The Guardian and is just as powerful as the pure psychic one but instead of using his mind, he uses his body and strength to accomplish amazing feats. There are numerous weapons ranging from sub machine guns all the way up to pulse pounding Gatling guns and rocket launchers. In addition to the ability to use two powerful weapons at the same time, the Guardian can use his incredible strength to create massive shockwaves. He can also dish out devastating punches and outright kill his opponent on the spot. This character class will be popular with the 'direct in your face' crowd that prefers brawn over brains.
