Huxley

Written by Nick Doukas  on April 27, 2006

First Impressions: It's a brave new worldЕ

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Up until now, MMORPGs have been the exclusive domain of PC players, their console brethren left in the proverbial dust due to limitations in hardware and online capabilities. With the dawn of the next generation embodied by the Xbox 360 - and eventually the Playstation 3 Ц the time is finally right for a Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game Ц and no, it's not a port of World of WarcraftЕ

Huxley is a first person shooter at heart, but it also promises to be so much more. Set in a post-apocalyptic world (aren't they all?) Huxley allows you to play as part of a huge and persistent universe where you'll battle other factions throughout the cities Ц as well as the badlands Ц of a future torn apart by war. The human race has divided into three distinct camps Ц mutated from their original DNA into something else. The Sapiens, The Alternatives and the enigmatic Hybrids will all battle to the death for the precious resources left after the fall of man. Every act - no matter how small - a character performs in the Huxley universe directly impacts the success of not only that particular person, but also of their entire species as well as their immediate team. Every interaction in the game is related to the survival of a character's whole race. Big stakes, but then again, it's a big game.

The developers at Webzen promise to cross the hyperactive, fast twitch gameplay of a First Person Shooter with the more analytical approach of your typical RPG in Huxley Ц and it plans to put you on servers with thousands of other players while they're at it. You'll have the opportunity to mingle with tons of people in the cities and form raiding parties and battle teams to take on missions in the badlands surrounding the various metropolises. Co-op objectives, as well as plenty of PvP content will be the order of the day here, and completing operations with your buddies should be a thrilling experience thanks to the power of the Unreal 3 engine and the sheer scale of the entire project. Quests in Huxley will place players on an arduous journey rife with problematic encounters and vicious confrontation. Each quest is constantly updated so gamers will feel like they're tearing through a new story mode each time they play.

You'll get to wield all manner of high tech weaponry and players will be able to buy, and also swap, everything from hand weapons to heavy alien artillery in their quest for adventure Ц and lots and lots of killing. Higher ranked clan members can even give newer players advanced firearms and other gear they wouldn't otherwise have access to, a definite plus in a game as large as Huxley is poised to be. There'll be vehicles to shuttle players to and from hot zones, and lots of activities to participate in, so fans of combat should have loads of fun with their Live buddies playing the game on a nightly basis Ц leveling up and gaining licenses to access stronger weapons, vehicles and special armor Ц not to mention carefully crafting their combat style through new and upgraded skills.

Since Huxley is multi-platform (PC and 360) each will have its own inhabitable city Ц in other words PC gamers will have a place to hang out and kick back, trade, recruit and pick up missions while 360 gamers will be afforded the same via the exclusive HLO City. Both can - and will - face each other in up to 200 player stand-offs in the outlying battle zones. That's right Ц the first cross platform Live title. We'll be watching with great interest to see how that integration turns out. Webzen is working on a way to level the playing field between controller and keyboard as we speak Ц or as the case may be - type.

So insane graphics, up to 5000 players per server cluster, vehicles, cities, wasteland, PvP battles and co-op quests galore pretty much equal out to next summer being booked solidЕyou'll be living only to eat, sleep and play Huxley Ц bathroom trips optional. The 360 version will feature a single player campaign that ties in nicely to the multiplayer. At certain times you'll need to jump online and meet with your friends to procure an item in order to bring it back and advance in the solo game. Sweet!!