TGS 2002: Blizzard Debuts Original Console Game
- September 20, 2002 15:34 PM PST
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StarCraft: Ghost, a tactical action game set in the PC game's enormous universe, is coming to all three consoles next year. The first news is right here.
Just before the Tokyo Game Show opened its doors today, Blizzard Entertainment held a separate press conference to unveil its latest title. The new game is...drum roll, please...StarCraft: Ghost, a console-exclusive 3D tactical action game starring the covert-operations unit from the PC classic.Set in the original StarCraft universe, the heroine of Ghost is Nova, an acrobatic blonde who carries out undercover missions for her unnamed boss. Nova has all the psionic abilities of a Ghost unit at her disposal: self-cloaking technology, hyper-speed to outmaneuver enemies Max Payne-style, and the right to call down Battlecruiser or Siege Tank strikes should the need arise.
Although the game bears more than a passing resemblance to Metal Gear Solid and other 3D action games, the demo of Ghost Roper showed off revealed the flexibility and smooth action the game's already capable of. The demo started out with Nova breaking into a rogue Terran base, sneaking past armored guards and using her psionic abilities to see through walls and detect enemies. As it turns out, the Terran base is being used to experiment on Zerg aliens, and Nova soon has to deal with both human and extra-terrestrial hazards at the same time. She'll have a ton of weapons at her disposal--everything from Gauss Rifles to Perdition Flamethrowers--and the game's story and setting will reportedly change fluidly based on how well she carries out her mission.
The new game marks Blizzard's first original console game in nearly ten years. "The gritty science-fiction universe of StarCraft was perfect for what we wanted to accomplish," said Roper. "We wanted to bring one of our games over to a new group of gamers, a group that doesn't necessarily play PC games, and I think StarCraft presents a great chance to cross over to consoles."
StarCraft: Ghost is currently being co-developed by Blizzard and Nihilistic Software (their last game was Vampire the Masquerade: Redemption for Activision). It's due to come out for PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube sometime in 2003. We'll have a full hands-on report for you later on, so stay tuned!
