Crossbeam gives us an exclusive look at its upcoming Revolution title, Orb. Full preview inside.
This article marks a first for AMN Revolution. Whats so special about it? Its our first official preview of a Revolution title and its something weve actually been looking forward to doing for quite a while. Over the last year, details on anything Revolution, whether it be hardware or software, have been pretty scarce. However, with the Electronic Entertainment Expo. of 2006 quickly approaching, thats all starting to change. Developers and publishers are finally starting to talk about Revolution and their plans for Nintendos anticipated next-gen console.
One developer, Crossbeam Studios, is one of those companies. While some readers might not recognize the developers name after all, they are a pretty new company and their first piece of software will be Orb on Revolution the people behind the name are a group of ambitious folk. Over the last few weeks to months, AMN has talked with them on a regular basis, both about Orb and Nintendo Revolution in general. Weve learned a lot about Orb, and provided Crossbeam will be able to hook-up with a publisher (which it plans to work on at this E3), the game could turn out to be one of the more epic titles on Revolution.
Orb the developers baby is an action-adventure game set in a huge fantasy world called Delphire. Long ago, the mercenary army of Kulon raged a deadly war with the good people of the land, killing all men, women and children that crossed their path. However, while that was long ago, the army is at it again. One of the Kulons most fierce warriors has crowned himself ruler and has forged a dangerous plot to kidnap one of the peoples guardians of faith, a member of the sect called Imanti.
The army of Kulon successfully abducts this guardian of faith late one night, but the Imantis three students two boys and one teenage girl, Mahten, Dyces and Simique, respectively wont stand for it. The main storyline of Orb follows the threes adventure as they journey through the diverse world of Delphire in search of their teacher. Their quest seems pretty epic too. For example, Crossbeam describes their adventure as one that takes them through many locales, including a variety of towns and cities, a frozen wasteland and tropical beaches. Of course, like any other adventure game, we expect Orb will explore many other stylized zones to boot.
The adventure itself features three different versions, per se. Each character has its own version of the story gamers can play through. For the most part, the storyline in each characters single-player adventure is the same. However, these adventures are still quite different, Crossbeam promises. Each character will experience, on the whole, completely different events. Theyll encounter different people, see different places and so forth. And when one character explores one area, another might explore that same area at a totally different time and under different circumstances. Whats more, when talking and interacting with NPCs, each character will learn different information.
The focus on these three characters and their storylines crisscrossing seems to be big. For instance, when playing as Mahten, gamers will certainly come into contact with both Dyces and Simique. When these characters are not interacting directly with each other, they will be in entirely different places in the world.
Outside of storyline, Crossbeam is of course working hard on the gameplay side of things. The game features a real-time combat system and a number of deep mechanics within it. Each one of the titles main characters can only have one weapon on them at one time. Further, there are only six weapons available throughout the entire adventure to each character. While this number seems quite low, Crossbeam assures us that players wont get bored of their weapon quickly. This is because they can actually customize their weapon through magic and other means, with a result of 600 different variations.
AMN-exclusive Orb concept art
Crossbeam has also created a deep magic system and summoning system. The company says it wants to avoid being cliché with its summoning system. For example, in a typical RPG, when gamers summon a creature or god, it fights for them, then leaves. With Orb, there might be some creatures players can summon that will fight alongside players in real-time. But there will be a number that can be controlled by players, as well. In fact, many creatures that can be summoned will be used purely for puzzle solving, not combat.
The big question in regards to Orb is how it will use the Revolution controller. Crossbeam cant disclose all of its plans for using the free-hand controller, but they did say the magic system as well as combat system will make use of the Revolution free-hand controller. The camera system, too, will utilize it. For combat, Crossbeam used a few examples of how the controller might be used: for attacking and blocking. Imagine swinging the controller forward to attack then using it to block oncoming attacks.
Orb itself seems pretty ambitious. Its developer is putting a lot of work into the adventures storyline and gameplay mechanics. For example, theyve crafted over 1,500 years worth of history for Delphire. Orb takes place in the latter half of this written history, exploring the last some 200 years worth of events and whatnot. Players can look forward to unraveling a lot of background information on anything and everything in the games fantasy-esque world.
Orb concept art
Crossbeam plans to meet with a number of publishers next month at E3, hoping to sign a deal with one to officially bring Orb to Revolution. Their current goal is to release the title in late 2007 or early 2008.
Orb will not be shown publicly at E3 2006. However, well continue to cover the latest on everything Orb and Crossbeam Studios as it happens.
