Development Info Akella does a new game - Metalheart

[Saint_Proverbius]

Tags: Akella; Metalheart: Replicants Rampage

<A href="http://www.akella.com/">Akella</a>, whom you may remember from <A href="http://www.akella.com/dev-seadogs-en.shtml">Sea Dogs</a> fame, is hard at work on another CRPG, <a href="http://www.akella.com/pub-metalheart-en.shtml">Metalheart</a>(No relation to <a href="http://lionheart.blackisle.com">Lionheart</a>, we hope). Here's the information:
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<blockquote>You will never be able to defeat your enemies, because?you and your people are only HUMAN. Somehow, you must get the power they possess. The only way to obtain that is through cyber implants. And even then, they will hurt your body like some devilish poison. There is no other way. You've got to survive? and you've got to leave this godforsaken place? OR DIE!
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"Metalheart: Replicants Rampage" is a cyberpunk role-playing game. Lead your team to success using smart tactics; explore a huge isometric world, experience unique cybernetic body implants and tactical, turn-based combat.
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The game world consists of many locations. The universe allows free movement through new locations as well as through old ones. The player controls a team of up to 6 members. A team can be formed during the journey from the following races: replicants, cyborgs, mutants and nomads. The usage of futuristic items and body implants influence the abilities of each character in an extraordinary way.
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Allying with different groups changes the flow of the game: being hostile to nomads opens the way to getting friendly cyborgs or mutants to provide new quests. A lot also depends on the composition of the team: a pure cyborg team requires a different strategy than mutants or nomads. But of course, the core of the gameplay is turn-based battles.
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<ul><li>Turn-based battle system</li><li>Multi-faceted character development</li><li>Four different races</li><li>A lot of interesting cybernetic body extensions</li><li>Vast number of weapons</li><li>Up to 6 hired characters in your party</li><li>Free-generated story quests</li><li>Dozens of NPCs with sophisticated intellect</li><li>Huge game universe</li><li>Highly detailed futuristic graphics and atmosphere</li></ul></blockquote>
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Anyone remember when turn based was dead?
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Oh yeah, there's some nifty screenshots on the <a href="http://www.akella.com/pub-metalheart-en.shtml">developer page</a> for this game.
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Spotted this at <A href="http://www.rpgdot.com">RPGDot</a>.

 

[Sol Invictus]

Damn! This looks and sounds like a damn nice game. It definitely has all the features I have on my list of almost 'must-have' features in a game.

Turn based.
RPG.
Cyberpunk.
Tactical Team Combat.
Huge world (hopefully interesting).
Isometric.

I'm definitely looking forward to hearing more about this game. Could it be the game we've all been waiting for?

 

[axel]

sounds cool
Gym Black-Teen Pics Big-Black-Cock Ebony Toon Public Toys Short-Hair Thong Tied-up Clit Tennis Interview Leather Watersport Cum-Facial Lick Hungarian Japanese Midget Dyke Ethnic Fat-Ass 10+-Inch-Cock Shower Dorm Foreplay Office Close-up Voyeur Adorable Police Gorgeous Public Nurse Group-Sex Outdoor 4some Big-Tits

 

[Vault Dweller]

Nice, the screens look very sweet. Their website says Q1 2004, but it will probably take forever till it's released in North America. We are still waiting for Gothic 2 which is kinda ridiculous. I noticed that the interface is in English, I wonder if the game was already translated and the English copy could be bought directly from Akela or its local distributors

Btw, the webiste lists Sea Dogs 2 as upcoming sequel. The trailer is availabe for dl.

 

[Walks with the Snails]

It sounds really nice. I'm not sure how it's going to pan out, though; the only game I've played from them was Sea Dogs, and though it was a good game in its own right, it wasn't exactly heavy on the role-playing. Seeing as their past games are mostly sailing simulations, I'm not sure how much to expect from their first real stab at this genre, especially since it sounds so ambitious. Lionheart sounded like it was going to be awesome, too.

 

[Voss]

And it isn't mono-chromed brown either.
Wow.

 

[Shevek]

The game looks and sounds very interesting to me. However, the setting (outdoorsy, nomads, very post-apoc looking, etc) doesn't seem particularly cyberpunk. When I think cyberpunk, I think noir city landscapes, net hacking, big corporations, etc (like Stephenson's Snowcrash or the film Blade Runner). This is just a minor nitpick though - I will be keeping a close eye on this title as it sounds pretty damn cool.

 

[Jarinor]

This just shot right to the top of my "Gimme gimme gimme' list...course, it's the only game on the list, but it's there.

 

[Sol Invictus]

It sounds really nice. I'm not sure how it's going to pan out, though; the only game I've played from them was Sea Dogs, and though it was a good game in its own right, it wasn't exactly heavy on the role-playing. Seeing as their past games are mostly sailing simulations, I'm not sure how much to expect from their first real stab at this genre, especially since it sounds so ambitious. Lionheart sounded like it was going to be awesome, too.

Lionheart's STORY and SETTING sounded awesome. Nothing else about it did. Just look at the FEATURES page on the Lionheart Chronicles (www.rpgplanet.com/lionheart) you'll see that there's not much there to boast about. It talked about 'interesting NPCs' which were interesting, unless they were in your party, that is. But beyond that, there was nothing to it. No boasting about 'turn based combat', since there wasn't any, or 'team tactics'. Nope. Nada.

One thing you have to appreciate about the PR for that game was that they weren't telling all out lies. ON the other they're calling FOBOS "better than sex" and "the best game you'll ever play". Now that's what I'd call flat out lies.

Anyway, seeing as how Sea Dogs was a damn good game, you can have a little faith in these guys when it comes to bringing quality.

I doubt it'll be high on the story or NPCs because it seems to be more combat based (alogn the lines of TOEE, JA2 and SIlent Storm one would hope) rather than heavy on the story/role-playing - but that's always a plus. It might be a typical 'cheesy' cyberpunk game, with humans fighting an all powerful AI entity, but that doesn't make it any less cool. The market isalmost completely barren of games in this setting. Deus Ex 2 and Paradise Cracked, and a couple of other games which we cover here at the Codex are about the only ones. Compared to fantasy games, it's somewhere along the lines of a ratio of 15 to 1.

If this turns out to be as good as I hope it will be, we'll have TOEE for Fantasy, JA2 for Present Day, Silent Storm for World War 2 and Metalheart for sci-fi. w00t!

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

The game looks and sounds very interesting to me. However, the setting (outdoorsy, nomads, very post-apoc looking, etc) doesn't seem particularly cyberpunk. When I think cyberpunk, I think noir city landscapes, net hacking, big corporations, etc (like Stephenson's Snowcrash or the film Blade Runner). This is just a minor nitpick though - I will be keeping a close eye on this title as it sounds pretty damn cool.

Yeah, I tend to think of cyberpunk with large, sprawling cities as well. Something along the lines of the silent movie Metropolis, or the cities in The Fifth Element stir up more cyberpunkish feelings than seeing cracked, barren Earth. It definitely looks more post apocalyptic or even other worldy than cyberpunk by those screenshots.

That said though, I dig the artwork in those shots. For some reason, it reminds me a lot of ToEE.

 

[EEVIAC]

This just shot right to the top of my "Gimme gimme gimme' list...course, it's the only game on the list, but it's there.

I think RPGCodex would do well to have their own "Gimme Gimme Gimme" list. A page that lists upcoming games of note, and groups together any news posts or articles published on the site about them.

 

[Whipporowill]

Crouching characters. NICE! If this game has some good tactical TB combat I´m all for it, that´s for sure. By the screenshot of the crashed shuttle and the chars inventory (crowbar and extinguisher) I´d say it´s safe to say that´s how the game begins? So maybe they´re FROM a sprawling metropolis but stuck in the wastelands between them - like the Forbidden Earth between Mega-Cities in classic Judge Dredd.

All in all. Interesting.

 

[Odin]

This game does indeed look great and sound really good, did you guys find the hidden image ? BEHOLD, tha Character Screen.... nice....

 

[Vault Dweller]

That said though, I dig the artwork in those shots. For some reason, it reminds me a lot of ToEE.

It does, I was thinking the same thing.

Hopefully they ship it without delays or at least provide an option to order it directly since the game seems to be developed for the English speaking audience.

 

[Azael]

This game does indeed look great and sound really good, did you guys find the hidden image ? BEHOLD, tha Character Screen.... nice....

No skills?

 

[EEVIAC]

No skills?

I think skills are going to be handled through implants - on the character sheet it says "Impl - Digestability." :shock: There are some other oddities on the sheet, like being level 10 and having only 3500 experience points.

I hope they clean up the interface a little, that big block with quicksave/quickload is hardly neccessary. More screen space should be devoted to showing off the beautifull isometric backgrounds.

 

[Spazmo]

Perhaps skills are on another "page" of the character screen?

EEVIAC: 3500 XP for level 10 isn't necessarily an oddity. We don't know this game's system at all. Maybe 3500 XP is really damned hard to accumulate or maybe level 10 isn't much at all.

 

[Walks with the Snails]

EEVIAC: 3500 XP for level 10 isn't necessarily an oddity. We don't know this game's system at all. Maybe 3500 XP is really damned hard to accumulate or maybe level 10 isn't much at all.

The fact that next level was 5500 was a little strange, though. My guess would be that XP drops to 0 when you gain a level. Other systems do the same, and the math would make more sense there.

 

[Raymondo]

Hmm next year looks like a good year for post apocalyptic games. 2004 - Year Of The Fallout.