Downloading this FTP game now. Fileplanet is giving away beta keys. [video=youtube;wddbvDFXRRE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wddbvDFXRRE[/video]
It's a PC game that for the most part has flown under the radar but very soon it will be letting a lot more people know that it's getting closer to launch. It's an upcoming free-to-play shooter called War Inc Battle Zone. Announced during E3 2010 last June the development team at the colorfully named Online Warmongers and publisher Arktos Entertainment have been working on the game for some time and held its first closed beta test in 2010. Later this year the second closed beta test will be held for the game before it's official launch later in 2011. Big Download got Online Warmongers' Chief Operating Officer Matt Candler to tell us more about War Inc including how it will stand out from all the other free-to-play shooters currently available to play. First how did Online Warmongers come to be formed? OW was formed when several experienced developers decided to build a company that made the products we wanted to play – online, premium quality, microtransaction based. We have a lot of people that have worked on top products, at places like Activision, Microsoft, EA, Cryptic, Pandemic and NCSoft just to name a few. We started the company in 2009, establishing our Tech and Content Pipelines with an initial investment from Arktos Entertainment Group LLC. How did the idea for War Inc come about? War Inc started from the idea that we all enjoy playing shooters, but didn't have a lot of time to grind out the ranks and get to the fun. We also saw that the Free to Play Shooters didn't offer the Production Values we wanted, or were filled with cheaters. So we felt that the time was perfect for a Premium Quality, Cheater-Proof type of core experience that we all were accustomed to, with the ability to fast forward the gameplay. There are a lot of free-to-play shooters out there.What will make War Inc different from the crowd? The visuals and production quality are much higher than other products. The gameplay is more tactical and slow paced, it's more of a real battlefield type of experience and less frantic. We have a ton of gear and character customization features. We allow users to build their own class (which we refer to as Loadouts, more below) and easily swap between these in battle. We do a lot to prevent cheating and hacking Essentially we wanted to deliver a great battlefield type of game, with current –tech graphics and gameplay, and have all the fun, without the grind. We also didn't want cartoon style art. What's the basic back story for the game? We've set the story in a very near future world where Mercenary and Paramilitary commando units are now the military solutions in the ver. The global economic chaos from 2008 has caused the disintegration of nations and governments and international corporate powers now run the world. The player has joined up with one of these organizations and that's how they earn a living. What sort of player classes will War Inc have? War Inc doesn't really feature 'classes' but instead the concept of a Loadout. Each character can have 6 Loadouts, which can have different abilities, skills, weapons and modifications. We do have 8 familiar skill fields of Assault, Recon, Medic, Special Forces etc but these are to help the player with the selection and start the process, once the player starts earning additional Skills and Abilities, and Acquiring Weapons how they set up their Loadouts is entirely up to them. It's a very nice feature for character customization that blends ease of use with a lot of choices and depth. What kinds of weapons and upgrades can players expect? We have over 150 weapons ready; Assault Rifles, SMG's, Light Machine Guns, Sniper Rifles, Shotguns. We have pistols, and RPGS. We have Mines, Grenades and Booby Traps. All of these weapons have unlockables and upgrades and can be swapped and modified in real time. For Character Customization we have both SKILL TREES and ABILITIES. Skills can be used to develop the personal combination and what your character really excels at, Abilities can be used to augment a particular play style. We have deep Skill Trees, and lots of Abilities to select from, although on 2 abilities can be active at a given time. Skills example: If in the Assault Tree, +5% damage, if in Recon Tree +5% movement speed Ability example: "Silent Strike" Allows the Player to use any weapon and not be detected on the map *except* by players with special detection equiption What are the maps like in War Inc? The maps are bigger than most Shooters; this is to allow for the strategic and balanced gameplay which we wanted. It's very wide open terrain, with a lot of objects and detail, the objects are destructible, and the maps look fantastic. We feature 32v32 player maps, and also 16v16 and 8v8 for a lot of variety. What gameplay modes are included in the game? Conquest Mode: Team vs Team combat for control of Strategic Points on the map. Multiple areas need to be conquered and held. Siege Mode: 1 team is defending a specific number of objectives while the other team attempts to capture those objectives Team Deathmatch: 2 teams with random respawns on the map and a set time frame, players will fight to gain the highest amount if kills. What graphics engine is War Inc using and what are its features? We use our proprietary technology called the Eclipse Engine. This engine has been in development for many years and features a very robust toolset and level editor. This allows us several advantages; Fast Development Time and High Quality. We also have the benefit of multiplatform so beyond the PC is definitely possible. What can players expect in the second beta test for the game? A lot of updates and enhancements: we completely redesigned our User Interface, its much cleaner and easier to use, we built a brand new level called Grozny, we also added a lot of Weapons and Items. Also, we spent a lot of time balancing and tuning the weapon values. When is the game now expected to officially launch? We are targeting a mid-summer official launch based on our Closed Beta results. We're planning one more Closed Beta round probably in April – this is when the signups and selected players will be allowed access Will there be additional content released for the game after its launch? Yes, we're already working on the implementation of Vehicles, new Maps (we plan to launch a new map every month), updating and adding more Character Variety and continuing with a very cool Meta-Game feature that links all the Battles into a Global Agenda and Story. Finally is there anything else you wish to say about War Inc? We have some really cool plans to feature our Players such as allowing the sharing of equipment within each match (if you have acquired that ability), and also plan on having Tournaments and Player awards. What's very important to us is to continue to build this game and respond to our Player's requests and actions – so balancing, new features, enhancements and such will be a constant part of our development process for War Inc.
