Sega announces console RTS
Thursday, 10 Jul 2008 16:20
Stormrise aims to do what very few other titles have achieved - be successful, as an RTS, on a console
Sega today announced the development of Stormrise, a real time strategy console title built specifically for the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3.
Stormrise marks Creative Assembly's first venture into the murky depths of console real-time strategy, a genre not usually associated (at least not successfully) with couch-based gaming.
The game allows units to be commanded from the frontline, in the air, across rooftops, on the earth's surface and even underground.
Creative Assembly call this 'verticality', hoping it will introduce multiple layers of gameplay and strategy. The control system has been tailored specifically for consoles, with apparently 'easy' unit selection, 'rapid' navigation and 'precise' deployment.
"The Creative Assembly have proven their general leadership in developing RTS games through the award winning Total War series on PC", commented Gary Knight, European marketing director at Sega Europe.
"However, Stormrise has been built from the ground up specifically for high def consoles to provide a more intense, frenetic style of game that, coupled with the all new control mechanic, will revolutionise the way RTS games are played."
Somehow, we suspect it won't do anything of the kind, but you never know.
Set in a bleak, dystopian future, Stormrise sees the Echelon and the Sai battling to survive in a hostile and uninhabitable wasteland. Remnants of a superior technological people, the Echelon survived the event through self-induced hibernation, whilst the Sai, a more tribal faction, still exist having learnt to adapt to their surroundings and the new environment.
Stormrise is in development at Creative Assembly's Australia studio and is set for release in 2009.