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Its almost seems hard to believe that first-person shooters started off as arcade-style games
that you played from a first-person perspective using a variety of guns to blast everything in sight. This is especially true
in light of the successful launch of NovaLogic's Joint Operations earlier this year--a team-based, online multiplayer shooter
that features real-world weapons, drivable vehicles, and the very impressive option to host as many as a whopping 150 players
simultaneously in a single game. And the developer is getting ready to jump right back into the fray with a new expansion
pack later this year. Joint Operations: Escalation will add new vehicles, new maps, new gameplay options, and even improved
graphics. We recently had a chance to try out an early version of the game, and we have much to report.
In addition, while many of Joint Operations' vehicles focused on troop transport, most of Escalation's
new vehicles focus on offense. Like in the original game, Escalation features two playable sides: the global Joint Operations
group and a faction of rebels, and each side receives a new assault helicopter and a new battle tank. The Joint Ops
side is able to commission the AH-64 Apache attack chopper and the M1A1 Abrams tank. The Apache has mounted machine
guns and a powerful rocket launcher, while the M1A1 features a mounted turret cannon along with a mounted machine gun for
a tank commander, which can actually be used to paint targets for the turret gunner. Likewise, the rebels gain access to the
KA-52 attack chopper and the T-80 battle tank. These powerful new vehicles are intended for use in assaults, and they still
require multiple people to use them effectively, keeping in line with Joint Operation's emphasis on teamwork. None of these
new vehicles have weapons that can be fired by the pilot. The same is true, to an extent, for Escalation's other vehicles,
a passenger taxi and a two-man motorbike. While neither affords good protection, the motorcycle is the fastest ground vehicle
in the game. The NovaLogic team is apparently going out of its way to make sure you'll be able to not only cover good ground,
but also to make a few jumps along the way in Escalation's new maps. Along with the expansion's new weapons, Escalations
have add all-new sound effects for its new vehicles and weapons, plus enhanced graphical options, like more-dense environments
and more-spectacular explosions. The development team was able to look back at the original Joint Ops and optimize a lot of
graphical code. This means that you'll still have games with more than 100 players, but you'll also see new environments packed
with architecture, such as ruined villages, offshore oil rigs, and a construction site made up of a huge network of scaffolding
and girders. These new environments are just as huge as those of the original game, but they'll be much more tightly
designed.
By Andrew Park, GameSpot POSTED: 10/18/04 04:53 PM
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