Russobit-M’s title offers mix of FPS and RPG elements over a huge mapboard

Kevin Meyers is not your ordinary citizen. He has a tendency to take matters into his own hands and face whatever situation confronts him. But, then, the forces responsible for his sister’s disappearance didn’t know that. They were not aware that with one simple little act, they had opened the floodgates of carnage and devastation that was embodied in one man.

Xenus is a combination first-person shooter and role-playing PC game from Russian publisher Russobit-M, slated for release at the end of the year. The game takes place on a huge mapboard; in fact, the territory of Xenus is so large that the game had to incorporate a number of vehicles, all capable of being driven, to move the hero around.

The game begins with Meyers getting a call from the magazine his sister works for. She was on assignment in Colombia and has not contacted them for 10 days and is presumed missing. Like a good brother, Kevin quickly heads to South America, bent on finding her.

Along the way he will battle Colombian officials, guerrillas, drug cartels, natives, bandits and the CIA.

Other game features include:

* Unique technology for rendering a huge but very detailed territory that measures 25x25 kilometers
* Skeleton animation with blending between up to 3 bones
* Facial animation
* Multilayered textures 512x512
* Lightmaps
* View-independent progressive mesh for models and view-dependent progressive mesh for level geometry
* Rigid body physics comparable with Math Engine and Havok (a set of predefined models: car, helicopter, player)

So what will set Xenus apart from the slew of FPS titles releasing in the coming months? For the answer to that, GameZone turned to Russobit-M. Eugenia Grebenkova and Sergey Zabaryansky who were kind enough to take time to talk with GameZone.com about this title.

Answer: Even long before the game development had started, we were discussing what each of us wished to see in the game of his dream. One liked vast expanses, second liked the ability of controlling different vehicles, third we were interested in the interactivity of the environment, but everybody liked the idea of mixing the 3D FPS and good RPG part, which would allow the ability to feel like the part of the beautiful and interesting gaming world, having the non-linear plot. The remarkable thing in our game is, for sure, very big, but highly detailed territory, the ability of using every vehicle, the interactivity of environment and, of course, the ability of communication with everybody in the Xenus world. The idea of our game can be explained like this: it is not the plot which makes the player go somewhere or do something, it is the player who chooses his way to the end of the game. This is what gives the unique ability not only to plunge into the relations of this world, but also to feel yourself the part of this world.

A: Now, when we've achieved the final stage of the development, we can say that the equal rights of these genres which we were longing for and which we were advocating is possible. We're trying to find the happy medium and balance the RPG and action parts of our game, so both shooter fans, who like high speed and dynamics, and intellectual RPG lovers, who weigh every event, could appreciate it.

And, if we're talking about the prevalence of one genre - like in all the game, many things depend on the personality and preferences of the player. We tried to balance both genres, but anyone can move the soft balance line to his own side.

A: The magnetism of FPS genre is mostly in that the player must be ready for the surprises which the game world has for him every second of his life - he is the master of his life, and everything depends on his decisions and flash-like reactions. Working on Xenus title, we're trying to reflect it and to show the player that the world where he finds himself lives in one rhythm with him, and each his action will be conceived, and he has to be ready to the coincident answer to it.

A: At the moment we do work on rag-doll effect, working out the AI precisely and trying to use all technological abilities of Vital 2 Engine, which are quite high and competitive.

A: The non-linear plot gives really great variety to the game, letting the player feel himself free, which, of course, makes him unite with the gaming world. That's why we all suppose that the non-linear plot has the future. In Xenus, the player is able to choose what to do, who to work with and who to resist. We think that it will vary the game, coming back to it again and again, and come to the end in very different ways.

A: We support GameSpy technology in our game, and now we're testing CTF and some other game modes.

Irina Semenova, International PR Executive of Russobit-M: We have negotiations about the port of some of our games to consoles. But, this is very serious step and we cannot hurry. Xenus is very big project and for the moment we do all we can to finish the game in time for PC platform and make it really good in quality.

A: Really, we plan to have large target audience, and we really want each player to find the favorite feature of Xenus for himself. We're desperately fighting for overall gaming atmosphere, for the freedom of gamer's actions, for the events close to reality and for the fantastic unpredictability of the plot. We're proud of all landscapes which our engine can reflect and we're sure that they will add their serious part to the player's plunging in the gaming process. If the spirit of adventures is still alive in the gaming community - and we're sure that it is alive - then Xenus will make your dreams come true and will help you to try yourself in the most unusual and unpredictable circumstances.

Irina Semenova, International PR Executive of Russobit-M: At the moment we are negotiating with worldwide publishers, and it seems that we'll be able to tell you the name of the publisher by the end of summer. We'll try to make the release date in one time at all main worldwide markets and think that it will be in the end of 2003 - beginning of 2004.