METRO 2033. The Last Refuge
Genre: 3D Action-oriented horror/action/survival FPS with elements of RPG
Platform: Hi-End PC and PS3
Release: 4Q 2008
Official web-site www.4A-games.com
«4A-Games» company is glad to present its new project - the 3D Action-oriented horror/action/survival FPS with elements RPG genre game, with working name «METRO 2033. The Last Refuge».
The gist of the plot is the cult masterpiece of the Russian author Dmitriy Glukhovskiy «Metro 2033»
The whole world lies in ruins. Humanity is almost annihilated. Due to the high-level of radiation cities became unsuitable for living. Outside cities, as rumours say, there are endless burned out deserts and wilds of mutated forests. The survived still remember about the past greatness of human. But the remnants of the civilization gradually become just memories, spin with stories and turn into legends.
Since the last plane took off the land more than twenty year has passed. The corroded railroads lead to nowhere. The air is silent, and the radiomen hear only the cheerless howls while million times tuning in frequencies on which broadcasted New-York, Paris, Tokyo and Buenos Aires before. Only twenty years has passed since IT happened. But human yielded the supremacy on Earth to new species. The mutated by radiation and other consequences of the happened creatures are more adapted to the changed world.
The human epoch elapsed.
But they do not want to believe in that. There are only some tens of thousand of them, and they do not know whether somebody else survived, or they are the last people in this world. They live in Moscow metro - the largest anti-nuclear shelter whenever constructed by a human and the last shelter of humanity.
Almost all of them were in metro THIS day, and this fact helped them to survive. The hermetic locks protect them from radiation and monstrous creatures on surface, the worn out filters purify water and air. The assembled by skilled craftsmen dynamos produce electricity, in underground farms champignons are cultivated and pigs are raised, but the poorer people do not bother eating rats.
The central control system collapsed long age, and the stations turned into diminutive states, where people are grouped by ideas, religion and water filter or by the basic necessity to defence from enemies.
The VDNH is the extreme northern populated metro station in its line. It is the northern outpost of humanity and civilization. Here live some hundred of strong, friendly people, who treat the station as their sweet home. It was one of the best in metro while it was safe. But now the station is attacked by hordes of mysterious animals, descending from the top and named "Darkness" by the citizens of VDNH. The citizens, for the moment, succeed in countering the offence, but it becomes more and more difficult If the station is seized, the avalanche may overflow the whole metro.
Artem, a young guy, who lives in VDNH, is given a task - to reach the heart of the metro, the legendary Polis, in order to warn all people about the terrible danger and to ask for help. In hands of one man appears the destiny of VDNH, the destiny of the whole metro, and may be, the destiny of the whole humanity
In this world an extremely dynamic gameplay awaits players. They will have to face different political regimes (democracy with market economy, totalitarian sects, military communism, primitive society with proper culture and beliefs); to fight with dangerous enemies and new intelligent life forms, born by catastrophe and mutations; to explore the enigmatic and at the same time quite known world and its laws (groupings and their interrelations, fractions animosity and trade, anomalies and enemies with extraordinary abilities); to handle various types of weapons, as common, as assembled from variety of well-know to modern people types, which posses some properties of their prototypes; to drive unique peoples' machines in the new world: hand cars assembled in armoured personnel carrier manner etc..
The basic features of the game:
1. Location - post-apocalyptic Moscow, the life of humanity gleams in metro (subway) tunnels, and the stations turned into small states with different political regimes.
2. Variety of gameplay styles - possibility to play as a heavy strike fighter, as an inconspicuous killer.
3. A player, who attentively follows the events in the game world, will find out ways to influence the advance of the plot and may reach the non-standard end. Besides the basic plot, there is a variety of non-obligatory tasks.
4. In station-cities it is possible to meet as fighters, as peaceful citizens and the station lives its own life independent from player. Children run and play among dwellings, adults are busy with different businesses - women cook meals, sew; men have discussions, clean weapons, drink tea or home-brew, read books; old people seat near tents.
5. The high-level AI empowered to model the NPC behaviour in close combat similar to real people actions. The enemies may conduct simple and aimed fire, avoid line of fire, hide in covers, ambush and attack suddenly, call for help, and mention a character hidden in shadow.
6. A number of various anomalies: gravitation distortion, energy clot (looking at some of which the character may perish), intelligent immaterial images, which punish with death for any aggression at their presence and many other, the role of which will be discovered only before the game release.
7. Ammo-money. Fire off money or be economic, use tactics.
8. Variety of mini games.
Engine properties
4A-Engine is a rigorous developer's environment for last generation consoles and PC with DX9-level graphics and higher. It offers a set of the best technologies, "content" creation tools and tested infrastructure.
· Visualization innovation technology, based on psycho-optic human perception.
· Gamma-corrected "Deferred Shading" with analytic АА, HDR, ocular adaptation, DOF, and motion-blur.
· Lighting: all dynamic (including sun and skies), with global-illumination effect, thousands of light sources at a time in frame, "regular" soft shadows.
· Performance oriented infrastructure: click-and-play levels editing and visual adjustment of gameplay, plug-in for popular 3D packages, which allow designer to adjust and to experiment all, starting from shaders ending in physics.
· Learning, but controlled АИ, which uses motivation graphs and planning, has human similar perception properties, including ability to see light and colour.
· Performance, memory, content scaling, including graphics, physics and AI.