"...now humankind must face the

results of its foolishness"

In 2007, Recoil Games and 3d Realms announced there new title, Earth No More. Earth No More features many trademark disaster/thriller movies trademarks including, epic action, threats to humanity, and a wayward cast that don't always get along. The game will run on Unreal Engine 3

The game opens in a New England to quaentined due to a strange outbreak. Poisonous red vines and spores have begun spreading quickly. They are strangling and terra forming the enviroments, and mutating everything in it's path. Recoil was quick to say that the spore was NOT from outer space, to avoid Sci-Fi cliches.

"[The Spore] is the resultof man's ongoing and abusive tampering with nature herself," says Scott Miller, co-founder of 3d Realms. "Just as man discovered the power of the atom, we had a choice to use that power for good or otherwise. Sadly, man always choose 'otherwise'. It is using that same blueprint that the spore came about, and now humankind must face the results of its foolishness."

The lead character, FBI Agent Will Foster, is at ground zero with four other survivors who will become his squad mates. He was sent to respond to what appeared to be a biological terrorist attack on Washington D.C.

"The primary thrust of gameplay surrounds tthe nucleus of this human interaction, which is the ensemble cast," says creative director Raphael van Lierop. "Each character in our cast is fully realized, with their own back-stories, personalites, motivations, and secrets. Each character brings their own perspective to the experiance, and a lot of the gameplay and storytelling is driven by the conflict that arises when these personalities and perspectives clash. Each cast member has their own arc, and nobody will be unchanged by the events that unfold during the game. So you'll get to see real character growth, something that is core to enjoying in a book or movie, but something we rarely see in a game."

I know what you're thinking, with this level of interation and dialogue, there will be a movie-long chain of cutscenes. Wrong. There will be no cutscenes, in the traditional sense. The conversation mechanic will rival Mass Effect. The team is moving away from the "lone hero, savior of the Earth" type game to a more squad-based feel. They will interact with allies in a manner like Half-Life 2, not Rainbow Six. Though, the "good-guys" aren't the only ones that can team up with. The enemies have intelligence and will complement eachothers skills. They might shot spores that will hook into you, though they seem as just annoyance. But, later on in the game, enemies can use those spores as tracking devices. And a bird-like enemie is pathetic on it's own, but can call in reinforcements. Every enemy can somehow gain the advantage in a fight and overwhelm you.

This doesn't even figure in the most dangerous enemy of all - one controlled by another human player. You will have the ability to go into another person's game and take control of their enemies. You can also play the game's entire campaign online in co-op mode. You can go after a specific friend or just jump into the general queue as a Stalker, one of the games enemies. Players can only enter parts of the game that they have already beaten. You will earn Achievements and Trophies for killing the heroes. After dying as a Stalker, you will be seamlessly thrown into someone elses game. There will also be standerd deathmatch modes, pitting survivors against spore-infected enemies.

I would like to think GameInformer for their article on Earth No More. It helped a lot during the production of this preview. I'd also like to think Radar Group and Recoil Games for continualy working on a sure-fire hit. As of now, the game has a To Be Announced release date.