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Platform: PC Genre: Strategy Publisher: Eidos Developer: Elixir ETA: Q2 2003
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Republic
Now that E3 has had some time to be digested by most everyone, the cream of the crop has embedded itself into the ‘will sell soul for chance to play’ mindset of most gamers everywhere. Republic is probably one of those games and if it’s not, it should be. The sheer amount of praise and best of show awards being given by most publications for this title probably hasn’t gone unnoticed by most gamers. Elixir has given the promise of an innovative game where you try and overthrow the president of a fictional small country of the former Soviet Union called Novistrana. Set in the early 1990’s, the Soviet Union has just lost the Cold War, and the country crumbles to many independent states. The Republic of Novistrana is one of these and you play a faction leader that is trying to gain control of it. The player begins the game with a small secret headquarters and one loyal minion. From there, you’ll attempt to gain support from other non-political groups and individuals to your cause.
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Elixir is trying to create a realistic atmosphere of politics where the player can be unethical as they like when accomplishing their goals. To this end, you’ll be able to use bribes, brainwashing, and blackmail to recruit special characters such as actors, journalists, and priests to help you overthrow the current president. Players who have a guilty conscience can also hire and attempt to persuade non-player characters to help them. Using these characters, players will be able to influence public action and opinion through many events. These can range from fixing sports events, instigating riots, and organizing |
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demonstrations. Aspiring Stalins can even use secret police hits to neutralize strategic targets. Up to 16 computer controlled factions will oppose you and will try to seize control of the republic for themselves. Players will be able to follow five different ‘career’ paths, each having a specific sphere of influence including, criminal, political, religious, business, and military influence. Some of the features Elixir wants to include and are working on, are downright frightening in scope. The Republic of Novistrana is to include 50 towns and cities and a total of one million inhabitants, all of which will have individually created personality characteristics. Depending on a player’s actions and on the citizen’s beliefs, each citizen will react to what a player does, in a certain way. Each of these AI controlled citizens is to have their own daily routine which will resemble anything like a living person’s daily routine of going to work, and buying groceries. There are supposed to be thousands of groups to influence and thousands of events to orchestrate. Using their own Totality engine, the towns and cities are to be detailed down to the smallest crack in the pavement. The Totality engine is supposed to be limitless in the number of polygons it uses so extremely complex scenes should be just as detailed as a single individual’s face.
The list of features that Elixir wants to include with this title is astounding to say the least and it will be interesting to see it they will be able to pull it off. However, the shortcuts the studio could take to reach a deadline are evident. The subsequent features that would be limited would most likely be in the graphical or in the AI reactions to player influences of the game. This could lower the overall wow-factor and limit it to a great game where it could be a legendary game. Still, if Elixir is able to pull off a game with half the scope of it’s current vision, strategy fans should still be scrambling to play something as original as Republic. - Mark Leung |
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