If you've ever played the Call of Duty series of games you may recall one particular mission in Call of Duty: Ghosts way back in 2013 that featured an armed hijack by 'Federation de las Americas' Astronauts who wanted to use ODIN, the Orbital Defense Initiative to bring destruction to several US cities, in the sequence astronauts Baker and Mosely sacrifice themselves to destroy ODIN and save Earth from more destruction.
Boundary, a brand new addition to the tactical FPS has just been announced for PS4 as an arcade tactical multiplayer FPS set in space with armed astronauts and is being developed by Chinese indie developer Surgical Scalpels. The game already boasts some stunning visuals and artwork that set the mood of the game and trailer is also very well done.
In one of the first reveal trailers the released we see an astronaut navigating the outside of an orbiting space station facility utilizing a specially converted automatic machine pistol to shoot through solar panels at an enemy astronaut, the muffled sound and astronaut breathing effects really immerse the viewer. The premise of the game feels like its expanded an entire game inspired by COD Ghosts which featured some combat inside the space station but Surgical Scalpels looks to have expanded on the whole concept and added some great ideas into the mix.
Lighting and realism already look extremely good in the game and weaponry is inspired by real modern day military assault weapons. Astronauts utilize large backpacks called EVA's to propel themselves in the zero gravity of space.
The visuals are sharp, light blooms and lens flares show the variables of light and deep shadows and reflected light provide some great contrast and mid tones to provide a great sense of depth. Visually its an extremely impressive looking game so far. Map size, from the videos I have seen combat is between very small groups of players,so it has a light MOBA design feel to it.
Fast kills are good for eSports from games by larger publishers but a balance between fast kill maps and larger slower more tactical gun play are essential to retain players in Western markets - games that provide less than a 10-20 second in-games life expectancy before having to re-spawn back into a game tend to frustrate. It would be great to see this expand to an 8 vs 8 or 12 vs 12 setup.
Fast kills are good for eSports from games by larger publishers but a balance between fast kill maps and larger slower more tactical gun play are essential to retain players in Western markets - games that provide less than a 10-20 second in-games life expectancy before having to re-spawn back into a game tend to frustrate. It would be great to see this expand to an 8 vs 8 or 12 vs 12 setup.
The visual ideas behind Project Boundary for armed astronauts has been beautifully presented by Surgical Scalpels art and design team and are without question some of the best in video-games to date.
While the game might have taken inspiration from Call of Duty:Ghosts which is almost 6 years old - and to a vision that brings the Roger Moore 'Moonraker' space battle sequence to something more tactically deadly and realistic I'm actually surprised no other developer or publisher has jumped on this concept but its clear to see that Surgical Scalpels have a game with a lot of potential here for sure.
key to longevity and retaining players will be content, players love content that adds to the player experience, customization is key but enough content to start out with is important. Demand for fresh content, perhaps as a well priced DLC that provides new maps, new weapons and suit upgrades and perhaps things like Special Forces space suits, would be awesome but its one for sci-fi fans to keep an eye on for sure.
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