Order-of-Nations
Latest
End of Nations dev diary explains lore
Chaos. Turmoil. These are the terms developers of the free-to-play MMORTS End of Nations use to describe the upcoming game from Trion Worlds and Petroglyph Games. Yesterday, the studios released a new video dev diary in which the developers discussed the background and lore of the game. Audio Director Frank Klepacki explains the setting of the game this way: "What would the very near future be like if the economy actually did collapse, if the world really gave rise to a military power that controlled everything?" Petroglyph President Mike Legg explains that the the villain of the game is the oppressive Order of Nations, which strips civil liberties from the population. The team then describes the rise of the two rebellious factions, the Shadow Revolution and Liberation Front, which must try to set aside their own fighting to team up against the larger foe. You can watch the video, which also includes a good dose of gameplay footage, after the break. [Source: Trion Worlds press release]
Hands-on with End of Nations
Real-time strategy games aren't exactly in vogue at the moment. The genre is far from dead, but modern RTS games, with the notable exception of StarCraft, don't tend to appeal to as broad an audience as do MMOs. Trion Worlds and Petroglyph's proposed answer to genre stagnation is the upcoming MMORTS End of Nations. In fact, Trion thinks that what's really lacking in the RTS genre is a persistent world, one filled with robots and post-apocalyptic fascism. The team behind End of Nations has some serious industry cred. Publisher Trion Worlds is notable for its remarkably smooth-launching MMO, RIFT. Developer Petroglyph's pedigree is no less respectable (if a little dated), with titles like 1992's Dune II (widely credited for having inspired the Warcraft series of RTS games) and the original 1995 Command and Conquer under its belt. My time with this game was spent during the alpha testing phase, and many things might change between now and launch. Still, the bones of the game were there, and I'm happy to share my findings with you, discerning readers. From what I saw and experienced, End of Nations just might have what it takes to become the first "triple-A" MMORTS.%Gallery-96732%
Massively's hands-on with End of Nations' PvE and PvP
You know that scene in Contact in which Jodie Foster is looking out at the cosmos, telling the folks at mission control that they should have sent a poet? All the while I was playing End of Nations at Trion World's Gamer's Day event, I kept thinking, "Massively should have sent a StarCraft guru!" I initially felt very much out of my element. MMOs and RPGs are my shtick; I only rarely dive into turn-based strategy games. And RTS games? Forget it. They don't agree with me. If it doesn't have a pause button, I probably don't have time for it. I'm too easily distractible, too impatient, and too exhausted after a work-day of multi-tasking to spend my playtime multi-tasking even more. There's just no time for cooking meals, browsing lolcats, and chatting with the spouse when you're neck-deep in an RTS. RTS games are serious business; they require my undivided attention and concentration, and I don't like doing things halfway. And yet maybe that makes me just the right person to try out an MMORTS hybrid like Trion's EoN. Most people who give it a spin when it hits the market will probably have a lot in common with me -- they'll be loyalists to one side or the other, not to both. Maybe an RTS novice is just the sort of person who can test out the game, present it to MMO gamers, and explain just what the heck this game thinks it's doing playing around in our end of the pool. Or maybe I'll end up sobbing amidst the charred remains of my tank minions. You'll never know if you don't hit the break! %Gallery-99563%
