Farscape Preview

More Farscape

Gameplay

As we mentioned earlier, the simplest way to describe Farscape would be to compare it to a squad-based Diablo. You use the mouse to click and attack – however, the developers made a point of separating the move and attack commands onto different mouse buttons. Since most of the weapons will be ranged rifle and pistol types, this makes it much easier to shoot and run at the same time without having to close in on your enemy. Run backwards while firing, or crosswise from the path of your opponents, or even circle strafe to a degree. It’s possible with Farscape.

Another closeup

Chiana out in the wild

Outnumbered...but I have a gun

The different characters you can control will each have different skills and specialties. Crichton specializes in technical aspects. You’ll need him to use computers or consoles that you find throughout the game. He’s also proficient at combat. Chiana, the rogue, is much craftier, and excels at stealth and thievery. This can come in handy in the town when you’re short on cash and need to resort to the ol’ five-finger discount. Rygel – the wannabe royalty – is a coward and won’t participate in combat at all. But, as in the show, he floats around on a throne-like chair, so he can be used to navigate tunnels and ducts that the other characters can’t reach. He also has good negotiation skills, so using him to buy goods in the town is of utmost importance. Utilizing each character’s special abilities will be central to the gameplay and solving the puzzles in Farscape.

Running low on ammo

Another zoomed in shot

Farscape Preview [ Looks like the inside of your mouth<BR> in those old Listerine commercials @ 800 x 600 ] > View Full-Size in another window.

Looks like the inside of your mouth
in those old Listerine commercials

Weapons and enemies

There are three different classes of weapon in the game, those that do damage based on physical, chemical, and energy ammunition. The different player characters and enemies will have varying resistances and weaknesses to the three kinds of weapons. This variation adds a certain amount of strategy in terms of which weapons you want to be carrying. It’s also notable that each of the weapons in Farscape will have a secondary fire mode, a feature popularized in the first person shooter genre. Many of the same alien species you saw in the show will be in the Farscape game, as well as 16 brand new races and 40 new critter types. Again, the creative freedom allowed to the Red Lemon team enables them to give more variety in the monsters you’ll face.

More underground forest

Farscape Preview [ Run! @ 800 x 600 ] > View Full-Size in another window.

Run!

Summing it up

For fans of Farscape, and the action-RPG genre, there’s a lot to look forward to. Simon and Schuster predict a May release (before E3), and have hinted at multiplayer gameplay modes, but could offer no details at this time. Enjoy the screenshots for now. We’ll be keeping an eye on this one!