Shattered Horizon Weapons Pack Coming Next Week

Shattered Horizon's free 'Firepower' weapons pack DLC will be released on May 5, developer Futuremark Game Studios revealed today in a new teaser trailer. 'Firepower' will add eig

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Shattered Horizon's free 'Firepower' weapons pack DLC will be released on May 5, developer Futuremark Game Studios revealed today in a new teaser trailer.

'Firepower' will add eight new weapons and grenades to the DirectX 10-powered, zero-gravity PC shooter, which currently has only a single rifle and three grenades. The trailer offers glimpses at weapons resembling a shotgun and various rifles.

From The Chatty
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    April 27, 2010 6:19 AM

    This game is a funky puzzle. It's got a lot of great pieces, but they just don't come together.

    What the game really needs is a form of deployable cover. Now now, I know, cover, but generally you're in space... just floating like open the door HAL and shit, so that's 360 degrees by 360 degrees of nothing. The combat would just be so rewarding if being in space didn't mean an enemy looking at you was death.

    The game needs the guns too, because the one rifle concept was charming, but boring in execution. But it's the cover system that needs work. A temporary shield? Something.

    :watched the trailer:

    Yeah, it's just shooty stuff. It's great, but doesn't address the core flaw in the gameplay. Then again I could just be griping and not know wtf I'm talking about.

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      April 27, 2010 6:51 AM

      No, you're dead on. "See the enemy and you're dead" more like "never see the enemy".

      I feel like the player just isn't mobile enough. I mean, if you're spotted, you're not getting away in most cases...

      Yeah, yeah I got it - land and shoot, zoom and shoot - it's just not fun, it's tedious playing against the kid who's been playing since 8am in the morning since last month.

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      April 27, 2010 6:59 AM

      This game has a much higher learning curve. Cover is never an issue on most open maps if you know how to zip around asteroids.

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      April 27, 2010 8:44 AM

      I think you're both dead on and absolutely missing the point at the same time. And by that I mean that almost all of the game's unique appeal comes from having to make intelligent use of cover. You need to try and remain consistently aware of the space around you at all times, and know on which sides you are exposed and covered. It takes A LOT of getting used to the additional degrees of freedom, but then it's basically the only good thing the game has going for itself.

      I found it helps to play the game in a more subdued way than other shooters. If you do simply fly through the air towards the enemy then you're going to find things very hard. But hanging back and observing gunfights, using silent running to gain ground invisibility, and hiding out in the dark corners of asteroids (also in silent running) can give you the edge in combat. Because of the unique nature of the gameplay, it pays big to act craftily, and creatively. Take advantage of the fact that your enemies also need to be increasingly aware of the space around them - use surfaces that you don't see others using... hide behind things that they wouldn't expect. You can play the game as tactically as you like if you just approach it for what it is... different.

      Also, using the "E" key (I think that's the default, anyway) to bound to nearby surfaces helps a lot in keeping orientated while traversing along structures. You can hop pretty nimbly from cover to cover this way. I found it a big help once I cottoned on to how useful it is.

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        April 27, 2010 11:30 AM

        Bingo. Having six degrees of freedom makes thinking about cover a lot more complicated than in most shooters, and it can take some time and consideration to adapt. At its simplest, this means keeping enough distance and sniping, so that most combat stays in your front hemisphere, or putting yourself (somewhat counterintuitevely) in front of cover so that you can't be ambushed from your blind spots. More generally, you just have to think differently about the environment, and rely on group tactics to cover angles that you can't see. That said, the idea of some kind of one-time deployable half-shell could be neat, and might make assaulting a dug-in defender more viable.

        I haven't played in a while -- don't have the time -- but I picked it up during the last free weekend and had an absolute blast. I really wish more folks felt the same way about it; SH deserves to do better than it is.

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      April 27, 2010 9:21 AM

      you gotto turn off your suit while zooming around in space

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      April 27, 2010 6:10 PM

      I imagine lots of people have this response. And as has all ready been said by others, its a fundamental mis-understanding of how to play the game. There is cover everywhere, you just have to stay near it and not go drifting into open space where you just become a fish in the barrel for any player who is using tactics.

      All that said...deployable cover would be kinda neat =)

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