Horizons Trailer and Beta

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A new trailer for the upcoming MMORPG Horizons is up showcasing the world and a bit of combat as well. The movie file is 12 megs and you can grab it here. Although the site appears to be hosed for the moment, you can sign up for the beta test here.

Is Horizons vaporware? Some thought it would be but the game appears to be making fine progress towards being like every other MMORPG out there. Let's cross our fingers!

Read more for a full description of what's going on.

Artifact Entertainment is pleased to deliver the latest installment of in-game trailers for Horizons, one of the most anticipated PC games of 2003. The newest movie is available for download and highlights the forthcoming MMORPGÂ's trade skills and combat features as it follows the adventures of our heroine, Mia, on a quest.

A menacing zombie has been attacking players engaged in the building of a town. Mia receives her quest and is off to protect the community. She travels to the distant town and stays watch over one of the homes currently under construction. The zombie returns to cause havoc and is instead greeted by Mia's sword.

The trailer shows two major features of Horizons, the trade skills and the combat system. The trade skills are illustrated by two players working together to build a home on a purchased plot of land within the game space. Houses and buildings need many resources in order to be completed and in this trailer we see a wood worker and a stone worker cooperating to complete the house faster than they could alone. Players will have the ability to specialize in the many different crafting and trade skill systems within Horizons.

The second feature, the combat system, is shown with some of the special abilities and the choreographed animations. Mia is a very experienced warrior and her special attacks are the results of dedication and training within a school. It takes considerable effort to learn how to accomplish such combat maneuvers, but given sufficient time and effort a player can get their character to the level of expertise that is demonstrated in the movie.

Artifact EntertainmentÂ's Horizons delivers a game that excites the fighter, engrosses the crafter and involves the statesman. The title will ship for the PC in summer, 2003.

Comments

Well looks spiffy (with one whole character and monster on the screen). Gotta love that oh so protective female armour :). No blood, no collision detection in the combat models hmmm, will see. The house building was kind of neat looking.

-Griffon

the walk is nice

the run is too masculine

the combat animations are a bit too deliberate but good

mia looks good

the NPC that gave her the quest looks like a star trek reject

looks like the workers have a lot of work to do on that house.  i wonder if its "fun".  its a great idea to actually build the different pieces of a house but if you have to spend countless hours watching your character hammering i dont see the point.

unless combat is always in wide open spaces, they are going to have major problems with combat styles akin to the flip attack.  can you not perform that attack if the monsters back is to a wall?  or will the game "make" it work by repositioning the action?  what about a monster of much larger size?  is she going to leap 20' in the air?

BTW what happens to the camera when performing that flip attack?  does it stay in it current position as mia then flips back over?  or, does it snap 180 degrees behind her?  or does she just "blink" back into position?  i can just imagine people flipping off cliffs, through dungeon walls or through the roof.

its things like this that make me still say vaporware.  you can always release better movies but until its believable in-game material i'll stick to my opinion.

The character models seemed pretty good as did the animations but the scenery was terrible.

Huh now I had actualy assumed the workers where NPC's. That is horrible thought you have there :p.

 

-Griffon



looks like the workers have a lot of work to do on that house.  i wonder if its "fun".  its a great idea to actually build the different pieces of a house but if you have to spend countless hours watching your character hammering i dont see the point.



1. PC can come and work on a house as they see fit. If I'm a house builder and I walk up to a house that is under construction the owner of the house places gold in it  and depending on how long I work and my skill the more I get paid. Players can also hire NPC house builders.


its things like this that make me still say vaporware.  you can always release better movies but until its believable in-game material i'll stick to my opinion.

 

That is an in-game video. People are already able to log on and play it.

there are plenty of games that people can log on and play that never make it to the shelves.

just because a game reaches first playable, alpha or beta doesn't mean it will ship.

you still didnt address the issues either i or griffon mentioned.  you just explained how house building works.  i wasnt calling it vaporware for the housing implementation.  if they include things like that flip combat style they are either going to ship with huge collision problems, have players flying through world geometry or never ship at all.

"you still didnt address the issues either i or griffon mentioned. you just explained how house building works. i wasnt calling it vaporware for the housing implementation. if they include things like that flip combat style they are either going to ship with huge collision problems, have players flying through world geometry or never ship at all."There is a way to have the flip combat move they could move the target you're using it on. It's not that realistic but it works. I'm not a developer I only answered a question with the answer I knew.

Hmm interesting a good design in fact in some ways. So lets see if I get it, I layout a house and put money in it, this also gets me a npc or two builders but they are slow, but other pc's can come along and set themselves on auto pilot and go to lunch helping me build faster and they can make some cash for their effort... is that how it works? I'm intrigued by the concept anyway. I don't think I would dig on having to lay mortar manually hour after hour regardless of the wage, that crosses over the if it's not fun it shouldn't be in a game line for me even knowing folks who like to craft hard core (I'm of a dabbler myself).

I really liked what I saw in the trailer. The feature list for the game is quite interesting, and looks like it may break the "treadmill monotony" so typical of the genre.

I too once thought the this game was "vapor-ware", but it does look like it is coming along nicely.

Anyoneknow what "minimum specs" they are shooting for?