Precursors (video game)

The Precursors
Developer(s) Deep Shadows
Publisher(s) Russobit-M
Engine Vital Engine 3
Platform(s) Microsoft Windows
Release 4 December 2009 (Russia)
21 December 2010 (GamersGate)
4 February 2017 (Steam)
Genre(s) Space simulator, First-person shooter, Role-playing game
Mode(s) Single-player

The Precursors is a video game from Ukrainian developer Deep Shadows. It was released on the 4 December 2009 as retail for the PC in Russia.[1] and in December 2010 via digital distribution by GamersGate in an English version.[2] It was also available for purchase via online retailer Beamdog.[3] The game is set in a futuristic sci-fi environment where many political factions are engaged in an intergalactic war. The player will be able to explore a multitude of planets, travel through outer space to complete missions, obtain information, and buy weapons and supplies in a free-roaming environment. "The game blends role-playing engagement and dynamic FPS-style action in a completely open world".[4]

Plot

The player takes the role of a young pilot of the humanoid Amarn race who is fresh from the academy, where he had a strange virtual reality exam experience, which made him being sent to the single Amarn colony planet Goldin to serve his people. On this outback desert planet he is taken under the command of Captain Ridiger, who was a friend of his late father and who also offers him the old spaceship that his father left him, provided he can find a power cell for it.

After some missions for Ridiger, the civilians and/or the bandits on Goldin the player can acquire the missing power cell and Captain Ridiger will present him his father's spaceship. Several space missions for the Amarn government follow before a catastrophe sends the player on a more critical quest away from Goldin. First he needs to go to the forest planet of Gli, where alien birds called the Clatz are fighting among themselves while being manipulated by the Democratic Union, and then to the rocky moon Reandore, where the Empire and the Free Traders are in the midst of a small war.

The Precursors themselves were an ancient and mythical race that disappeared a long time ago leaving strange high-tech pyramid artifacts behind on many astral bodies, such as Goldin and Reandore. While on the former a simple religious cult developed around the Precursors pyramid, on the latter an Imperial lab tries to unlock its secrets, which is the final target of the player in the game.

Gameplay

The game features a free-roaming world, with vast open areas, diverse weapons and a multitude of land, air and space vehicles. The player will be able to do a multitude of missions on six different planets or moons and even the interior of spaceships and space stations. Different vehicles can be used in engagements on the ground ranging from simple buggies and flyers to hover tanks and mechanical robots. After getting a spaceship, the player can also engage in space trade and combat with other factions in between the planetary missions. The player's spaceship can be upgraded throughout the game and the player character himself can be developed using a perk system.

Factions

There are seven main factions in the game. Two being aliens and the rest representing various humanoid factions which are split into separate alliances that are usually fighting each other. These factions are the Empire, the Democratic Union, the Free Traders, the Clatz of the Nest, the revolutionary Clatz, the bandits and the civilians.

History

The Precursors has been in development for PC and Xbox 360 from Kiev-based developer Deep Shadows; the Xbox 360 version was later cancelled. The game was built based on Deep Shadows in-house game engine Vital Engine 3 which also powers White Gold: War in Paradise. The game was first demonstrated in August 2005 at the Games Convention in Leipzig, Germany and at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles in May 2006.

The Precursors was released on the 4 December 2009 as retail for the PC in Russia.[1] In May 2010, a spokesperson from Deep Shadows confirmed that the console version of the game has been put "on hold" indefinitely.[5] In December 2010, an English version was made available via digital distribution by GamersGate.[2]

After the end of official support by Deep Shadows, remaining bugs and issues, like the missing voice overs in the localized English version,[6] were fixed by the game community via unofficial patches which also form the base of and are included in the current English digital distribution versions of the game.[7]

References

  1. 1 2 http://www.russobit-m.ru/catalogue/item/predtechi/ The Precursors at Russobit-M
  2. 1 2 http://www.bluesnews.com/s/117122/english-precursors-and-xenus-2-released English Precursors and Xenus 2 Released
  3. ↑ http://www.bluesnews.com/s/117122/english-precursors-and-xenus-2-released
  4. ↑ http://uk.xbox360.ign.com/objects/825/825295.html The Precursors summary
  5. ↑ http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=245906 The Precursors canned for Xbox 360
  6. ↑ "The Precursors Fan Improvement Pack". beamdog.com. Retrieved 2014-09-20. This pack, made by the kind folks over at RPG Watch, adds Russian audio to fill in some missing gaps from the English version of the game.
  7. ↑ "Wesp5's Patches And Kickstarter - Updated". Blue's News. 2013-04-05. Retrieved 2014-09-20. Here's a flurry of news from Wesp5, who has released several of his unofficial patches for unsupported games [...] there's a new Precursors patch on Mod DB and The Patches Scrolls to update Deep Shadows' shooter to version 1.7.

See also

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