Parabellum First Look

LEIPZIG, Germany--Earlier today, during a brief meeting with developer Acony Games, we were treated to our first look at the previously unannounced Parabellum. At first glance, the upcoming shooter appeared to be little more than a technically impressive Counter-Strike clone, but it didn't take us long to realize that the guys at Acony have far more ambition than that.

It's true that the Delta Force-versus-terrorists theme of Acony's offering bears more than a passing resemblance to that of Counter-Strike, and if you've ever played that game, you might also recognize Parabellum's bomb-disarming counterterrorist missions, which task the good guys with locating and deactivating a nuclear bomb that's been planted somewhere in the city. That's pretty much where the similarities end, though, and where Parabellum starts to introduce some quite exciting features of its own into the mix.

For starters, the city that the Delta Force is attempting to save in Parabellum (which looks an awful lot like New York) comprises 12 distinct maps arranged on a grid with industrial, commercial, and residential themes. At the start of each timed campaign game, the terrorist players will get to choose which map they want to plant the bomb in, and then it's up to the Delta Force to find it. The time limit that you choose for the game should determine how many of the city's maps are in play, though this won't necessarily happen automatically. After a campaign gets underway, the Delta Force players will need to defeat the terrorists on the current map before getting to choose which adjacent map to fight them on next, as they continue their search for the bomb. If the terrorists win a map, the same one will be played again--eating away at the Delta Force's time limit.

When the Delta Force team chooses a new map, they'll find that each one can be played from four different starting points (or in four different directions, if you prefer), so although there will only ever be 12 maps that need to be searched, there are 48 different gameplay experiences available. It's not yet clear whether or not the Delta Force will get to choose how the map is played or if that will be determined by which direction they're coming into the map from. What we do know, though, is that if the terrorist players correctly guess which map the Delta Force will choose to move into after winning a game, they'll have an opportunity to spawn early and set up an ambush for the good guys.

The first map that we got to see the Delta Force scouring was from the city's industrial zone and incorporated a building site and what appeared to be a factory of some description. When bullets started flying around the rain-soaked level, we noticed that practically every object in the nicely detailed environment appeared to be destructible to some degree, including a water tower high above the ground that leaked out of bullet holes when it was shot.

The destructibility of the maps will have a noticeable impact on gameplay in Parabellum, not only because you'll be able to destroy items that could provide cover, but also because one of the three different ammo types available to you (which can be switched on the fly) is capable of shooting clean through up to 20 meters of wall. To show us how this might be useful, the Acony representative who was demoing the game fired off a few rounds at a wall that he suspected an enemy might be hiding behind. There was no enemy on this occasion, but if there had been, he would've ended up looking like Swiss cheese. It might also have been possible to take out the enemy by shooting from around a corner, since Parabellum supports ricocheting bullets, but it seemed like most of the projectiles ended up splashing harmlessly into puddles when this feature was demonstrated.

After watching a couple of fast-paced battles on the industrial map, we had an opportunity to check out a very different one set inside a large subway station--complete with deadly moving trains. After exploring the map for a while and showing off its impressive level of detail, the Acony player found the nuclear bomb (you're unlikely to miss it if you're in the vicinity since it's quite large) and disarmed it with just a few seconds of the campaign's 10-minute time limit to spare.

Parabellum currently supports up to 32 players simultaneously, but the maps have apparently all been designed with six-on-six battles in mind at this point. Based on the two maps that we saw, we'd say that slightly larger groups of players shouldn't pose any problems, but a full roster of 32 would almost certainly make the game feel a bit overcrowded.

One of Parabellum's features that we didn't get to see in action is the weapon-selection screen, which we understand you'll use to customize your arsenal before each round. In addition to ammo, range, and rate-of-fire considerations, you'll need to bear in mind the weight of the weapons you choose, since heavier options will purportedly slow down your movement quite noticeably.

Our time with Acony Games and Parabellum came to an end all too quickly, but not before we heard about the company's plans to get gaming clans involved in the game's beta testing, to release a map editor for the community, and to get the game published sometime in 2007--provided it's finished. We look forward to bringing you more information on Parabellum in the near future.