Raven Shield

[PUFF88]

new tom clancy shooter.  one feature i like is now u can open doors only partially , controlled by mouse wheel.


www.raven-shield.com/wallpapers.php
www.raven-shield.com/#news1
www.raven-shield.com/screenshots.php

[[Nataliia]]

MP Demo will be available Nov 14th. This is considered the main competition to Sierra's Swat: Urban Justice, both being tactical shooters and both to be released around the same date. Although Rogue Spear usually fails to catch and *hold* my attention, Raven Shield might be the one to break that chain.

[[Nataliia]]

Alrighty...got the demo today and played it.
Initial impression: nothing special

To expand:

• The demo is only 2 levels: one of which is old, old, old. They resurrected the City Street Large map from Rogue Spear (?) which was converted for my favorite tactical shooter Swat 3. So...it's old and worn out and wasn't what I wanted to see. It wasn't like an old friend you've missed and been wanting to see...more like an old relative that's outstayed their welcome. The other map is of a prison. An abandoned prison, therefore broken stuff is scattered around, but all the lights miraculously worked.
  
• Lights: speaking of those working lights in abandoned places...they're also encased in a new titanium glass. You can't shoot out the lights and when you shoot *at* them, they clang like striking the walls. Even in CSL, the bit spotlight was armor plated and resisted all sorts of ammo.
  
• Breaking Glass: The windows shatter beautifully, unlike the lights, however...they're using a new form of glass also. Disappearing glass!! Shoot, shatter, 'look ma! no mess!' You don't even get the chance to walk on it a bit and hear glass-scrunchy noises. It not only disappears, but does so instantly. Isn't that every kid's dream when they break something?
  
• Level design/detail: I was playing on above minimum specs but under recommended specs, so I bumped things down to Medium graphics hoping to get decent fps. Since I had no intention of playing in a DM (see below), I played alone and eventually increased by graphics. I shouldn't have bothered. CSL still looked like CSL. The prison had some blocky places that I felt was unworthy of the game's engine. This was supposed to be the new Unreal engine and it looked about like Swat 3 (which is nearing it's 3 yr mark)! The one thing that kinda fixed itself in my mind (other than super-lights and magical-glass) were some radiators in the prison level. I've made levels for Swat 3...I know what even a crap level design program can create. I can make better radiators. 'nuff said.
  
• Multiplayer Only: Though it's advertised as a tactical shooter, the only forms of gameplay on the demo is Multi-player DM (deathmatch or adversarial or head to head or survival....whatever you wanna call it) and TDM (team deathmatch or team survival, etc). So...you can run and gun and frag and...that's it. No chance to view their AI, no chance to try tactics, just run and gun
  
• MP Lobby options: As part of a rather close-knit multiplayer gaming community, I was really disappointed by the mp "lobby". There is no chat box *at all* just games & game servers listed. No way to chat to your fellow players. I prefer a friendlier approach to gaming than a mindless, faceless jump-in, kill, jump-out, rinse...repeat.
  

The good? umm....it lets you open doors a bit at a time! I really liked that. Inch it open, peek around, then either close it or open it slowly or open quickly. Very nice. And...um...I'm sure I will think of something else later. I'm not sure about the life expectancy of the demo on my HD. I know it won't see the gameplay (in hours) that Emperor has. I'm not sure it will get deleted as fast as UT2k3, tho. It may sit for a while as I ponder on that.

System specs? This is what was listed on the demo website, but I think they're holding back on us a bit:

Minimum:

• Computer: 600 MHz CPU
  
• Memory: 128 MB RAM
  
• Operating System: Windows 98/ME/2000/XP
  
• Video Card: 32MB DirectX 8.1 or higher
  
• Drive Space: 256MB hard drive space
  
• Sound Card: DirectX 8.0 compatible sound card
  
• Internet/Network: High Speed Internet connection

Recommended:

• Computer: 800 MHz CPU
  
• Memory: 256 MB RAM
  
• Video Card: 3D accelerated 64 Mb or equivalent

That may not sound too bad, however they have a long list of "supported" video cards and a rather short list of "unsupported" video cards. The supported ones, with 1 exception, all feature Hardware T&L. The unsupported ones all do not. If this is a required feature, they need to be open about it as it will cause them serious problems. If you're running a TNT2, hercules, or Kyro/KyroII based card...don't waste your time downloading it, is my suggestion.

Sorry this is so long