IRVINE, Calif. July 11 - Apparently a game that could be best described as "a mix of Mass Effect, Borderlands, and System Shock 2" was in the works back in 2011, and didn't get made. WHAT? WHY!?!!!?!?!???!! AGH! The humanity!
The Irvine-based studio who created Fallout: New Vegas, Alpha Protocol, and upcoming Kickstarter funded RPG Project Eternity as well as South Park: The Stick of Truth, Obsidian, revealed to Kotaku that the aforementioned possible masterpiece was called Backspace and was "neither cancelled nor greenlit".
"We had some great people work on the idea for Backspace for a bit of time and then moved them off to other projects as opportunities came up. We've been around for ten years now and have had a bunch of great ideas that we still have sitting around that we may be able to return to in the future," explained the studio's head Feargus Urquhart.
The game was being developed in partnership with Bethesda and utilized Skyrim's engine, although it was not being designed with a huge open world Skyrim players are familiar with, players would be able to travel between a number of planets as well as one large space station.
"This station is huge," a Backspace design document reads. "It can be compared in size to The Citadel of Mass Effect [or] Babylon 5. The station has several locations devoted to diverse research fields which would allow us to have vegetation overgrowth, high-tech disasters, and mutations of science as visual themes."
The design documents further revealed that players would inhabit a cyborg that is 90% human and 10% machine.
"In the distant future, mankind has colonized the far reaches of the galaxy. Near the center of the galaxy is an enormous space station dedicated to advanced research in a multitude of subjects such as temporal mechanics and nano-cybernetics. The game begins with the station falling under attack from an invading alien force."
To combat this alien force, players would have to travel through time, intersecting various timelines to save humanity, one of which would be an alien-occupied future. The title "Backspace" seems appropriate with the time traveling element in mind.
The combat is similar to Skyrim, albeit there is no blocking. Characters would be able to use a variety of ranged weapons that seem pretty standard, including machine guns, shotguns, semi-automatic rifles, sniper rifles, and rocket launchers. Melee Weapons are also available and they include katana,s mauls, battle axes, chainsaws, and probably the coolest weapon, a "temporal lance", whatever that may be.
"Combat in Backspace occurs very similarly to Skyrim. The player can attack enemies using various ranged or melee weapons/abilities that they acquire/create throughout the game. The player can also utilize stealth tactics to avoid some enemies entirely.
Since Skyrim allows for dual-wielding of weapons/abilities, all 1-handed weapons may be dual-wielded. The controller’s left trigger uses the weapon/ability in the left hand, and the right trigger uses the weapon/ability in the right hand.
If a 2-handed weapon is equipped, both hands are in use. Pressing the right trigger will use the weapon/ability’s standard attack, and pressing the left trigger will use its special/secondary attack. 2-handed weapons and abilities are much stronger than 1-handed weapons."
Being a cyborg has some perks apparently too, as players would be able to use an ability called Claw Strike, which transforms the player's mechanical arm into a claw for a quick attack. Players would also be able to use psionic abilities that could damage or repel enemies.
Cloaking was also a concept Obsidian was exploring. Two cloaking devices were revealed in the documents - the Personal Cloak, which players can toggle on and off. When activated the device would drain the cyborg's energies, but the player would remain invisible until energy depletion, if the device was deactivated, or if seen by certain enemies that utilize infrared detection. The other device, the Cloak Emitter, would act as a deployable stationary device. It would, as described by its name, emit a cloaking field that would consume no energy from the player, and veil the player as long as he/she remains in the device's radius. The cloak emitter does not cloak itself however, and can be destroyed by enemies.
Other deplyable devices include frag mines, turrets that attack and slow down enemies, and decoy robots that draw away enemy fire.
Obsidian also had an interesting concept for Backspace AI characters, one that sort of reminds me of Halo's Cortana:
"Since only the player can travel through time, companions in BackSpace take the form of AI’s that the player can equip in their “AI Slot”. An equipped AI can engage in dialog with the player, and provides a bonus to the player depending on the AI like an increase in damage or energy regeneration. AI’s can be found throughout the game and have a variety of personalities.
Once the player acquires an AI, they will always be visible on the UI and represented by their emoticon. When an AI talks to the player, their emoticon can change based on their feelings on what they’re discussing."
Another concep, Scarabs, seemed pretty cool too:
"Scarabs are small robots that have become the multitool of the future. Scarabs are deployed to handle a variety of tasks throughout the station like building complex structures and repairing vital systems. The scarabs operate semi-autonomously once they have been given a command, but most of the time they are controlled by a Scarab Queen in a hive-like fashion. Each district on the station has its own queen to help balance the workload, and at the core of the station is a Super Queen to coordinate the district queens. Scarab Queens are not self-aware, have minimal AI, and completely obey their masters.
Scarabs are also deployed on planets that the Planet Gates are located on. Before a planet is colonized, a large batch of scarabs is deployed to scavenge and refine resources that are used to construct a basic base for humans. A queen is deployed with the scarabs to coordinate this effort."
Backspace is on the back burner, and these are pretty early concepts that are of course, subject to change. Hopefully this game gets made because it sounds freaking awesome.
Check out Kotaku's link to take a look at some of the game's concept art
SOURCE: Kotaku
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