13.) Project Offset

       This day in age, the first-person shooter genre is being saturated with military games and what I call the "me too" aspect. Only so few game companies are getting creative, adventurous and testing the waters with new ideas for their first-person shooters while majority aren't. Why not a first-person shooter which takes place within the fantasy genre? The game was called Project Offset; a fantasy FPS that was in the works for PC and Xbox 360, but was unfortunately cancelled. It was created by a company called Offset Sotware and was built from the team's impressive proprietary Offset engine. The technology was so impressive in fact that Intel bought the studio in early 2008 and the game and game engine all went with it. The graphics hardware the game was being designed for did not ship, so as a result Intel cancelled the game. The Project Offset team were disbaned at Intel, so the founders of Offset Software formed a new company called Fractiv which had put them back at square one. The IP and Engine are property of Intel, so its future is out of Fractiv's hands. The first-person shooter genre could use something like this for a change of scenery and gameplay.

       The game was truly ahead of its time in many ways. It featured parallel storytelling, epic battle scenes, objective based multiplayer and groundbreaking visuals. Combat was a mix between close-quarters and long range shooting to create a high action experience. The game was also going to feature rideable creatures such as Seige Trolls, Dragons and Battle Boars.

       The Offset Engine was capable of displaying hundreds of enemies on-screen, allowing for truly massive battles. While this may not be so new this day in age, keep in mind that this footage was shown in 2007. 

       The technology behind the Offset Engine was incredible. At the time, it had many features that game engines today didn't have. With features like real-time ambient occlusion, real-time shadows, cinematic quality motion blur, depth of field, specular bloom and soft particles. Whether you are aware of this or not, but the self-shadow technique used in Unreal Engine 3, Cry Engine 2.0 and other engines was developed by Offset Software.

       Project Offset was not going to be seen through the eyes of a single hero, but through several. Each hero's story was going to intersect and the actions you decide as one character was going to have consequences on the path of another character. This feature of parallel storytelling would have made for some very interesting gameplay. It would have allowed for expansions to be released episodically, telling the tale of new characters. 

       As far as multiplayer was concerned, Project Offset was going to feature a class based multiplayer component that picks up where the story ends. This would allow players to fight the war online. Multiplayer was going to feature classic game modes like deathmatch, team deathmatch, capture the flag and objective based modes with anywhere from 2-24 players. In objective mode, opposing factions would face off, fighting to gain control over cities. The player classes in the multiplayer was going to include Warriors, Engineers, Paladins, Wizards and Assasins. Each various class was balanced while having some advantages over each other. This would have resulted in a class game of Rock-Paper-Scissors distributed among your teams. The way it was going to work was like follows: Warriors trump Paladins, Paladins trump Engineers, Engineers trump Assassins, Assassins trump Wizards and Wizards trump Warriors.  

       The Offset Engine allowed for many things. Imagine a game where nearly every model is created with the amount of detail and effort found only in a cinematic. 

       It saddens me to see such hard work and potential go to waste. Just imagine an FPS game  set in an epic fantasy world! This was in the works long before Skyrim. A game where you can choose one of many character classes. A game where clans can combat over mission based objectives and be ranked accordingly. A game where you can play alone, coop, team based objective or deathmatch. Just imagine that for a moment. The controls would feel exactly how an FPS player would expect. Play as an archer and your skill using the bow and leading your target is what will set you apart. When battles get up close and personal, pull out your sword and continue the fight through melee. Do you like vehicles? Any Battlefield fans reading this? If yes, awesome because now imagine having creatures you can ride, dragons you can fly, siege weapons you can man; all part of an epic battle between you and your foes. 

       So what are your thoughts? Would you like to see something like this made into a game? Would you like to see this project continue somehow and returned to Fractiv? Please comment and share your thoughts below.