I caught up with Pawel Kopinski from Techland today at GC for a sneak-peek at their upcoming mercenary first-person shooter, Warhound. While it’s absolutely packed with features, the main selling point of Warhound is the freedom of choice. Players can attack each level how they see fit - go in with all guns blazing, or opt for the stealthy approach - a welcome change from titles that force you to take one method throughout the entire game.

Read on for a complete run-down of the mechanics featured in the game.

In keeping with the freedom angle, the game includes RPG elements - by paying for training, you can build up your skills in mountaineering, mechanics and many other areas. You can also choose where on a map you would like to spawn. Access remote areas by boat for a low cost, or pay big bucks for a chopper transport straight to the action. This might not sound like a big deal, however it will make sense once you have seen how truly massive the environments are.

Not only that, before each mission you are presented with a weather forecast, and can choose which time of day (and hence, weather conditions) you would like to start the mission - the superior visibility of the day, or exploit the relaxed guard patrols of a midnight run - provided you’ve got the appropriate night-vision kit, of course.

Missions can be repeated, and will never be the same twice, which offers significant replayability, and hopefully ensures Warhound will be a game that won’t get put on the shelf once you’ve played through it once.

The game also features a grappling hook, which is two steps beyond any prior implementation I have seen. There’s clear feedback for which surfaces you can attach to, and once you have scaled a tree, for example, you can fire the hook again, attaching to another surface to create a trapeze of sorts - allowing you to traverse the gap and launch a surprise attack from above.

Warhound also packs a cover system that is quite a revolution for FPS games - unlike Rainbow Six: Vegas, the game will not switch to a third-person view once you take cover. Pressing up on the left analog stick will peek around a corner while remaining hidden to the enemy, although unable to attack - pulling the left trigger leans out with your gun at the ready, and drops the gameplay into slow-motion.

Plants, soldiers, and architecture are tailored to each environment - take a mission in South America and you will see and hear exactly what you would expect…and while it doesn’t seem like too long ago that “game trees” consisted of eight polygons with a low-resolution texture map, Warhound features fully destructible environments, and a foliage engine that affects each branch and leaf on a tree. And it’s not just for the sake of - for example, in a mission where you have to stop a convoy, you can knock a tree down, blocking the road to facilitate an ambush.

I was floored to hear Pawel’s estimate of the graphics only being 30% finished. Indeed, when I commented on how fantastic the grass looked, he seemed to think I was joking. What is already a fantastic looking game could finally kick Gears of War off the throne of “the” graphical powerhouse on the Xbox 360.

While the general public weren’t lucky enough to lay their eyes on the game, I can safely say Warhound is the sleeper hit of GC07.

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This entry was posted by Tim Hanlon on Thursday, August 23rd, 2007 at 11:21 pm and is filed under Previews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.