ParaWorld Preview

With the huge success of RTS games in the current year, more and more game developers are launching RTS games, with better graphics, gameplay and other additions. ParaWorld which stands for Parallel World is one of the awaited RTS by Sunflowers and SEK. The major thing that makes it different is Dinosaurs, which one gets to control in the game, making it quite interesting.

The Story

The story of ParaWorld begins in the 19th-century, where a team of scientists, led by Dr. Jarvis Babbet, are doing research on existence of parallel worlds. After years of work the team discovers a parallel world and decides to travel in order to explore it. They find that this parallel world is one where dinosaurs roam in abundance and only 3 primitive human tribes are present. But the most important discovery they make is that they don’t age while in ParaWorld. So they take up position as rulers over the primitive people of the world and stay there permanently. After this the game jumps forward to the current era where three young scientists, discover the same ParaWorld and enter into it. On learning that others have discovered this parallel world, Babbet and his team with the help of the inhabitants trap the three scientists on their first voyage, here the game starts with the three scientists trapped in an unknown world where they have to use all their knowledge to survive.

The Inhabitants

ParaWorld has three primitive human tribes, each having their own pros and cons. The tribe named Norsemen are a warrior race resembling the Vikings, the Dragon Clan is technically more advanced than the other two with respect to battle, and it is apparently inspired by Japanese sumo warriors, the third tribe named Dust Riders, is an offensive tribe which are African-themed. It would be your discretion as to which tribe you want to fight or ally with.

The three scientists play as the “hero” units; they are more powerful than the normal fighters units of the three tribes and have several abilities including hypnotics against dinosaurs, shotgun attacks, and sniper guns. They are not only good for fighting purpose but also provide a global bonus once you reach the fifth level. The only drawback is that they take up one full slot of the army command which may prove to be quite expensive at times.

Dinosaur Mania

ParaWorld features around 50 different species of dinosaurs, all scientifically accurate. Along with the dinosaurs there will be other prehistoric animals aswell such as the Sabertooth Tiger, and all of them can be tamed and used as army units. You can use the larger dinosaurs as transport units or make them into mobile weapon platforms by placing archers or mortar men on top of them, the smaller dinosaurs can be used to carry weapons of their own, such as Gatling guns making them more dangerous.

Each of the three tribes specializes in certain prehistoric animals. These animals range from brontosaurus to T-Rex or Triceratops, which are huge when compared to other dinos and very well armored.

Army Controller

Another interesting aspect of ParaWorld is its all new Army controller which is a panel with slide out box on the left-hand side of the screen that lets you control every unit in your army. As the unit cap is fixed at 52 units this would be quite useful in the game allowing intelligent unit management. The 52 slots available are divided into ranks; there are 25 first-tier slots, 15 second-tier, eight third-tier, three fourth-tier, and only one fifth-tier slot. As you move through the game and gain experience, you can promote units up to the next slot making them more powerful, the hero units when promoted gains extra new powers which could also grant bonuses to other units depending on the hero’s abilities. As the number of slots go down as one moves up the tier, you will have to decide which units to include in your army, and which ones to promote. If too many tier one units are promoted, then you would fall short of spaces needed to create more powerful tier units.

The promoting of tier units also leads to unlocking of new types of buildings, units, and technologies which help in making your army stronger.

Tidbits

The story of ParaWorld unfolds itself over 16 different single-player levels, other than the single-player mode the game will feature standard multiplayer modes, such as deathmatch and team deathmatch along with a new mode named defender the details of which aren’t released as yet. The levels are divided into five climactic zones with their specific flora and fauna, such as jungle, snowy ice lands, Lava Mountains etc.

Each level has cut scenes at the beginning and the end of the level. The cut scenes help in the continuity of the game by using custom animations and camera angles describing the story of the game in a cinematic style.

ParaWorld features a brand-new proprietary graphics engine which lends immense details on the various units and buildings as well as the environment. Real-time lighting and shadow provide the game with an accelerated day/night cycle providing one real-time shadows moving across the ground as the sun passes overhead.

ParaWorld is scheduled around first quarter of 2006 and the three years that it has taken for its development makes the wait indeed worth.