I’ve played a lot of FPS’s in my day. I was there when Wolfenstein 3D was first released and I was there when Quake brought us the first true multiplayer experience via the internet. I’ve seen the good, the bad, and the ugly when it comes to the FPS genre. That said, however, I don’t think I’ve ever played an FPS quite like Shattered Horizon before.

Shattered Horizon, by Futuremark Game Studio, is an online multiplayer FPS. While that may not impress some, I assure you that there’s one caveat that keeping Shattered Horizon on my daily list of “must plays”. You see, while standard multiplayer FPS games are quite common and range from good to bad, Shattered Horizon is the first I’ve ever played that gives you complete 360 degree motion through space. Something that makes sense within the context of the game considering you’re actually fighting in Earth’s orbit.

Anyways, enough gabbing let’s just get on with the review!

Gameplay

I mentioned above that Shattered Horizon is an FPS unlike any other, and I stand by that. The zero-G space movement in this game is far and above beyond what I’m used to in games like Halo, or Unreal Tournament. Yes, I’ve played zero-G mods of FPS’s before but, while those were very fun mods, they still lacked the genuine feel of complete zero-G movement. Shattered Horizon delivers on this and, believe me, it actually feels like your fighting in zero-G.

These maps are huge! This can be an opinion type of thing. Some people hate big maps, others love it. Personally, I love it. There’s nothing better to me than when I can truly roam a decently sized map to get my fight on. These maps are made all the better by the movement described above.

The game ships with four maps out of the box. For me, this was more than enough. The maps are unique and expansive enough that I have yet to get bored with them. For those who are a bit dismayed at the relatively small amount of maps, however, don’t worry. Futuremark is planning on releasing free DLC that will bring more space-shooting maps for all.

Shattered Horizon allows for 32 multiplayer battles. Some may want more, but in reality, it’s still a lot better than the alternative of a console which allows for a maximum of 18. Shattered Horizon makes due very well with the 16 vs 16 battles given to it.

The only real problem I had with the game was the amount of weapons. You only get one standard automatic rifle and three grenade/missile type weapons; an explosive, an EMP, and a smoke screen. Aside from that it’s just run and shoot. This kind of cramped my gameplay a bit as I usually like to switch between multiple different weapons, usually ending up with a shotgun of some sort. It gets particularly frustrating too because the automatic rifle isn’t all that accurate…

Style

Shattered Horizon is a beautiful game. Jaw droppingly beautiful actually. The textures and environments look great, but beyond that even looking down onto Earth is stunning. A few times I would just turn around and look at it for a while just because. It’s that good looking.

The audio, on the other hand, while it sounds good just doesn’t make any sense. The weapons make sound and, as we all should know, there is no sound in space. It’s a difficult thing to swallow but at the same time needed to make the game more enjoyable. So I’m kind of torn on this issue… sounds pretty damn good! Explosives make a nise explosion sound, gunfire sounds plenty realistic, and even the EMP and smoke screen makes appropriate noises. Of course, the way that this was all worked out within the context of the game was that it’s actually your suit that is simulating the sounds so as to make everything more realistic. After all, if your gonna be fighting in space it may get just a wee bit disorienting fighting in complete and utter silence.

Story

I honestly don’t know what happened with the story in Shattered Horizon. It feels as if the game was created with a rich storyline in mind, but ultimately it was just never included. There are two factions, the ISA (International Space Agency) and the MMC (Moon Mining Cooperative) and apparently there was an accident on the moon that caused it to blow up. That’s basically the gist of it. Even then this was all gotten off the website. Any new players who immediately jump in will have no idea what’s happening within the context of the game.

Everything Else

Shattered Horizon is a multiplayer game, an indie one at that. While this, at times, spells certain doom for indie games I’ve actually found that the game boasts a healthy community. Every time I’ve logged onto to play I’ve seen a few servers with people playing in them and, even beyond that, a couple were actually full. While they certainly aren’t boasting Halo 3′s numbers it’s nice to see there are always people to play with.

Bottom line, Shattered Horizon delivers something fresh, new and overwhelming entertaining in a time when the online FPS genre is starting to get a bit stale. It may be missing a few details here and there, but if your really in the mood to try something different and something that’s not called Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 then you could do a lot worse than Shattered Horizon. Plus at only $19.99 your saving $40 as well… Seems like a good deal to me!