|-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-| Author: Ben "D3pth Charge" Ballinger Date: 2006 - 01 - 06 Link: http://planethalflife.gamespy.com/View22f9.html?view=Previews.Detail&id=7 Link: http://web.archive.org/web/20060111182435/http://www.planethalflife.com:80/features/articles/bwg/day05_page1.shtm |-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-| Black Widow Games: Five Days of Fear (Day 5) More Than You Bargained For > day05_01.jpg > Lost Souls is brought to life with beautiful, yet eerie landscapes and architecture. In They Hunger: Lost Souls, you begin your journey as a tourist in a small, North-eastern European town. For as long as you could remember, you had been stuck in a rut doing the same daily routine, day in and day out. Tired of your stressful yet disappointingly uneventful everyday life, you decided it was time for a greatly-needed vacation, and here you are. Little do you know, your wish for "excitement" is about to be granted in more ways than you can imagine or would have ever hoped for… As in the original They Hunger, in Lost Souls you start off innocently enough: simply trying to get away from it all and enjoy your vacation. You hail a cab and set off across the coastline to your hotel in a neighbouring town… but then everything goes wrong, and a tragic accident changes your life forever. After regaining consciousness moments after the accident, you awake to find your cab driver lying near you, badly injured and covered in blood. Not quite sure where you are, how you got there, or what has happened, you lament the fact that nobody is around to help you. Ironically, you are far from alone, but you and your cab driver are the only ones around with a pulse… > day05_03.jpg > Unfortunately for you, hiding is not an option in this zombie-infested town. The cab driver knows the area well, but has yet to muster the strength to guide you through the area and therefore advises you to seek shelter in the local monastery on the coast. You leave your injured comrade behind and make your way through the woods—all the while being stalked by the walking dead… You eventually arrive at the monastery, but something doesn't seem quite right—in fact, things seem a LOT worse than they did on the trip. You now find yourself in the fight for your life, with no one to lend a hand and nowhere to go for help. The hunt is on, but who will be the hunter and who will be the hunted? The decision is yours. Breaking the Mold > day05_07.jpg > For some reason, I doubt this car crashed through the wall because the driver had been partying too hard... They Hunger: Lost Souls won't transport you around to unconnected locations, leaving you wondering just how you managed to get to where you are. A solid storyline will provide a clear view of where you are going to next, and why. However, gameplay will be anything but linear; one of the key features of the game is the fact that it gives you multiple routes to take throughout the game, leaving you to choose the path that you see fit. > day05_05.jpg > A shot from the incredibly detailed maps in Lost Souls. Lost Souls is the first commercial pursuit of the game development company Black Widow Games, who have a rich portfolio of released modifications and levels since 1997 (most of which were per request of companies and publications like Rysher Entertainment, Sony Pictures, PC Gamer, and so forth). Many companies breaking into the professional game development field are afraid to stray from the mainstream standards of gaming, but Black Widow Games refuses to be held back by such limitations. BWG's goal is to make you think before you act and to give you multiple options on how to act. Most games involve a "reactionary" type of gameplay, in which players involuntarily fall into traps and puzzles and then must work their way out. Lost Souls will allow you to take an active roll within the game, and decide for yourself what the best course of action is (possibly allowing you to avoid certain traps altogether). Lost Souls pays homage to Half-Life's style of story-development in that as the player, you are not set into combat right away, but instead partake in the initial storyline, observing firsthand as it unfolds and grows increasingly complex. The storyline of Lost Souls is not one filled with senseless action and gore like most horror games (that's not to say that there aren't your fair share of zombies), but instead is focused on a well-developed plot filled with twists and turns, endlessly keeping you on your toes to the very end of the game. What's in Store > day05_06.jpg > Danger lurks at every corner, so always be watching your back. They Hunger: Lost Souls is a game with endless possibilities. Developing their game on the Source engine provides the BWG developers with a much wider array of options and tools. The use of physics will play an integral part in this new series, as will many other features that Source brings to the table. One of the most popular features in the original They Hunger was the ability to control vehicles like the train, or the squad car which you could drive through a wall; this will all be seen in Lost Souls, but will be implemented in a much more enjoyable fashion, such as a fully-controllable tractor that you can chase down and run over zombies with. Over the past five days, we here at Planet Half-Life, as well as you-our readers, have had the opportunity to explore the many intricacies of Black Widow Games, their software projects and their views on game development. This close look has hopefully given you a better understanding of what it takes to initiate the creation of a mod as well as a new appreciation for the team behind They Hunger, who are an inspiration to mod developers everywhere. As shown by the BWG team, it is possible to work from the bottom up, and they have proven that a hobby like simple map creation can turn into a full-blown career; all it takes is initiative, creativity and desire. > day05_08.jpg > day05_02.jpg > The Source engine makes things like realistic waterfalls and vehicles possible, creating a much more realistic environment to immerse yourself in. As for Lost Souls, one can only speculate as to the type of unspeakable horror that will be experienced while playing the game, but one thing is for certain: Lost Souls will undoubtedly spark the interest of gamers new to They Hunger and veterans of the series alike, by providing the same riveting, spine-tingling, hair-raising gameplay that characterized the original game and set the bar for single-player Half-Life mods. While not yet in development, sequels to Lost Souls are entering into the initial stages of planning, making obvious the fact that BWG plans on creating just as rich of a saga for the new They Hunger game series as they did for the original. Keep your eyes on Planet Half-Life for continued coverage of this amazing project.