Overview

Developer: Red Lemon

Publisher: Simon and Schuster Interactive

Estimated Release: May 2002

It’s not about Muppets

Earlier this week, we got a peek at Simon and Schuster’s Farscape game, based on the television show of the same name that has become a sleeper hit on the Sci-Fi channel. The television show is produced by the Jim Henson Company, who help bring to life the vibrant alien creatures found in the show. For those unfamiliar with the television series, the story revolves around seven “people” trapped on a biological ship (the people are of varying species) called the Moya. Each of these people are outcasts of society and are being pursued by the Peacekeepers, who serve as one of the primary “badguys” in the show. The human amongst the motley group is John Crichton, an astronaut from Earth who ended up in this alternate universe after being shot through a wormhole.

In the underground forest

Extreme closeup

Exploring the abandoned hospital

The game’s story involves a Peacekeeper attack on the ship Moya – all but two of the ship’s seven crew escape the Moya and crash land on a strange planet. The objective is to get the escape pod fixed, fly back up to the Moya, wrest control of her away from the Peacekeepers and get out of Dodge.

Over the course of this action/adventure, you’ll be able to play as any of six of the show’s seven main characters (the 7th is the alien pilot of the Moya who is attached to the ship itself) – Crichton, the human; Chiana the rogue; Aeryn, the outcast Peacekeeper; D’Argo, the warrior; Rygel, the wannabe royalty; or Zhaan, a high priestess. The gameplay style and point of view is an overhead ¾ view, similar to Diablo, except you’ll be able to control up to three of the crewmembers at once, in a squad based fashion.

Light combat

Aboard Moya, perhaps

Four onscreen but you can only control 3

Graphics and Sound

Farscape is a fully 3D game – unlike Diablo, where the viewpoint is fixed, the player is allowed to zoom the screen in and out, and rotate around the center axis as he wishes. Character and creature models are in full 3D as well, and they animate fluidly as they move about the screen. The lighting is among the best we’ve seen in a game of this type, particularly in the underground forest level – shadows cast beautifully from the characters and from overhead lighting sources. It was hard to judge the sound and effects, because a lot of aspects are still placeholder at this point, but Simon and Schuster assured us that we can look forward to a lot of voice dialog from the real actors in the television show.

Players will explore 25 different environments in the game, ranging from labyrinthine industrial levels to large open outdoor areas. The developers at Red Lemon cited how refreshing it was to be given so much creative freedom by the Henson company to create new environments that have never been seen in the show. In fact, the producers encouraged more fantastical levels, ones that couldn’t be seen on the show due to budget constraints. The gorgeous underground forest exemplifies the new levels players will see in the Farscape game. You’ll of course see more familiar environs, like the ship Moya, which developers were able to easily recreate using the same models used in the TV show.