Gameplay and AI

Okay, so it's pretty... but is it fun?

We all know eye candy is all well and good, but what about the game play? The creators at Shiny wanted to get away from that generic "run around with guns and shoot whatever moves" base to first person games. The fact that Bob can possess different characters who all have different attributes is key to Messiah's ground breaking gameplay. It's no longer about running around and finding a bigger gun to solve problems. It will be about trying to use people, considering all their abilities and strengths to find solutions. Real strategy will come into play in order to advance the game.

You'll have to decide if a given situation warrants killing or injuring the various inhabitants of the immediate area, or if it might be advantageous to sneak by without too much violence. For instance, if a fire impedes your advance through the game, should you waste a nearby person's life by possessing them and walking through the flames? Or should you try to find a more complicated solution because that person could come in handy later? These are all decisions that'll factor into gameplay, and will ultimately make the game incredibly dynamic and fun to play.

Shiny is also putting in a lot of work for the characters' AI in Messiah. They won't just follow set paths around the levels with generic actions. The characters' behavior will instead be based on the given situation and circumstances surrounding their environment. If you blow up a nearby wall for instance, they're not going to sit around as if nothing had happened; they'd high tail it out of there or hit the deck. Certain characters will not always sit around in the same place either. Everyone will have an agenda to get done, and will move about in the world as necessary to achieve their tasks. You'll need to pass through four distinct areas during the game, The Metropolis, The Second City, Orbit and Dark Side of the Moon. Each area will have about five levels and will be populated with generic characters and area specific ones.

Awesome fire and particle FX

Lots of different game characters