Bethesda Goes Military in New Shooter

Forget about the spells and the fantasy stuff. This new game co-designed by the Oblivion creator is all about realism. First screens.

In a somewhat surprising switch from magic to guns, Bethesda Softworks, the studio behind the multimillion-selling Elder Scrolls series, has announced that it is working on a new first-person shooter for PC and next-gen consoles.

Rogue Warrior is described by Bethesda as a "story-driven shooter that provides team-based tactical combat set in massive, contiguous levels". That may sound like the talking points from fact sheets many publishers already have out for their own military-styled shooters, but then they don't have the massive success of Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion to bolster gamer confidence.

For this title, Bethesda is teaming up with developer Zombie Studios, which previously worked on gun-heavy series such as Combat for Xbox and PC andAmerica's Army for PC. The teams are making use of Epic's Unreal Engine 3 to power a "freeform battlefield" that allows you to approach missions however you choose.

As is the norm in the genre, online play is a big part of the experience, and Rogue Warrior offers something a little different. Opponents choose tiles that are used to build multiplayer levels - all of which are playable at night or during the day.

"We've really focused our efforts on making multiplayer more fun and challenging by giving you lots of modes and hundreds of maps you can see and play," says Zombie's Mark Long.

So much for the online stuff. What about the campaign mode? For the solo sections, Zombie and Bethesda have turned to the current tension between North and South Korea, casting you as a real-life Navy SEAL named Dick Marcinko.

Will the North take the world into an inescapable abyss? You'll be a key in choosing our fate when the game hits PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC next autumn.

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo