Long ago the people of Azeria discovered that their sun would die, resulting in the annihilation of the entire population. Searching for other planets in nearby galaxies proved futile. In a spark of genius, they decided to create their own worlds for habitation in a galaxy with a stable sun. Thus the planets Esoteria 1 through 7 were born. The first wave of colonists found that Esoteria 3 held the most resources of all the colony planets though all were habitable. As the transport ships were being loaded to capacity, the Azerian sun began to give out. Nobody on the Esoterian planets heard from the colony transport after the sun went super-nova--the vessel was assumed destroyed. Now after a few years, a tyrannical militant government has taken over the once democratic society. They built you, Raven. Designed to be the ultimate killing machine, you were to be the final say in anything the government did. Fortunately you were taken by a group of rebels who helped bring about your own sentience.You've decided that the tyranny must end--one way or another.Esoteria 3 is an impressive first achievement from Mobeus Designs; a talented group of hard core gamers who knew they could make a better game. Esoteria boasts an incredible 2nd person perspective 3D world with over 1 million (that's with _six_ zeros, folks!) polygons! Unlike those other first person 3D shooters, Esoteria 3 is a fully functional, living, breathing world--not a bunch of smaller levels bunched together. Esoteria 3's world is huge letting you play the game in a non-linear fashion. (Finally!) According to Mobius the final release of the game will have no pauses during gameplay as it loads graphics, 3D meshes or anything else the game may need from the CD. This technological feat not only helps with gameplay, but if they can pull it off they could revolutionize the entire Cd-Rom market!
Playing from the unique 2nd person perspective in E3 gives you the freedom lost on many of it's 3D competitors. Using the mouse you can look around with amazing accuracy while you travel about with the keyboard. For instance, you could run forward, move the viewpoint to the side and attack. Yes, you can finally attack people and objects in one direction while you run in another!
Esoteria 3 has many other features that make it a game worth checking out. The graphics can be run in either 320x200 or 640x480; the latter makes the graphics sharp and beautiful. Esoteria 3 will support up to 16 player networks over a LAN or the Internet. To help with the authenticity of E3, the universe obeys real world physics giving the game a very realistic feel.
One thing to keep in mind with E3 is that although the world is presented in full 3D, you and the opponents you will face are 2D sprites. At first this seemed to be a bit of a disappointment (after playing Quake) but for E3 this is the best solution. The number of polygons that are being pushed around is amazingly high as it is--throwing in 3D people would only slow down gameplay. 2D sprites are significantly less CPU intensive than 3D models which allows for faster gameplay. And in Esoteria 3, gameplay is where it's at!
The incredible achievements made by E3 do come at a price. Because Esoteria 3 will run under Windows 95 using Direct X (and perhaps Direct 3D), you will need a powerful machine. The final game system requirements call for a Pentium 120 with 16 Megs of Ram, and 50 Megs of Hard Drive space. I'm sure that higher-end machines will play better. But with such an impressive game, it may inspire you to upgrade your machine. Don't worry, you'll have a little time to save up--Esoteria 3 is scheduled for release in the first quarter of '97. Until then, be sure to get prepared for a gaming experience unlike anything seen before.
Louis Stice
louis@psyber.com
