PC Gamer's favorite military sim maker is making a helicopter game. It's being made in the ArmA 2 engine. It'll have co-op and a mission editor. Within: more screenshots, a trailer, and why we think Take On could woo non-simulation players the same way that ArmA 2 continues to. Chop, chop.
Here's a bullet-point break-down of the stuff you care about, gently filtered from the press release:
- Bohemia is billing this as an "accessible yet very authentic helicopter game." Expect fidelity, but not full-on, switch-flipping, hardcore simulation along the lines of DCS .
- You'll fly in two environments; one North American and one South Asian. Both of these terrain models will be based on real-world data.
- TOH will include a "sandbox" single-player campaign.
- There's a mission editor. It's “powerful” and “easy-to-use.” (Hopefully that'll mean less-complex scripting than ArmA 2.)
- There's multiplayer: competitive and [excited man-squeal] co-op. No word on the max number of pilots, or if any secondary roles are playable.
- Realistic elements: “accurate fuel and electrics simulation” and “dynamic time and weather” will affect the flight model.
- “Detailed tutorials” are planned; Bohemia says TOH will “cater to new players and enthusiasts alike.” Hmm.
- It'll be out during Q4 of 2011. The price hasn't been announced yet.
Bohemia Interactive is best at packing high-fidelity assets and systems into massive, realistic environments, then trusting its community to augment that base experience. ArmA has a campaign, but for most dedicated players treat it as a set of modifiable military tools that they populate with user-made content. Take On should take advantage of that template--like ArmA, Bohemia simply needs to build a beautiful set of tools, tutorials and tech that player-made missions and add-ons can sit on.
For Take On's campaign, the Czech developer says that the single-player campaign will follow the fledgling aviation business of Harry Larkin. Harry, along with his sons, "must take on contracts and competitors" to save the company he's invested his entire life in.
Multiplayer is what I'm looking forward to, though--if there's a catch phrase that our ArmA 2 community loves, it's "Get to da chopper!" If Take On can be another context where we can yell that line endlessly at one another in co-op, I'll be set.
Read more at www.takeonthegame.com , which will go live later today.
