Shattered Horizon by Futuremark

Well, they were not kidding about the system requirements. Completely unplayable on my end, but that's not surprising considering I was below the minimums. Gonna have to hold off until the new hardware comes.

 

Overall I am very disappointed. I was excited to see Futuremark put out a space based game. The benchmarks were always fun to watch, and had an awesome sci-fi space based theme. To me Futuremark loses a lot of credibility for two reasons:

(1) Super high system requirements. This game looks no better than what a console could run. And on the lowest settings there's no reason it couldn't run on much less hardware. A benchmark developer should know how to optimize a graphics engine to its most efficient potential.

(2) Lack of SLI or CrossFireX support. Again, how can a predominant graphics benchmark developer not support an important graphics technology. It's these higher end dual GPU setups that are designed to run the higher end games.

Sorry Futuremark. 5/10 from me. I'll probably play a few more rounds, but if this is all it has to offer, I'll pass. Let's hope this is your first and last effort or your next one will just blow us away.

 

/Whine mode ON/

Ok, this game seriously pisses me off. It's one of those things that you can't put your finger on, but there's times when you empty two mags and a grenade into someone and they don't die, but they shoot for a second and you die.... repeatedly.

The radar is funky, and I swear it never shows everyone on it. I can be shooting someone and someone comes up RIGHT behind me, and I know their suit is on because they're walking, but they never show up on the radar. You can't walk in stealth mode (gravity boots deactivated).

I dunno, I'm just seriously annoyed at this game right now and will give it a rest for a while.

/Whine Mode OFF/

 

Hm, lol i knew this game was a bit too good to be true. Though i must say the graphics still looks good.

on a side note, that crysis based space game looks awesome. Thats what i am looking out for.

 

True dat.

It's a shame Futuremark couldn't pull it together. I think the main premise had a lot of potential. Good thing it wasn't overhyped.

 

I'd say wait for a couple patches and maybe the DLC and the 20 dollar price tag might be fine for this game. I think it just needs some time to mature. I will probably buy in a month or so.. maybe during the holiday sale.

If ATi makes a crossfire profile for this game in their next drivers my laptop should be able to kill it.

 

Couldn't someone just do a HL2 mod based on that concept? Hell, it could be easily done by modding dystopia and allowing the player to get out of the ship without using a fighter or boarding craft and just reducing the gravity.

 

What settings are you guys running this game at? It is not even playable on my desktop's HD 4670 512MB @ 1280x800/medium. And it doesn't support CrossFire . . . wonderful. If CrossFireX was supported I would exceed the minimum, as it stands with a single card I don't.

 

The games reviews actually weren't too bad. I saw someone gave it an 8.5 and im wondering how they got there...

 

Well I was looking forward to this one! All the reviews seem to rate it quite highly. From what you guys have been saying, its not that crash hot? Hmmm, annoyed I have XP now, would love to give this one a crack.

 

Ok, after giving it a fair shake, here's where I'm at:

I guess partially you have to look at the cost. The game is $20, and for that I think you get a fair game. But do you rate it based on cost or actual quality of game?

Shattered Horizons is a one-trick pony: zero-gravity. Without that it's just an average shooter that's been done to death before, but it does add a good 3D aspect to gameplay that I've missed since the days of "Descent".

I do find myself coming back for more, mainly because rounds are quick and to the point. These days I can sacrifice 20 minutes at a time to play games, so it's nice to pick up and play a round or two and quit.

As far as system requirements, I just don't get the high system requirements. Most of the maps are 90% asteroids that are gray against a black starry background. Sure the earth looks nice, but I've seen it look good in a much less graphics intensive game. The character models are all the same and with no face textures or even any kind of fancy motions of the players, the high system requirements are just not justified by any means whatsoever. To me this is a game that could probably be redone to run on an integrated chipset without a problem. My desktop with a Core 2 Duo @ 3.6GHz, GTX 260-216 I run at 1280x800 with mostly max detail, and it runs well. But boost the resolution and it stutters.

I still haven't figured out the bullet trajectory. It seems like they're all instant hit, as in no time for travel. Plus I get higher scores with higher ping (>100) repeatedly, kinda odd. The sniper mode is useless IMHO. So many times I was planted, the enemy was planted, I shot him four times, and he didn't die. He sprayed back with bullets and gets a kill with just a few shots.

I changed my strategy to just spray bullets, and I started doing really well. It's silly. You just aim in their general direction and spray bullets and you get a kill. Plant yourself as a sniper and get nothing.

There's no VOIP. I'm sorry, that is just a required technology for any kind of multiplayer team oriented game.

Lack of weapons and player classes is annoying too. Same gun, same routine. It is nice to have three different kinds of grenades, but none of them actually do damage. Ice is like a smoke grenade, EMP disables the electronics of their suit, but they can still shoot back although movements are slowed greatly, and last one (forgot the type) basically just blasts anyone near it away into space (but can recover quickly) unless they're planted on something.

I have to admit the game execution in general is good. It seems fairly error free.

Bottom line. Fun game with quick rounds in zero gravity space. If this game didn't hae such high system requirements, it would be a fun game for anyone to play on their netbooks. If you have a system that can run it, I'd say it's worth $20. But don't expect to run near high detail at high res unless you have anywhere near a top of the line rig. Notebook PC's are primarily out of the picture.

 

Yeah, makes me feel sad that this laptop I bought only a month ago only barely meets the minimum requirements...

 

I have to agree with alot of what you are saying here. I run the game maxed in all settings, except AA OFF, and quite frankly I don't find the game too be that aesthetically pleasing. Their is just so much gray asteroids that look really awful in my opinion.

The hitboxes are infact hitscan, so you dont have to lead your shot at any ping rate. This makes high pingers have a pretty big advantage.

All-in-all the game is pretty fun, but it really doesn't have much replay value as it stands now. No real story, no upgrades at all, no other weapons, 3- game types and only one is even really team based.

I would give this game a 6/10.

 

I'm really confused as to why people are bashing this game. For only $20 I have absolutely got my money's worth. It's not the deepest FPS out there, but the zero-g adds a great element. It keeps the maps fresh, and the strategy is pretty dynamic. I have had my frustrations with "hit detection" and sniping, but it just takes a bit of a learning curve. As long as you are planted on the ground with good cover, you can snipe a ton of people.

I would highly recommend this game to anyone wanting a unique spin on the classic FPS. As far as system requirements, I can't get it to run better than about 25-35 fps with my G51vx-rx05 at full rez with everything balanced and 2xAA. I turned the settings down to low and the frame rate didn't increase at all, oh well.

My rating is a 8/10 considering the value of the game. I've got about 10 hours in the game and plan to put in quite a few more.

 

I get mad at the reviewers calling it realistic. Watching the trailer, i could distinctly hear the sound of machine guns and explosions. There is no medium in space for sound to travel through. Hence it should be completely quiet!

 

It is realistic, considering it's based decades into the future...

The sound is simulated by your suits computer. When you power it down for the stealth mode, you lose all sound except for your breathing. When an EMP grenade shuts down your suit electronics, you also lose sound, until the suit reboots itself. So no, it shouldn't be completely silent, they addressed the issue!

 

Yep rcm is correct about the simulated acoustics, though it's not much to justify calling it "realistic" - ballistics-based magazine-fed combustion weaponry in space with high (hitscan) accuracy... I highly doubt it, and I don't think Futuremark was going for realism either; most of these "reviewers" are just inept.

I agree it looks a tad listless... although for $20 I'm curious to see if Futuremark is okay with leaving it at that, or if they're going to add some future DLC that builds on what seems to be a fairly solid (albeit bland) base so far.

 

I'm not bashing it, but I'm not happy with it. My biggest disappointement I think is the system requirements. Absolutely no need for them to be so steep.

That aside, yes, it is worth $20. But again, the shallow gameplay, simple mechanics, and quick rounds make it something you'd be happy if you could play on your laptop or netbook when you get a few spare moments to kill. Not something you'd need a top end system to play.

I'd like Futuremark to make this open source. It has a lot of potential, and someone would probably quickly make it run with much less sytem requirements. If the requirements were significantly less (like netbook worthy) even with greatly reduced detail, it would be more acceptable. It's kind of like putting a high compression 500 horsepower engine in a Smart Car.

 

I pre-purchased it from steam for 17,99, but I'm still waiting for my Windows 7 upgrade to come, I'm not going to install it until I install 7 first.

 

It runs ok but imo its very poorly optimised

 

Thats pretty cool actually....