The first review of the new year deals with a rather new and somewhat unknown FPS game Shattered Horizon, made by Futuremark Studios, the ones behind the very pretty Futuremark PC testing and benchmarking tools. Is their first venture into PC gaming a successful one? Read on to find out.

One thing you need to know abut Shattered Horizon right away is that it’s by no means a fully fledged game, it’s actually multiplayer-only, and serves more as a tech demo than a game — and this is also the biggest drawback of the “game”, as the pretty visuals come with steep hardware and software requirements, as the game doesn’t support Windows XP, and only runs on DirectX 10 and 11 (supported under Vista and Win 7). However, while this means that the game features somewhat gorgeous visuals, they’re aren’t justified by the hardware requirements, as it seems more demanding than Crysis at times, but certainly doesn’t look as good.

The gameplay is the tried and tested multiplayer FPS formula, but with a few twists. All action takes place in space, in zero gravity, an experience in and of itself that’s worth to try the game. The setting of the game features a rather bland story, where the moon has exploded, with trillions of chunks of rock flowing in the atmosphere, and a battle between the International Space Agency’s military unit and the Moon Mining Cooperative ensures. That’s all the story there is to it, but it’s not really required, as there’s no single-player in the game. The action is tense for the most part, and quick as well, you won’t be doing much camping in outer space (although some will always find ways to do so). It can get a while to get used to the zero-g movements, as there’s is really no up or down, and you can move in every direction using your rocket thrusters.

Unfortunately, there is only one weapon in the game, but it’s quite deadly and a few shots are enough to puncture the space suit of your enemy and leave them to die within seconds. There are also tactical aspects to the game, for instance, you can power down your suit, thereby disappear from the radar and stalk your enemies in silence. While the action is fun for the most part, there are only three game modes — all resembling each other — and only four maps — which resemble each other as well.

Visually, the game looks decent, but, as mentioned before, it doesn’t run on DX9, which is kind of perplexing, as we’ve seen better looking DX games for years. The good-but-not-great visuals also don’t justify the steep hardware requirements, but for the most part, the game runs smooth and is fun to play. Coupled with a price tag of only $20 (it’s only sold via Steam), it’s an okay deal, but the zero-g combat might be the only thing fresh about it.

The Good:
Interesting concept
Good combat

The Bad:
Weak story
No Windows XP support
Steep hardware requirements
Not much diversity besides zero-g
Only four levels

Overall score: 5/10