Mars: War Logs is quickly shaping up to be one of the most visually impressive Xbox LIVE Arcade games to date. It’s an interesting mix of action and RPG. Think of it as one part Red Faction, one part Batman: Arkham series, and one part Mass Effect series.
Players control Roy Temperance, your typical ‘I-have-a-murky-past’ character. War is being waged over Mars’ most precious resource, water, and Roy is stuck right in the middle of it. The setting feels very much like the Mars-in-fiction we’ve come to know over the years, and closely resembles Marauder territory in the Red Faction: Origins film released in 2011.
Combat is handled much like today’s “crowd fight” titles. As with the Batman: Arkham and Assassin’s Creed games, Roy will be equipped to handle multiple foes at once. Three available combat skill trees will help players specialize their character as a melee, ranged or “technomancer” combatant. Players can evade enemy attacks by rolling, and combine melee and ranged attack for maximum efficiency.
Much like the Mass Effect games, Roy will have traveling companions. They will assist him in combat and on his missions, which will be doled out by various NPCs found throughout the game. Roy can use his charm (or intimidation factor) to influence conversations with characters. The game also has a crafting system, powered by items found on corpses or looted from the gameplay world. These can be used to create or upgrade weapons and armor, the latter of which will also change Roy’s appearance. All of these experiences lead to XP that will level up Roy and, presumably, his companions.
Mars: War Logs is being developed by Spiders and published by Focus Home Interactive. It’s currently set for a Spring 2013 release, but no hard date or price point has been set. Given what we’ve seen so far we’re pretty confident this will fall into the 1200 MSP or above price range. It seems to be quite an in-depth title, and we’re looking forward to another visit to the Red Planet. Hit the jump for additional screenshots.
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