Black Wing unveils futuristic new shooter News

Ukrainian developer Black Wing Foundation has whisked the cloth off its third-person shooter Salvation.

It's being created for PC and 360, and should be available in the second quarter of 2009.

Salvation takes place in a dystopian future where a "Regime" was put in place after a catastrophic World War. This imitates Heaven and Hell, and uses genetically engineered Angels to enforce a regimented system of rules - confining all opposition to it in a virtual reality version of Hades.

Gameplay will be a mix of stealth, action and arcade, with added role-playing elements. Black Wing breaks it down into three distinct sections.

"Firstly, Salvation is oriented towards drama and story, and borrows as much from movies," a spokesperson for the developer explained to Eurogamer. "Secondly, you will find original and interesting characters that use multi-functional weapons.

"Thirdly, the setting: futuristic prototypes of real-world cities such as Moscow and London, which make the game believable and immersive. Last, but not least, you will be able to fight 20 unforgettable bosses, which are all linked by the story."

Interestingly Salvation is being built on Source technology that, by next summer, could be considered rather old hat. Despite this, it boasts all sorts of fancy graphics and a multiplayer mode for eight to 32 players, and seems to allow you to take the role of NPC enemies.

"Source engine has a good reputation of cross-platform technology, while N-Game Studios (who is developing the game while Black Wing Foundation will be producing it and providing the Salvation trademark) has profound experience of working with it," continued the spokesperson.

"Needless to say that the Valve team is very sociable and positive to work with. On top of this, Steam is a very interesting platform for us."

You can find the first batch of screenshots in our Salvation gallery. It looks a little bleak at the moment, but perhaps it will perform well on a host of machines and come closer to the mass-market appeal Epic bigwig Tim Sweeney was banging on about yesterday.