Recoil: Retrograd screens revealed

Morten Iversen is not a household name. Unless, of course, your house happens to be in Denmark and you happen to be named Mrs. Iversen. But it is nonetheless a name worth learning if you're a fan of the Hitmanseries or the cult classic "Russia invades America" game Freedom Fighters, because he wrote them. And now he's at it again with a new company (ZeitGuyz) and a new game for PC and next-gen consoles: Recoil: Retrograd.

The hard details on Recoil: Retrograd will have to wait until next week's Game Developer's Conference in San Francisco, where Iversen and company will be shopping the game to prospective publishers. But these first few screens haveour keen, detective-y mindsbetting it's some kind of muskets-and-cannons-era shooter.

The setting is a mystery - we see both red and blue coats in the screens, and the odd spelling of "Retrograd" has us wondering if there's some alternate timeline Russia in the water.Iversen explored similar themesin the Red Dawn-alike storyline of Freedom Fighters, and it worked admirably even without Patrick Swayze's hair or Charlie Sheen's squinthelping propel theplot along.We can't yet tell whetherany of Hitman's stealthelements or Freedom Fighters' squad play will reappear in Recoil: Retrograd, butit's powered by Unreal Engine 3, so whatever you do is guaranteed to look lovely. In amurky, bloody, gangrene-prone Revolutionary War-type sense, at least.

Eric Bratcher
I was the founding Executive Editor/Editor in Chief here at GR, charged with making sure we published great stories every day without burning down the building or getting sued. Which isn't nearly as easy as you might imagine. I don't work for GR any longer, but I still come here - why wouldn't I? It's awesome. I'm a fairly average person who has nursed an above average love of video games since I first played Pong just over 30 years ago. I entered the games journalism world as a freelancer and have since been on staff at the magazines Next Generation and PSM before coming over to GamesRadar. Outside of gaming, I also love music (especially classic metal and hard rock), my lovely wife, my pet pig Bacon, Japanese monster movies, and my dented, now dearly departed '89 Ranger pickup truck. I pray sincerely. I cheer for the Bears, Bulls, and White Sox. And behind Tyler Nagata, I am probably the GR staffer least likely to get arrested... again.