Edge of Twilight

So, Edge of Twilight, then. This is the part where we say it’s like X game crossed with Y game, ripping off Z game, right? Unfortunately, yes. Sort of. Let’s just say this is ‘Too Human, but hopefully a lot better’ and be done with it. The He-Man-esque setting and visuals mixed with the dual-world concept makes the comparison pretty irresistible, but there’s a definite feel that newbie Aussie developers Fuzzyeyes Studios may stand a chance of trumping Silicon Knights’ title, thanks to the addition of little things like ‘plot’ and ‘characterization’.

Okay, it reads like the half-thought-through ramblings of a teenage role-player, full of names decided by a random shake of a Scrabble bag – but it could all add up to something a little more involving than Silicon Knights’ offering. In the fractured world of Hellayem (described by the makers as ‘steampunk’, i.e. ‘Middle-Earth, with elevators’), you take on the role of Lex. By day, you’re an axe-wielding bounty hunter, but when the night sets in, a flick of a spigot turns you into a lithe, silvery creature with completely different abilities, allowing you to replay whole areas in a new way, in your mission to… to…

Hmm, so what’s Lex after, precisely? It’s not entirely clear. But as he’s a half-breed, shunned by society due to straddling the worlds of day and night, it looks like he’s out to get justice for the way in which the nightbreeds, or ‘the Lithern’ were exterminated by the daylight folk known as ‘the Athern’, since ‘the Rift’ came along to splice the populace into the two races. It’s easy to see that for ‘Athern/Lithern’ you could read ‘American/Native American’. The Athern live safely in a heavily fortified citadel, controlled by a draconian government, and this is where you’ll race around looking for clues and missions before plunging into the badlands for a bit of action. You’ll also meet the daughter’s emperor Galina, who’ll send you off on your quest to… ah yes, to reunite the day and night worlds of Hellayem. And bring peace and so on.

Instantly more going on than the whole ‘Norse god combats walking can opener game, admittedly. Yes, but the world (generated with Unreal 3 tech) bears a few too many stylistic similarities to Too Human’s universe for us to get too excited just yet, not least because Fuzzyeyes don’t really have a track record worth mentioning. Still, they’ve convinced Southpeak, who’ll be bringing the game to PC, PS3, and 360 sometime this coming autumn.

Jan 28, 2009