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| | Title:
The Mark
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System:
PC
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Genre:
Shooter
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Publisher:
JoWood
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Developer:
T7 Games
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Release:
Q3, 2006
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Online:
No
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ESRB:
Rating Pending (RP)
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Army of Two maybe the next big thing in cooperative action gaming, but that’s an entire year away. For those of us who can’t wait until we stuff tampons in blood-gushing wounds of our partners, or cohesively blow stuff up, there’s T7 and JoWood’s upcoming PC shooter, The Mark. To get an idea of what this game is like, combine Acony’s upcoming Parabellum and toss in some of the cooperative elements from Army of Two.
The story–as if we really care why we get to blow stuff up–is about terrorists who steal a nuclear-tipped warhead. The terrorists want to blow up London, but they need financial help. A Russian arms dealer son, Ilya Rakov, agrees to help the terrorists. He also agrees to track down and kill two operatives who are out to stop him, Steve Fletcher and his sister. Ilya’s father, Aleksandr Rakov, wants nothing to do with his son’s incivilities. Hence, he indirectly hires a contractor to help Mr. Fletcher put an end to Ilya’s plan, and also stop the terrorists. This man is none other than Austin Hawke, a mercenary who kicks so much butt he practically cleans his boots that way. Together, Hawke and Fletcher must partner up and take down terrorists before the nuclear warhead reaches London.
The game offers players a total of 18 different levels across 6 chapters. Through the single-player campaign each level plays out differently depending on which character is selected. In some missions players will go in as part of a team, where-is in other missions players will go in solo. Both Hawke and Fletcher have differing abilities that players can exploit during gameplay. Whether its using stealth to sneak past enemies, or blowing buildings to smithereens with rockets or explosives, players will have two very different experiences with both Hawke and Fletcher. Both men will even have differing weapon caches, specific to their style of combat. And because of the varying degrees of separation between the two soldiers, players will be able to exploit the option of finishing stages in multiple ways.
According to the developers, the game takes a step away from linear-levels, which allows players to enjoy the game many times over, in the single-player mode. The story will supposedly unfold from different perspectives depending on which character players choose at certain points of the game. Switching between Hawke and Fletcher will ultimately give players a different story experience based on the level and who’s chosen to play in it. Added to this, it would only make sense that with two soldiers there should be an accompanying multiplayer mode. Thankfully, there is. The multiplayer mode will feature cooperative play for both Hawke and Fletcher, along with some frag-friendly deathmatch modes. The company didn’t say exactly how many players would be able to the fill up the maps, but hopefully it’s nothing less than 16 players.
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