If you were paying attention to the site a few weeks ago you may have seen me posting the reveal trailer for Blacklight: Tango Down, the downloadable first person from Ignition Entertainment and Zombie Studios. At the time there was little info on the downloadable game but today Ignition released a whole bunch of details on the game. Everything from the back story to the setting is included in the presser below. Check it out
WHAT IS BLACKLIGHT?
Blacklight: Tango Down is set in the near future and revolves around a special operations military group called “Blacklight.” Blacklight is the SECDEF’s (Secretary of Defense’s) personal direct action team comprised entirely of “Tier One Assets.” These elite soldiers are extraordinary operators recruited from all branches of special operations, including Combat Applications Group (Delta), SF, DEVGRU (SEAL), RANGER, and CIA MSP. All combatants are hand-selected and trained specifically to be equipped to deal with fast-moving, ambiguous and unstructured situations. This is the player’s role in the game.
THE WORLD OF BLACKLIGHT: TANGO DOWN
Blacklight: Tango Down’s near-future setting is not that different from our own time and will appear hauntingly familiar to gamers but also distant enough to be surprising and unsettling. It is a universe that has been overtaken by the exploding speed of technological progress and is left suffering from the unbridled failures that those advances create.
The technological overbuild has created a bleak environment which has transformed once vibrant and familiar cityscapes into dark and endless virtual billboards and danger zones. An ongoing viral epidemic ravages society and the military’s drive to control and use the virus as a weapon has only created more devastating strains. Civilians and governments struggle through ongoing unrest. Order can only be imposed through force and fear.
The military’s attempts to weaponise the virus has lead to what some call “Q-Fever” or SIV (Sentient Insanity Virus) and the people it infects are known as SIVs. The virus destroys a person’s humanity, transforming them into frightening creatures that are less capable of utilizing tools but are far more aggressive and impervious to pain.
SCIENCE FACT, NOT FICTION
Blacklight: Tango Down is set in a universe that is based in Science Fact, not Science Fiction. The future combat technologies and weapons featured in the game are based on the bleeding-edge military developments and breakthroughs of today. Whereas currently, in our real world, these items may exist only in the laboratory or in conceptual designs, in Blacklight: Tango Down, these advanced military tools are deployed mainstream and make up the military reality of the game.
This “science fact” equipment includes exciting new future weapons and support systems, like EMP grenades that disable opponents’ electronic visors, Digi-Grenades that distort the optics of enemies, reactive body armor and widely customizable weapons. The most iconic piece of Blacklight technology is the “Hyper Reality Visor,” a head piece that uses its own electronic pulse and nearby electro-magnetic fields to render the world in a new way, allowing soldiers to see what is otherwise invisible.
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The Unreal Engine 3.0 powered Blacklight: Tango Down is set for a summer release on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC. No pricing details have been released yet but it should be around the 10-15 dollar range.
