When Diablo came out a few years ago, it redefined the Action/RPG genre.  As is usually the case with such games, it spawned many imitators that paled in comparison to the original.  Unfortunately this in turn led to a dearth of such titles, and Action/RPGs have been few and far between since.  The few titles we have seen since then have all been set in fantasy worlds; dungeon-crawling, hack-and-slash romps.  Harbinger is an upcoming game from DreamCatcher Interactive that is a return to the great fun provided by Action/RPGs, and finally moves the action to the realm of science fiction.  We recently played a beta version of the game, and it certainly whet our appetites for what could be one of the more interesting titles to come out this winter.

Cimicidae approach a gladiator.

It is pretty important for any game with RPG aspirations to deliver a good story and it looks like Harbinger will do so.  Harbinger is a gigantic star ship which roams space, pillaging worlds and capturing and enslaving some of the life forms that it finds on them.  The ship is so large and has been in space for so long, that the Overlord of the ship no longer exerts complete control over its many corridors.  In out of the way places on Harbinger, small communities have sprung up away from the watchful eyes of the Overlord.  Some live as raiders, others as mercenaries, and some even help the Overlord, carrying out the nasty business he'd prefer to keep his hands free from.  Constantly fighting against each other for survival, Harbinger's residents are facing several threats that have grown to become a great danger to them all.  The war-like Vantir are spreading their influence throughout the ship, the elite Scintilla are beginning to feel their muscle, and the newcomers to the ship, the insectoid Cimicidae, are multiplying rapidly and threatening to overrun everything.  This is the situation on Harbinger as you take control of your character at the start of the game.

The game begins with your selection of a character from one of the three playable races.  Gladiators are hulking machines with an implanted consciousness.  They can take a lot of punishment and are formidable melee fighters.  Humans are a balanced race, and are particularly adept at ranged weapons.  The last race is the Culibine, who can harness the energy around them and turn it into weapon form.  Think barbarian, archer, and mage, and you get a general idea of how the three races play.

A Culibine unleashes a blast.

Each race also gets its own special class of gadgets.  Gladiators can use controllable gadgets such as remote cameras, humans can place mines and traps, and Culibine can deploy special robots that enhance their skills or attack enemies.  Each race also has its own set of weapons and armor that can be equipped or sold at a profit.  These items can be further enhanced by plugging special devices into them - increased armor strength, more firepower, additional damage types, etc.  Like a good RPG, Harbinger changes the appearance of your character to reflect equipped weapons and armor.  One nice feature of the game are ports found in various areas that can be used to stow extra items you come across during your missions.  These ports are tied to your cache, so when you are ready to sell you can clean-up on just about everything that you picked up on your last mission.

Your choice of race will do more than determine your strengths and weaknesses, the story will play out differently for each race.  Although the main storylines are parallel, each character will face unique missions and a unique sub-plot.  This adds to the game's replay value, as you can expect a different experience in the game for each race.  It will take about 25 hours to complete the game for a single character, so by the time you are through you'll get a healthy 75 hours or so of play out of Harbinger.

The game's isometric camera angle and control scheme will be familiar to you if you've ever played Diablo, and control is simple and mouse-driven.  Click where you want to go, left-click an enemy to initiate a melee attack, right-click to fire a ranged weapon, and click the wheel or middle button to use a health power-up.  It works well and frees you to concentrate on the attacking enemies, which is important because they all have different modes and styles of attacks.  Not only that, some are more susceptible to certain types of attacks than others.  The real challenge to the game is discovering how to best handle each type of enemy, and how to deal with simultaneous attacks from several different types of them at once.  And when you complete the game with one character, you'll have to figure it out all over again because of the different attack styles of the game's races.

Our glimpse of Harbinger gave us a peek into its dark and foreboding, multifaceted world, and we like what we saw.  It also showed us that it's as much fun to tear through ranks of killer robots and alien warriors as it is to hack down mobs of orcs.  We look forward to exploring the corridors of Harbinger and seeing what lurks in its dark recesses when the game is released in February.