Activision. Bioware. EA Games. These are the big names that you think of when you think of video games, at least in North America. There’s another big name currently on the rise, though, and that’s 1C Company. On June 25th, I had the opportunity to attend their press event, held at the Russian consulate. Why the Russian consulate? Because 1C is one of the largest independent game developers in Russia, with over a thousand outlets in Eastern Europe. That night, as North American representative David Trachtenberg told us, we were all Russian.
All of which was evident by the setting. Every 1C employee wore a big, fuzzy hunting cap, complete with earflaps and a 1C pin. The open bar served nothing but drinks with vodka and beer, and everywhere you walked, a model in a bright yellow body suit and a hunting hat walked about.
None of the press was quite sure what the correlation between the women and Russia was (Kill Bill associations came to mind instead), but no one, particularly the men, seemed to question.
Free food and drink aside (salmon roe and vodka, anyone?), 1C wasn’t just there to entertain – not in the traditional sense of a party, at least. Up for playing and reviewing were demos of several of their upcoming games, including IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey, Rig’n’Roll, Majesty 2, and Captain Blood. Every game was the final version, or a very detailed demo with actual gameplay. I had the opportunity to play a few, and while 1C has some definite winners on its hands, it has its head-scratchers as well.
The tutorial for IL-2: Sturmovik: Birds of Prey.
A sequel to a flight simulator released on PC only, IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey is a PC, Xbox 360, and PS3 game that, for consoles, is a rare breed. In a world largely dominated by first person shooters and RPGs, Sturmovik actually holds its own, with easy to understand and relatively intuitive controls. The graphics aren’t the best in the industry, but they’re far from primitive. The game’s dogfight mode is engaging and exciting; the controls enhance, rather than get in the way of immersing the player in the experience. If 1C and North American partner 505 Games can promote the genre well, the game could easily find its own niche within the market. While I personally am not a big fan of flight sims, there is something to be said about shooting down an enemy fighter plane that would give any gamer a thrill.
Captain Blood was one of the other crowd console favorites. While it was announced several years ago, the final port is due out on the Xbox 360 later this year, contrary to popular reports on gaming sites of the game actually being canceled. A pirate-themed hack-and-slasher, the game didn’t strike me as anything particularly new or exciting; the graphics were similar to that of Fable 2 or something similar on the 360 – not terrible, but not particularly fluid or impressive, either. It’s not entirely apparent if keeping this one from being canceled was worthwhile; while the gameplay didn’t seem to be particularly flawed, it was nothing particularly innovative, or different. Games such as Kingdom Hearts and Afro Samurai have done it before, and at a time when the genre was still being refined and gameplay was innovative. Captain Blood shows none of these senses of innovation.
A 1C press event attendee plays Rig ‘n’ Roll.
My personal favorite game to review, though, at least as far as entertainment value, was the trucking sim Rig ‘n’ Roll. Yes, you read that correctly – it’s a trucking simulator. A PC game that’s guaranteed to be one of the games that you look at on the shelf with a mixture of amusement and confusion, Rig ‘n’ Roll’s main attractions, as boasted by the trailer, are real California roadways, actual truck brands, and a trucker management mode, where the player can direct truckers. Players drive their rigs from city to city, transporting goods from horses to lemons.
If the game sounds less than riveting, then I’ve done my job. Rig ‘n’ Roll is a silly, yet strangely amusing concept that seems to work better as a game in an arcade with friends watching than as a PC game.
1C held an event that showcased its games perfectly. While not every game was perfect, games such as IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey had enough stones to hold their own in the cutthroat world of making a successful console game today, while keeping the PC gamers happy. If you haven’t heard of 1C yet, you will.