First Look: Harbinger

Silverback Entertainment recently updated its page with new images from its upcoming futuristic role-playing game, Harbinger. The game takes place on a massive planet-dwarfing ship where some slaves are forced to work in sections of the ship and others are sent to laboratories to become test subjects in different experiments. Some slaves have managed to escape and form a society deep within forgotten areas of the ship, and the player's primary task is to fight off the patrols sent to look for these missing slaves.

Like Blizzard's Diablo games, Harbinger features an isometric perspective and the ability to select from multiple character classes including human, robot, and an alien race known as the culibine, who have the ability to manipulate sources of energy. Harbinger's nonlinear story changes based on the course of action taken by the player during the game, and each level has been fine-tuned to coincide with certain aspects of the game. According to Silverback, Harbinger currently supports only single-player play, but a multiplayer mode may be included once the company finds a publisher for the game. Level-editing tools will either be packaged with Harbinger or become available sometime after the game's release.

Silverback expects to complete development of Harbinger near the end of 2001.