Huxley (video Game)
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''Huxley'' () is a discontinued
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with persistent player characters published by Webzen Games Inc. It was being developed for
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. An
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port was planned, but was placed on an indefinite hold and later cancelled. ''Huxley'' was initially going to be cross platform, but according to statements made at the 2009 E3 Expo press conference that feature was excluded from development. The contract to operate the game in China was sold to
The9 The9 (stylized as THE9 or THE NINE) was a Chinese girl group formed through the IQIYI survival show Youth With You (season 2), ''Youth With You 2''. The group consisted of Liu Yuxin (singer), Liu Yuxin, Yu Shuxin, Xu Jiaqi, Yu Yan (singer), Yu ...
for $35 million
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in February 2007, considered the largest export transaction to date for a Korean-developed game. In June 2009, NHN USA released the first English closed beta test via its free games portal ijji.com. The initial test had a small number of users and was carried out over a space of two weeks. Keys for the test were made available through
ijji ijji was a free multiplayer game portal website. Games hosted at ijji ranged from traditional shooters and MMORPGs to more accessible casual games, all of which were free to download and play, and with the majority featuring competitive multip ...
(globally) and
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(USA and Canada). The second closed beta test was initiated in late-July 2009 and lasted until August 12. The second test allowed many more players to test the game. During the last two days of the test a high-volume stress test was carried out on to the servers where everyone with an ijji account was permitted to play the game during test hours. In April 2010, ''Huxley'' was integrated with
Hangame Hangame () (also known as Hange () and formerly known as NHN Hangame () in Japan) is a popular South Korean online game portal operated by NHN Corporation. Launched in December 1999, Hangame offers casual, first-person shooter, MMORPGs, sports, a ...
game portal and went into open beta on May 3. In August 2010, ''Huxley'' for the North American region was self hosted by Webzen. A Korean service for ''Huxley'' was discontinued in December 2010.


Plot

In the near future, Nuclearites bombarded the world. Destructive earthquakes, massive
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and dramatic climate changes wreak havoc around the globe, isolating continents and driving the human race into chaos. Those who survive the destruction dream of tranquillity, but an eruption among the human race and the appearance of horrible mutants drives the world into further disorder. Racism and oppression cause rebellious uprisings and war that divide the landscape between two powers: Sapiens and Alternative. At the heart of the war emerges a powerful energy source called the Lunarites. The Lunarites were created by Huxley, a scientist and possible saviour. Both factions seek glory and victory, fighting mercilessly for the Lunarites and their very existence. The story was thought to be based on the novel ''
Brave New World ''Brave New World'' is a dystopian novel by English author Aldous Huxley, written in 1931, and published in 1932. Largely set in a futuristic World State, whose citizens are environmentally engineered into an intelligence-based social hier ...
'' by
Aldous Huxley Aldous Leonard Huxley ( ; 26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer and philosopher. His bibliography spans nearly 50 books, including non-fiction novel, non-fiction works, as well as essays, narratives, and poems. Born into the ...
, hence the name, but Webzen stated there are no tie-ins to the book's story and it was just an inspiration. The game's visual style is reminiscent of the ''
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'' series of games, which are extremely popular in South Korea (where the developer is based).


Gameplay

The speed and style of ''Huxley'' was fast-paced and team oriented, combining gameplay from twitch shooters such as ''
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'' with the
character advancement An experience point (often abbreviated as exp or XP) is a unit of measurement used in some tabletop role-playing games (RPGs) and role-playing video games to quantify a player character's life experience and progression through the game. Experien ...
and large worlds seen in MMORPG's like ''
World of Warcraft ''World of Warcraft'' (''WoW'') is a 2004 massively multiplayer online role-playing (MMORPG) video game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment for Windows and Mac OS X. Set in the '' Warcraft'' fantasy universe, ''World of War ...
''. ''Huxley''s main producer Kijong Kang said that the cities in ''Huxley'' could accommodate up to 5,000 people (according to recent publications that number was increased to 10,000 since summer 2006), and the individual battles were supposed to support over a hundred players, but due to major changes in the game's engine and budget, the number of battling players was reduced to 64 players (32 against 32) at the most. There were two main types of
Player versus Player Player versus player (PvP) is a type of multiplayer interactive conflict within a game between human players. This is often compared to player versus environment (PvE), in which the game itself controls its players' opponents and is usually of ...
battles: ''Skirmishes'' and ''Battlefields''. The Skirmishes were small battles between two teams of 8 players on small to medium-sized maps. One player was the host and could choose between a variety of settings and gametypes. The other players in the game were connected to the host and divided into teams based on their character's faction. Battlefields were much larger scale battles with higher stakes and more players. In the ''Open Frontier Test'' of ''Huxley'', this mode supported 64 players, 32 of each faction. Battlefields generally took place on much larger maps, and had objectives that players needed to capture, retrieve, gather, or defend. Because hosting 64 players on a player's PC was difficult, the Battlefields were hosted by
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. In the
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portion of ''Huxley'', players could either play alone or group up with three others to kill AI-controlled monsters and complete
quests A quest is a journey toward a specific mission or a goal. It serves as a Plot (narrative), plot device in mythology and fiction: a difficult Travel, journey towards a goal, often symbolic or Allegory, allegorical. Tales of quests figure promine ...
. All fighting took place in
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. There was also a
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where players could meet to talk, trade, shop, and form
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.


Leveling and experience

In the early part of the character advancement player system, players could mold their character in the style they liked best. After that, players could add depth to their characters. 'Experiences' and 'Battle points' were two elements of character advancement. 'Experiences' influenced the earlier part of character development and 'Battle Points' greatly influenced the later part of a character development. In the earlier part, by acquiring licenses, characters could have opportunities to use upgraded weapons and armor. In the later part of the game, players had to concentrate on developing their characters to be more effective under any circumstances. Webzen took into account the fact that in most MMOGs the players at earlier levels had no chance of defeating those at the higher levels, so they adjusted the game to make skill more significant than a long period of playing the game and leveling up. Leveling up gave players advantages, such as more upgrade slots and faster aiming, but a lower level player could match up with a higher-level player.


Vehicles

''Huxley'' included vehicles for both player-vs-player and player-vs-environment gameplay, as well as general transportation. Some vehicles in the game were an APC (an aircraft resembling ''
Unreal Tournament 2004 ''Unreal Tournament 2004'' is a first-person arena shooter video game developed by Epic Games and Digital Extremes. Part of the ''Unreal'' franchise, it is the third game in the '' Unreal Tournament'' series and an updated rerelease of '' Unre ...
''s Raptor), a large energy based tank, and a small assault buggy. Vehicles were used in both combat and transportation. Developer interviews revealed that players could acquire motorcycles for personal transportation, and that they mainly served as status symbols for wealthy players and as a quicker mean of transportation through town.


Weapons

''Huxley'' had nine different types of weapons. Each class specialized in three weapons, and also had the option of using four weapons of the other classes, although with less proficiency. There were also several different modifications of each type of weapon. These usually had minor tradeoffs like doing more damage with a lower fire rate, or being more accurate with less damage. Some special weapon types started to appear for higher level classes. Notable ones of these were a splitting rocket launcher, where the rocket split into two after a distance, and an optical rifle which dealt a damage over time or slowed the enemy. For the Enforcer they got special Flingers that had a longer firing distance and could either stick to the wall or be bounce off the wall. The Phantom was given Sniper rifles that caused a devastating damage over time.


Abilities

Abilities, or skills, could be used in battle to give the player a tactical advantage. As players leveled up, they were rewarded with new and more powerful skills. The type of skills available to the player differed based on their class. Skills were used by "equipping" into armour. The number of skills that could be equipped depended on the players level and armor rank. There were two types of skills, active and passive. Passive skills were skills that acted as
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s, or skills that automatically activated when a certain condition was met, examples of which included health regeneration and the ability to drop a flash grenade when low on health. Active skills were activated manually by pressing the assigned key.


Hosting

In June 2008, NHN USA secured the rights to distribute ''Huxley'' via its
ijji ijji was a free multiplayer game portal website. Games hosted at ijji ranged from traditional shooters and MMORPGs to more accessible casual games, all of which were free to download and play, and with the majority featuring competitive multip ...
portal. In August 2010, NHN USA transferred the publishing duties of ''Huxley: The Dystopia'' to developer Webzen.


Soundtrack

The soundtrack for ''Huxley'' was composed by
Kevin Riepl Kevin Riepl is an American composer for video games, films and television shows. He is best known for his work on the '' Unreal'' series of games as well as ''Gears of War'' and '' Aliens: Colonial Marines''. Biography Riepl was born in Cliff ...
. The score was recorded by the 80-piece
Hollywood Studio Symphony The Hollywood Studio Symphony (sometimes the Hollywood Freelance Studio Symphony) is the credited name of the symphony orchestra behind many major soundtracks, including '' The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe'', ''Suc ...
at
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in March 2007.


Track listing


See also

*
MMOFPS A massively multiplayer online first-person shooter (MMOFPS) is an online game which mixes the genres of first-person shooter and massively multiplayer online game. A MMOFPS is a real-time shooter experience where a very large number of players s ...


References


External links


Official Korean website
{{Use mdy dates, date=August 2012 2010 video games First-person shooters Massively multiplayer online first-person shooter games Ijji Unreal Engine 3 games Video games developed in South Korea Windows games Windows-only games Products and services discontinued in 2010 Inactive massively multiplayer online games Webzen games The9 games