The War of the Worlds is a dark and breathtaking new vision of the classic H.G. Wells novel, retold as a single player, 2D action-adventure. The gameplay narrative parallels the timeline and events from the 1953 movie adaptation, but introduces a new story arc, characters, locations, and sub-plots.

With gameplay paying homage to classic cinematic platformers such as Flashback, Out of This World and Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee, players follows the exploits of an unknown everyman struggling to escape the Martian invasion of London and rescue his family. Forced to think through insurmountable odds, players will outsmart an army of alien tripods and other menacing war machines as they make their way through a landscape of total devastation.

Known to millions for his role as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in the popular TV show Star Trek: The Next Generation, as well as his performance as Professor Charles Xavier in the X-Men film franchise, Stewart has enjoyed tremendous success over his decades-long film career including several Emmy and Golden Globe nominations.  However, providing narration for The War of the Worlds is an experience that hearkens back to Stewart’s childhood.

“As a young boy, I remember watching the The War of the Worlds so many times I was quoting the lines,” said Stewart. “The alien invasion both terrified and fascinated me and the movie has stuck with me since then. Now, being part of this project will provide a new way for gamers around the world to experience a fresh new take on a classic.”

Key Features

• Love Letter Game – Other Ocean have quickly defined themselves as one of the leading indie development studios (Dark Void Zero, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Super Monkey Ball) with a passion for creating retro games. If you grew up with the 8-bit era, love chipset music and are used to the more challenging and thoughtful games of the halcyon days of platformers, The War of the Worlds will transport you back to that era as it stands as Other Ocean’s tribute to that genre and era.
• Old Tech, New Games – Not only is Other Ocean enamored with the classic platformers of old, they’re also enamored with the process that went into creating those classic titles. The War of the Worlds has been developed from the ground up using technologies and techniques that have been around for years – all of the character models and animations are rotoscoped, each level contains over 40 layers of 2D parallax, and the game is entirely controlled with the d-pad and two buttons.
• A World Apart in Its Genre – Eleven massive levels and dozens of different areas filled with the devastating aftermath of humanity fleeing for their lives against the overwhelming odds of the alien invasion. Enormous 140ft Tripods, mechanical spiders, drones, blood-harvesting ‘red weeds’, and lethal ‘black smoke’ fill the streets as humans flee in terror and players must think their way through the ultimate journey of mankind’s survival.
• Innovative Action-Puzzle Platforming - Rather than rely on a plethora of conveniently-placed weapons during the alien attack, the gameplay will challenge players to quickly evade the unstoppable Martian army through mind-bending environmental puzzles, reinforcing the sense of fear and isolation of the original novel.
• Surviving the Extinction - Other than through the gameplay itself, the game’s narrative is also conveyed through the player-character’s retrospective voice-over, as narrated by Patrick Stewart.  As a survivor of the Martian attack, VO from player’s character tells the tale of how he survived mankind’s near-extinction event, serving both as a way of fleshing out the world around the player AND as a useful hint mechanism.
• Near Death Experiences - Some hazards or enemies will deal instant death to the player, if they’re not careful.  But for other events, like falling a great distance or being enveloped by alien ‘Black Smoke’, a system will be implemented to telegraph to the player that they should avoid such things.  In this way, the game will more about near death experiences, rather than multiple deaths and restarting.