Genre: MMO Shooter
Publisher: Vogster Entertainment
Developer: Vogster Entertainment
Release Date: Q3 2009

Shooters are a dime a dozen these days, with relatively few titles (Call of Duty, Halo, Killzone) hogging pretty much all of the glory. If you're a small developer looking to break into the genre, how do you make it stand out? Well, if you're Vogster, the team behind the excellent yet underappreciated Robocalypse, then you mix and match the gameplay of a shooter with the addictiveness of a persistent MMO, and you come up with CrimeCraft.

The game takes the standard MMO and shooter formulas and throws a healthy dose of street into them, creating a sort of hybrid that evokes more memories of Grand Theft Auto than World of WarCraft. Players can wander around cities and chat with other gamers or join gangs (CrimeCraft's equivalent of guilds), buy new weapons and gear, or simply join up for an upcoming battle. Unlike most MMOs, there is no exploration and level grinding; rather, gangs simply go out on instanced battles with other factions, and players earn money and experience points based on their performance.

As expected, experience goes toward leveling and learning new skills, of which Vogster is promising there will be over 40 in the game. The trade-off is that you can only take three skills into battle, so even if you know every trick there is, you still won't be able to completely own the battlefield. Money works the same way, with players being able to buy new weapons, gear and upgrades, but again, only three weapons can be taken into combat at once. Strategy quickly comes into play, and this light balancing system should be able to help new players compete with vets and hopefully help in alleviating frustration.

As for the missions themselves, the game supports combat for up to 8v8 with all the modes you've come to expect in a shooter, re-skinned to create a gang theme. So now control point games become turf wars, capture the flag becomes robbery, etc. We don't yet know how many different game types will make it into the final build, but so far, it seems Vogster is working hard to create a thorough and diversified experience.

It's also worth noting that since CrimeCraft is running on the ubiquitous Unreal Engine 3, everything looks quite nice. The team is focusing on lighting and textures, and while there's still a bit of work to be done, the foundations are all there, and what we're seeing so far looks very promising. With the final build of the game still a ways off, there's plenty of time for Vogster to make this gritty, crumbling world look absolutely terrific, which could help set it apart from other shooters, such as Call of Duty.