Dropship: United Peace Force
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[edit] Origins
Inspired by the sci-fi concept of a military Dropship being launched from a space platform; for delivering troops and vehicles to any part of a planet. After seeing this idea so well released in the movie Aliens, many developers had expressed at interest in creating the experience within a videogame. Joe Money and Nick Ryan were able to get their take on this choice concept greenlighted at SCEE's Camden studio.
[edit] Scaling down the project
The project was first made public in April of 2000, along with a host of other PS2 titles from SCEE's various studios. From the offset, the title promised a chance to pilot a dropship from planetary orbit, straight down to a combat zone. Pre-rendered images releases at the time [1][2] pointed to just such an experience. The mock ups also show craft that are far closer to sci-fi spaceships[3], that the designs that would later appear.
The video footage that was released that same year E3 did portray a title whose setting appeared to be other planets. In that they appeared to be barren landscapes, featuring colony like compounds. Though this may have been due to technical reasons: ensuring this early build was glitch free, the actual architectural designs do point to an era in the far future.
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A spaceship like docking bay
An armoured vehicle not too unlike the chassis design of the scorpion tank from Halo.
It's interesting to note that the only game that has actually offered the ability to pilot a dropship from low orbit is Breed, a PC title from the North England based Brat Designs. The experience is hardly as elaborate or as involved as the dropship flight from Aliens, cheating the effect as it fades to white and then into the clouds, but it works somewhat.
[edit] Impact of 9/11 on the game's content and title
Though the change from a space surrounding to something more terrestrial may have been been planned as part of a rethink in the game's design, the tension of a post 9/11 world is fairly evident in its story and background world. For a start, the theme of a near future worldwide "Peace Force" would create a reassuring atmosphere. Character bio's in the game's manual refer to "nuclear standoffs of the early 21st century", mirroring the fear the people were facing of an uncertain future. Indeed, these fears are still warranted, with worldwide tensions over current military action and nuclear proliferation hot topics of debate.
[edit] The "timeslice" replay mode
Unusual for an action that wasn't a racing simulation or a sports title, the game featured a very powerful replay mode. This helped tremendously in bringing title to life and had many modifications on the concept to bring even extra visual dynamism to re-watching a mission. CMR 2.0 and TOCA 2 from Codemasters had already been experimenting with "crash zooms" and timeslice, respectively. What the team achieved here was intelligent camera system that took both these concepts and went even further.
[edit] Featured Vehicles
The game play is simulator like, featuring battles between next generation American, European and Chinese aircraft and land combat vehicles in desert, jungle, tundra and arctic environments.
United Peace Force aircraft -
These are the vehicles used by the player in the main portion of the game. In the side games, vehicles from the opposing forces are capable of being used. United peace force vehicles are next generation U.S. and in one case, Japanese combat equipment, circa 2050. If the game is viewed allegorically, the timeline for the deployment of this equipment would be in present-day (2006) combat actions.
Dropships and fighter aircraft are armed with 25mm K-150 Halo class Vulcan cannons, and variable ordinance depending on mission, such as air to air and air to ground guided missiles and ECM rockets.
Large dropships are capable of transporting 2 medium battle tanks (The size of a Striker combat vehicle) at a time, yet being able to perform acrobatic in-flight combat maneuvers such as barrel rolls with a full cargo payload. The medium size dropships are capable of the same maneuvers with lighter payloads, such as 2 "Humvee" sized vehicles at a time.
1. Assault class dropship - Syon Aerospace A-9 "Fury"
Power unit: Twin "Archangel" Turbofans Standard Armament: K-150 "Halo class" Cannon
Nest: "redtail" AAM
Nest "Hydra" M/AAMs
Nest "Hornet" ASMs
Max. Speed: Mach 3.1 Combat Radius: 1800 Kilometers Wing Span: 12m Length: 17.3m This aircraft is reminiscent of a Boeing X-32 JSF (joint strike fighter). The game claims it to be a dropship with troop deployment capability, but all in-game use of this plane is in a fighter/interceptor role.
2. Defender class dropship - Syon Aerospace Defender D-15 "Tempest"
Power Unit: Twin "Ghost" Turbofans Standard Armament: K-150 "Halo class" Cannon
Church "Rhino" Rockets
Nest "Kestrel" AAM
Church "Doberman" ASM
Max. Speed: Mach 2.2 Combat Radius: 1900 Kilometers Wing Span: 21m Length: 28m A dropship comparable to a CH-47 Chinook helicopter, armed with a 25mm Vulcan cannon, It's visual profile is like a F-22 raptor with a bloated fuselage. This is the first dropship used in the game and the first aircraft used as a dropship for troop and vehicle insertion and extraction.
The vehicles transported by this dropship in the game are "Abex" A.A.V.s.
It is represented as an older model of aircraft, and suffers engine malfunctions due to sand intake in the desert area.
3. Lifter class dropship - Syon Aerospace L-12 "Condor"
A possible allegorical example of the conventional release of the "Aurora" aircraft, with conventional weapons systems instead of D.E.W. (Direct Energy Weapons - High tech laser, plasma, microwave, ionic and accelerated particle weapons not widely used by the military.) and petroleum fueled ramjet, scramjet or turbine engines compared to "anti-gravity" quantum reaction movement systems supposedly used in Aurora craft during "Black" operations.
This aircraft comes in different variations, only one, the combat type is playable in the game. Visibly, it can be described as a C-5 Orion transport aircraft chopped in half and fitted with a delta-wing along the fuselage, starting just behind the nose.
A target designator system is employed in this craft during some levels to coordinate allied attacks on hard targets. A mission is also flown with the player as a gunner operating the Vulcan cannon turret.
Ground combat vehicles -
Some portions of the game are played piloting tanks and armored vehicles in ground based missions.
1. "Abex" armored assault vehicle
Power Unit: Fuel Cell Hybrid Engine Armour: Lightweight Composite Power Train: Four-Wheel Drive Max Speed: 130 Kp/h Combat Radius: 200 Kilometers Armourment: Twin-linked variable fire K-127 Cannon
A 4 door armored personnel carrier with dual 12.7mm machineguns on an armored roof turret. A next generation model of the Japanese "Light Armored Combat Vehicle".
2. "Granite" main battle tank
The mainstay of any Army. Similar to an M1A1 Abrams, armed with a 105mm smoothbore cannon capable of firing HE, AP, Spike or MESH Rounds and is equipped with a "Dragonfly" S.A.M. system.
[edit] North American Release
Despite territory being arguably more of a target market for the game, the US PlayStation division - SCEA - opted not publish the title. It was instead picked by the far smaller publisher BAM! Entertainment.
Some view this as being because of the SCEA Vs SCEE Feud, but lower than expected sales figures in Europe may well have played their part.
[edit] Trivia
- This game is famous for being the only game to which Toonami has rated a ?/10. The reason being that TOM simply couldn't get past the 6th level of the game.
- Syon (as in Syon Aerospace) is an anagram of Sony.
- Many level names in the game refer to (more or less successful) Hollywood movies (The Ice Storm,North by Northwest and so on.
