Blade Interactive recently unveiled their next-gen project called Hydrophobia, where action takes place in a huge floating city and where you, the feminine heroine, are simply afraid of water.
Kate Wilson, systems engineer, is a reluctant hero who finds herself caught behind enemy lines when terrorists seize the Queen of the World, a new city-sized super ship.
Hydrophobia is set onboard the Queen of the World which is the largest ship ever built, but which is also the reclusive retreat of the richest persons on the globe: it has schools, universities, even a football stadium and the most modest condo starts at $250m and the most expensive in the billions. It is a mini state. A state with no taxes (the ship never ventures into territorial waters) and no legislative controls.
As terrorists take over the ship Kate is forced to survive and make her way up through aqueous passages, in an attempt to confront her childhood fear of water. Kate is of course hydrophobic, she has been since she was 13 years old. She doesn't like to talk about it, but her friends assume something terrible must have happened to her. However, Kate is a fighter and has joined the Queen of the World to confront her fears.
Hydrophobia has been built from the ground up using Blade Interactive’s HydroEngine, developed for the last 3 years, which makes sure that the water in Hydrophobia behaves exactly as in life. HydroEngine provides truly dynamic water whose behaviour is altered by every physical action and event in the game; meaning you will never get the same behaviour twice.
HydroEngine is just a part of the puzzle in Hydrophobia: Blade's new Infinite Worlds system allows for advanced AI that can be aware of the enemies and allies, have a detailed knowledge and unique perception of the world around them, know which areas are flooded or even remember which doors they have opened and which doors are locked.
Hydrophobia is currently developed for PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 and is due to arrive on stores’ shelves or for online download sometime in the summer of 2008.
