The sound designers on Star Citizen released a video update on their work for the highly anticipated Star Marine module, and even if mic'd-up shotguns and rifles doesn't grab your attention, the in-game footage might.
The four-minute video captures how Cloud Imperium's sound team focused on an up-close ideal for the weapons' sound, as well as the player's movement in first person mode (using three types of body armor, and two movement paces each.)
Though this isn't a first look at Star Marine, per se —Cloud Imperium showed FPS levels at Gamescom in August — it's the first-person footage that caught my eye. It shows progress on a module that has overshot an informal schedule of releases set by Cloud Imperium and still has no firm timetable for delivery.
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The video also gives a sense of the perspective of the player in first-person mode and how the camera is positioned and behaves. Creator and Cloud Imperium founder Chris Roberts has said that the camera angles and animations needed for a unified first-person/spaceflight game have provided the biggest challenge to finishing out a deliverable Star Marine module.
Cloud Imperium last month insisted the FPS module was nearing completion in a matter of weeks, and this video at least gives some reassurance of that. Another module promised to backers, the "planetside" or social module, launched last week, held up in part by the work needed on Star Marine.
Star Citizen is the most-crowdfunded game ever, pulling in more than $88 million from a variety of sources beginning with a Kickstarter in 2012. However, this year has been very challenging for a development team numbering more than 250. For more on Star Citizen's development, the enormous expectations it faces, and the problems that have materialized in 2015, see Polygon's in-depth feature from earlier this week.
