While Sony continues to deal with the effects of the Playstation Network shut down, that isn"t stopping the Playstation console division from announcing a major new PS3 exclusive game title. Today, Sony did just that, announcing the upcoming release of Starhawk, a spin-off of its 2007 sci-fi third person shooter action game Warhawk.
The game itself is being developed by Lightbox Interactive, an Austin, Texas based team founded in 2009 by former members of the now defunct Incognito Entertainment, which developed Warhawk. The game"s press release goes over a number of Starhawk"s details including the game"s fictional back story:
The Starhawk Universe is set in the distant future out in the far reaches of Space where two factions a colony of humans known as the Rifters, and the Outcast, a ruthless species of humans mutated into psychotic monsters by the Rift Energy, a dangerous resource both factions are battling over.
Based on various previews of the game that have popped up on the Internet today, Starhawk will have a solid single player campaign, unlike Warhawk that was mainly about the multiplayer battles. The story will center on a character named Emmett Graves. Graves, a man who can be hired out to help defend space mining operations, is partially infected with Rift energy but is still able to think and act like a human rather than the Outcast. The game will use what LightBox Interactive calls its "Build & Battle" system which allows players to drop weapons and other items from orbit to the planet. Like Warhawk, Starhawk will also have a deep multiplayer mode with support for up to 32 players. The game is currently set for release in 2012.