Certain Affinity, the folks behind the scenes of some of the most high-profile games ever released such as Halo and Call of Duty, has announced Crimson Alliance, an action-RPG Xbox Live Arcade title that will be released this summer. Mixing fast-paced co-op combat with RPG character development, the game will feature three playable classes with their own unique abilities.
The Assassin class will feature time-bending abilities, while the Wizard has the familiar elemental mastery. The Mercenary uses “sweeping whirlwind strikes.” Each class will have five abilities that can be upgrading by hunting for treasure and finding Soul Anchors, devices that detain spirits of past heroes. Players can customize their play-style and even compliment their friends’ characters by specializing in certain abilities.
Each character will have their own motivations in the game, which will be revealed throughout the cooperative campaign, which will feature betrayal, foul magic and ancient secrets. They’ll fight through labyrinthine crypts, deadly traps and ruined cities and will find hidden treasure.
The game will allow you to party up with three friends, either on the same console or over Xbox Live, combining their own abilities to create chain attacks. Diverse parties allow for special, and sometimes unexpected sets of combos.
Certain Affinity’s Max Hoberman, president of the studio, had his team take everything they learned from their work on Call of Duty and Halo, and apply it to the action RPG genre, including addictive character progression, strong action gameplay, great encounters, and environments. He had this to say:
“One of the reasons I started Certain Affinity was because I wanted to make a game like this: an action RPG with clever AI, fantastic physics, and deep, emergent gameplay that can be enjoyed with friends in the living room or half-way across the globe. Crimson Alliance is that game, finally!”
Crimson Alliance will be playable at the Microsoft boot at E3, which runs through June 7 to 9 this year. More info can be found on the Crimson Alliance Facebook page and at the official website.
