Huxley (video game)

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Huxley: The Dystopia
Developer(s)	Webzen Games Inc.
Publisher(s)	Webzen Games Inc. NHN
Composer(s)	Kevin Riepl[1]
Engine	Unreal Engine 3
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows
Release	KR: May 3, 2010
Genre(s)	MMOFPS
Mode(s)	Multiplayer, single-player

Huxley (Korean: 헉슬리) was a multiplayer first-person shooter computer game with persistent player characters published by Webzen Games Inc. It was being developed for Microsoft Windows. An Xbox 360 port was planned, but was placed on an indefinite hold and later cancelled.^[2] Huxley was initially going to be cross platform, but according to statements made at the 2009 E3 Expo press conference that feature was excluded from development.^[3] The contract to operate the game in China was sold to The9 for $35 million USD in February 2007, considered the largest export transaction to date for a Korean-developed game.^[4]

In June 2009, NHN USA released the first English closed beta test via its free games portal ijji.com. The initial test had a small number of users and was carried out over a space of two weeks. Keys for the test were made available through ijji (globally) and FilePlanet (USA and Canada).

The second closed beta test was initiated in late-July 2009 and lasted until August 12. The second test allowed many more players to test the game. During the last two days of the test a high-volume stress test was carried out on to the servers where everyone with an ijji account was permitted to play the game during test hours.

In April 2010, Huxley was integrated with Hangame game portal^[5] and went into open beta on May 3.^[6]

In August 2010, Huxley for the North American region was self hosted by Webzen.

A Korean service for Huxley was discontinued in December 2010.

In the near future, Nuclearites bombarded the world. Destructive earthquakes, massive tsunami and dramatic climate changes wreak havoc around the globe, isolating continents and driving the human race into chaos. Those who survive the destruction dream of tranquillity, but an eruption among the human race and the appearance of horrible mutants drives the world into further disorder. Racism and oppression cause rebellious uprisings and war that divide the landscape between two powers: Sapiens and Alternative. At the heart of the war emerges a powerful energy source called the Lunarites. The Lunarites were created by Huxley, a scientist and possible saviour.

Both factions seek glory and victory, fighting mercilessly for the Lunarites and their very existence.

The story was thought to be based on the novel Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, hence the name, but Webzen stated there are no tie-ins to the book's story and it was just an inspiration.^[7]

The game's visual style is reminiscent of the StarCraft series of games, which are extremely popular in South Korea (where the developer is based).

The speed and style of Huxley was fast-paced and team oriented, combining gameplay from twitch shooters such as Unreal Tournament with the character advancement and large worlds seen in MMORPG's like World of Warcraft. Huxley's main producer Kijong Kang said that the cities in Huxley could accommodate up to 5,000 people (according to recent publications that number was increased to 10,000 since summer 2006), and the individual battles were supposed to support over a hundred players, but due to major changes in the game's engine and budget, the number of battling players was reduced to 64 players (32 against 32) at the most.

There were two main types of Player versus Player battles: Skirmishes and Battlefields. The Skirmishes were small battles between two teams of 8 players on small to medium-sized maps. One player was the host and could choose between a variety of settings and gametypes. The other players in the game were connected to the host and divided into teams based on their character's faction. Battlefields were much larger scale battles with higher stakes and more players. In the Open Frontier Test of Huxley, this mode supported 64 players, 32 of each faction. Battlefields generally took place on much larger maps, and had objectives that players needed to capture, retrieve, gather, or defend. Because hosting 64 players on a player's PC was difficult, the Battlefields were hosted by dedicated servers.

In the Player versus Environment portion of Huxley, players could either play alone or group up with three others to kill AI-controlled monsters and complete quests. All fighting took place in instance dungeons. There was also a town where players could meet to talk, trade, shop, and form parties.

In the early part of the character advancement player system, players could mold their character in the style they liked best. After that, players could add depth to their characters. 'Experiences' and 'Battle points' were two elements of character advancement. 'Experiences' influenced the earlier part of character development and 'Battle Points' greatly influenced the later part of a character development.

In the earlier part, by acquiring licenses, characters could have opportunities to use upgraded weapons and armor. In the later part of the game, players had to concentrate on developing their characters to be more effective under any circumstances.

Webzen took into account the fact that in most MMOGs the players at earlier levels had no chance of defeating those at the higher levels, so they adjusted the game to make skill more significant than a long period of playing the game and leveling up. Leveling up gave players advantages, such as more upgrade slots and faster aiming, but a lower level player could match up with a higher-level player.

Huxley included vehicles for both player-vs-player and player-vs-environment gameplay, as well as general transportation. Some vehicles in the game were an APC (an aircraft resembling Unreal Tournament 2004's Raptor), a large energy based tank, and a small assault buggy. Vehicles were used in both combat and transportation.

Developer interviews revealed that players could acquire motorcycles for personal transportation, and that they mainly served as status symbols for wealthy players and as a quicker mean of transportation through town.

Huxley had nine different types of weapons. Each class specialized in three weapons, and also had the option of using four weapons of the other classes, although with less proficiency.

There were also several different modifications of each type of weapon. These usually had minor tradeoffs like doing more damage with a lower fire rate, or being more accurate with less damage.

Some special weapon types started to appear for higher level classes. Notable ones of these were a splitting rocket launcher, where the rocket split into two after a distance, and an optical rifle which dealt a damage over time or slowed the enemy. For the Enforcer they got special Flingers that had a longer firing distance and could either stick to the wall or be bounce off the wall. The Phantom was given Sniper rifles that caused a devastating damage over time.

Abilities, or skills, could be used in battle to give the player a tactical advantage. As players leveled up, they were rewarded with new and more powerful skills. The type of skills available to the player differed based on their class. Skills were used by "equipping" into armour. The number of skills that could be equipped depended on the players level and armor rank.

There were two types of skills, active and passive. Passive skills were skills that acted as buffs, or skills that automatically activated when a certain condition was met, examples of which included health regeneration and the ability to drop a flash grenade when low on health. Active skills were activated manually by pressing the assigned key.

In June 2008, NHN USA secured the rights to distribute Huxley via its ijji portal.^[8][9]

In August 2010, NHN USA transferred the publishing duties of Huxley: The Dystopia to developer Webzen.^[10][11]

The soundtrack for Huxley was composed by Kevin Riepl.^[12] The score was recorded by the 80-piece Hollywood Studio Symphony at Warner Bros in March 2007.^[13][14]

• MMOFPS

• Official Korean website