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Video Game / The Precursors

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The Precursors (rus. Предтечи) is a 2011 game by Deep Shadows, the developer previously known for Boiling Point: Road to Hell and White Gold: War in Paradise. In it, the player takes the role of Treece Creighton, a young pilot of the Amarn race, who is fresh from the academy and is sent to work for the government of the Amarn colony at desert planet Goldin. After several missions, the Amarn's home planet Casilla mysteriously explodes and Treece is sent on a quest to find out how and why it happened.

The game is a hybrid of a First-Person Shooter, Role-Playing Game, Stealth-Based Game, Wide-Open Sandbox and space-based Simulation Game. The player is free to navigate the open world on their own, trade with merchants or extort them for money, work for The Federation, The Empire, or La RĂ©sistance, investigate long lost ruins or just travel through space to land and play around in the various planets and space stations.


This game provides examples of:

  • Cut Short:Treece rescues Dr. Apertov and threatens to kill him for the destruction of Casilla by using the Precursor artifacts, but the doctor drops the bombshell that all the planets are in danger now, Casilla was an accident caused by the planet's artifact having its self-destruct mechanism triggered, and that a "pure-blooded Amarn" is the only being who can properly use the precursor artifacts and that Treece will need his help. The doctor then asks if Treece (and the player) wants to solve the mystery of the Precursors. What are the Precursors? Was that rotating triangle artifact in the base a Precursor? What is a "pure-blooded" Arman? Is Treece a pure-blooded Arman? No answers, because the game then smashes to credits and there's no sequel since Deep Shadows shut down due to financial problems.
  • Precursors: With a religious cult devoted to them.
  • Death World: Planet Reandore. Driving from one point to another in that planet counts as a mission in its own right.
  • Kleptomaniac Hero: NPCs don't react to thievery unless you pick a lock, hack a keypad or a computer. Even then, you can usually disable the alarm beforehand.
  • Relationship Values: One statistic for each major faction of the setting. Unlike in Boiling Point you won't be able to work for all of them.
  • RPGs Equal Combat: Actually averted. You will have to fight to complete the game, but most missions can also be completed with stealth, or with diplomacy (If you have a good relationship with the faction you're going against).
  • Stealth-Based Game: Though it's not always possible to be stealthy, most missions can be done like this.
  • RPG Elements: You have Experience Points, and you choose a new ability with each level.
    • There are hundreds of non-linear Sidequests, many of them having multiple solutions.
  • Video Game Cruelty Potential: You can kill, steal, and extort as much as you want. Many optional missions target people who really don't deserve it.

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