This is fantastic News. Back in 2006 when I was really into battlefield 2 (BF2) I remember reading about this game. At the time I played BF2 exclusively (apart from playing America's Army online with a few friends) for nearly 3 years despite buying a large volume of other AAA titles. some of which I’ve still not played since purchasing them. I loved the immersivness and open world character of Battlefield 2. It was the best FPS game around IMO, especially as it was moddable. I ended up with well over 600Gb of mods and maps in my storage drives (still got it all). Then I read about 2 games which from the in game screen captures and short pre-release videos knocked my socks off. those games were Crysis and Alliance: the Silent War. Both games looked fabulous and included such things as destructible environments, better character models and amazingly lifelike environments. Well Crysis was released a year later back in November 2007 and what a game it was. It was as moddable as Battlefield 2, had the ability for the player to jump into any vehicle (including choppers, jets, tanks, APC's, civilian vehicles, boats etc.) and had destructible environments that were awesome (not as good as Red Faction Guerrilla, but still excellent), then there was alliance: The Silent War. I'd not checked to see when the release date was for Alliance and basically forgot about it for a while because I was so immersed in all of my games (still playing Battlefield 2 {partly because I used to beta test mods and maps for the game} and Crysis, plus a whole load more games such as Silent hunter IV, Medieval II: Total War, Flatout: Ultimate Carnage, Call of Juarez, Shellshock 2: Blood trails, Battlefield 2142, Mercenaries 2: world in Flames, Dirt and loads more. Sorry I digress….anyway, I remember one day wondering what had happened to Alliance (back in 2008), so went to their web site and saw the bad news; that is that they had ceased working on the game for various reasons (financial constraints being one of them I think). That was bad news as I seem to remember that it was a much more versatile game than Crysis, (which I loved apart from the alien bits). Well now for the good news. I received an email yesterday from the developers of Alliance which I've posted after this first block of images. All images were copied from HERE:
Hello everyone! This is one of the happiest emails we've had the pleasure of writing in the history of this project.As many of you know, in 2007, we had to place Alliance on hold after its initial debut at E3 2006. It was a tough decision to make, but a necessary one at the time.
Well, as of today, we are elated to announce that we are back! Things have changed quite a bit since then, and we always assured you we'd find a way to make it back. Have a look at our website (www.alliancethegame.com), read more about where we've been and how we're bringing the game back (www.alliancethegame.com/donate.php), and, most importantly for this group, head on over to the forums! The forum system has been revamped, cleaned up, and relaunched, with all of your original accounts and posts still intact!
You guys made up the core of our community and were our biggest supporters back then, which is why it's especially gratifying for us to be able to write this letter to you today. We have a lot of plans and will require a lot of feedback, so please visit the site, spread the word about Alliance, and, most importanty, head on over to the forums and join us once again! We'll be there to greet you (as AllianceEric and AllianceAsi).
Thanks for all your support, and we'll see you on the boards!
-The Alliance Team
Here's what the say on their website (background info)
So where have we been? How are we back? And most importantly, why do we need your help? For that and a lot more, read on...In 2001, when we were all classmates, we had a grand vision for an FPS - the type of FPS we had always wanted to play, a type that had never before been created. We wanted to do for first person shooters what Gran Turismo had done for cars- to create a truly expansive, accurately modeled, living, breathing simulation that captured all the physics, nuances, history, mechanics, and cold, awesome beauty of its subject matter. We wanted the definitive shooter that would cover 100+ years of modern military history; a massive and historically-accurate arsenal; a game that knew just what to make realistic, and exactly what to keep fun. What we wanted was Alliance.
So we got to work. In 2003 we started a modest little company (5 people at its founding, 8 at its largest!), really hunkered down, and dedicated our ideas to code and pixel. We kept quiet for 3 years, developed some really cool rendering tech along the way, and, when the timing was right, painted a big red 'X' on E3 2006. That would be our debut!
It was a rollercoaster ride. We barely slept, we hardly ate, but we got the Alliance demo done. And we got it done big. Alliance swept E3 and became the sleeper hit of the show! In the weeks that followed, it was the #1 most viewed game on GameTrailers, beating out such highly successful franchises as Unreal Tournament, Madden NFL, and NBA Live. Have a look!
We were ecstatic. We took a gamble on something different, a story outside the norm and an offering different from other shooters, and it really paid off.
Now all we needed was a publisher. Getting one had always been the goal of the show- for without them, there would be no Alliance.
So we met them all- at our offices, at theirs, at every location in between. But they simply would not take the risk. We were too small and too unproven. Despite all our ratings, all the awards, all the tech, all the fanfare, all the community that had built up around it, and all the traffic, it wasn't enough. We had never shipped a game before, and that's what mattered.
Our options weren't many. This type of work would require more than just passion and long hours. We needed serious resources to see it through, and we weren't willing to compromise our vision to get there.
So we had to put Alliance on hold and pursue other business avenues. Our fans were, understandably, upset and confused. We deeply apologized- we felt their frustrations, as we wanted to release Alliance as badly as they wanted to play it! All we could do was assure them that we were just drawing the shades, that we weren't shutting the doors. We promised everyone we'd be back!
Well as of today, we are back. The business landscape for gaming has changed dramatically. Where as little as 4 years ago our options were severely limited, we now have numerous new ways to get Alliance out to you, directly from us, as we had intended it. It's going to require some work, some dusting off, some optimizing and some enhancement, but that's what we love. All the screenshots on this site are from our 2006 debut, well before most of the games you're probably playing now, so just imagine what else we've got cooking! We had a lot of tricks up our sleeves we never got to show you. Now's the time.
But we need your help in getting there. Many of you asked us what you could do to help ensure Alliance's release. Well, now there's a way- three in fact. The first, and most important, is to sponsor our development via the PayPal buttons on this page. This is key, as we're still a very small, very independent studio with a small budget, and any extra funding will go a long way toward speeding up Alliance's release- even the alpha and beta programs. The second is to like our Facebook page, follow us on Twitter, and subscribe to our YouTube channel (all via the buttons above and to the right). This way you'll get the latest news and updates on Alliance and have a way to interface directly with us. And thirdly, you can really help us out by spreading the word. You all are what gave us our enormous launch the first time around, and we need you now again to make this a reality. So blog, tweet, post, status update- do whatever you can to spread the word about Alliance!
For those of you who were part of our original forums, you know just how seriously we take our community and how deeply we get involved. This will be a game made in collaboration with you, not against you, as too many games tend to go. We live and breathe gaming and want to hear your ideas, your enthusiasm, your criticisms and your feedback, because when it's just you and us in charge, truly awesome things can happen. In fact, do be sure to join our forums- we've cleaned them up, upgraded them, and are now fully back in the swing of things to greet you!
We hope you've wanted to play an FPS like Alliance for a long time. We just need your help now in getting there. Please sponsor us, subscribe, and spread the word. And in return, we'll make you one unbelievable game.
Here's a review of the game post E3 2006 (5 years ago):
Developed by Windward Mark Interactive, Alliance: The Silent War is an ambitious FPS slated for 2007. As of this writing, they are still seeking a publisher. That being said, this small developer of eight people has an interesting shooter in the works. Based upon their own proprietary engine called the Alliance Engine, they are looking to build a shooter that has as many stats on weapons as Gran Turismo has on cars.A key facet to the design of Alliance is the War Studio, a comprehensive database from which you can examine all the weapons in the game. In all, the game will ship with 200 (possibly 215) usable weapons. The War Studio will allow you to peruse the arsenal and get almost as much information on each as you would out of Jane's Dictionary (the bible of military weapons). You can do query searches based on a large number of parameters. Everything from rate of fire, era, type of ammunition, and even country of origin, can be used to search for and examine the weapons. What's more, the game has realistic tables for weapon accuracy. A diagram of a human body can be placed and moved around on this table in order to determine just how accurate and how much damage will be inflicted over various distances (setting the body close to the point of origin will generally reveal large body damage, while placing it at a long distance will show considerably less).
The War Room reflects the design philosophy of accurately portraying each weapon in game. The build which was shown at E3 had highly detailed weapon skins, with realistic ballistics. This can be seen in the choice to use "ironsights" over the traditional HUD crosshairs. One thing of note is the accuracy required to hit a target, especially at distance. Like in the War Room, the bullets will drop over distance. There were a few instances in the demo wherein the player had to aim a bit high of the target. By doing so, the bullet realistically dropped and hit the target (a very rewarding experience when they plummeted out of a tower). For multiplayer, Alliance will give admins the option to either opt for ironsights or a traditional crosshair scheme.
The game's singleplayer campaign revolves around key conflicts that take place between 1916 and the present. Each conflict is the stage from which a shadow organization looks to manipulate world events from behind the scenes. Depending on the era and battle fought, you will play as a different individual. Although not much has been said about these characters, suffice it to say that they are all members of a family that fights this shadow organization over successive generations. The conflicts serve as the backdrop for the various levels of the game. The level displayed at E3 was an Egyptian city during the Seven Years War, but there were also teasers for Cuba and WWI-era Russia.
Emphasis on the design of Alliance is currently 50/50, with equal amounts of time going into single-player and multiplayer both. Half of their time is being spent on creating the backstory which will serve for the various levels and conflicts of the game. The rest of their time is being spent ensuring that multiplayer will keep everyone playing well after beating the game. In an interesting twist to online play, all game modes are based around a "What If" principle. While the standard gametypes are here (Capture the Flag, Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch), the "What If" principle will bring the unique element of pitting soldiers from different wars and eras against each other. Just imagine fighting as a WWI British soldier (with mustard gas and bolt-action rifles) against modern day U.S. Navy Seals. The idea to pit varied combatants and weaponry against each other could make for some interesting gameplay.
Beyond the "What If" scenario, Windward Mark is looking to provide a wealth of server-side admin tools. Among them will be the ability for admins to mix-and-match gameplay styles. Admins will be able to choose from all weapons available in the singleplayer campaign. What's more, the weapon selections can be broken down by teams. For instance, one side could be limited to bolt-action rifles while the other side uses anti-tank weaponry. Probably not the greatest weapon loadout for multiplayer, but it shows that the game gives the community the freedom to come up with their own gametypes.
Although gameplay dynamics are still being refined, one of the more interesting features will be "meat shields." They officially call this an "organic cover system" but this will basically allow you to pick up a dead body and use them as a shield. Not only can bodies absorb a lot of bullets (and keep you in the fight), they can also be used to bust open doors by means of throwing them.
