Operation: Omega Dawn

We’ve just finished development of our v1.2 patch and our first Booster Pack, Operation: Omega Dawn!…which is very different than “Red Dawn” or “Dawn of the Dead” :-)

I’d like to give our blog readers a bit of info on our first downloadable content – and I’ll try to keep in away from sounding to much like a sales-pitch filled with shallow marketing-speak. The team and I really wanted the Omega Dawn Booster pack to add a new gameplay experience and to enhance the replay value of the core Warhawk game. Not be some nickel-and-dime upgrade that takes advantage of our player community!!! (That’s my own personal opinion on DLC so I’ll get off my soapbox now)

So without further ado…

The Omega Dawn Booster pack adds 3 key things:

* A night-time battlefield with 6 layouts called the “Omega Factory”. It’s huge btw.
* New 7-player aircraft called the KT-424 Combat Dropship.
* And 5 updated bonus layouts for battlefields from the original game so that you can play using the new Dropship.

First let me ramble on about the new battlefield: Many of you all wanted a night time level so that’s what we did. The battlefield takes place at night well… actually at early dawn. We wanted to make this level a bit more challenging and visually improved than our previous levels. It has more involved building layouts with more vertical structures, platforms and detailed spaces for ground troops.

Here’s the map of the entire battlefield.

This more advanced layout compliments the dropship really well as there are some places in the level that are only accessible by air. This is especially cool for transporting vehicles! We also added some macro scale color changes to the bases to help players communicate locations within the symmetrically balanced battlefield.

You’ll see all of this more in these screen shots so I’ll stop talking about the new battlefield now :-)

The Combat Dropship is pretty damn sweet I gotta say. During the entire Omega Dawn dev-cycle I was trying to have us deliver on the crazy notion of a “Multiplayer BOSS”. Something that a team could all work together to control and that would require other players to work as a team to defeat the opposing team’s “BOSS”. We’ve had several just wicked memorable moments playing with our testers that felt like classic BOSS battles … but in a fast-paced multiplayer game!

What else?

Oh yeah…we also integrated the Combat Dropship in the 5 biggest layouts from the original game. It really changes the way those levels play which is good ‘cause it gives them a fresh feel … like an Irish spring!

Ahh…there are 2 things you will all ask immediately I’m sure: “when does it come out?” and “how much does it cost?”

We are in our final global test phase right now (internally it’s called format testing). Once we pass and go “gold” (which is a pretty odd term given a purely digital distribution but whatever) then I can announce a specific date. But we are still on track for our “December” release.

And as far as pricing goes – the Omega Dawn Booster Pack will sell for $7.99 on the PlayStation Store. Why don’t we just charge $8.00? I mean seriously? Does that one penny really fool anyone? :-)

I’ll probably need to make some follow-up posts once you all have had a chance to comment. So smash this site with questions and I’ll do my best to post a FAQ about the upcoming Booster Pack!

As always … Rock on!