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Publisher: Futuremark Games Studio
Developer: Futuremark Games Studio
System requirements: Windows Vista or Windows 7 (no Win XP support), Intel Core2Duo E6600/AMD Athlon64 X2 5600+ or higher CPU, nVidia GeForce 8800GT/ATI Radeon HD 3870 or higher video card, DirectX 10, 2 GB system RAM, Vista-compatible sound card, 1.5 GB hard-drive space
Genre: First Person Shooter
Release date: November 4, 2009
I’m floating through space, utterly weightless, with just the failing beat of my heart to keep me company. I am in the middle of tranquility, and just before my suit fully decompresses, the thought crosses my mind that I’m just not thinking “360° enough” to be of any use to my team. Quite an existential reflection. But when you’re in a zero-gravity firefight amongst the remains of a fractured moon, nothing seems too extraordinary. I’m playing (and dying a lot in) Shattered Horizon, the first game from Futuremark Games Studio, and despite my frequent bouts with death, I’m having a good time.
The name Futuremark might ring a bell for PC gamers. They are the company responsible for telling you that your graphics card sucks. Their 3DMark software has been the benchmarking standard since the late 1990s, giving overclockers (and people just curious to know the capabilities of their new video card) much needed statistics. Shattered Horizon is FM’s first baby, setting players in an epic battle between miners and astronauts for control of a man-made folly called “The Arc.” You see, man goes back to the moon, and the gigantic faceless conglomerates in charge somehow blow up a large portion of it, creating an artificial asteroid belt around the Earth. Problem is, those left on the lunar surface and in the surrounding space structures are now effectively trapped out there. Ready, set, fight for your lives!
 What Shattered Horizon is comes from the round-based, online-only gunplay of Unreal Tournament, mixed with the concept and stomach-wrenching feeling of Descent, sprinkled with Super Mario Galaxy‘s gravity-happy planetoid-jumping gameplay. Two teams, the International Space Agency (ISA) and the Moon Mining Cooperative (MMC) are pitted against one another in four maps (with more promised later as DLC) that include the torn remains of the International Space Station, fuel depots, and oxygen mines built into large chunks of free-floating moon bits. The three game types, variants of capture the flag, capture point and good ol’ deathmatch, are available to play with up to 32 players at once. That is, if your PC can handle Shattered Horizon in the first place.
I don’t think for one moment that I have God’s gift to rigs sitting under my desk, but even with the latest stable drivers and all of the graphical settings slammed to their lowest levels, SH chugged and crashed on me multiple times. Keeping those minimal settings and enabling SLI made the game playable, but I was still disappointed that I couldn’t experience what I know for a fact are breathtaking visuals. I guess I should’ve expected my computer to fall to its knees playing a game from folks who make benchmarking utilities. I will say this, though; my jaw is still bleeding a bit from when it hit the floor checking out screenshots. Those with the PC power will marvel at the post processing, geometry and lighting effects Shattered Horizon offers. It almost makes me actually want to upgrade to see them first-hand.
 What surprised me the most about SH is that, despite its 3D environment, it was fairly easy to pick up and play. The default controls work just like any normal FPS, with the WASD keys used for directing your jets and the right mouse button to toggle yawing. This made it easy for me to whip around the outside of an asteroid, plant my boots on a nearby surface and put my multifunctional machine gun into sniper mode. Some might lament the lack of weapon variety, but when you have a single gun that can full-auto, snipe, and shoot three types of grenades (EMP, smoke and concussion for blowing enemies out of cover), you’ll be glad you don’t have to go looking around for anything else, especially with attacks coming from all directions. And that’s part of the balance I saw in Shattered Horizon. It seems like it’s complex in theory, but there’s nothing outside of that idea to make it any harder than it needs to be. Capturing points and countering the tactics your enemies employ are all you really need to worry about; everything else is down to how well you can adjust to those 360° you’re in charge of watching.
As far as first attempts go, I give props to Futuremark Games Studio. Aside from the heavy technical requirements, they have managed to fashion a fun online shooter with all the parts in the right places. For $19.99 it’s not badly priced, either, although after upgrading your PC to witness Shattered Horizon‘s full beauty, it could cost you a helluva lot more in the end.
Our Score: 
Our Recommendation: 
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You have got to remember that it is Futuremark’s desire to get people to upgrade their vid cards. Futuremark’s benchmarks have always presented unrealistic expectations for the everyday gamer and pandered to the gaming elites. They are vid card crack dealers.
Great review, Andrew. And thanks.
When are they getting Shattered Horizon PC for MACS. Come on, you know who got the best graphics in town.
It doens’t look like it’s currently in their plans.
No problem! I had a lot of fun doing this one even though I got my face kicked in a whole bunch by everyone in-game. I need an ice pack…
Want to play this game on PC? Have a system that’s strong enough to meet the challenge? Post here either with a question for the reviewer or a reason why we should let you try it out. The code will be given out tomorrow morning when the game launches, so post quickly! (Just make sure to check the systems requirements first.
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I’d be glad to post a comment/question, but in fairness my PC won’t run the game at the moment. Holding me back is my OS, and the fact that there’s no DX9 support with this game. The 8800GTX in my box, while being old, could probably run the game semi-decently(ish). But I’m not really inclined to switch my OS at this point in time. I used to try and keep on the bleeding edge of PC hardware, but between this few-year-old build still running most titles very well, and not having much disposable income right now, it doesn’t seem like I’ll be upgrading for a while.
I was really looking forward to playing this, too. And ready to take advantage of the 25% discount I was offered for being a previous customer of the Futuremark store (which made the game an even more attractive prospect). Ah well. I suppose I’ll just have to re-visit it a year or so down the line, “The Way It’s Meant To Be Played™”.
Sorry to hear that Gareth, but trust me – I feel your pain. I’m in the process of upgrading myself as the list of titles I “want” to play vs. the titles I “can” play is growing weekly.
I’m on a Phenom X4 @ 3.6GHz and a Radeon 5850. I was wondering what hardware the review PC was on, because other reports I’ve seen indicate that it runs playably well while looking great on just an 8800GT.
I would love to play this game tomorrow morning when it launches because it reminds me so much of Descent, the first game that I really played extensively. I think I should get to try it out because I have access to a dedicated university internet connection and would be able to run a dedicated server should the community need it! Furthermore, I love what Futuremark is doing and want to support them, so even if I win a copy I’ll buy one for a friend!
Alex,
I’m using a Core 2 Extreme Q6850 3.0GHz, 4gb, on Win 7 Ult.. My problem comes from the woefully underpowered Nvidia 8600 GTS cards in my rig. It was still playable in this configuration, though, so I’m sure you’ll be more than fine.
@Alex, what’s your email address? If you don’t want to display it, you can reach me at Michele@avault.com.
Michele,
I’ve sent you a quick email. Thanks for the great review and free copy!
-Alex
Oh man, looks like I missed out on this.
Running an 8800GTS, I’ll be interested to see how this runs on my aging machine.
It really sounds like they should either a. acquire the property rights for Ender’s Game or b. copy enough of it without copying it totally to not get sued.
Or am I the only one that thinks they should release a a map where you’re inside a box, with no local gravity, you fire freeze-rays, and you have to reach the enemy’s gate…?
I’ve since upgraded to a GeForce GTX 275 and Shattered Horizon looks every bit as good as I thought it would! Now if Futuremark would just implement VoIP, we’ll be all set!
Hello everyone, I’m new here. I was wondering that could this game run with a low-powered GFX card coz I have some textures problem in game, first it runs fine without a problem in a MENU when I joined in a game after few seconds the screen colors went crazy!
Here is my PC specification.
OS: Windows 7 x64 Ultimate
CPU: Intel Core i7 920 [@4.2GHz]
Motherboard: Asus Rampage II Extreme [1366 Socket]
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT ( Going to upgrade soon to HD 5970 )
Memory: OCZ Platinium XTC 6GB (3x2GB) 1600MHz 7-7-7-24
HDD: (3x1TB) Seagate Baracuda 7200.11(ST31000333AS)
Sound Card: SupremeFX X-Fi Audio, EAX4.0
Power supply: Corsair HX850W
Display: Acer 22″ X222W
Case: Antec Twelve Hundred(1200)
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