Precursors

The Precursors is a video game from Kiev-based developer Deep Shadows. The game was first demonstrated in August 2005 at the Games Convention in Leipzig, Germany and at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles in May 2006. It is set in a futuristic sci-fi environment where many political factions are engaged in an intergalactic war. The player will be able to explore a multitude of planets, travel through outer space to complete missions, obtain information, and buy weapons and supplies in a free-roaming environment. "The game blends role-playing engagement and dynamic FPS-style action in a completely open world". It is described as a "mix of RPG, FPS, and space simulation". The Precursors has been in development for PC and Xbox 360 and was released on the 4 December 2009 as retail for the PC in Russia. . In May 2010, a spokeperson from Deep Shadows confirmed that the console version of the game has been put "on hold" indefinitely. . The game runs on the Vital Engine 3, which also powers White Gold: War in Paradise. While the game was only released in Russian, the Unofficial English translation patch makes it playable in English.

Plot
The player takes the role of a young pilot of the humanoid Amarn race who is fresh from the academy, where he had a strange virtual reality exam experience, which made him being sent to the single Amarn colony planet Goldin to serve his people. On this outback desert planet he is taken under the command of Captain Ridiger, who was a friend of his late father and who also offers him the old spaceship that his father left him, provided he can find a power cell for it, that was stolen by bandits.

After some missions for Ridiger, the civilians and/or the bandits on Goldin the player can acquire the missing power cell and Captain Ridiger will present him his father's spaceship. Several space missions for the Amarn government follow before a catastrophe sends the player on a more critical quest away from Goldin. First he needs to go to the forest planet of Gli, where alien birds called the Clatz are fighting among themselves while being manipulated by the Democratic Union, and then to the rocky moon Reandore, where the Empire and the Free Traders are in the midst of a small war.

The Precursors themselves were an ancient and mythical race that disappeared a long time ago leaving strange high-tech pyramid artifacts behind on many astral bodies, such as Goldin and Reandore. While on the former a simple religious cult developed around the Precursors pyramid, on the latter an Imperial lab tries to unlock its secrets, which is the final target of the player in the game.

Gameplay
The player will be able to talk and fight in FPS/RPG hybrid style while doing a multitude of missions on six different planets or moons and even the interior of spaceships and space stations. He will have many different vehicles to use in engagements on the ground ranging from simple buggies and flyers to hover tanks and mechanical robots. After getting a spaceship he will also be able to engage in space trade and combat with other factions in between the planetary missions. The players spaceship can be upgraded throughout the game and it can dock with space stations and with other spaceships so that the player can switch between them.

Factions
There are over six factions in the game. Two being aliens and the rest representing various humanoid factions which are split into separate alliances that are usually fighting each other. Among these factions are the Empire, the Democratic Union, the Free Traders, the Clatz of the Nest, the revolutionary Clatz, the bandits and the civilians.