Shrapnel is set in the western United States - Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, and Alaska. Cliff faces will act as a natural boundary to keep Players inside the levels.
The urban levels - occupied Salt Lake City, with a "Big Brother is Watching You" art direction, will use building to wall off the levels. The Player attacks the NCB firebases to collect weapons and equipment as he advances through the game. Levels are laid out in linear increasing difficulty that match the hierarchy of weapons and pickups. As the player advances through levels, he is also moving through the backstory - picking up close quarter weapons in the bombed out and occupied urban levels; then attacking the outlying firebases for ranging weapons; and finally attacking NCB strongholds to pickup crew served weapons and fast attack vehicles.
The urban levels will take advantage of the E3 Seattle demo resources we've constructed. We'll modify the art direction to support the occupied city fiction. Stores will be boarded up and a "shoot-on-site" curfew will be in effect after dark. The Western levels will be laid out with rolling desert hills with bunkers and firebases strategically located for max game mechanics. The firebases are giant fort-like structures with high concrete walls, towers, gun emplacements, and connected bunkers. The firebases provide a logical placement of ammo, weapon, health, and vehicle pickups - inside of ammo bunkers, arms rooms, infirmaries, and motor pools.
