Previously unknown info on Sole Survivor

[Plok 323]

Try to imagine a game, a game based upon a popular RTS. In this game, instead of placing buildings and creating hordes of units, you would control a single unit. There would be no structure creation of any kind, though there could be armed defense towers placed in the map at strategic locations. During the game you could perhaps collect power-up items to increase armor, movement speed, weapon damage. This would be an online-only game, fought between two sides. At the start of each game, maybe players could pick the unit they want to control for that game.

 

No, I am not talking about Defense of the Ancients (DOTA). That was a mod for Warcraft 3 released in 2003. I am talking about

, a game released by Westwood Studios back in 1997 (6 years before DOTA!), which was essentially a giant mod of Command & Conquer, released at retail as a standalone product.

 

(...)

 

Anyway, away from such lofty thoughts, Sole Survivor featured music by the legendary Frank Klepacki and had a full sound treatment by the very capable audio department at Westwood; however, the development team built into the game the ability to swap out the included sound effects and replace them with ones of your own. By way of an example, yours truly dutifully created a set of sounds, which happen to be all electric guitar squiggles, licks and riffs. This stuff was included with the retail CD release of the game, and I’ve collected the samples and included them for your listening … pleasure … below. All the growls, squeals, twiddles and other noises are played on my trusty Yamaha SG style guitar (which is still my main guitar), and recorded through my DigiTech FX pedal. I think I piped this straight into the line-in jack on my PC and used the Windows sound recorder to capture the recordings. It probably took an hour or so to record the lot of these.

 

As you might imagine, once enabled, the effect was rather chaotic and comical. It sounded like Saturday morning at the guitar store where all the kids try to outdo each other with the new riffs they just learned. I’m not sure the audio department @ Westwood were really ever told about the inclusion of this stuff in the game. Sorry guys.

Mentioned sounds here:

http://stevewetherill.com/2013/09/22/command-conquer-sole-survivor-the-worlds-first-moba-and-sound-fx-easter-egg/

 

Source: cncsaga.ru

Edited November 25, 2013 by Plokite_Wolf

[PurpleGaga27 40]

Sole Survivor is the first MOBA?! That gameplay doesn't work very well as a MOBA.

[Tore 33]

Uhmm, not much here I didn't know from before. The sounds he uploaded were for upgrades and other sounds during online play.

 

Sole Survivor is the first MOBA?! That gameplay doesn't work very well as a MOBA.

 

Really now? You control one (say hero) unit RTS style and you collect upgades, kill other players, destroy towers..hmm sounds like a DoTA or rather SS-clone

Edited November 25, 2013 by Tore

[Nmenth 290]

If you word it that way, perhaps it sounds like DOTA, but Sole Survivor was nothing like DOTA.

[Tore 33]

Herzog Zwei is called the first RTS, yet it's nothing like Dune 2...

 

Sole Survivor is pretty similar to a DoTA-like, but it's missing the creeps, hero abilities, leveling your hero and the objective of destroying the other base. What it did have however was team based modes (CTF, Football etc.), upgrades, towers and units who had different purposes.

 

In the end though DoTA was inspired by the Aeon of Strife map mod for StarCraft, not by Sole Survivor.

Edited November 25, 2013 by Tore