*Footage from Techno Angel: Salvation plays, showing Adriana in her exoskeleton hovering over a city as soldiers fire at her, she shields herself with an energy barrier before returning fire.*
Sergeant: Don't let her escape!
Adriana: *just leaps onto the roof of a tall building and begins running as a military helicopter fires at her, she rolls out of the way and forms a missile launcher to blast the helicopter out of the sky* I can't stop running... not now...not ever.
*Adriana's one-time friend and now lead pursuer Samuel jumps down in front of her.*
Samuel: Adriana, it's the end of the line. Come quietly or I'll be forced to-
Adriana: *just leaps back up into the air*
Samuel: ....
Adriana: *flying away* I have too much left to do to let them catch me now...
Narrator: This New Year's Eve, be the first to play the latest Xbox hit, Techno Angel: Salvation. Come to your nearest X-Zone location, where we'll have the full game ready to play on over 100 big screens. Join your friends for some multiplayer action, or experience the first part of Adriana's story in the game's campaign mode. Bring your memory card and save your file, then load it up when you purchase the game for yourself on January 19, 2004 and get a head start on the epic storyline.
*More scenes from the game are shown, depicting both multiplayer mode and the single player mode with the game's dynamic HUD, which switches on the fly as the player changes weapons.*
Narrator: And on the day of the game's release, come back to the X-Zone for the all new X-Zone Experience, The Hunt For Adriana. It's an all new interactive game where you'll team up with other players on a top secret mission to hunt down the world's most wanted fugitive and recover the stolen Omniscient exosuit. The Hunt For Adriana will be featured at select X-Zone locations, including our newest locations in Charlotte and Atlanta. *a message is displayed on the screen that reads "Call your local X-Zone location for availability."*
*One more scene from the game is shown, depicting Adriana in a fight against a massive tank along with dozens of heavily armed soldiers.*
Narrator: Be the first to play Techno Angel: Salvation on New Year's Eve. Buy Techno Angel: Salvation and experience The Hunt For Adriana on January 19th.
Microsoft X-Zone: Where the Power of X becomes reality.
-from a nationwide commercial promoting Microsoft's X-Zone arcades and Techno Angel: Salvation which aired during the month of December 2003
-
Techno Angel: Salvation
Techno Angel: Salvation is an FPS developed by Microsoft exclusively for the Xbox. It's the sequel to 2002's blockbuster hit Techno Angel, taking place a year after the original game. It features much the same gameplay as the original title, which plays somewhat like a first-person Oni or Gunvalkyrie, with elements from Call Of Duty and OTL Halo. The main feature of the game is its complex heads-up display, which gives the player a massive amount of useful combat information, including enemy status and environmental features. In Salvation, this HUD becomes even more useful with the addition of more dynamic elements that allow it to become more situational depending on Adriana's current weapon and item loadout. Think of it sort of like the system in OTL Overwatch, only with considerably more variance. Adriana's mobile exoskeleton, the Omniscient, along with many of her weapons, can now be modded and upgraded, providing improvements to the HUD such as improved aiming reticles and more enemy information, including when the best times to strike an enemy will be. The Omniscient's capabilities remain largely the same, giving Adriana the ability to run, jump, hover, and even fly. The progression of the campaign mode has changed quite a bit from the original game as well: whereas Techno Angel featured a linear level progression, Salvation's level progression features a branching level tree. Adriana can choose from several missions to engage in as she travels around the world rescuing and defending people. Players will have the opportunity to take on easier missions or harder ones, depending on personal preference. Depending on when Adriana takes on a mission, it may or may not be more difficult: before a mission is selected, the screen will tell the player whether or not there are enemy soldiers present, as mercenary soldiers and United States army special forces units will be pursuing Adriana as she completes her missions. Each mission will award the player a certain number of Salvation Points, these points essentially serve as "plot coupons" that allow Adriana to progress through the game. More difficult missions will advance the story more, though sometimes, the player can choose between a mission that might give Adriana more rewards and a mission that will give less rewards but more Salvation Points. Some missions become locked out if Adriana doesn't pick them within a certain amount of time, though other side missions might be available throughout the course of the game. The game also features an improved multiplayer mode, which was worked on mostly late in development, based on complaints about the original game's multiplayer. It features a large number of arenas for players to do battle in, and a greater amount of modes and customization, addressing complaints about the simplicity of the first game's multiplayer. Because Salvation began development even before the release of the original game, it doesn't feature very much in the way of graphical improvement over the original. Despite this, it's still one of the better looking games on the Xbox at the time of its release. Jennie Kwan and Nathan Fillion both return to reprise their roles as Adriana and Samuel respectively, while other major voice actors who appear in the game include Mark Meer and Terry Crews.
Techno Angel: Salvation takes place in 2048, one year after the original game. Adriana has fully embraced her role as the Techno Angel, using her mobile exoskeleton, the Omniscient, to protect and save people all over the world. Despite her heroic new role, she has become more cynical and jaded, both from seeing the worst that humanity has to offer and from the hundreds of people she's had to kill to protect the innocent. Her personality change can be somewhat attributed to the onset of PTSD, which is addressed a number of times during the story. At the same time that Adriana is performing her heroics, the increasingly imperial and belligerent United States military is attempting to capture Adriana and reclaim the Omniscient suit. The elite military unit sent to retrieve the suit is led by Adriana's former friend, Colonel Samuel McClane. While McClane believes in Adriana and doesn't want to see her hurt, he's still a loyal soldier, and has sworn an oath to hunt Adriana down. As the game begins, Adriana performs a number of humanitarian missions. While she does mostly good, not all the people helping her are good themselves. She's assisted by a morally dubious black hat hacker named Switch (played by Mark Meer), who seeks to create chaos and whose vices are barely reigned in by Adriana. Adriana also makes a powerful enemy in an African warlord named Becque (played by Terry Crews), another AWOL United States soldier who draws parallels between himself and Adriana (and Adriana becomes increasingly uneasy when she realizes how many similarities the two of them have). While this is going on, Adriana repeatedly clashes with the US military, including with Samuel, who wants Adriana to return to the military under her own auspices and fight alongside them. The life of a fugitive and killer soldier is seen to be wearing on Adriana, and she also still harbors a love for Samuel. These factors both weigh heavily on her as she continues to perform her missions and evade the military. She eventually engages in a climactic showdown with Becque, in which, after killing him, she saves Samuel's life. She has a chance to kill Samuel, but spares him instead. Late in the game, Adriana learns that the military is about to perform a coup d'etat against the American government. She attempts to stop it, with Switch's help, but despite saving the life of the designated survivor (the Secretary of the Interior, a woman named Kara Zehler who plays a significantly larger role in the next game of the series), she is unable to prevent the decapitation of the government during the coup, or her own capture. Framed and set up to be executed for the military's actions, Adriana is about to be killed when she is saved by Samuel, now piloting the Omniscient. He relinquishes it back to her, and in the game's final mission, Adriana escorts both Samuel and the designated survivor to safety through a furious military assault, during which it's revealed that the military has finally begun to mass produce their own exoskeletons similar to Adriana's. Unlike the original Techno Angel, which had three endings, Salvation has only one: Adriana's actions have kept the civilian resistance to the military coup alive, but it's clear now that the events that have transpired are just the beginning of a second Civil War...and Adriana, despite confirming her love for Samuel and becoming the hero of the resistance, is more deeply emotionally traumatized than ever.
Techno Angel: Salvation, despite its relatively rushed development, is still an excellent game that lives up to its considerable hype. The improved single player and multiplayer gameplay are both noted by reviewers, and the game receives outstanding review scores (though not quite as good as the original game's scores, mostly due to the fact that it's not considered as innovative as the original). Sales for the game are excellent as well, with its release in January helping to break up the typical post-holiday doldrums (at least for the Xbox). The plot is received well, though people are a bit critical of Adriana's occasional timidness and the need for her rescue toward the end of the game. However, the realistic depiction of PTSD gets a good amount of praise. Adriana's personality in the game is somewhat like Samus' in OTL Metroid: Other M, however, since Adriana was never really a "badass" to begin with (she started out as a fairly meek and timid scientist before being chosen to pilot the omniscient), it's received with much less controversy. According to one reviewer, Adriana's personality in Salvation can be seen as a critique of "badass" characters: she spends much of the first half of the game putting up a badass front, only for her true personality to emerge when she's repeatedly confronted with emotionally overwhelming situations, her attempt to portray herself as being tougher than she really is ultimately leads to her emotional dysfunction toward the end of the game. Ultimately, the success of Techno Angel: Salvation, 2004's first majorly hyped game, is seen as a promising sign for the year to come.
-
Techno Angel Leads Xbox To Soft Post-Holiday Landing
While Nintendo's Wave saw a steep drop-off in sales from December to January, Microsoft's Xbox saw only a 29% month-to-month drop from the busy holiday season. This is in large part due to excellent sales for its newest FPS hit, Techno Angel: Salvation. Released on January 19th, the game sold more than half a million copies in its first week of release and propelled the Xbox itself to a January victory in North America over the Wave, its first such month since the Wave's release in March 2003. While Wave worldwide sales still topped sales of the Xbox, it was extremely close, with only 23,000 total units separating first from second in worldwide sales during the month of January.
Microsoft interactive director Larry Probst specifically praised Techno Angel: Salvation for the Xbox's success. In a recent statement to the gaming press, he said: "Techno Angel has been one of our most successful original franchises, and we were extremely pleased to hear of the sequel's success. It's pushed the Xbox to one of its most successful months to date, and I'm expecting that momentum to continue with the other great games we have yet to release this year."
Probst went on to mention games such as Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic, the highly anticipated Star Wars RPG set to release next month. He also mentioned the success of Xbox Live, which continues to add new subscribers every week and remains the most popular online service of the three major home console companies.
-from an article on Gamespot.com, posted February 8, 2004
Sergeant: Don't let her escape!
Adriana: *just leaps onto the roof of a tall building and begins running as a military helicopter fires at her, she rolls out of the way and forms a missile launcher to blast the helicopter out of the sky* I can't stop running... not now...not ever.
*Adriana's one-time friend and now lead pursuer Samuel jumps down in front of her.*
Samuel: Adriana, it's the end of the line. Come quietly or I'll be forced to-
Adriana: *just leaps back up into the air*
Samuel: ....
Adriana: *flying away* I have too much left to do to let them catch me now...
Narrator: This New Year's Eve, be the first to play the latest Xbox hit, Techno Angel: Salvation. Come to your nearest X-Zone location, where we'll have the full game ready to play on over 100 big screens. Join your friends for some multiplayer action, or experience the first part of Adriana's story in the game's campaign mode. Bring your memory card and save your file, then load it up when you purchase the game for yourself on January 19, 2004 and get a head start on the epic storyline.
*More scenes from the game are shown, depicting both multiplayer mode and the single player mode with the game's dynamic HUD, which switches on the fly as the player changes weapons.*
Narrator: And on the day of the game's release, come back to the X-Zone for the all new X-Zone Experience, The Hunt For Adriana. It's an all new interactive game where you'll team up with other players on a top secret mission to hunt down the world's most wanted fugitive and recover the stolen Omniscient exosuit. The Hunt For Adriana will be featured at select X-Zone locations, including our newest locations in Charlotte and Atlanta. *a message is displayed on the screen that reads "Call your local X-Zone location for availability."*
*One more scene from the game is shown, depicting Adriana in a fight against a massive tank along with dozens of heavily armed soldiers.*
Narrator: Be the first to play Techno Angel: Salvation on New Year's Eve. Buy Techno Angel: Salvation and experience The Hunt For Adriana on January 19th.
Microsoft X-Zone: Where the Power of X becomes reality.
-from a nationwide commercial promoting Microsoft's X-Zone arcades and Techno Angel: Salvation which aired during the month of December 2003
-
Techno Angel: Salvation
Techno Angel: Salvation is an FPS developed by Microsoft exclusively for the Xbox. It's the sequel to 2002's blockbuster hit Techno Angel, taking place a year after the original game. It features much the same gameplay as the original title, which plays somewhat like a first-person Oni or Gunvalkyrie, with elements from Call Of Duty and OTL Halo. The main feature of the game is its complex heads-up display, which gives the player a massive amount of useful combat information, including enemy status and environmental features. In Salvation, this HUD becomes even more useful with the addition of more dynamic elements that allow it to become more situational depending on Adriana's current weapon and item loadout. Think of it sort of like the system in OTL Overwatch, only with considerably more variance. Adriana's mobile exoskeleton, the Omniscient, along with many of her weapons, can now be modded and upgraded, providing improvements to the HUD such as improved aiming reticles and more enemy information, including when the best times to strike an enemy will be. The Omniscient's capabilities remain largely the same, giving Adriana the ability to run, jump, hover, and even fly. The progression of the campaign mode has changed quite a bit from the original game as well: whereas Techno Angel featured a linear level progression, Salvation's level progression features a branching level tree. Adriana can choose from several missions to engage in as she travels around the world rescuing and defending people. Players will have the opportunity to take on easier missions or harder ones, depending on personal preference. Depending on when Adriana takes on a mission, it may or may not be more difficult: before a mission is selected, the screen will tell the player whether or not there are enemy soldiers present, as mercenary soldiers and United States army special forces units will be pursuing Adriana as she completes her missions. Each mission will award the player a certain number of Salvation Points, these points essentially serve as "plot coupons" that allow Adriana to progress through the game. More difficult missions will advance the story more, though sometimes, the player can choose between a mission that might give Adriana more rewards and a mission that will give less rewards but more Salvation Points. Some missions become locked out if Adriana doesn't pick them within a certain amount of time, though other side missions might be available throughout the course of the game. The game also features an improved multiplayer mode, which was worked on mostly late in development, based on complaints about the original game's multiplayer. It features a large number of arenas for players to do battle in, and a greater amount of modes and customization, addressing complaints about the simplicity of the first game's multiplayer. Because Salvation began development even before the release of the original game, it doesn't feature very much in the way of graphical improvement over the original. Despite this, it's still one of the better looking games on the Xbox at the time of its release. Jennie Kwan and Nathan Fillion both return to reprise their roles as Adriana and Samuel respectively, while other major voice actors who appear in the game include Mark Meer and Terry Crews.
Techno Angel: Salvation takes place in 2048, one year after the original game. Adriana has fully embraced her role as the Techno Angel, using her mobile exoskeleton, the Omniscient, to protect and save people all over the world. Despite her heroic new role, she has become more cynical and jaded, both from seeing the worst that humanity has to offer and from the hundreds of people she's had to kill to protect the innocent. Her personality change can be somewhat attributed to the onset of PTSD, which is addressed a number of times during the story. At the same time that Adriana is performing her heroics, the increasingly imperial and belligerent United States military is attempting to capture Adriana and reclaim the Omniscient suit. The elite military unit sent to retrieve the suit is led by Adriana's former friend, Colonel Samuel McClane. While McClane believes in Adriana and doesn't want to see her hurt, he's still a loyal soldier, and has sworn an oath to hunt Adriana down. As the game begins, Adriana performs a number of humanitarian missions. While she does mostly good, not all the people helping her are good themselves. She's assisted by a morally dubious black hat hacker named Switch (played by Mark Meer), who seeks to create chaos and whose vices are barely reigned in by Adriana. Adriana also makes a powerful enemy in an African warlord named Becque (played by Terry Crews), another AWOL United States soldier who draws parallels between himself and Adriana (and Adriana becomes increasingly uneasy when she realizes how many similarities the two of them have). While this is going on, Adriana repeatedly clashes with the US military, including with Samuel, who wants Adriana to return to the military under her own auspices and fight alongside them. The life of a fugitive and killer soldier is seen to be wearing on Adriana, and she also still harbors a love for Samuel. These factors both weigh heavily on her as she continues to perform her missions and evade the military. She eventually engages in a climactic showdown with Becque, in which, after killing him, she saves Samuel's life. She has a chance to kill Samuel, but spares him instead. Late in the game, Adriana learns that the military is about to perform a coup d'etat against the American government. She attempts to stop it, with Switch's help, but despite saving the life of the designated survivor (the Secretary of the Interior, a woman named Kara Zehler who plays a significantly larger role in the next game of the series), she is unable to prevent the decapitation of the government during the coup, or her own capture. Framed and set up to be executed for the military's actions, Adriana is about to be killed when she is saved by Samuel, now piloting the Omniscient. He relinquishes it back to her, and in the game's final mission, Adriana escorts both Samuel and the designated survivor to safety through a furious military assault, during which it's revealed that the military has finally begun to mass produce their own exoskeletons similar to Adriana's. Unlike the original Techno Angel, which had three endings, Salvation has only one: Adriana's actions have kept the civilian resistance to the military coup alive, but it's clear now that the events that have transpired are just the beginning of a second Civil War...and Adriana, despite confirming her love for Samuel and becoming the hero of the resistance, is more deeply emotionally traumatized than ever.
Techno Angel: Salvation, despite its relatively rushed development, is still an excellent game that lives up to its considerable hype. The improved single player and multiplayer gameplay are both noted by reviewers, and the game receives outstanding review scores (though not quite as good as the original game's scores, mostly due to the fact that it's not considered as innovative as the original). Sales for the game are excellent as well, with its release in January helping to break up the typical post-holiday doldrums (at least for the Xbox). The plot is received well, though people are a bit critical of Adriana's occasional timidness and the need for her rescue toward the end of the game. However, the realistic depiction of PTSD gets a good amount of praise. Adriana's personality in the game is somewhat like Samus' in OTL Metroid: Other M, however, since Adriana was never really a "badass" to begin with (she started out as a fairly meek and timid scientist before being chosen to pilot the omniscient), it's received with much less controversy. According to one reviewer, Adriana's personality in Salvation can be seen as a critique of "badass" characters: she spends much of the first half of the game putting up a badass front, only for her true personality to emerge when she's repeatedly confronted with emotionally overwhelming situations, her attempt to portray herself as being tougher than she really is ultimately leads to her emotional dysfunction toward the end of the game. Ultimately, the success of Techno Angel: Salvation, 2004's first majorly hyped game, is seen as a promising sign for the year to come.
-
Techno Angel Leads Xbox To Soft Post-Holiday Landing
While Nintendo's Wave saw a steep drop-off in sales from December to January, Microsoft's Xbox saw only a 29% month-to-month drop from the busy holiday season. This is in large part due to excellent sales for its newest FPS hit, Techno Angel: Salvation. Released on January 19th, the game sold more than half a million copies in its first week of release and propelled the Xbox itself to a January victory in North America over the Wave, its first such month since the Wave's release in March 2003. While Wave worldwide sales still topped sales of the Xbox, it was extremely close, with only 23,000 total units separating first from second in worldwide sales during the month of January.
Microsoft interactive director Larry Probst specifically praised Techno Angel: Salvation for the Xbox's success. In a recent statement to the gaming press, he said: "Techno Angel has been one of our most successful original franchises, and we were extremely pleased to hear of the sequel's success. It's pushed the Xbox to one of its most successful months to date, and I'm expecting that momentum to continue with the other great games we have yet to release this year."
Probst went on to mention games such as Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic, the highly anticipated Star Wars RPG set to release next month. He also mentioned the success of Xbox Live, which continues to add new subscribers every week and remains the most popular online service of the three major home console companies.
-from an article on Gamespot.com, posted February 8, 2004
