End Times

End Times, also known as End Times: The Order, is a historical fiction open world action-adventure game being developed by DECA Paris and published DECA. The game is released on 26 October, 2017 and will be released for Playstation 4, Xbox One, Wii-U and Microsoft Windows. The game uses teh lates version of the Wartech engine, called W4rtech.

The story takes place somewhere in 2012 and in the early 1700's in the West Indies. It's the first enstallment in the End Times and a sequel is announced in-game at the end of the singleplayer.

Gameplay
End Times takes place in a huge territorial area, which is under the influence of the Spanish and the English. The game features lots of islands and towns across the map to visit, alongside multiple major cities, including Havana, New Orleans and Kingston. To travel through the map, the player takes control of a ship, which he can steer to any direction he wants. The player can encounter multiple animals on land and in water and can kill them to get items from them, such as skin. The player can upgrade his character throughout the game, using items he found in the world and got from an attack. To get items, players can hunt animals, go to shops, complete missions or attack English and Spanish people and ships. The player can customize his weaponry like swords or guns, but can also improve his armor to get more resistance or more stealth.

Halfway through the story, the player has to work alongside and against the british navy at the same to find the orb before someone else gets it. Therefor, the player can select to operative forms, where one is normal english soldier and the other a stealthy Order soldier. The player can put on his face protection to go into Order solider-form and is from then on recognised by other Order agents. Also, the player can't get recognised by british soldiers then, otherwise he is busted and caught. If teh player doesn't put on his face protection, he will get help from teh british soldiers, while other Order agents attack him. This gives lot of variety in gameplay, because the player can't change operative rle quickly whitout being caught and needs to be unspotted while doing that.

Story
The story takes place in 2012, with Dave McKnight waking up from a dream, which was really realistic and another one in a short time. After he goes to a doctor, a scientist confronts him. He says that his dreams are visions of a prophecy, which occurs on the day the mayans predicted the apocalypse. After Dave followed the scientists to their working place, he asks what it is all about. The scientists reply that once the Mayans predicted the apocalypse, also known as the end time. The prophecy was powered by an orb, containing the power to let the apocalypse happen. Dave sees the visions, because one of his ancestors had control of the orb. The orb gave his family the powers to see the end time coming. If Dave accepts his fate and asks the scientists what to do, they reply that they can control his mind to make him witness the story of his ancestor who got the orb first. Dave gets a bionic suit and goes into a trance, trying to control his visions. He is taken back to the early 1700's, seeing his ancestor named Joseph Faulkner, an english seaman.

Faulkner and his comrades are entering an islands to check pirate activity in the area. The captain promises that if the signal isn't given when the sun goes down, they will come and rescue the soldiers on the dry land. Faulkner boards a sloop and they slowly drift to the coast. When they step on teh beach, the pirates ambush teh english and a few soldiers are killed. Faulkner fights against the pirates with his sabre and manages to grab a pistol of one of the pirates adn uses it to fight the other pirates. However, teh pirates gain teh upper hand and Faulkner decides to give the signal, since the sun is almost down. He runs towards the pre-arranged point, but he struggles on the way to it due the heavy resistance. Luckily, he gives the signal before the sun is down and lights a torch. Waiting for the fleet to react, a pirate ship attacks the fleet. Suddenly, the fleet turns around and leaves the english seaman, who are still fighting to survive, behind. Faulkner sees the betrayal of the captain and takes the loadout of one of the pirates and hides until the night falls.

It's dark. The night has fallen and the pirates have captured the english captain and his fellow officers. The officers are executed by one of the pirates. Faulkner slowly walks to the edge of 15 feet cliff and hears one of the pirates saying that the captain is for their leader. Faulkner then takes a step forwards and jumps down, stabbing two pirates with daggers while landing. The other 5 pirates watch shocked while one decides to attack Faulkner with it's sabre, which Faulkner smashes away and he pierces him with his sabre. Another pirate tries to attack him from his back, but Faulkner pulls his sword to defends his back and turns around while slicing the pirate on his chest. He then pulls out two stolen pistols from their holster and kills 2 pirates with 2 shots. The last pirate slowly walks backwards as Faulkner kicks him in his chest on the ground. He then pushes the handgrip of the sabre on the pirates neck and kciks on it, breaking the pirate's neck. The captain starts asking who his savior is when Faulkner pulls away the cloth. The captain then tells him to untie him, but Faulkner denies that and says that the captain has betrayed him and the rest of the seamen. He also says that he will never be a captain again, on which the captain replies that the judges will safe him in court, as Faulkner is betraying his homeland. Faulkner says that death also takes away his rank. The captain tries to talk Faulkner wit in, but Faulkner says that he already is a deadman for his counrty. Right when Faulkner raises his gun, the leader of the pirates and his fellow pirates appears and tells Faulkner that he must not do anything stupid. The leader has a british accent, therefor the captain tells him that Faulkner needs to be punished as the leader is a citizen of the kingdom. The leader curtly says that he is pathetic and swiftly pulls out a pistol out of a holster and fires at the captain, killing him. Faulkner then slowly surrenders, but doesn't look quite impressed by the pirates. The leader says that he doesn't came to fight him, instead trying to offer him a recruitment. Faulkner agrees, but with reluctance. He is surrounded by the pirates, looking like he is a prisoner. They arrive at the pirate camp and the leader asks if he wants to join him for a talk.

That night, Faulkner and the leader, who introduces himself as Wyatt Blacksmith or commonly known as Black, are sitting in the captain's cabin. Black says that Faulkner now can't undo the actions he did that day, but that he will grant him safety if he joins his comradeship. Faulkner makes clear that he won't be helping pirate activities, but Black grabs a scroll out of his coat and rolls it open on the table. On the scroll is a orb drawn, similiar to the one which was shown to Dave. Black explains that they are after the orb, but for different reasons than the english and the spanish. Suddenly, a noise comes from behind the cabin's door and Black pulls out his pistol, shooting at the door. A dull thud followed by screaming interrupt the short silence. Black and Faulkner stand up and walk to the door, where a young seaman is lying on the ground, slowly bleeding to death. Black starts interrogating the man, asking for who he works. In the first instance, the man doesn't spill a word, but when Black starts badly hurting him, he gives up and says that an english ship is waiting for him returning after he has the information about the treasure. Black then says that Faulkner must decide what to do with him, sparing or killing him. After the decision, Black walks into the camp, ordering the pirates to prepare an attack on the enemy ship, which is hidden in the bay.

After the pirates are ready to attack, Faulkner decides to join the raid, getting a sabre of one of the pirates. They approach the ship silently and Faulkner must climb unnoticed on board, using the water or the crates as cover. After Faulkner climbs on board, the pirates attack and Faulkner pulls out his sabre and starts fighting against the english soldiers. When the other pirates are also on board, Faulkner sees the captain and a few other seaman trying to escape via a sloop. Faulkner sprints and jumps on near the sloop, grabbing the captain and they both fall into the water. After a brief fight underwater, Faulkner kills the captain and swims to the ship and climbs on it, seeing the pirates have succeeded securing the ship. The remaining seamen are taken as prisoners and the pirates return to the camp.

Back in the cabin, Faulkner asks about the orb. Black says that a legend says that when the spanish entered the mayan territory, the mayans created a powerfull prophecy and sealed it in the orb. The prophecy was that when the life cyclus of the mayans is over, an apocalypse will destroy all life on earth, except the owner of the orb, who will recivilizate the world with him as the king. The mayans hope that a mayan descent will rezurrect the society, but off course the european royals are also after it. The only way to stop the prophecy, is to destroy the orb on the judgement day itself. One day, a spanish conquistadores saw the prophecy and created the defenders of the orb, also known as the Order. After his death, other leaders have stepped in and out of the Order, until he came around. He was just an english seaman, when spanish sailors hijacked the ship and took him into custody. He was given the choice to help them or die, so he chose the first one. One day, he heard about the hunt for the orb and the spanish ship clashed into a battel with an english warship. Black surrendered without resistance, thinking that the english would rescue him, but after they saw he was english, they tortured him and dropped him off on an island. He tried everything to survive, until a ship came by and took him onboard. The captain who rescued him was then the current leader of the Order, and he approved him to be part of the Order. He made fame when part of the Order adn when the captain died, he took his place. Ever since he was the leader, he was stuck with the fact that not only they don't know the location of the orb, but also the treasure hunt of the english and spanish. Only with the help of Faulkner, a great warrior and a man of honor, they could find the orb and keep in the inner circle of the Order. After thinking in silence, Faulkner accepted the invitation.

The next day, Faulkner woke up and explored the camp. After talking to some other soldiers, Black assigns Faulkner to him. He tells him that he need to work on his fighting. He teaches him multiple combat moves for attacking and evading and then he teaches him how to use weapons properly. From this point on, Faulkner can improve his weaponry, armory and skills during his journey.

The journey begins with Faulkner boarding the Order's ship and travelling over the sea to find out all information about the orb. When Faulkner enters Havana, english soldiers surround the ship after Faulkner and the others got off adn tehy search teh whole city for them. Whitout any possibility to escape teh city, Faulkner hears about a pirate leader who can help him. Faulkner follows the rumours and finds the leader in a bar. After the leader doesn't answer Faulkner call for help, englsih soliders enter the bar. Faulkner, who is wanted by them, quickly takes out the soldier with the help of the other Order soldiers and after that, the pirate leader agrees to help them. Now everywhere where Faulkner comes, he can rely on support from pirates.

After searching multiple islands for hints of the orb, Faulkner finds a scroll containing old spanish writings and drawings of a temple. Taking the scroll back to Black's camp and showing it to him. After Black says that they need to find a spansh guy who can translates the writings and then they should know the location of the orb. They walk outside into teh main square of the camp, leaving the scroll behind in teh cabin. Suddenly, a gun shot is heard and hits the wall a few inches away from Black and Faulkner. Britsih soldiers enter the camp and unnoticed ships start setting the camp on fire. Black takes care of the escape route and boarding the ship, while Faulkner tries to recover the scrolls in the burning camp. After recovering the scrolls and a close escape, Black tells that a spy must've told the englsih the camp's location and that they need a back up location to find the rat. They set sail to Kingston.

On the way to Kingston, Black demands the soliders to hijack a british ship and take hostages to flush out the traitor. Faulkner and the others succeed and take them to the new camp at Kingston. They sadisticly interrogate the hostages. Whne one guy doesn't do the interrogations with them, Faulkner pursues him and finds out that he was the rat and that he already signed in the help of an infamous british captain, Charles Hale. He then tries to assassinate Charles Hale, but finds out that Black and the others are already captured. He is forced to surrender and is brought to the city centre, alongside the others. Faulkner tries to fight back, but is forced to kneel in front of Hale. Before a soldie gets teh chance to execute him, Hale gives Faulkner a choice, he could come back to work for the kingdom or he could die. Faulkner's first decision is that he would rather die than live for corruption, but when Hale mentios wealth, influence and the honor, FAulkner decides that he joins Hale's command, betraying Black and the other Order soldiers. Being untied and seeing Black getting taken away as a prisoner, Hale says that Faulkner will become a great man in the Kingdom, with all his desires included.

Later that day, Hale takes Faulkner to the governor in Kingston to say that the missing "luietenant" is found ad ready to work for the kingdom again, pleasing the governor and giving honor to Faulkner. After they oth leave the room, Faulkner asks why Hale says that he is a luietenant, with Hale responding that he will keep his promises, if Faulkner helps him completing his task. Faulkner asks what that task is, which is finding the orb. Faulkner is pleased by hearing that. After Hale goes away, Faulkner pays a visit to Black, who's sitting in his cell. Black mutters that Faulkner is a betrayer and that "a true patriot rather gets locked up than helping the enemy". Faulkner then says that he will go after the orb to prevent the royals to get it, but Black is still dissapointed. When Faulkner is done with Black's unbelief,he says that "a true patriot won't gets himslef locked up and will fight even though it will takes some sacrifices". Then he turns around leaving Blake a cold shoulder. Suddenly, Black says that Faulkner can rely on him, if he does indeed want to make ultimate sacfrices. Faulkner says that he will trust him and leaves, before any guard notices the bond between the two.

Multiplayer
Multiplayer of End Times takes place in another map with the same layout, but the player is put in a MMO server. He can team up with smart AI or a clan with other online players to compete with each other on multiple scales, like daily, weekly, monthly and even a yearly based competition. The player needs to complete missions, based on dominating islands/towns/forts, hijacking ships from AI or other clans, assassinating AI or other players and more. After each game, the player gets a report, saying how much they earned of everything.

The player can level up, giving more options to weapons and armor, which can be bought and/or upgraded by goods and money like in singleplayer. The player can also prestige, unlocking everything from the start and can be crafted once again. However, the player can only prestiges once and needs to go further with another character if he or she wants to start a new character. This can be done on teh same account, due a player can have 10 customizable characters for one account.

Engine
The new engine of End Times, called W4rtech, features a whole new in-game feature that focuses on processing data on a large scale. The AI is improved and now consists out of different types, so each AI will act differently liek real persons and it gives the game a more tactical gameplay, due you never know how the AI will react. Exemples of types of AI are the one that is extremely observant and sees or hears the player faster, another warns and calls in his teammates faster, some don't notice much, others might as well try to stealth kill the player. The next thing of the AI types are if the AI can handle weapons easily, or can free run easy. That way each AI has a combination, creating thousends of AI types.

The AI also consists of other things, like nature. Lots of variety of anmials appear in the games. Some can be used for skins to craft upgrades, otehrs can be hunted for money adn trading goods. NAture also conludes weather, on land and on the sea. The wind can blow very hard in a second and that way blowing ships on the land or blowing wooden buildings down. The player also suffers in movement during storm and bullets will blow off. On sea can appear whirpools, water tornados or even Hurrianes. The player needs to adapt on the weather to not get much damage. Other features are heavy rain, drought, floods, thunderstorms and other regular based weathers.

The graphics are also much approved from Wartech 3.0, giving a face even more details during speaking sequences and cuts and bruises. That way, up close shots are shown often and even during weather, the engine easily transfors the data into a new face. For exemple, when a cutscene starts after a heavy fight, the player has cuts on his face and dirt on his cloths. If it is raining in the same cutscene, raindrops are shown on the face. if there's a storm, his clothes, hair or hood is blowing all around.

Controls
The controls are based on older wartech using games, giving much animations and combinatiosn due the use of multiple combination of buttons. However, also in this game the basic moves which require one button are enough to play the game with. Note: The controls will be displayed by the use of ps4 buttons.

The left joystick is used to walk around, while the right joystick is used to control the camera. The player can select the inversion mode for both controls. To run or dash, the player needs to hold R2 while using left joystick. To bend knees, the player needs to push L3 and then when the player pushes it a secodn time or dashes, he will stretch his knees again and goes back to normal position.

To attack, the player can use the square button to use normal melee attack, with the selected weapon. If the player holds R1 while using the square button, the player will use the special weapon, which was selected. The attack will be used in a combination, no matter if the player decides to use a special weapon in the middle of a chain.

To climb or jump, the player can use the X button. If the player wants to interact with someone, he can also use the X button when displayed on screen.

If the player wants to grab a person or a ting, he can use the circle button. While holding a thing or person and then holding down R1, the player pulls out the special weapon and can use the thing as a shield to protect him.

The up, down, left and right buttons are weapon switchers for fast switching of weapons in battle. The player can select 3 melee weapons under the left, right and down button and a special weapon under the up button. That way, the player can equip 4 melee weapons adn 2 special weapons in battle and can easily switch whitout going to pause the game.

The player can use the L2 to lock down on a person and then select the X button to mark him. For exemple in a pursuit, the player can hold down the L2 button to keep the camera on that person. L2 can also be used while pursuing a person adn then push the circle button to hide on an available position by bending into the enivornment.

By pressing the start button, the player goes to the menu. Wiht select, the player goes to the in-game menu of the map and can mark certain locations to appear on mini map or can spot certain places by hints.