*Drum roll, please*
Siliconera has revealed that a new Square Enix game called Catacombs was being developed in production with Cavia, according to a former employee of AQ Interactive and Cavia.
The game featured four playable characters, who become unlikely heroes while attending an exhibit in a museum containing an object that suddenly emits a flash of light. Monsters appear everywhere in the museum, destroying everything and everyone in their path, until the four characters escape into an elevator that unfortunately drops them into a twisted labyrinth.
The four characters, three guys and one girl, cover a wide range. Matt is the oldest man, a tech executive who wants to be the leader, but finds that the college girl Gina is the most in tune with the labyrinthine world. Carlos works at a bodega while trying to become an actor, and Nguyen is a second-generation Vietnamese high school student with a hip-hop attitude.
As you might suspect, Catacombs is a four-player team-based shooter in the vein of Left 4 Dead, but distinguishes itself by including multiple RPG systems for guns and spells. Eventually, the guns can be upgraded to have a kind of demonic life of its own like a magnum pistol with wings, a skeletal machine gun, and a shotgun with arms. They can also find magical rings, like ones for Cure, Decoy, and Protect, all of which have a limited number of uses.
Interestingly, all the levels in Catacombs are randomly generated, with the objective being to reach an elevator that will get them to the next level, or hopefully, back to reality.
Catacombs was meant to be a PS3 and Xbox 360 retail game, showcased at E3 2011, but Square Enix hasn't yet committed to completing the title. Let's hope they do.
