The Red Star Game Interview

HomeLAN chats with Christian Gossett of Archangel Studios about their tenative plans for the upcoming Acclaim console game based on their groundbreaking comic book The Red Star:

HomeLAN - For people who are not familiar with The Red Star comic book, what can you tell us about the premise of the book?

Christian Gossett - THE RED STAR is an epic-war fantasy set in a parallel universe based on the Cold War that was fought between the United States of America and the Soviet Union after World War II. In our universe, the timeline of events is the same, but the two superpowers are known as 'The Western Transnationalist Alliance' (for the US and its NATO allies) and instead of the 'Union of Soviet Socialist Republics' we have the 'United Republics of The Red Star'. Even the Cold War has a different name, known in our world as 'The Ironhold', symbolizing the death grip that these two colossal empires had over the entire world.

The key difference is the addition of Sorcery to modern military tactics. In THE RED STAR, all the soldiers of the world are trained to use some form of what we call 'Military Industrial Sorcery'. For them, its just another weapons system. To our readers, their powers are incredible to witness, and the particular inspiration of the fascinating world of Russian Military History really adds a unique flavor to our story. The possibilities of what we call 'Sorcerous Engineering' are endless, both on the comics page and as player options in a videogame environment. It's no accident. My writing partner, Bradley Kayl, and myself are both gamers from way back. Brad as far back as text-based games and we're both veterans of paper RPG's as well. Because of this, we designed a really consistent magic system that screams out to gamers especially. Fans of Games Workshop's WARHAMMER 40K universe are really familiar with the vibe in our world. In other words, yes, there is what can only be described as 'magic' or 'Sorcery' or 'psychic powers' --but throw in real-world military theory and that heavy Russian style, and you've got it.

The saga in our comic series begins with the end of The Ironhold, when the 'United Republics of the Red Star' have just suffered a crushing defeat and have now fallen from power. We see their national collapse from the perspective of a squad of soldiers who are our lead characters. The Western Transnationalists have become the ultimate power on the planet, but both mighty nations committed endless resources to their struggle against one another, and in the process they've made the world thirsty for revenge against both of them. As the world spirals into a cycle of paranoia and seemingly endless warfare, our heroes discover a quest that can help free humankind from the legacy of corruption that threatens to destroy it.