Bill Spieth, Creative Director for Frog City Software (a subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive), gave us a little taste of Snow, a game in which players move up from small-time pot smuggling to major cocaine overlord.
Spieth's bosses told him that they wanted "edgy" so Snow was born. In it, players become Johnny Morrell, a washed-up actor who's decided to make his money the old fashioned way: illegally. Players start by smuggling in small quantities of loco weed from Mexico and selling it in Los Angeles.
Your goal is to grow your operations and take over the major drug running corridors that lead to the big markets of Miami, Chicago, Los Angeles and New York. You do this by hiring a variety of smugglers, crooked accountants (to launder your money) and arms dealers (to fortify your territories).
Replace cocaine with corn and Snow would still work as a game because it's basically a business simulation and strategy game at heart. But the illicit nature of the product is buttressed by stylishly rendered, cell-shaded cut-scenes with racy dialog and lots of sexual tension. Think Traffic with a happy ending.
The game is only 30% complete right now, so we didn't get a chance to experience all of the different game play elements, but it's certainly got us interested in seeing more of it. One big disappointment right now: no multiplayer mode. Spieth told us that they could focus on building a great story or on building a solid multiplayer game. They've had to focus their efforts on the story.
The game is expected some time next year for the PC and Xbox platforms.
