The developers from Blue Omega sure had a lot of fun, if unconventional, ideas inserted into its upcoming shooter Damnation. In fact, if you put all of the elements together - steampunk setting, interesting "vertical" gameplay perspective, and the fast-paced action - you can say its one of the more unique games that's being developed for the genre.

In an interview conducted by videogaming247, chief designer Jacob Minkoff talked about some of the game's innovative features and what will make Damnation one of the games to look out for by the end of the year.

It was recently mentioned that the levels for the game may take up to three hours to navigate through, thanks to the wide, open-environment setting. Minkoff mentioned that while this may seem overwhelming at first, the fast-paced action of the game helps move everything along smoothly, with a generous serving of save points to prevent players from getting frustrated with the massive levels.

The unique "vertical" perspective of Damnation also gives the game a rather fresh look compared to other shooters. Minkoff explained that this was to give players several options on how they want to traverse through each stage while keeping in sight with the objective. Different rewards go to those players who want to take the more unconventional routes initially offered in each level to reach their goal.

Also, he mentioned that climbing will become an intuitive navigation feature for the game instead of using keycards or switches to get through the different areas. Other features to be included will be some action-packed vehicles scenes that further speeds up the already frenetic pace of the game.

Co-op addicts will also be happy to know that they'll be able to shoot it out with a friend in the single-player campaign. Minkoff explained thus:

The single-player campaign is fully playable in two-player co-op. After just one multiplayer match, trust me - you’ll see what makes it different, and I think you’ll love it. I know we do.

All in all, Damnation promises to be a very interesting title for the action shooter genre. Gamers can expect the game to be released by the fourth quarter of this year and available on the PC, Microsoft Xbox 360, and Sony PlayStation 3.