By Alexander Villafania
INQUIRER.NET

PASAY, Philippines — Under absolute secrecy, online game publisher Level Up! snuck into the first person shooter genre and finally introduced its first FPS title, K.O.S.: Secret Operations during its annual Level Up! Live competition.

K.O.S. (Kill On Sight) is developed by Korean firm YNK Interactive, the same company that created Rohan Online, which LU is also publishing in the Philippines.

The game is still in its worldwide beta testing stages, with the Philippines’ beta test period starting in December.

With most online FPS games using their own game engine, K.O.S. uses Valve’s Source Engine, which is most prominently used in the widely popular shooter Counterstrike Source.

K.O.S. is a straight forward shooter with players choosing a one of two teams. The main mission is to beat the competing team in different modes.

There are different character types who are actually of different nationalities (North and South Korean, Russian, Japanese, Taiwanese and American). Each character possess different attributes that allow them to carry specific types of weapons such as sniper rifles, assault rifles, heavy artillery, and pistols.

The characters also have certain skills that improve their performance in the game.

LU CEO Jane Walker said in an interview that the company chose K.O.S. due to its lower computer requirements as well as its proximity to the gameplay and style of Counterstrike, which was once the most popular FPS played in Internet cafes.

Walker said that despite being late in the FPS genre, she is confident that the FPS market in the Philippines is still large enough for a new title.

K.O.S. will compete with existing online FPS titles such as WarRock from Amped, Special Forces from MyGame, and most recently Operation 7 by E-Games.