Green skies, a barren desert. Close up on a pair of eyes, and a slow pan down to a huge sword.

At Comic-Con Saturday morning, Legendary revealed a first look at what Duncan Jones‘ Warcraft could be. Based on the popular video game World of Warcraft, the director of Moon will start shooting early next year. He called the opportunity a dream come true and is well aware how connected people are to the games. The footage shown, which is not online, just gave an idea of what audiences can expect with the adaptation. Think a mixture of classic Western with video game tropes. Read a more detailed description below.

Start with the opening sentence above. Next, the of view of a fallen soldier. The man walks over and picks up the soldier’s shield. It’s a broad, heavy new piece for his collection. He smashes them together and we cut to a long shot. The man is circling across the plain with a large, green being. A green being with a massive hammer. The monster and man charge each other and just as hammer and shield collide, we cut to black. Warcraft. And then the Blizzard Entertainment logo.

The western feel came in part through the depiction of the broad, empty landscape. It looked like an alien desert, spare and desolate. If John Carter looked like this… well. There’s also a sparse, effective sound design, with a hanging trap of some sort creating a repetitive sound that called back to the sound design from the opening of Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in the West. There wasn’t a lot of time in the clip to create a detailed mood, but what’s in there worked very well.

Besides being very visually impressive, what most stood out about this clip was the acquisition of the shield. This is an essential element to playing the game and the totally organic way they worked it in serves as a tease of what Jones has it store. The short presentation ended telling fans to go on twitter and hashtag #askwarcraft with questions.