Digital Spy preview / interview with Nathan Davis

[Pop]

Read here

 

Interesting part -

Davis remarks: "One of the Sega producers in the US likes to say that it is open-story versus open-world. What you will see in the game that you won't see in many open-world games is the level of reactivity. Because we know exactly what you have said and all this other stuff, we are able to react to those things and we are able to create unique storylines. Open world gives you a lot of options but it also gives you a lot of imitations in terms of what you can do in the game."

 

Not only will this reactivity hopefully provide some compelling experiences on the first playthrough, but it will also generate multiple options for subsequent playthoughs. Even though statistics gained from one campaign cannot be carried over to further games, beating the main campaign once opens up the recruit difficulty level. This involves players starting off with zero stats on the RPG mechanic, which provides a significant challenge when taking on the missions (and also unlocks the rather confused recruit dialogue responses). Beating the game on Recruit unlocks the Veteran mode, in which players start off with level five on every RPG stat and also get to use the veteran dialogue.

[Oner]

Cool! \o/

[Starwars]

Blergh, not really a fan of "ubermode" or Veteran. Recruit sounds like it could be fun, but why does it have to be unlockable?

 

Oh well. Cool that they give more dialogue options.

[Pop]

From the sound of it, the dialogues in the unlockable modes are going to be humorous and possibly fourth-wall breaking in nature. Which would explain why you can't choose them at the outset.

[EvilWolf]

Yay!, More of an incentive to replay the game

[Cl_Flushentityhero]

Sounds pretty awesome, actually. Recruit sounds challenging and potentially amusing, while veteran I assume is a license to power-trip through the campaign and say badass things.

 

Though, is the difficulty scaling based on how far you've progressed in the game or skill levels? Hopefully the former, since otherwise starting it with more or less skills wouldn't make much difference.

[RPGmasterBoo]

God I haven't been this excited for a game for a long time.

 

Please Obsidian, just don't screw up the gameplay by making the combat too simple and the game too easy. As for the rest I'm confident it will be quite good.

[Pidesco]

This is pretty freaking awesome.

[Humodour]

I thought it sounded like a pretty lame gimmick.

[Cl_Flushentityhero]

If adding dialogue options is a gimmick, sign me up.

[Humodour]

If adding dialogue options is a gimmick, sign me up.

 

Adding silly and meaningless dialogue options and requiring you to play the game once before they're even available is a gimmick, sure.

 

The only interesting part mentioned is making the game more difficult, but personally I'd prefer Obsidian do that via AI improvements - and I certainly shouldn't have to have already played the game once to unlock an actually difficult mode. I'm rather concerned about their claims that they had to dumb the AI down because it was too good. Are we going to get NWN2 style boringness?

[Tigranes]

As long as the Veteran mode is 'too good' it won't be too bad.

[Matthew Rorie]

I think there's an error in this preview. Recruit is currently available as soon as you start up the game, and I don't think there are any plans to change that. Veteran will require you to play through Recruit before you can unlock it, though.

[Pidesco]

So when you first start the game you have two difficulty settings (normal and recruit), and depending on which you choose you get different dialogue options. Is that correct?

[Matthew Rorie]

Recruit and Veteran are selected separately from difficulty. You still have difficulty settings that you select apart from them. I don't know that we've necessarily finalized the difficulties, but you should be able to play Recruit on Easy mode, or on Hard mode, depending on whether you want to have an easy time with it or want to be punished a bit.

[Wrath of Dagon]

I'm against locked difficulty levels, if that's what this is. It's pretty presumptious of developers to assume people will play their game more than once.

[Oner]

It's pretty presumptious of developers to assume people will play their game more than once.

I'm sorry, but what? You end the game then either click on New Game or Exit Game, and it's presumptious if they give you a reason to choose the former?

[mkreku]

A real spy game would immediately self destruct upon completion.

[kreese12]

I'm against locked difficulty levels, if that's what this is. It's pretty presumptuous of developers to assume people will play their game more than once.

 

I'm with ya man on the locked difficulty levels, but I don't think that is what they are doing here, if I understand correctly. (Personally I hardly ever play games more than once, and hate it when difficulty levels are locked, because I always enjoy games on the hardest difficulty setting [ Mass Effect was the worse for this ] ).

 

Matt R is saying there are difficulty levels, easy-medium-hard or whatever, and then there is a special 'veteran' mode available for a second play through that unlocks a couple of different things.

 

I think this is a great system. The difficulties aren't locked, yet there is bonus content for whoever finished the game once and wants to run through it again. That's a good trade off between having the difficulty levels not locked for players wanting the challenge, yet at the same time adding to replayability.

[kreese12]

It's pretty presumptious of developers to assume people will play their game more than once.

I'm sorry, but what? You end the game then either click on New Game or Exit Game, and it's presumptious if they give you a reason to choose the former?

 

No. He's basically saying that developers should put all the content in from the get-go, because it is presumptious of them to expect players to enjoy the game so much that they would want to play through it all again. His opinion is fair enough.

[alanschu]

Is recruit just the default play mode?

[Matthew Rorie]

It's pretty presumptious of developers to assume people will play their game more than once.

I'm sorry, but what? You end the game then either click on New Game or Exit Game, and it's presumptious if they give you a reason to choose the former?

 

No. He's basically saying that developers should put all the content in from the get-go, because it is presumptious of them to expect players to enjoy the game so much that they would want to play through it all again. His opinion is fair enough.

 

In AP's case, that really wouldn't work too well. Some explanations are probably in order.

 

When you start up a game, you pick an "agent history", which pre-selects some of the skills for you. You can choose between Soldier (guns), Field Agent (stealth), or Tech Specialist (tech skills). These give you some basic recommended skills that will suit your playstyle if you don't want to allocate your skills yourself. (You can also choose Freelancer if you want to allocate your skills yourself.) However, the history you choose will also change the way some characters will react to you; some characters (especially early on) know that you came from the armed forces if you chose the Soldier background, and will comment on that, etc.

 

Recruit and Veteran are similar. If you start as a Recruit, you are assumed to be a really green recruit, and your other agents are going to give you a hard time about it (which in itself can be pretty amusing); likewise with Veteran, where other characters will treat you with a bit more respect because they know you've been around the block once or twice.

 

So it's essentially impossible to have all this content exist in one play-through, unless we populate the world with a bunch of schizos who think Mike is both a recruit, a somewhat capable but unproven field agent, and a veteran all at once.

[Oner]

It's pretty presumptious of developers to assume people will play their game more than once.

I'm sorry, but what? You end the game then either click on New Game or Exit Game, and it's presumptious if they give you a reason to choose the former?

 

No. He's basically saying that developers should put all the content in from the get-go, because it is presumptious of them to expect players to enjoy the game so much that they would want to play through it all again. His opinion is fair enough.

Ah, I understand. I disagree in that AP is MADE to be replayed, it's half the point of the whole gig. Aside from that, it would be kind of awkward of the devs to make a game while convincing themselves that no one will/should want to touch it again after the first play through. Or would you prefer a fan petitioned suave DLC?

[Llyranor]

The August previews have been doing a better job of showcasing what the game is about. More focus on reactive world/NPCs/'open story', less on gunplay/stealth. The latter are fine, but they'll get unfavorable comparisons to shooters/stealth games.

[Nepenthe]

It's pretty presumptious of developers to assume people will play their game more than once.

I'm sorry, but what? You end the game then either click on New Game or Exit Game, and it's presumptious if they give you a reason to choose the former?

 

No. He's basically saying that developers should put all the content in from the get-go, because it is presumptious of them to expect players to enjoy the game so much that they would want to play through it all again. His opinion is fair enough.

 

I for one completely disagree and think that it's presumptious to claim such a thing. Building games from the start to be played just once (McGames) is definitely not a good idea. Giving people options for multiple playthroughs is smart, especially since nobody is holding a gun to anybody's head and forcing them to play.

 

Edit: Also YAY for info on what Freelancer etc. means. Thanks, sounds very exciting and am looking forward to the game even more!

Edited August 11, 2009 by Nepenthe