Nieuws: Tweede deel GoldenEye interview
Door Joni Philips op 03-06-2004 om 21:24
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Bron: CVG
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GoldenEye: Rogue Agent is een nieuwe James Bond game van EA. Deze keer speel je echter een ontslagen MI6 agent en niet James Bond.
'Computer and Videogames' had een interview met Chris Plummer, Producer bij het productieteam achter GoldenEye: Rogue Agent. Vandaag brengen we jullie het tweede deel.
EA's Bond games, rightly or wrongly, have always lived in the shadow of GoldenEye since the original came out - it's an untouchable classic. So after all this time of trying to compete against it, did EA simply think: "Sod it, we've got the licence, let's do a GoldenEye game and just milk it"?
Plummer: No, it's been a transition period for Bond, right? He's gone through trying to be a spy game/first-person shooter to be ultimately probably where he should be, which is in a third-person stealth game.
And so this is more about us kind of realising that to do a game that lives up to the original GoldenEye, is a different style of game - it's not a gadget, creep around, fumble-through-a-bunch-of-inventory-items-to-get-through-a-door type of game, it's about running in guns blazing and mowing down a bunch of people and having a blast doing it. It's the style of game that I think is the fundamental change.
Bond has kind of gone to one style, and we've assembled a team to create a completely different style of game; and it's obviously a huge undertaking that we don't take lightly. But I think that's the biggest difference - you see Bond going kind of stealth, and we're definitely going aggressive.
By keeping the name, do you think you have to go that extra mile because it is GoldenEye?
Plummer: Oh yeah, I mean everything that we normally think of, we're basically going overboard. It's like bringing Ken Adams [Oscar winning designer of original Bond sets] in to do the production side, bringing in the people we've brought onto the team - like the guy who designed the AI for Halo, stuff like that.
That's why it's important to us that we have that kind of talent, because there's no other way you can do a game with the word GoldenEye on it. It's something we feel every day.
The Bond character who you fight alongside right at the beginning of the game before going Rogue - is that a generic Bond or a specific Bond?
Plummer: We're not prepared to answer that one yet.
Can we expect any differences between versions?
Plummer: Well, certainly the visuals will be different because we'll be able to take advantage of that hardware. We're not really discussing any other platform-specific stuff at this point. But Xbox, PS2 and GameCube are the platforms we'll be releasing on.
It's definitely never coming to PC then?
Plummer: I wouldn't say it's definitely never going there, but we don't want to do a port. For the PC it needs to be a PC design, and we're working on that behind the scenes but it's not something that we've announced or are prepared to discuss.
So there is a PC version in development, then?
Plummer: Erm, no, nothing official.
So what are you working on behind the scenes?
Plummer: [Laughs] Just pretend I never talked about that...
Doesn't that seem a bit of a shame if you've got some of the best people in the world working on it not to do a PC version?
Plummer: Well, our number one goal is to create the best first-person shooter experience on a console. We know that's a different experience than it is on PC. Our focus is 100 percent on the console stuff right now.
Do you see this as the start of a new 'bad guy' franchise that'll continue?
Plummer: Yeah. In fact, you know, MGM owns this guy [the GoldenEye character] now. We created it but they love it and who knows, maybe some day you'll see a movie about him or whatever. But it doesn't matter to us, we just want to make a cool game.
That's the only original villain that we're really pushing into the picture - the player character - especially as in multiplayer you want to have your own unique identity and it's weird to have 15 Bonds running around or whatever. Everyone's going to have their own unique identity online as well. Or on split-screen for that matter.
Are all EA's Bond assets being pumped into this then, or is another, more traditional Bond game in development?
Plummer: Well, obviously there's Everything or Nothing; there's that style of game which is really Bond, and you'll see more of that style of game in the future I'm sure. Our efforts are... We're a totally different studio, we're totally focussed on first-person shooters.
You've said that the game was kept under wraps for 18 months or so. Can you tell us about the process behind first decided to do the game and how it evolved?
Plummer: Well, at its earliest conception it started with a story idea about the character GoldenEye - that's how it began. I would say that the general concept has been pretty consistent for the entire time. It took us a little bit longer to commit to the villain thing, because it's a departure and we wanted to really do our homework and make sure that that was the right thing to do.
But I think that as we looked deeper into the original GoldenEye game, that's when it became clear to us that to deliver that kind of gameplay it was definitely going to need to be someone else.
Do we still get to use Bond gadgets?
Plummer: There are gadgets in the game, but they're not the traditional inventory-surfing style of gadgets. They're things that when you have them, they're more context-sensitive; and also some of your weaponry is very gadget-like, like the ability to create a napalm slick for example and then ignite it, those sorts of things. The gadgets are much more offensive in nature and they're basically worked into your golden eye.
Will there be vehicles to drive, or vehicles on rails?
Plummer: There won't be vehicles to drive. We have the ability to ride in vehicles and shoot from vehicles, and what was important for us was to get away from 'rail rides' where you're backside's planted in one spot - that's something that I personally don't like very much.
When you're riding in the helicopter on your way into Fort Knox you'll be able to move around and use first-person shooter controls to fire outside the helicopter, that sort of thing.
That's the kind of vehicle play that we wanted to bring to the table, so it's retaining the first-person shooter concept and controls and focussing 100 percent on that, just like the original GoldenEye or Half-Life or whatever - take your pick. But that's been our focus, all about it being a first-person shooter.
There are a lot of vehicles you can do combat with. The E.V.I.L. AI system also works with vehicles, which is great. The system is very flexible and powerful so helicopters and all that kind of stuff will also be operated by AI, and you'll do a lot of battle with vehicles.
Can you tell us about objectives that we can expect? You've said it's a very aggressive shooter, so is it all going to be all-out action or carnage?
Plummer: Yeah, there's a lot of destruction-orientated missions, assassinations, sabotage, that sort of thing. Those are primarily the types of objectives that you'll have.
You're basically going to take out anyone who gets in your way. There's a couple of times you actually co-operate with Odd Job for example - he works for Goldfinger too. There'll be times when you're alongside other villains who you're co-operating with, too.
Are you trying to give the full Bond bad guy experience in this one game, with villain HQ environments that include underwater, space, mountains etc., or is it more focussed than that?
Plummer: Actually, you won't go into space. Well, you might in multiplayer; we're still debating that one and I'd rather not pass comment on that. But you're all over the world: we take you to tropical paradises, to snow-capped mountains, to urban environments, to really unusual villain HQ-type environments that you would only expect to see from a villain in the Bond universe. I'd say that the locations span quite a variety.
Are you playing as the villains in multiplayer with their unique abilities?
Plummer: Yeah.
Is it linear in that you just unlock the next mission as you did in GoldenEye, or do we get a certain amount of flexibility?
Plummer: There's a certain amount of flexibility, especially on the multiplayer side. In single-player, the campaign I should say, unfolds in a linear fashion in that you've got to finish the prerequisite mission before you can get to the next mission. Multiplayer is much more flexible than that but there are some things that you'll need to unlock in multiplayer as well.
You'll actually be able to play the campaign missions and then go off and play multiplayer and weave right back into the campaign again and do it rather seamlessly because you're using the same character.
And the multiplayer stuff is all themed around the villain universe so you're not going off into a whole other game, you're actually using all the same mechanics, all the core mechanics are there, and it's themed around the competition to be the ultimate villain in the Bond underworld.
And actually, the Bond underworld also has its own war games. In the films, occasionally they have these full-on battles, so they're preparing for that, too. So on the one hand they're trying to be one-on-one, the ultimate villain, and on the other hand they're competing to try and be the ultimate villain faction within the underworld. You get to experience all of that and then go on your mission which is the campaign.
To what degree you spend more time in the campaign or in a simulated trial of something is up to the player.
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