MI6 quizzed Senior Producer Chris Plummer about the forthcoming "GoldenEye: Rogue Agent" game...

GoldenEye Rogue Agent - Chris Plummer Interview (1)
13th September 2004

Tell us about the improvements that have been made to the game since E3; such as the hostage taking, dual weapon wielding and melee combat and other differences?

Some of the things since E3, honestly the biggest difference across the board is performance. The frame rate was certainly not what we wanted at E3, we�ve had massive improvements there, optimizations which allow us to get a lot more guys into the action... Let's us do a lot more with the FX. Just makes the game better, obviously we want to make sure the frame rates really fast, and it�ll continue to get major improvements, but I think that has actually changed the way the game feels pretty significantly.

In terms of game mechanics we had the melee system partially implemented at E3, so it was important for us to have a way to take guys out at close range but we couldn�t finish the thread so you couldn�t actually throw guys around. So now you can actually grab them, you can throw them, throw them into each other and knock guys over. You can throw them out the window, you can do all those things and it actually affects the other AI�s, so when they see you doing this stuff it can actually influence their behavior.

 


Above: Chris Plummer talking to MI6 about the latest game "GoldenEye: Rogue Agent"

"...We have surrender capabilities and stuff like that so you can actually intimidate the AI to the point where they�ll surrender. "

Evil Intelligence

So we�ve uncovered a lot of depth there that I�m really happy with. Also the AI�s been tuned a lot more since E3, we have a lot of cool behaviors, we were showing human shield which players would do at E3 and now they do even more. We have surrender capabilities and stuff like that so you can actually intimidate the AI to the point where they�ll surrender. That�s something we actually score you against as it factors in later in the game.

Getting a much bigger level together has been a big improvement since E3. Fort Knox is really the preamble back-story, it shows you�re trained at MI6. But you aren�t the true villain yet and you don�t have the golden eye. And that arguably is the most important part of the whole thing, you�ve got to have the signature element that defines you as the bad guy that�s unique and sort of worthy of being a Bond villain. The goldeneye is now in and we have the activated features as well as many of its sort of automated features in the game now and it makes a big difference. I think when we get the rest of the golden eye features in it's really going to change how the game plays more.

The explosions seen in the game at the moment are lacking a bit of "oomph", are we going to see those improved for the release date?

Yeah, absolutely. We're pre alpha so you're seeing a lot of things that aren't implemented fully. Right now with explosions you see bodies flying, but obviously your see fireballs and cool particle effects and stuff like that. We focused mainly on the effects that the weapons make in the environment, that�s one of the things that were still kind of working on, but in certain parts of the game you can see some interesting feedback when you fire your weapon and you watch walls getting chewed away and stuff. The next step will be to add that kind of detail into the explosives and that�s everything from rocket launchers and grenades to fighting against air vehicles and allot of death traps which have explosives associated with them as well.

With the MI6 agent switch, what sort of similarities do you think there are between the Goldeneye character and Alec Trevelyan?

Well the biggest one is the fact that they are both MI6 gone bad. So that�s one of the things that I thought was so cool about Alec Trevelyan, first of all he had a personal relationship with Bond that dated way back. They had the same background, he trained, he was there, he was a 00 agent. So with our character being MI6 trained we thought that that would be a really cool think, Trevelyan is like my favorite Bond villain, maybe next to Onatopp. So he�s very much the inspiration, but your motivations are completely different, its a different type of revenge.

A Dish Best Served Cold

Trevelyan had a much deeper issue he was trying to resolve and get even, whereas you're after revenge for Dr No. As people do you wrong throughout the game there�s a lot of getting even for revenge that your character gets exposed to and you get the taste for power, which is something that Trevelyan wasn�t in it for. He wasn�t in it for power and control, for us we're in it for ruling the world instead of saving it so it�s almost anti-Bond. You're doing the opposite, Bond's trying to save the world, you�re trying to rule it.


Above: Concept artwork for Goldfinger's Midas Casino in Las Vegas.

 

What about the locations we're going to see throughout the game and how do they correlate to the movies? What locations are you going to be using?

Because we have both Dr. No and Goldfinger playing key roles in the game we're experiencing their corners of the universe if you will, and that means Fort Knox is an important part from the end of Goldfinger so you�ll actually begin the game there. You go to Auric Enterprises which is obviously Goldfinger's headquarters but we�ve had Ken Adam, who designed the original Auric Enterprises, re-invision it as if he had an unlimited budget, and of course Ken's the guy who came up with brilliant things like the headquarters inside the volcano.

Enterprising

He�s kind of taken that idea to Auric Enterprises and now it's kind of this domed palace at the top of a mountain covered in snow, and when you go inside the dome is actually this tropical paradise and deep underneath that is a whole gold smelting operation of Goldfinger's and his laboratory where he�s thinking up all his devious plots. So this is kind of cool because it�s a place you went in the movie Goldfinger but now its done full production value, no budget what would the ultimate Goldfinger palace be like. There are other places like going to Crab Key, we have original locations that are consistent with the Bond universe and those which are designed by Ken Adam which aren�t, like Hong Kong.

So you�ll spend a lot of time in Hong Kong, which you�ve been to before but specifically these locations. Dr No has influence there in Hong Kong. And so as you're going through Hong Kong you're not only going through exotic settings, but occasions you're going to be in his territory, his Armour lab for example.

You will go to Goldfinger's Midas Casino on Las Vegas strip, which is another original location. It�s a real cool place to have a fight, and you�ll ultimately get to go to the Hoover damn and get to destroy it, which is one of the benefits of being a villain. From there we have a few other locations which we haven�t disclosed yet, it�s going to be very cool.

 
Above: Concept artwork for inside Auric Enterprises.

  Stay tuned to MI6 for further intel reports on "GoldenEye: Rogue Agent", due out in stores November 2004.

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Images copyright EA Games.