 |
| |
MI6 quizzed Senior Producer Chris Plummer about the
forthcoming "GoldenEye: Rogue Agent" game...
|
|
GoldenEye Rogue Agent - Chris Plummer Interview
(2)
16th October 2004
To what extent are you using the Havoc Engine and are you
using it for both rag doll physics and object physics?
We're using Havoc and we've had it modified quite a bit so that
it works with our technology and works with all the different
platforms; it works on PlayStation 2, Xbox and Game Cube for us.
We use it for collision, we also use it for deaths and rag doll
for throwing guys, we use it for interaction for when guys fall
down the stairs, all that kind of stuff. It's mainly used for
special effects for over the top stunt physics moments.
|
Above: Chris Plummer talking to MI6 about the latest game
"GoldenEye: Rogue Agent"
"Doctor No's forces wouldn't be
complete without the dragon tank, so you might see those
as well."
|
|
What sort of enemies will the Rogue Agent be facing
and what villains will he meet along the way?
You will face henchmen on both Goldfinger's and Doctor No's
side of the conflict, and each of them have different ranks
of enemies so you can kind of think of it as the officers
and the kind of elite guys and there' are also mini bosses
amongst those guys. So the mini bosses will influence the
behaviours of the guys around them, so that when a mini
boss is around the guys will be more aggressive, they might
be a lot more co-ordinated in the way they behave.
So if you take out the guy who is the mini boss in charge
of the henchmen, then it will influence the underlings so
they won't fight as effectively. There are basically four
tiers of AI if you think about their levels of intelligence
and different weapon combinations on top of that. There
are also key characters that you'll have showdowns with
such as Odd Job and Xenia Onatopp. There's more than that,
but we haven't disclosed all the boss fights yet.
|
Then of course there are lots of vehicles. Doctor No basically
has a para-military army and is very well equipped to fight. So
his troops have very sophisticated body armour, his more elite
guys actually have more sleek and sophisticated armour that makes
them move a lot faster and makes them more difficult to hit. But
he also has air and ground vehicles that you'll do combat with,
and our AI system works throughout these types of enemies. So
from large to small air vehicles, to tracked ground vehicles,
and of course Doctor No's forces wouldn't be complete without
the dragon tank, so you might see those as well.
Is the main campaign section of the game limited to single
player?
You can play the campaign by yourself or you can play in co-op
mode.
Going Botty
What about online support, will there be bots online and offline?
We're supporting the E.V.I.L AI in offline play rather than designing
a new bot system. Our number one goal was to allow people to experience
the multiplayer content without having to play it multiplayer.
This was so that they wouldn't be intimidated if their friends
played the Uplink match and bunch and know they are going to go
play that map. Instead of going into it blind they're going to
experience the same content that they are already familiar with.
The way we've done that is by setting up a skirmish mode where
you play against the E.V.I.L AI, it's a little different to bots
because our E.V.I.L AI does things that bots don't do - like using
cover. When you think about bots they usually run around as fast
as they can, which is sort of what the player does honestly, but
we've found it more fun playing against the AI rather than just
bots. So that's the way we're approaching that one. You won't
be playing with players and AI in sort of a death match though
for example. So it's specifically for skirmish mode
|
Above: Screenshot from the Golden
Gate Bridge location
|
|
Unlocking Extras
Have you considered the possibility of downloading extra
levels off the Internet for the multiplayer levels?
We have thought about that, and have opted to make all the
content unlockable, we don't want to short-change the people
not playing online.
So for all of the unlocked content there are plans are
to make it all available by playing the single player game,
the offline game if you will. Including the multiplayer
offline, so if you want to play split screen things can
be unlocked. Basically you can unlock everything that way.
|
Evil Behaviour
With the E.V.I.L AI you were talking about, what sort of thing
can we be expecting enemies to be doing?
So the bread and butter activities are that they'll use cover
very aggressively, so that means if your applying tons or pressure.
They'll do blind shots or kick out and attack you that way. They'll
move and use the environment intelligently, if you blow there
cover up, they'll just move to somewhere else in the room and
effectively fight from there. If there's a switch in the room
they'll use it and activate a death trap or a machine. If you're
in the wrong place at the wrong time they'll use it against you,
none of this is scripted which makes it very interesting.
|
The player can learn the skills of almost creating a diversion
and herd the AI to their advantage, so a player can trap
them in a death trap. They are aware of changes in the environment
so if you destroy cover or destroy something that they would
normally try to use they're obviously not going to use it,
they're not going to stand out in the open and wait to get
killed.
They'll also do things like, if you intimidate them you
can actually project your villainy onto them, they will
freak out sometimes. They might grab one of their own hostages
or go berserk, or even surrender. These are kinds of things
are unique to this AI system and play into our own concept
of playing as a villain.
So we're very much encouraging players to do things like
one shots kills, death traps, throwing guys out the window
and all that kind of stuff. And when you're performing like
that you can influence the AI's behaviour and also power
your Goldeneye. Which is a really important part of the
game, so we're using your Goldeneye and that's an advantage,
by playing like a villain you'll have a lot more opportunity
to use the Goldeneye.
What was the reason for the shift, making the game as
a bad guy?
Well it's always been a villain game and the reason for
that was we wanted to make a great first person shooter
in the Bond universe. To do that we really needed to be
the villain, because Bond is really the stealth guy, he's
about driving fast cars; he's a different character. Especially
now in video games there's a lot more enforcement of how
Bond's character behaves under license than there was say
when the original GoldenEye was made.
|
|
Above: Screenshots from the Golden Gate Bridge location
|
Related Articles
GoldenEye Rogue Agent
- Chris Plummer Interview (1)
GoldenEye
Rogue Agent - Patrick Gilmore Interview (1)
GoldenEye
Rogue Agent - Patrick Gilmore Interview (2)
GoldenEye
Rogue Agent - MI6 Coverage
Images copyright EA Games.
