This information comes from Nintendo Power. The quotes are from producer Josh Olson…
– Team acknowledges that the first game had the player doing “the same thing over and over and over again”
– Want to do more with level design, gameplay design
– Embracing sci-fi element
– Game starts off with thunder, torrential downpour, you’re in a huge oil derrick in the middle of an ocean
– Picks off immediately after the original when you enter the portal
– Not sure where you are when you enter the portal and land in the ocean
– Derrick’s occupants begin to shoot at you
– Game will have some “big vistas and multi-tiered areas”
– Multiple paths, team wants the game “to feel bigger and give players the sense that there’s more going on”
– Sea serpent attacks the facility
– “Having those types of ‘wow’ moments is really important”
– Quantum 3 engine still being refined
– Ford continues to go through the oil derrick, fights with the leviathan one-on-one
– Have to use one of the derrick’s mounted defense targets since normal weapons won’t work
– Serpent targets you and generator that powers the turrets
– Need to find the serpent’s weak points, stun him, then impale him with a harpoon from a turret
– Game has an airborne chase scene, take control of a ship’s rear gun emplacement, shoot pursuers (one enemy type is jet pack-equipped soldiers)
– More NPCs, Ford can interact with them
– There are other aliens besides Adams around the world who control territories
– Adams has been particularly successful, wants to take over the world
– Ford needs to get the help of the other aliens
– Atlantis is the hub, portals to other areas are there
– Some freedom in terms of which stage you’ll take on next
– One mission has you going to Washington DC, need to recover important artifact from the Smithsonian
– More alien growth in the city than in the first game, Drudge and Trust still fighting there
– “AI vs. AI vs. player now”
– Will come across fights already happening
– “The AI in particular has been a big focus for us. We really want the enemies to come across as intelligent. In the first game, they just sit there waiting for you to show up. This time, we want it to feel like a living environment, like everyone was doing something before you got there.”
– Interactive elements in the environment (stuff moves, objects break, enemy knocks over soda machine for cover)
– Wider variety of hostiles, some specific to a location
– Atlantis: 30-foot-tall Guardians
– Siberia: Robotic wolves
– Differences between human soldiers, can carry any weapon (affects AI)
– SEGA/High Voltage will be holding a contest: Can get your name/face on a Missing Person flier or a Wanted poster
– 18 firearms from the original
– Have to tune the Phase Rifle by twisting Wiimote
– Deployable Turret: Set it down, control it with handheld display, can pull the trigger and have it autoaim or target manually
– Regarding the AsE: “…more puzzles and hacking minigames. It’s also a bit more of a detective tool now, we’re trying to put a lot more conspiracy objects and secrets in the environments to give you more reasons to use the ASE. Once you’ve scanned an object, you’ll be able to learn more about it in the game’s new data log. So it really plays into us trying to tell a deeper story.”
– ASE tied to Atlantis
– Using the ASE, can have a bit of control over the Guardians
– 12 players online
– Releasing this fall
Huge thanks to Johnson for the news tip!
