GI Show – Destiny 2: Forsaken, 2018's Biggest Games, Back Of The Box Trivia
Game Informer's Ben Hanson, Leo Vader, and Suriel Vazquez share exclusive, new details on Bungie's upcoming expansion Destiny 2: Forsaken based on our cover story trip. Then Kyle Hilliard joins the show as we bid on which 2018 game releases we're most excited to play, from Spider-Man on PS4 to Red Dead Redemption 2. After some great community emails, we kick off a special 4th of July-inspired round of back of the box game trivia.
You can watch the video below, subscribe and listen to the audio on iTunes or Google Play, listen to episode 405 on SoundCloud, or download the MP3 by clicking here. Also, be sure to send your questions to podcast@gameinformer.com for a chance to have them answered on the show.
To jump to a particular point in the discussion, check out the time stamps below...
1:30 - Destiny 2: Forsaken cover story details
27:20 - 2018's video game release calendar
1:12:40 - Community emails
1:51:40 - Back of the box game trivia
Viz Media's premiere foray into video games comes with The World Next Door. In this narrative-driven title with puzzle combat, you control Jun, a young girl trapped in parallel world inhabited by demons and other colorful characters. Throughout the adventure, you make decisions through dialogue options and form relationships with the various characters in your party.
While the title was announced earlier this year, it has yet to be publicly shown. However, Viz Media and Rose City Games debuted the first footage to attendees at Anime Expo.
You can see the trailer below.
I had a chance to get extended hands-on with The World Next Door earlier this year. You can read my impressions here.
Capcom announced the remake to Resident Evil 2 three years ago, but the publisher debuted the game for the first time at this year’s E3, and title made a big splash. At the show, we sat down with producers Yoshiaki Hirabayashi and Tsuyoshi Kanda to talk about how the original Resident Evil remake served as an example for this project, why Capcom is moving away from a shooter focus with the series, and how this might be the scariest Resident Evil game to date.
What was the plan to get Resident Evil 2 remade?
Hirabayashi: The reason is really just that fans have always asked for this. There have been a long number of years with a very high demand for a remake of Resident Evil 2. Finally three years ago, the timing was right. We got it all signed off and I couldn't wait to tell everyone, so we made this unofficial soft-launch video where it was like, “We're gonna do it, don't worry.”
The Resident Evil remake on the GameCube is beloved by fans, but a lot has changed in the gaming landscape since its release. Are you still using that game as a template for this remake? Or are you thinking of something new and different?
Kanda: Both that remake and the new Resident Evil 2 reimagining are trying to respect the original game while pushing things forward in terms of available technology and hardware. We want to see how to better express the concepts onscreen better than we could in the original game. We're not necessarily treating the first remake as a full-on template for how to reimagine this game, but I think they both start from a similar place. We're taking a well-loved title and saying, “How can we bring this to modern hardware with the latest technology and bring an experience that will allow today's players to feel the same as people did 20 years ago?”
Hirabayashi: Actually, my first project at Capcom was the GameCube Resident Evil remake.
Oh, cool. Nice work.
Hirabayashi: Back when we worked on that project, the director, Shinji Mikami, was telling the team that he wanted us to bring the best Resident Evil we could with the tools we had available to us – trying to bring a game that modern players would enjoy. That mindset hasn't changed at all, but in terms of when we make these games, a lot of things are different. When we remade Resident Evil 1 on GameCube, the series only existed as a series of fixed-angle camera games, Resident Evil 4 hadn't come out yet.
So there wasn't even any choice on the table, it was just, “This is what Resident Evil is,” so we kept the exact same system as the original and upgraded the graphics. But looking back, if you're going to remake a Resident Evil game that's coming out in 2019, you've got three basic choices in the title: the old-school fixed cameras, or you could go with the subsequent games over-the-shoulder view, or with Resident Evil 7’s first person perspective. All those options present themselves now in a way that they didn't when we remade the first game. We've made the decision to go with over-the-shoulder third person as we think it's the best experience possible.
Does that mean that it will play similarly to what fans remember of RE 4 and 5? What are the tent poles of Resident Evil 2 that you felt like you needed to stick to?
Hirabayashi: You look at Resident Evil 4, its combination of over-the-shoulder perspective and more shooter-based gameplay, and that was the same for Resident Evils 4, 5, and 6. Just because this remake has gone over-the-shoulder doesn't mean that it also has a shooter focus. This is something we really want to make clear – we want people to separate in their minds what an over-the-shoulder game is and what a shooter is. Resident Evil 2 2019 is over-the-shoulder plus survival horror. Which is actually a kind of an unprecedented combination for the series.
Kanda: But this game is going to be slower paced, resource management, survival-horror adventure gameplay with backtracking metroidvania exploration puzzle-solving – we’re not really adding shooter gameplay to it at all. I think if anyone has any concerns that over-the-shoulder is going to make it an action game, then we can tell you “No, it feels like Resident Evil 2,” it's just that there's a brand-new perspective.
Hirabayashi: This main concept of over-the-shoulder survival horror is going to play into one of the other key pillars of the game, which is that the horror of the zombies is probably the highest that we've ever had in the series. Because you're right up close with the camera perspective, and you get this kind of intimate atmosphere. Whenever you come across a zombie and fight against it or it's fighting you, it's right up in your face. Very immersive. Really terrifying.
One of the major innovations of Resident Evil 2’s gameplay was the zapping system and the way that Leon and Claire's stories would affected each other during successive playthroughs. Is that feature still present in the remake, or is it just all one big story?
Hirabayashi: The zapping system was definitely innovative at the time, and it kind of has its pros and cons where it brought a way to experience the story in different ways. But it also introduced a lot of repetitiveness, where to see everything you had to retrace a lot of steps in the different A and B stories. So we decided to try and bring these together. Leon and Claire have their own full-fledged story campaigns that are separate from one another. Like, each one is its own entity now: a single story for each character. That is our way of trying to bring depth that everyone can experience for each playthrough.
Kanda: They're separate campaigns but they do have relationships, so there will be parts in Leon’s campaign where you come across Claire and that kind of thing. It’s still a single-player campaign, it’s not like you're gonna be crossing over somebody else's Claire story or something like that. It is a very focused single-player experience and the two campaigns are related stories but each one takes a focus on what happened to Leon in this situation or what happened to Claire.
I noticed that you guys started the trailer from a mouse's perspective, and I see that you have one here in the interview room. Is there...?
Hirabayashi [grabbing the mouse and talking for him]: “Hello. My name is Kevin Jr. Nice to meet you.”
Oh, I’m sorry, I didn't get your business card … I was just curious: Is there a secret behind the mouse? Or is there a reason you guys chose to...?
Kanda: Well, it's not like this rat is gonna be some central story figure in the game, but it's kind of building off the fact that there were rats in the original game. We were trying to think of a concept for how to kick off the announcement trailer in a way that would make you start watching and think, “What am I seeing here?” And then it would somehow click with you at some point that this was Resident Evil 2. We thought that the rat's-eye-view beginning of the trailer was a really fun concept for how to do that.
Hirabayashi: We kinda wanted some Easter eggs in the trailer as well, whether it's the concept of rats as being the source of how the virus spread through a city in the original, or you might have noticed there's a PlayStation One in the trailer at the start. That's a little hint back to the origins of the game. It'd been such a long time since we spoke about the project, and we wanted to slowly get back on everyone's minds after this three-year gap from [when] we said we'd do it. You know, we didn't just want to have a splash screen with “Resident Evil 2" and Leon. We wanted to take a moment to warm up again to show you that we're coming back.
Do you guys have new areas, then? Or do you feel like you just took the concept of Resident Evil 2 and re-did it all? Will people recognize the layout of the police station?
Hirabayashi: Yes, but we have another place and a not-original part, too. Yeah, if you check out the build you'll definitely get some answers there. But yeah, there's definitely gonna be new places to explore compared to the original game.
Kanda: There are bathrooms.
What’s that?
Kanda: We have a restroom in our video game. [laughs]
Hirabayashi: People commented over the years that there were no bathrooms in the RPD where they go to go, but there are now bathrooms.
So it is the 20-year anniversary of Resident Evil this year. I was wondering, for this remake did you end up consulting a lot of the people who were on the original team?
Hirabayashi: Yeah, well we are not just consulting people from the original team, some of them are on our production team. So there's two directors on the game, and one of them is someone who was working on the original Resident Evil 2, and our boss is also someone who dates back to the RE2 project. So we've got direct involvement with key staff members, and that is really helping us make sure we're respecting the original game in the way we should.
Kanda: The other director has actually been on the series since Resident Evil 1, so we've got some great veterans on the team.
At the start of Destiny 2: Forsaken’s campaign, Uldren Sov, the Prince of the Reef, shoots Cayde-6 dead. This sets him up as the main antagonist you'll be taking revenge against in Forsaken, but Cayde doesn't die by his hand alone; to pull off the feat, he has help from the Barons, a group of powerful Scorn enemies. Hunting down the Barons comprises a large part of your journey the initial campaign, and each has their own story, traits, and boss encounter, making them some of Destiny 2’s most interesting foes yet.
Bungie was able to give us in-depth, official info on who each of these Barons are, including their history, stats, and brief snippets of insight from Cayde himself, learned from when he had to put the Barons in their place the first time around.
The Barons were once a hodgepodge of lowly Dregs, cast out from the upstart House of Exile. Forsaken and scorned by their own Eliksni comrades, and with no one to depend on but each other, they didn’t just survive… they thrived through ingenuity, ruthlessness, and teamwork. They raided their Fallen brethren’s encampments, stealing ether and growing ever stronger; they pillaged and terrorized Awoken outposts throughout the post- Taken War Reef. Like the “Cowboys” of Tombstone, they became the scourge of the Reef, overpowering other gangs of Fallen pirates and scavengers, and rendering the once flourishing homeland of the Awoken into a lawless frontier.
Following the Red War, the notorious Cayde-6 and a small, elite posse of his most trusted Guardians assisted Regent-Commander Petra Venj in cleaning up the Reef from the pirating of the Scorned Barons. At a stand-off as legendary as the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, the Scorned Barons were defeated. Most were killed; but 7 of the original 8 were captured and tossed into the deepest and darkest cells of the Prison of Elders. At the time, and with no corpse found, no one knew what became of the heretical warrior-priest known as The Fanatic.
“Death is your shield … but it is the Scorn’s sword.”
Real name: Fikrul. (FICK-ruhl; sounds like "fickle")
Known Aliases: The Fanatic; Fikrul, Master of Souls; Fikrul, Shadow Priest
Race: Fallen Archon (male)
Leader of the Barons and the dark, corrupted evolution of the Eliksni known as “The Scorn.” Second only to Prince Uldren Sov, he views his Scorn as an evolution of the Fallen and the final manifestation of what they were always meant to be – eternal.
Once a prominent Archon Priest of a long-lost House, the Fanatic preached heresy to the machine-worshiping Eliksni and paid a heavy price – docking, banishment, and starved from the Fallen’s lifegiving Ether. After falling in with the Barons to become their warrior-priest, he continued his anti-Great Machine evangelization and instilled in his brothers and sisters a belief that the old Eliksni must finally die, as the Whirlwind should have allowed, in order for them to rise better and stronger – and eternal.
StatusWANTED: Fragmented reports reveal a nomadic, unaffiliated Archon Priest imbued with a power akin to that found in and around the European Dead Zone. Do not engage until the depth of this power is known.
“I don’t like this one, not one bit. He’s a believer – to the core. And they’re the toughest to put down.” – Cayde-6
"We’re all thieves. Some of us are just better at it."
Real Name: Elykris (ee-LIE-kris)
Known Aliases: The Machinist; Scourge of Solis Descent; Elykris the Bandit
Race: Fallen Baron (female)
Second-in-command to the Fanatic and his most ardent follower. Expert in munitions, weapon-crafting, and in charge of the siege on the [REDACTED]. She’s an insatiable thief and hoarder with a terrifying arsenal.
The Bandit started life with nothing. Since then, she’s hoarded just about everything she’s ever taken (other than what she shared with her fellow Barons, of course). Second-in-command to the Fanatic, she’s a scourge of cis-Jovian and cis-Martian space, raiding ships and encampments and making off with any operational weaponry.
StatusWANTED: Ordnance master of the Scorned Barons, Elykris is a scourge to any ship that crosses beyond terrestrial space. Outstanding bounties remain for her role leading the Barons in the Siege of Arran and the heists that took place in the aftermath of the Solis Descent.
Real Name: Hiraks (HIGH-rax)
Known Aliases: The Mindbender; Hiraks the Brain; Hiraks Ascendent
Race: Fallen Baron (male)
A mad genius who has been changed by his research into the Hive and their dark religion has somehow found a means of exercising control over Hive combatants.
As a starving, runty little Dreg, the Mindbender fell into the Moon’s Hellmouth. He’s never spoken an intelligible word since. But his time in the Hive’s domain changed him, gave him a life-long obsession. After years of study, he found a way to carve a throne-world of his own from the Ascendant Realm.
StatusWANTED. Little is known about the Baron dubbed “Mindbender”, but he has gained a reputation for unraveling the minds of his enemy. Latest reports reflect a dangerous obsession with the Hive.
Mastermind, the Great Crow Heist: Trapped and "brainwashed" Prince Uldren's Crows, using them to feed misinformation and fuel tensions between Earth and the Reef. The Gaspra Slaughter: A system-wide manhunt for his capture led to a trap at Gaspra. 43 Awoken lost. The Haunting of Nemesis: Asteroid 128 Nemesis was a Reef outpost – until the Mindbender made it the site of his earliest experiments. Now the asteroid shifts between our dimension and the Ascendant Realm.“Never heard of the Mindbender? Surprise. That’s just how he likes it.” – Cayde-6
“Where most see war, I see an opportunity – for a laugh!”
Real Name: Araskes (ah-RASK-eez)
Known Aliases: Araskes the Wit; Butcher of Bamberga; Slayer of the Psyche Hordes; Terminus of the Gray Legion
Race: Fallon Baron (female)
A silver-tongued manipulator and con artist with a high opinion of herself, the Trickster has a penchant for deadly sleight-of-hand and prefers to work behind-the-scenes when it comes to the Barons’ operations. She does all she can to stay out of sight and is known for duping others into doing her dirty work.
When the Barons must negotiate or trade (which is almost never), they send the Trickster. She is their bard, their spokesman, their envoy – and their first strike. The world of the Trickster is one of a constantly moving chess board to protect the reality that she is in fact a coward with little to no skill in battle. While others honed their ability to fight – Araskes honed her mind.
WANTED: There is a reason we know as much as we do about the Barons: Araskes — the Butcher of Bamberga, aka the Slayer of the Psyche Hordes, aka terminus of the Gray Legion, though no record of these crimes have ever been reported. She uses cloaking tech to keep herself from being seen – and leaves deadly surprises where her victims least expect them.
The Amethyst Heist / Massacre: To raid the Queen’s mines, the Trickster orchestrated a clever ploy that pitted 12 teams of bounty hunters against one another to create a subterfuge while she cleared out the mine for herself. Please Note: all known aliases appear to be monikers she has given herself – phony legends to precede her wherever she goes as there is no record of these instances having occurred.“Whatever you do, don’t trust anything she touches. I promise you, it’ll bite.” – Cayde-6
Real Name: Reksis Vahn (REX-iss VAWN)
Known Aliases: The Hangman; Reksis the Scathe; The Godslayer
Race: Fallen Baron (male)
Alignment: Enemy of the Light
A silent sadist known for his penchant for docking and tearing Ether generators from the cores of Servitors with his bare hands. His obsession with torturing Servitors is unprecedented in the history of the Eliksni.
No one knows why the Hangman was abandoned at birth. Some say his parentage looked in his eyes and knew what he would become. Others say their cruel deed sealed his fate. The Hangman doesn’t just kill his victims – he hurts them. He has a specific hatred for Servitors, the Fallen machines created in the Traveler’s image who enforce the Fallen hierarchies by deciding who eats and who doesn’t. His physical rejection of Eliksni tradition is ultimately what drew him into the Fanatic’s inner circle – but whether it’s for belief or sadistic opportunity has yet to be determined.
WANTED: Reports paint this Baron as a depraved executioner. Locally known as the Hangman, he stalks Fallen Servitors and siphons their Ether to keep his fellow Barons overfed and frenzied.
Keeper of the Aurora Caves: Known outpost where Reef outlaws and other Fallen denizens of the system gain sustenance and power through his Ether collection – for a bloody price. Eradication of the Wolf Servitors: Lead to the extinction of the last of the Fallen House of Wolves.“He likes it. Too much.” – Cayde-6
"Yahahahehheheheehhehehaha!!"
Real Name: Kaniks (KAN-ix)
Known Aliases: The Mad Bomber; Kaniks Two-Fingers; Kaniks the Detonator
Race: Fallen Baron (male)
A bombastic thrill-seeker for whom self-preservation is an afterthought, the lunatic known as the Mad Bomber is willing to blow an entire location to smithereens just to kill his target.
No one knows where the Mad Bomber came from or how he got here because even he no longer knows. The Mad Bomber now lives simply day-to-day and bomb-to-bomb, constantly chasing the adrenaline high of a fiery explosion. A few too many near-misses and concussive blasts warped whatever was left of his already addled mind.
StatusWANTED. All reports on Baron activity show a high number of localized and massive explosives, believed to be the work of the one they call the Mad Bomber. Be aware of your surroundings at all times and prepare for disarmament protocols.
Seeder of the Accretion Mines: Thousands of haphazardly strewn mines across the Reef that take Awoken lives daily. Destroyer of the Origin Libraries: Targeted the last three known vestiges of the Reef Awoken in an effort to assassinate any remaining royalty.“Look, we all like blowing stuff up, but there’s a line. A line this guy crossed a long time ago.” – Cayde-6
“I see you…”
Real Name: Pirrha (PEER-hah)
Known Aliases: The Rifleman; Pirrha the Phantom; Pirrha the Blind
Race: Fallen Baron (male)
An all-seeing sniper who watches his brother Barons’ backs, The Rifleman keeps his targets at a distance, plays real dirty, and never misses his shot. Brilliant, cold, and patient, more than one of the Rifleman’s notches is a Guardian’s ghost.
History
Since the Barons first ganged up, no one has ever managed to get the drop on them. That’s because the Rifleman’s keen and well-tuned cybernetic eye always watches their backs. When not haunting the shadows, he is said to hold down the hills of whatever territory he claims as his own, aided by a surveillance network no one could penetrate. Cross that threshold – and you’re as good as dead. No matter where you hid, his bullet would find you, Guardian or no.
WANTED. A sharpshooting assassin-for-hire and original member of the Barons. Legends of his amassed riches have lured many a bounty hunter to challenge the Rifleman – only to find a bullet between their eyes. With the Rifleman, death can come at any second – and from any direction.
Shootout at Pallas Falls: Confirmed death of Awoken Paladins Tellos Cir, Loris Pol, and Hollis Eso. Ghost of the Hellrise Canyon: Held domain over the remnants of Ceres by luring interlopers into his field of fire through the use of salvaged holo-tech.“Trust me, kids: Keep your eyes open, head down… and your Ghost close.” – Cayde-6
“Don’t be afraid of dying under our Pikes. Fear surviving.”
Real Name: Yaviks (YAH-vix)
Known Aliases: The Rider, Yaviks the Hoss; Yaviks the Untamed
Race: Fallen Baron (Female)
Anarchist biker and leader of her own gang of Pike riders, the Rider razes fields and pollutes the air everywhere she and her gang run. She’s a master mechanic who’s taken the Fallen heavy pike and made it better – much, much better.
The Rider’s fiercely loyal gang is gathered from the remnants of old houses, outlaws, and lone-wolf nomads. She gave them a pike and a purpose, and in exchange every member is prepared to ride or die for their fearless leader. For years the Rider’s gang has been a bane in the Asteroid Belt, seeking to replace any semblance of the hierarchal ranks that failed the Fallen long ago with unrelenting chaos. She breathes nihilism and breeds anarchy.
StatusWANTED. Every Baron move begins and ends with the Baron dubbed the Rider. With a cavalry of toxic Pikes, the Rider and her gang usher in a storm of dust and chaos few survive; and if you do, she and her crew always return to the scene of the crime to finish the job.
Dead River Run: Eight Awoken outposts destroyed. 489 Awoken dead. 83 allied Fallen encampments infected. Forced the Awoken into the Mayhem Incident with the Barons. Raze of the Ziggurats: Six Techeun temples destroyed. No survivors.“I’d pay good money to watch a race between Marcus and this one.” – Cayde-6
For more on Destiny 2: Forsaken, such as our rapid-fire interview with leads Steve Cotton and Scott Taylor, a look at both of the new locations, a deep dive on the Cerberus +1 Exotic, and more, click on the banner below, and make sure to come back throughout the month for more coverage.
We know EA's Motive Studios has multiple projects in production. The Vancouver office is currently working on the revamped open-world Star Wars game, as well as the next entry in the Plants vs. Zombies series. The Montreal office is helping on Star Wars and also focused on a new open-world action-adventure IP, but an ambitious splinter group of developers has also gotten a second project greenlit.
"In Montreal, we have a big IP and then we have a second project, and the thing that I'm really excited about is that project was totally born from three passionate people who just worked on a pitch in their spare time," said studio head Jade Raymond. "They were super passionate, saying 'let us prototype it, let us do it,' and we managed to give them some space to get it done because it was exciting. People saw what was going on and more people wanted to join their team. Now it's a fully-fledged project, so we were able to get that going within Motive, which I think is one of the benefits of having a smaller studio."
A lot of times you hear developers working at large studios lament the bureaucratic way creative ideas get stymied. Raymond wants to keep creativity at the center of the operations even after Motive expands its staff size as projects transition out of the conceptual stages and into full production.
"I want to create a more official and transparent way that we can get all of those ideas in," Raymond said. "Kim Swift is working with us now; she's design director at Motive. She's is working with Justin Wiebe, who is a creative director on Plants vs. Zombies, so it's a cool mix of totally different perspectives on things. They're working on a process so that anyone can pitch and that we can have a format for the pitches. They go into a backlog where we can get input from publishing and marketing and other people in the company on what they think the potential of those pitches is. That way we have a bunch of creative ideas that are more or less approved by business, and once we have some time in gaps between projects or we can let little teams form and get to the next level of prototype, and hopefully get the best ones to the point where they can be real projects. That's something I'm really excited about and we're working on putting in place."
To read more of our recent interview with Jade Raymond, click here to learn about the creative team building the new open-world Star Wars game, and click here to get some early details on Motive's new action-adventure IP.
Three years have passed since former Assassin's Creed producer Jade Raymond originally re-joined Electronic Arts to form a new studio focused on creating Star Wars titles as well as a new action-adventure open-world IP. Though Motive has kept busy creating the single-player campaign for Star Wars Battlefront II, we have yet to see or hear much about the maligned Star Wars action game that recently changed directions or the new concept.
During our extended sit-down with Raymond at E3, we extracted some clues that give us a rough outline of what to expect from the original franchise.
It's A Dynamic Action-Adventure Game
We've known for a while that this new IP is going to be an action game, but after talking to Raymond, we now understand the scope goes beyond just being a static action game. "We're trying to reinvent action-adventure games for the future, an action-adventure game that lives on and the world is dynamic, living, and breathing," Raymond said. "I think that's a great problem to solve because we make these amazing worlds and then you play through them and they are gone. What does a dynamic one look like?"
This points to the game having a live service element where it can continue evolving well beyond its release and subsequent patches.
"We're working on a construct where even if you might not say, 'Okay, like Assassin's Creed it's got to support a box so it's different every year,'" Raymond said. "It won't be that; we're building it so that it can support major changes that keep the experience fresh more within the construct of still staying live."
It's Not Just About Killing
Raymond said that in the early stages, she's continually pushed the team to conceptualize gameplay elements beyond the traditional triple-A fallbacks "shoot" and "kill" during prototyping. "I think the key innovation has to be through the other verbs," Raymond said. "'Explore' is a big one. One of the goals for Motive and the types of games that we're making is games allow for relentless discovery. We want to build worlds without limits that allow for relentless discovery and experiences worth sharing. That's our mission."
It's Being Built With Flexibility In Mind
One of the topics of conversation that came up when talking about the new IP is how more and more brands like Fortnite and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds canvass all major gaming platforms. Even when the play experience on mobile doesn't match the fidelity of console or PC play, they are making the option available for those who prefer (or only have access to) touchscreen devices, opening up a huge alternate install base of potential players.
"I think what you have to think about is what do the new players value, and how do you remove barriers and deliver that without thinking of all the conventions we have traditionally," Raymond said. "That's the approach we're trying to take, and yes, I think one of them is touch and controllers. But I think instead of just focusing on it that way, it's thinking about what the players want and what are the things in the way ... That's the lens we're putting on it to make sure we're relevant. Whether I have five minutes or two hours, whether I have a mobile phone or a console, whether I'm a core gamer or I play mainly Candy Crush or Farmville, I can go in there and do something and be a part of something and contribute."
It's Social
The most vibrant live service games organically build communities around them, allowing friends to share their experiences with one another. Motive hopes to create a project that brings people together as well.
"One of the big fundamental needs is sharing experiences with friends," Raymond said. "Video games are a widely enjoyed pastime of people now. It's not just, oh, I'm a gamer. I'm a nerd. I play on my own in the basement. Everyone is gamer. Everyone plays, and it's something we do with friends. It's a pastime now. So how do you deliver something that is an incredibly enjoyable way to spend time with friends? I think that's been answered in some categories, but not the category of action-adventure."
It's Probably Science Fiction
Recently, Raymond wrote about her affinity for science-fiction universes. When I asked her if this was an allusion to her past experiences with brands like Assassin's Creed or a subtle nod toward her new project, she said, "Well, the point of it was just to point out I have an affinity toward science fiction. [Laughs] Which I do. So, one can make some guesses about what the new project is..."
It's Still In The Early Stages Of Development
Raymond said Motive's new IP has experienced some road bumps of its own, with some people who joined the project early on having already left. Though ideas have been percolating for some time now, the game still hasn't left the conceptual phase as they continue to hire developers for critical leadership roles. "I'm hoping we'll be able to talk about it a bit next year, and you'll see those people up on stage and get a sense of who they are," she said.
Raymond wouldn't say whether or not we'll see this project before or after the open-world Star Wars title. To learn more about the Star Wars game being developed at the same time, check out our news on the talent staffing that Vancouver development team.
The current version of We Happy Few is a much different game than the one that released in early access back in 2016. Developer Compulsion Games listened closely to every bit of feedback it received and expanded its studio significantly in order to bring the game closer to the narrative-focused game many thought it was going to be, based on its early trailers. We spoke with producer Sam Abbott about how and why the game has changed so much during its development and why procedurally-generated levels are still an asset to the We Happy Few Experience.
Game Informer: What is the story of We Happy Few now that is has undergone such big changes. You’re playing as Arthur who seems to be seeking his older brother, and he is not supposed to be in Wellington Wells, from what I gathered from the demo.
Sam Abbott: The story is really Arthur wakes up from being involved with the Joy denial society for so very long because he sees a picture of his brother and is forced to confront his memories and he’s basically gotten to his breaking point where he says, “Well, you know I am not going to forget. I don’t want to go back into the system. I want to break out and find out what happened and I want to leave.” And the story with Arthur is about him remembering his brother and how they used to relate to each other. As he goes along he discovers that, my god, everything in the city is far worse than he thought, because he no longer sees things with those rose-tinted glasses. He is finally seeing it for what it is.
What specifically has changed since the Xbox Game Preview version of the game?
It’s been two years since we launched. How I respond actually depends on when you last played it.
I played a significant portion of the game right when it launched in Game Preview on Xbox One.
Things have changed an astronomical amount since that point. When the game comes out, I think people are going to say that this is one of the games that has changed the most during the Early Access period. And I’m actually quite proud of that.
The way that we looked at this... we were always going to be building a story around it. We launched in Early Access and people said, “This is great! But where’s my story? I’ve got this survival sandbox.” And we were like, “Okay, well, we were building that in the background,” because Early Access is not particularly well-suited to story-based games. Unless you’ve got an episodic model, people don’t want to play just part of a story and that’s really come out a lot in the feedback we’ve gotten over the last two years from players that will say, “Well I played the first couple of versions, but now, actually, I just want to wait and play the full story.”
But the early reception we got – everyone was so enthusiastic and we started getting comparisons to games like BioShock. We were 15 people at the time. So that’s an order of magnitude different from the team that built BioShock. We sort of looked at that and thought we had two options: we can keep building the small game we were thinking of. Or we can say, why don’t we give it a go? Why don’t we build the game we think people are expecting. That’s been the story of the last two years. We scaled up from 15 to 35-40 people internally, and then we have our external QA teams. We have worked and partnered with Gearbox publishing really because at that point we thought, if we’re going to build a big game, we need a partner that actually knows what they are doing and are enthusiastic about the game, because if you’re 15 people you can self-publish and that’s fine. But when you’re making something bigger, we really wanted that support. So we went back and refinanced and did a whole bunch of other stuff. We basically said, “Okay. You want this big old game with this big story? Then we’ll build it.”
Have the survival aspects of the game been scaled back in favor of focusing on the story?
I’ve changed it. Well, I say, “I,” but it was us. With the survival stuff, we received a lot of feedback early on that said, “Hey, I don’t really like survival mechanics.” The thing that was really interesting was there was a natural tension between survival mechanics that kill you and your ability to explore and experience the story. In most games that heavily focus on story, you’re not really at risk of death from not maintaining yourself properly. So, we iterated on that for a good couple of years. We tried just scaling back the duration and rates of thirst and hunger and sleep. We tried just increasing the availability of the items and that sort of thing, but in the end we felt that that wasn’t sufficient so, then we experimented with removing survival mechanics all together. And that was quite successful, but it felt hollow because the game is about a society that’s dying. They’re running out of food; they’ve drugged the water. Everything is laced together thematically and we felt if we removed the food and water completely, then we would be missing a crucial part of the thematic experience. So we thought, "Well, how do we do this and maintain your ability to explore and enjoy the narrative?" And really, basically very simply, we moved to a buff and debuff system. Taking food will give you a buff for a short amount of time, and over a very long period of time, if you don’t take enough, you will be debuffed.
For example, if you don’t sleep every day or two, you will be quite weak in combat. You can still explore. You can still do what you want, you can still play. It won’t change that. It will just make it harder for you. That’s what we’re experimenting with and that’s probably going to be the final design. But you can also make it harder, or you can turn it off completely so you eat and only get buffs. There are no debuffs. We wanted to make sure it was there thematically and had a gameplay purpose, but didn’t inconvenience people who didn’t want to deal with it.
When I played the initial Game Preview version of the game, it played like a typical survival game. I was in an open world, trying to stay alive for as long as I could, and when I died, I had to start over. Is that no longer the main structure of the game? What happens when you die? Do you start over, or pick up where you left off?
That’s your choice. There is a permadeath option for the brave, but most of the time you just play through and reload back to where you were. We’ve changed our whole save system so you’ve got multiple slots like an average, normal story-based game, I guess you could say. It’s there if you want, but otherwise it is now a pretty standard action adventure game.
Are the areas still very open? Or is it more linear to hit all the story moments?
It’s unique. Basically, think of it like scripted, hand-crafted narrative moments and gameplay areas strung together through a procedural open world. For example, you played through the demo and you saw the first island you were on was called Eel Pie Holm. Now that is our tutorial island and that is completely custom because it turns out it’s bloody hard to teach people when you don’t know what they’re going to experience first. We felt like we needed to both teach mechanics, but also introduce the world in a way that gave just a little bit more context. Just a little bit more help.
And then you went across the bridge in the demo and saw the cutscene with the hanged people. As soon you had crossed that bridge, you were in a procedural world. So, that layout changes every time. However, the story and the linear nature of it, is always the same. For example, the train station you were in will always be pretty much across that bridge. But the exact arrangement around it and the threats and challenges you might face will be slightly different. The loot that you find that will help you through your journey will be different, the recipes the crafting – all of that will change.
Likewise, you can have encounters and sidequests that may spawn in one game, but may not spawn necessarily in another game. Although, we’ve dialed that back a lot because we were like, “We’ve really moved away from a highly repeatable one-hour game to a 20-hour experience. Maybe, we should just put it all in there.” So now it’s more like slightly different stuff. It’s not that big a change anymore.
That feeds into my next question, which maybe you can answer in more detail – how long is the game? Are you still trying to see how long you can survive? Or are you seeing a story to the end?
It’s a story. Think of We Happy Few as a single, linear narrative comprised of three characters’ stories. You play through Arthur and it will turn you automatically into Sally’s story, and then into Ollie’s. Basically, the idea is, as you go through the world, each character experiences the world differently, so you get a different procedural world every time, but as you go through, you begin see different perspectives on the society and you learn more about each of these characters and what they’re doing to try and survive and escape from a society they’ve decided is pretty doomed. And the story is not just Arthur’s story. It’s not just Ollie and Sally. It’s the story of the world of Wellington Wells and what happens to a society that’s just not willing to face the truth anymore.
What is the value of having procedurally-generated worlds if you’re not pushing people to replay it repeatedly anymore?
The procedural world was designed mostly with sandbox in mind, but it’s also a really great development tool for us. It means we can focus our time on the core gameplay areas and the bits that string it together are available for exploration and you can kind of choose to engage them or not. It will come back with a fair amount of vengeance in the sandbox mode post-release.
So, there will be a separate mode that will focus on survival, procedural generation, and playing it over and over?
Yeah, it will go back to the roots of what it originally was, because while we built this story we still want to make sure we provide the experience people were initially interested in.
The value of the procedural generation for me is, we’re still a very small team so procedural allows us to build out this world and make it feel rich and complex and interesting. At the same time, if everything was hand-crafted, it would be a hell of a lot smaller and it wouldn’t feel like a city. That’s really, I think, the advantage for us. It’s basically saying, “Well – 35 people. That’s the best way of building our world.”
For more on We Happy Few, head here to learn about its struggle to release in Australia, or you can head here to watch us play the Game Preview version of the game in 2016.
Even if you watched or listened to our podcast interview where BioWare's Jon Warner answers dozens of questions from the community, you might still be looking for details on Anthem. Today Electronic Arts released a gameplay video complete with walkthrough commentary from Anthem's lead producer Ben Irving. The section of gameplay is an extended look at what people played at E3 2018, and even shows a glimpse at what interacting with NPC characters in your mobile station will look like.
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