Xbox 360 |
by Dan Nicolae Alexa |
2nd February 2008 |
Dark Sector |
Jeuxvideo.com has recently interviewed David Kudirka, a former gaming
journalist who is now the executive producer for Digital Extremes' Dark
Sector game.
Since the interview (which you can find
here) is in French, here's the translation:
JF: Which are the elements that according to your opinion differentiate Dark Sector from other titles?
David Kudirka: First of all, what gives specificity to the game is the
use of the Glaive. It is truly a unique weapon. You have to sometimes
use it in combination with fire-arms, but you must also use its new
capabilities, acquired during the game, in order to create new styles
of combat. That changes a lot compared to a simple shooter. And as you
advance through the game you'll find more weapons and more ammunition.
Moreover, with the Glaive [attached to his body], the hero himself is
like a weapon. So he evolves and becomes stronger, which is a very
interesting element in a game that wanted to be very open.
JF: During the presentation we've seen a lot of intermediary sequences.
Their proportion seemed quite important. Just to provoke you a bit,
we're just tempted to say if there's any room left for gameplay between
two cinematics...
DK: Your impressions are justified by the fact that you've essentially
seen only the debut of the game. There are indeed a lot of cinematic
sequences at this moment, because they serve the purpose of revealing
the intrigue. On the other hand, and I speak in the name of the team,
we hate cinematics that are too long. We don't like having to sit
around and passively watch those sequences, we prefer playing. However
we've had the chance of [having/benefiting from] Michael Rosenbaum's
help- Lex Luthor in the Smallville series- to double Hayden's
character. So it's an advantage that has allowed us to add a bit of
profoundness and depth to the revelations that we make during the game
for all heroes in the game.
JF: But the dramatic modifications that Hayden suffers, are they taking place during the cinematics or during the playable part?
DK: The weapons-enhancements will be available during the gameplay,
while [Hayden's] personal evolution will occur during the short
cinematic sequences arriving after the boss-fights.
JF: Precisely what do these modifications/evolutions refer to?
DK: First of all [the ability] to recover the Glaive, afterwards it's
the capacity to use [the Glaive] to generate a force field and
eventually [Hayden's capacity] to render himself invisible. [This last
ability] is rather short, so he'll have to use it wisely.
JF: Also concerning what you've shown us [today]: there's one moment
when Hayden is grabbed by an enemy and [the player] has to push a
button [on the controller] to escape. Will there be more complicated
button combinations or are we going to have to solve similar situations
using a single button?
DK: We've recently changed all that. At the beginning, we had opted for
increasingly complicated combinations with more and more buttons.
Currently, we're back at a single button, but the more powerful the
enemy will be, the shorter the time to press the button displayed on
the screen will be. And every error will generate a "penalty" whose
severity/intensity will depend proportionally on the strength of the
adversary.
JF: During the development, which was the first element to come into focus, the action or the tactics?
DK: Definitely the action, although it's true there's a strategic part
in the game too. [Hayden] can attack his enemies in different ways.
We've constructed the levels so that the player which traverses them
decides for himself what he/she can do to eliminate the foes in front
of him. Actually, I'm sure that if you go to the same place for the
second time, you'll see things differently. I've been playing this game
for almost a year now and, although the [source] code hasn't changed,
it always happens that [I stumble upon] a new trick, simply because I
choose to do things in a different way.
JF: Have you thought of a co-op mode?
DK: Yes, but we've preferred to concentrate on the single-player mode in order to better shape Hayden's character.
JF: Is there a PC version [of the game] envisaged?
DK: Absolutely not. We do have the capacity [to come up with a PC
version], but this is not something we have in mind for the moment.
JF: Is this decision linked to the fact that Dark Sector is a
third-person shooter, a genre which is more popular on consoles than on
PC, where we generally prefer first person shooters?
DK: I totally agree with you on that, but this is not something that
we've taken into account. The most important thing for us was to depict
our character in all the possible situations, whether he's ready to
reload or whether he's taking cover. We've taken our time in building
and polishing convincing animations, no matter the weapon [Hayden] is
carrying. Or, in an FPS, [all these elements] are hidden behind the
subjective perspective of [the first person] camera.
JF: Hayden would be a great character for a comics-book. Are you
planning to sell the license to a publisher willing to adapt it for
cartoons?
DK: It's funny that you say that, because actually we've already
published a promotion comics-book in November [last year] called Dark
Sector Zero and which is sort of a prologue to the game. Hayden is
essentially a super-hero or us, so such adaptation would make sense.
JF: In the same manner, more and more games are made into movies. Who do you see playing Hayden's role in the future?
DK: To be frank, I haven't seen a single movie made from a video-game
that's good enough to make me push Dark Sector to the big screens. But
that's just my personal opinion...
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