Joe Faulstick: Irrational had already put a lot of work into our Unreal based Vengeance Engine while working on Tribes: Vengeance, so it only made sense for us to use the same technology as a starting point for Swat 4. What has the Unreal engine allowed you to do? Why was the decision made not to create your own engine as you have done in the past? Elite is as it sounds, with a strict score requirement that forces the player to think carefully about proper use of force if they want to continue on to the next mission. Medium and Hard add in a minimum score requirement which reflects how well the player followed police procedure. In the easy mode, the player just has to successfully complete all of the mission objectives in order to proceed to the next mission. The difficulties in Swat 4 are 'Easy, Medium, Hard, and Elite', each with scaling requirements for mission success. We decided to flesh out the characters and back stories for each mission rather than go for an interconnected story approach. Joe Faulstick: Each mission is a stand-alone assignment for the player's Swat element. We've got a few really good Swat players in the office - though that didn't help us in our airsoft match against a real-life Swat team!Ĭan you give a bit of background on the story of the game and tasks that players may undertake during the game? Will there be different difficulty levels where in 'easy' you can lose a unit without mission over but in hard you can't, or something to that effect? We had the privilege of getting some hands on training with a local Swat team in the Boston area. Our Swat training did not just come in the form of lecture, though. The level of information he provided was far more useful than any book could have been. Ken enlightened us on Swat procedures and experiences. Thatcher is a long-time Swat veteran currently serving as an element leader for the Los Angeles Police Department. Joe Faulstick: We were lucky enough to have Ken Thatcher on board to consult with during development. What has your team done to make sure it's the most authentic simulation of police combat available? How much influence have real SWAT team members had on the game? Essentially, they can issue any command to their team without ever taking their hands off of the mouse or movement keys. ![]() The GCI allows the player to command their squad with their second mouse button without needing to dial in multiple keyboard button presses. ![]() Swat 3's command interface was a bit complex for the casual crowd, so we tasked ourselves with designing an interface that has all of the same capabilities yet is easier to use and so our Graphic Command Interface was born. ![]() One way in which we tried to make the game more accessible to the 'new and casual' gamer audience was in the control interface. There's a fine line between making something more accessible and 'dumbing it down'. Joe Faulstick: One of the key challenges in developing Swat 4 was making the game more accessible to the casual gamers while maintaining the complexity that made Swat 3 such a hit tactical shooter. How have you retained this yet made the game accessible to a lot more people who want to play in an action style? SWAT 3 was seen as one of the most 'hardcore' games available at the time due to its authenticity in replicating what the SWAT teams do.
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