Crytek talk about Crysis and all the goodies!
At the recent Intel sponsored i29 LAN, HEXUS.gaming sat down for a couple of bevvies and quick chat with Sebastian Spatzek, Crytek’s Q+A Manager and Ben O’Donnell, Associate Producer for Electronic Arts… and there was only one topic of conversation, the hotly anticipated Crysis.
HEXUS.gaming : Guys, thanks for taking the time to have a quick chat with us, I know you’re literally moments away from giving a live demo of a multiplayer level of Crysis.
Seb : That’s ok, we’re all set so it’s time for a quick beer before we go on stage.
HEXUS.gaming : So what you’re showing here is a multiplayer build of Crysis, is that right?
Seb: Nearly, what we’re about to show is a modified version of one of the multiplayer levels which will let us drop-in and show some real time gameplay to the crowd, which we think is gonna get them pretty excited. We’re going to do a video fly-through of the level first, then drop into the game and start showing off some of the cool stuff in Crysis.
HEXUS.gaming : So this is an actual live demo, not just a pre-recorded, pre-rendered video?
Seb : It’s both. We’ll start off with a fly-through to show off the environment, then for the nay-sayers, we’ll drop into the game and start mucking around… so all those people who sit there and say how it’s all pre-rendered and all that, they can see that what we calim the game can do and look like, it will really be true.
HEXUS.gaming : So can you tell us a bit about CryENGINE 2? After all, CryENGINE was something pretty special, you guys just came out of nowhere with FarCry and just wowed everyone… So obviously you guys have now got to do even better this time around… what’s going to be in CryENGINE 2? It’s obviously physics heavy, so is that your own stuff or have you used third party software for this?
Seb : Well the one big thing which is really wowing the crowd is the destructible vegetation, overall the environment will almost completely interactive. So everything the player does has in impact on the surroundings, so not only can you break stuff and it looks pretty, but it also has an impact on the AI and what they do.
Ben : The aim of Crysis, basically, is to have every aspect of the game making your experience completely interactive. I mean, the precedent we’re really pushing with Crysis is that we’re making the player have to outsmart and think about how to outsmart everything in the game. So instead of just being a first person shooter where you have to think about your ammo or your health, with Crysis everything around you is usable, you got this suit, you’ve got different types of ammo, the environment is destructible… So you see some guys over there, you can shoot a tree down and it can kill them… you can use different types of ammo to drop them wherever you want… I think really, to get an idea of how immersive this all is, you have to view it as a whole rather than just components because it all adds to the experience.
HEXUS.gaming : So what’s this suit you just mentioned? What’s special about that?
Ben : Well it’s a muscular nano suit…
HEXUS.gaming : Oh yeah, I saw one of those in Millets the other day…
Ben : (laughing) Yeah, they’re pretty cool actually… but basically what it does is to augment your basic abilities, so you can dial up your strength, speed or your armour.
HEXUS.gaming : A bit like the old triangle of power that we had in the X-Wing games? Where you could increase shields, speed or weapons power?
Ben : Yeah, exactly. It’ll give you a cloak as well… and it shows how long you’ve been playing games to remember X-Wing!
HEXUS.gaming : Yeah, yeah, so I’m getting old… ah those 386 days…
Ben : Yeah… but the thing with the nano suit is you have to think about how you’re using it as well, because it all runs on energy meters, so there’s a risk versus reward aspect. You could use your speed to escape a situation but that’ll use your energy up pretty quickly. If you then want to replenish your armour in defence mode, you have to think about what energy you’ve used and if you can get to some place to recharge. So that’s all part of the gameplay experience and it all adds to the game as a whole.
Check the next page for more on the AI and immersion...
