Ken Levine has discussed some of the influences and comparisons with his as-yet-untitled first game for new studio, Ghost Story.
The creator of Bioshock has previously said that his new project aims to be a replayable narrative game, and cited Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor's Nemesis System (which had NPCs remember and react to your actions in it open world) as the sort of direction he'd like to take it in.
In an onstage interview at EGX Rezzed in London, Levine once again brought up the action-RPG as an inspiration, but added that his new game would take the idea of a reactive narrative much further:
"The game that inspired me most - that we were maybe onto something, on the right track - was Shadow of Mordor with the Nemesis System. [...] That was a very limited, rudimentary approach to it, that covers a very narrow area.
"It’s more of a metanarrative, and there’s not a lot of dialogue support for that stuff, so our thing is much more ambitious. That sort of gave us, like, ‘OK, maybe we’re not completely crazy in what we’re trying to do.'"
Levine called the process of a game openly reacting to a player's actions 'Radical Recognition', and explained its importance to the new game:
"One of the most important things about what we're doing now is this concept of Radical Recognition [...] that if the player does something, the game should - as often as we can - recognise that accomplishment, or failure, or whatever it is, and find ways to have the world feed back that it cares [...] The heart of that is something that’s central to our game."
Once again, Levine explained that the project would not be a narrative game in the way Telltale Games' projects are:
"They're still built on a different model, sort of a branching structure model [...] Our game is a deeply systemic game, underpinning everything from gameplay to narrative.
"To be able to then have a narrative that seems traditional - like our other games [Bioshock or System Shock 2], one of those kind of narratives - but can react and comment on much more small-level actions the player takes - that's the goal."
While Levine still won't discuss the game in a particularly open way - or even reveal a title - he continued to drop small hints throughout the talk. Other facets of the game he discussed included:
- That it would be more like Bioshock than a Bethesda game in the way it was set in a smaller, highly detailed world.
- That while there was "nothing quite like" the new game's sci-fi narrative, there are probably similarities to be drawn with System Shock 2.
- That Levine's been inspired by the industry's recent trend towards not trying to please all players, allowing for more challenging games, with communities built around unlocking their secrets.
There's still far more to learn - not least when we'll get to play the thing. Levine has previously said that the best place to learn more as it comes out will be Ghost Story Games' website.
Joe Skrebels is IGN's UK News Editor, and he wants to teach a game to tell him he is the best at it. This is his goal. Follow him on Twitter.
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire