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Cipher Complex: Less Stealth, More Action
etoychest
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
OK, not sure if this game is on anyone's radar. It is a ways off yet, like by a year or so. Anyway, it's a stealth ACTION game in development by Edge of Reality. Who? Yea, well they made games for other companies' IPs before now, and will continue to do so, but last year forged a new division to make original stuff. Cipher Complex is the first product to result.
I wote a preview for it here, which you can read if you want, but essentially, it is trying to bring more action to the genre, instead of being so much much of a cat and mouse game like MGS or SC.
I also got some insight into the game from the creative director, Thomas Coles, which I'll break down for you below. The game is slated for a late 2007 release, but that could mean anything really. Look for it on the PS3 and Xbox 360.
Who is the character of John Cipher? How does he stack up to the Solid Snakes and Sam Fishers of the game world?
There isn’t much I can say about John Cipher, most of his information is classified. I can tell you that in this mission he was supposed to go in as part of a Recon force, but something gives them away and most of the team ends up dead. Cipher has to go on this mission alone. He has backup in the form of Joint Operations Intel and an NSA analysis team backing him up via communications devices. In the end though’ John “Cipher†Sullivan is his own man - I think that pretty much sums it up. Snake and Sam Fisher are pretty much “intelligence officersâ€â€¦ members of groups within the NSA or a similar group. Sullivan is hardcore military… a member of the Pentagon’s Combat Applications Group.
What does the setting add to Cipher Complex?
One of our goals was to make the location just as much of a character in the game full of mystery, intrigue and danger…you can expect copious amounts of each in the decommissioned complex. Many contemporary games don’t really use the environment as part of the storytelling because they move from locale to locale so quickly. We want to make the location important to the player… need to take out the facilities primary missile defenses… where would you go to do that? We want the relationships of the spaces around the player to be meaningful to the gameplay.
What does this game mean (or what do you hope it will mean) to the stealth action genre?
Where we’re at right now is with a game that allows the player to be more aggressive and to have more choices in how he plays. Mainstream games in the action/shooting segment involve a lot more “reflex†gameplay that those in the stealth genre… the player is given a stimulus and he quickly responds to it. In most stealth games, the player is given a stimulus (i.e. an enemy that is blocking him from progressing through the level), and he has to wait for an opportunity to strike. We want to lower that barrier so that players can move more often when they choose and have tools to deal with the fallout of their actions, as opposed to being forced into waiting for short windows of opportunity. We’re not looking to re-invent the genre, just take some of the greatest aspects of it, add in some of our own key ideas and make it something everyone can enjoy. I think people will really get into the “aggressive infiltration†we’re devising, it gives you more freedom than other games while still keeping it realistic, engrossing and fast paced.
What does the adrenaline meter and the ability to preform moves at superhuman speeds add to the game?
The adrenaline meter and the moves are really the biggest keys to the gameplay we’ve got in mind. You want to be quick, stealthy and get close to execute precision close quarters attacks. The heart of “aggressive infiltration†is your ability to get in close then hit hard and fast, then get out. The addition of these features lets the player take more chances, and play the game on a more ragged edge than the “hard†failures you get in most stealth games. In Cipher Complex, the player is deadly within 10 feet of an enemy, not only when he’s a foot or two behind the enemy, and it turns out this makes all the difference in the world.
I wote a preview for it here, which you can read if you want, but essentially, it is trying to bring more action to the genre, instead of being so much much of a cat and mouse game like MGS or SC.
I also got some insight into the game from the creative director, Thomas Coles, which I'll break down for you below. The game is slated for a late 2007 release, but that could mean anything really. Look for it on the PS3 and Xbox 360.
Who is the character of John Cipher? How does he stack up to the Solid Snakes and Sam Fishers of the game world?
There isn’t much I can say about John Cipher, most of his information is classified. I can tell you that in this mission he was supposed to go in as part of a Recon force, but something gives them away and most of the team ends up dead. Cipher has to go on this mission alone. He has backup in the form of Joint Operations Intel and an NSA analysis team backing him up via communications devices. In the end though’ John “Cipher†Sullivan is his own man - I think that pretty much sums it up. Snake and Sam Fisher are pretty much “intelligence officersâ€â€¦ members of groups within the NSA or a similar group. Sullivan is hardcore military… a member of the Pentagon’s Combat Applications Group.
What does the setting add to Cipher Complex?
One of our goals was to make the location just as much of a character in the game full of mystery, intrigue and danger…you can expect copious amounts of each in the decommissioned complex. Many contemporary games don’t really use the environment as part of the storytelling because they move from locale to locale so quickly. We want to make the location important to the player… need to take out the facilities primary missile defenses… where would you go to do that? We want the relationships of the spaces around the player to be meaningful to the gameplay.
What does this game mean (or what do you hope it will mean) to the stealth action genre?
Where we’re at right now is with a game that allows the player to be more aggressive and to have more choices in how he plays. Mainstream games in the action/shooting segment involve a lot more “reflex†gameplay that those in the stealth genre… the player is given a stimulus and he quickly responds to it. In most stealth games, the player is given a stimulus (i.e. an enemy that is blocking him from progressing through the level), and he has to wait for an opportunity to strike. We want to lower that barrier so that players can move more often when they choose and have tools to deal with the fallout of their actions, as opposed to being forced into waiting for short windows of opportunity. We’re not looking to re-invent the genre, just take some of the greatest aspects of it, add in some of our own key ideas and make it something everyone can enjoy. I think people will really get into the “aggressive infiltration†we’re devising, it gives you more freedom than other games while still keeping it realistic, engrossing and fast paced.
What does the adrenaline meter and the ability to preform moves at superhuman speeds add to the game?
The adrenaline meter and the moves are really the biggest keys to the gameplay we’ve got in mind. You want to be quick, stealthy and get close to execute precision close quarters attacks. The heart of “aggressive infiltration†is your ability to get in close then hit hard and fast, then get out. The addition of these features lets the player take more chances, and play the game on a more ragged edge than the “hard†failures you get in most stealth games. In Cipher Complex, the player is deadly within 10 feet of an enemy, not only when he’s a foot or two behind the enemy, and it turns out this makes all the difference in the world.
etoychest on
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Posts
So they say.
It's really hard to pen a stealth action game and make it not feel generic, at least that is how it seems. I mean we've all played our share of games like Psi Ops, Rouge Ops, Spy Fiction, or whatever the fuck else. I like the whole slow down time thing, but really, we'll just have to wait and see. Given the company's pedigree though, I can't help but think this one will come and go as fast as its hero.
What else have they worked on?