GM: Let’s talk a little bit about disguises. How do they work? Are you able to change into just about anything?
IOI: There is a lot of differentiation within the A.I. especially when it comes to disguises. Of course you have to find the right disguise, stealing womens clothing for example doesn’t work. You also need to find the right size of an outfit before you can take it, since in theory if you could take anyone’s disguise you would just dilute the game and make it meaningless. And let’s face it, wearing clothes which belonged to a fat guy wouldn’t make you blend in very well. There are also some other added bonuses to wearing certain disguises. As an example, if you manage to get yourself a S.W.A.T. outfit, it would actually make you a bit tougher since it has extra armor.
GM: During our demo when saw Agent 47 escape from the cops, the game seemed to transition into an action mode of sorts, like a blockbuster movie. The music got louder, and it seemed that the pace of the game picked up as well. Was this something that you did intentionally?
IOI: Yes, we want to be able to pace the game differently at certain key moments. That helicopter encounter during the getaway is linear in nature, because we want the player to feel pressure; they are hunted, and they are on the run. But as you play the game, the A.I. is able to keep up with your style of playing. Let’s say you are playing in stealth and decide go into action, the game will pick up pace and begin to play as action movie. However if you retreat back into stealth and hide, the game will go back to more of a thriller like feel. Whether it be sound, music, or lighting, everything is geared to be a seamless transition. Even silent assassins sometimes get into situations where they need to “put the hammer down” so to speak, but these staged moments are very open so there are still a lot of things that you can do within the encounters.
GM: So then, how scripted is the game? You mentioned in the demo that players will be able to do things their own way, how ever they choose to play the game.
IOI: It’s true. There are some scripted moments, but in general how you play the game is up to you. What you saw in the demo is all optional; there are many different ways and situations to go about completing a certain mission. If you take a disguise in the library for example, the game would play totally different compared to the demo we showed. There are also a lot of smaller story arcs within the game and narratives that you’ll pick up as you progress through. These will help you a bit if you don’t know what to do; listening and watching to those interactions will give you some ideas on how you can move further ahead.
We also wanted to play on what the player might be thinking, feeling and experiencing as they play the game, and make it more personal. Maybe as you play the library level, you really start to hate the arrogant Sargeant who is bent on getting you. So you can choose to isolate and kill him off without anyone noticing, making your own “hit” which is independent of the main objective. At that point the rest of the level will obviously play out differently since the Sarge is not around anymore. Of course there is always the action route if you don’t want to play in stealth. But then expect SWAT to show up and getting out of the library will be quite difficult. There is a wide spectrum on what you can do, as we want players to each have a different experience and tell their friends how they played their own story. And you get to see the game from different angles, which adds a lot of replay value.
