Les previews sur F.E.A.R. se multiplient : en plus de la nôtre, on pourra lire en français celle de JeuxActu et en anglais celles de Gamespy, CVG, GameHelper ou encore Gamespot. Et on imagine qu’un grand nombre de previews devrait encore apparaître dans les jours à venir.
Mais il y a mieux : VU Games nous a envoyé 10 screenshots du mode multijoueur que nous avons pu essayer hier, et c’est décidément vraiment classe.
En bonus, la version anglaise de l’interview de Kevin Stephens (version française ici).
This interview is transcribed from an audio conversion with Kevin Stephens in Vivendi Universal’s headquarters in Paris.
As a beginning, could you please introduce yourself to our readers?
My name is Kevin Stephens, and I’m the director of technology at Monolith Productions. I oversee all the engineering and technology development for the action division of Monolith productions, so it includes the F.E.A.R. team and the team that made Tron 2.0, which is working on an unannounced product right now.
The mix between action and supernatural events is quite original. How did you get the idea?
Tough question. We started with the concept of making an action movie game, so combat was definitely part of the game and the more we worked on it, looking at the limitations and advantages and the technology we had, we started thinking, you know, our technology would work very well for a game that has a kind of more scary elements, and a lot of the people in the team really liked japanese horror movies, so I think that’s were we kind of started meaning we could bring in, you know, monsters, and something that is more supernatural as well, more subconscious, kind of a *boo*. Well, monsters!
Is the AI in the game scripted or dynamic?
The AI is a very dynamic AI. The AI are always changing, depending on the environment, depending on what the player is doing, where the player is… There are certain sequences where there are some scripted events, but very rarely do we use scripted sequences for the AI, almost never. It gonna be more a kind of a sequence that has to be scary, or something like that. The AI is definetely something were we evolved a lot in the last few years in first-person shooters. We want to make it so anytime you are inner a combat situation, you don’t know what’s gonna happen, you don’t know exactly what’s they gonna do.
Do the enemies organize themselves, like in Far Cry for example?
Yes. Yeah. There are some differences. In general, they kind of work as a small unit, and so they basically try to watch each other’s back. One AI might have to deal with the player and it might be the role of the other AI to cover fire or things like that. There are other situations in the game were they have to work together, but I can’t divulge too much.
Are there tools like videocameras you can control in the game?
Actually, in the multiplayer levels, there are. You can play with that. So, yeah.
Is Slow Motion really useful in the single-player? Can I finish the game without using it?
Yes. The SlowMo feature is something that is kind of the way we as first-person designers give the player a bunch of different tools, and let the player pick what tool they use whenever they want. If you want to use the SlowMo, if you enjoy the SlowMo, you can, and it does give you a tactical advantage. However, if you just decide you don’t like it, you don’t use it, you don’t have to.
So far, we have only seen a sequence in a car and the E3 demo in the building. Are there other locations?
There are multiple environments, yes.
When do you plan to release the game?
It will be a Q2 release.
How many weapons do you plan to have?
A lot. I don’t even know the number, to be honest.
Does the player have to take some decisions at some point during the game?
We don’t have different endings, no. But we have different ways to attack, erm, problems. So you have different paths. But since we are telling a story, it has to be linear. But there definitely ways you can approach differently.
How hard is the hard mode in F.E.A.R?
Is the hard mode really hard? It’s pretty hard! We’re still balancing, but it’s pretty hard, and we thought about maybe making a mode that you unlock that is really hard. It might happen.
Do you plan to do audio commentaries, like in Riddick?
We would love to do that, but I don’t think we’ll have time.
Do you plan to have a public beta?
I can’t comment on that.
One last question: can we expect someday No One Lives Forever 3?
I hope! We love that franchise, so I hope so. We’re not doing it now, it’s just maybe. You never know.
