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Return to Castle Wolfenstein
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Recensioni
Speciali
Interviste
Anteprime
Notizie
di Simone Soletta, 7/11/2000 Intervista
Return to Castle Wolfenstein - inglese
We couldn't put our hands on it, but we stared at the screen looking at the wonderful visuals and gameplay of the new version of Wolfenstein 3D.
The new game from id Software, the new game based on one of the most impressive game engine ever made, the new episode of the beloved Wolfenstein 3D, the new... Whatever you want!
We could finally see an early version of the game and we were really impressed, so we decided to interview Jonathan Knight from the development team, just to discover some news on Return to Castle Wolfenstein. Enjoy!
Nextgame.it: Well, compliments: what you showed us today was really impressive. From what we have seen the game seems not to consider any kind of "simulative" stuff, but the focus of the gameplay is mainly in action. Considering the particular period of the plot, didn't you think of putting things like weapon jamming in the game? You know, with those particular weapons things like that usually happened and looking at the wonderful way you reproduced the visuals of every single weapon this could be a good idea.
Jonathan Knight: What we want to achieve with Return to Castle Wolfenstein is a very immediate game. There won't be jamming and the player doesn't have to be worry about reloading as well. We want the game to be fun and the player to concentrate on the plot.
Nextgame.it: Today we've seen lots of firing (flamethrower is wonderful!), but it seems every shot produces the same damage, no matter where you hit the enemy.
Jonathan Knight: In the final version we're gonna have different spots to shot at, obviously you can give more damage shooting one instead of another. You can aim to chest, arms, legs, head... A sniper can easily make "one-shot-kills" by aiming at an enemy's head. Talking about the visuals, we are going to put more things, such as facial animation and all this stuff
Nextgame.it: You showed us how we can take advantage of enemy weapons, will we be able to drive vehicles as well?
Jonathan Knight: The game is currently under development... This could be a very good idea, but I can't say if we're gonna put it in the game or not. I can't even say how many levels the game will have at this time.
Nextgame.it: The starting of the demonstration showed a scene that was pretty like the first minutes of Saving Private Ryan. We've noticed things like that almost everywhere, things taken from movies like The Guns of Navarone and others from the same genre. Will the background be historical or not? And were you inspired by movies like that?
Jonathan Knight: Of course, we were inspired a lot from those movies, but our plot is darker... More "Wolfenstein"! The game starts in a very history-based way and presents events very realistic and inspired by what happened in those days. Later the plot will follow other directions, much darker ones. If you think at a guy like Himmler and at his experiments... Well he was really Insane, he himself believed he was some sort of reincarnation of a prince. He made terrible experiments on humans and in Return to Castle Wolfenstein we point on it. What if his researches gave a result? What are we going to find in the castle? Undeads, Zombies, freaking poor creatures, result of failed experiments (like what Ripley found in Alien 4, NdEd).
Tha game has a very strong plot and, because of this, Return to Castle Wolfenstein will be a Single Player shooter. We will surely provide a multiplayer section, but the real core of the game is in the plot, in the single player mode.
Nextgame.it: Are we going to relate to other soldiers, will we be able to talk and command the others or will the AI help us in some way, putting others to cover us in particular situations?
Jonathan Knight: The idea of the game is much more "one-man-vs-nazis", as it was in Wolfenstein 3D. There will be interesting characters to relate with, but not in during the gameplay... You won't need to command them or to talk with them. The missions are not cooperative, it's just you against the evil Nazis.
Nextgame.it: No cooperative mode in multiplayer?
Jonathan Knight: Well, in the multiplayer side something like that can be made, but, again, I can't say if we will put it in the game at this time. We are now in that moment where you have tons of ideas and you have to consider what is good for the game and what is not. We will surely have a Deatmatch mode, but you can expect much more!
Nextgame.it: On the technical side, you pushed the Quake III Arena engine a lot: the visuals are really impressive! Did you modify it a lot and what where the things you had to adapt to use it for Return to Castle Wolfenstein?
Jonathan Knight: Well, apart from the visuals, we had to re-write the scripting language of the engine: now it is able to handle events and complex animations. It was unuseful before because of Quake III Arena's philosophy. Being a multiplayer-only game these things weren't needed.
Nextgame.it: Quake III Arena supported just A3D environmental audio API. Now that Aureal has been bought by Creative Labs, will you consider supporting latest EAX as well?
Jonathan Knight: I can't say right now what kind of technologies we are going to support, it's too early.
Well, That's it. Too bad the release date has still to be decided: this means a lot of time before the game hits the road. We are confident, thank of today's tests on the game, that Return to Castle Wolfenstein will not disappoint FPS lovers.
We could finally see an early version of the game and we were really impressed, so we decided to interview Jonathan Knight from the development team, just to discover some news on Return to Castle Wolfenstein. Enjoy!
Nextgame.it: Well, compliments: what you showed us today was really impressive. From what we have seen the game seems not to consider any kind of "simulative" stuff, but the focus of the gameplay is mainly in action. Considering the particular period of the plot, didn't you think of putting things like weapon jamming in the game? You know, with those particular weapons things like that usually happened and looking at the wonderful way you reproduced the visuals of every single weapon this could be a good idea.
Jonathan Knight: What we want to achieve with Return to Castle Wolfenstein is a very immediate game. There won't be jamming and the player doesn't have to be worry about reloading as well. We want the game to be fun and the player to concentrate on the plot.
Nextgame.it: Today we've seen lots of firing (flamethrower is wonderful!), but it seems every shot produces the same damage, no matter where you hit the enemy.
Jonathan Knight: In the final version we're gonna have different spots to shot at, obviously you can give more damage shooting one instead of another. You can aim to chest, arms, legs, head... A sniper can easily make "one-shot-kills" by aiming at an enemy's head. Talking about the visuals, we are going to put more things, such as facial animation and all this stuff
Nextgame.it: You showed us how we can take advantage of enemy weapons, will we be able to drive vehicles as well?
Jonathan Knight: The game is currently under development... This could be a very good idea, but I can't say if we're gonna put it in the game or not. I can't even say how many levels the game will have at this time.
Nextgame.it: The starting of the demonstration showed a scene that was pretty like the first minutes of Saving Private Ryan. We've noticed things like that almost everywhere, things taken from movies like The Guns of Navarone and others from the same genre. Will the background be historical or not? And were you inspired by movies like that?
Jonathan Knight: Of course, we were inspired a lot from those movies, but our plot is darker... More "Wolfenstein"! The game starts in a very history-based way and presents events very realistic and inspired by what happened in those days. Later the plot will follow other directions, much darker ones. If you think at a guy like Himmler and at his experiments... Well he was really Insane, he himself believed he was some sort of reincarnation of a prince. He made terrible experiments on humans and in Return to Castle Wolfenstein we point on it. What if his researches gave a result? What are we going to find in the castle? Undeads, Zombies, freaking poor creatures, result of failed experiments (like what Ripley found in Alien 4, NdEd).
Tha game has a very strong plot and, because of this, Return to Castle Wolfenstein will be a Single Player shooter. We will surely provide a multiplayer section, but the real core of the game is in the plot, in the single player mode.
Nextgame.it: Are we going to relate to other soldiers, will we be able to talk and command the others or will the AI help us in some way, putting others to cover us in particular situations?
Jonathan Knight: The idea of the game is much more "one-man-vs-nazis", as it was in Wolfenstein 3D. There will be interesting characters to relate with, but not in during the gameplay... You won't need to command them or to talk with them. The missions are not cooperative, it's just you against the evil Nazis.
Nextgame.it: No cooperative mode in multiplayer?
Jonathan Knight: Well, in the multiplayer side something like that can be made, but, again, I can't say if we will put it in the game at this time. We are now in that moment where you have tons of ideas and you have to consider what is good for the game and what is not. We will surely have a Deatmatch mode, but you can expect much more!
Nextgame.it: On the technical side, you pushed the Quake III Arena engine a lot: the visuals are really impressive! Did you modify it a lot and what where the things you had to adapt to use it for Return to Castle Wolfenstein?
Jonathan Knight: Well, apart from the visuals, we had to re-write the scripting language of the engine: now it is able to handle events and complex animations. It was unuseful before because of Quake III Arena's philosophy. Being a multiplayer-only game these things weren't needed.
Nextgame.it: Quake III Arena supported just A3D environmental audio API. Now that Aureal has been bought by Creative Labs, will you consider supporting latest EAX as well?
Jonathan Knight: I can't say right now what kind of technologies we are going to support, it's too early.
Well, That's it. Too bad the release date has still to be decided: this means a lot of time before the game hits the road. We are confident, thank of today's tests on the game, that Return to Castle Wolfenstein will not disappoint FPS lovers.