One of the companies we had the pleasure of visiting at PAX South were gracious enough to grant us early access and short interviews based off their games.
Antimatter Games and Tripwire Interactive bring us their most anticipated sequel to their PC Gamer’s 2013 “Multiplayer Game of the Year”.
This game casts 64 players into a ferocious, convincing recreation of the Vietnam War. One side takes the role of the US troops while the other controls the Vietnamese. Each of course with their own unique abilities and tactical advantages.
We sat down with Allen Wilson the vice president of Tripwire for a quick interview about the game:
Allen: It’s not forgiving. It’s brutal. We get enough of a situation where players who know what they’re doing, players who know the map, you know it gets hard. If someone gets within the first few hours alone, you know they’re hooked. We always have this situation where a number of people who come in and go, “Whoa I’m just dying,” and then go “Yeah I’m out,”. It becomes one of those, you know, it’s not forgiving. But it becomes so much more than that you know? When you get that first kill with the gold action rifle from 150 meters, I felt I’ve really earned that you know? That is worth something. One of the things we talked about is skills gap. The skills gap between the very good and the very bad is kind of small. We allow more of a skills gap so that when people get to be really good in what they do, they feel rewarded for it. You don’t want them to just dominate everybody but you kind of want people who have put their time in to learn the nuisances of this weapon or of this weapon. You want them to feel and be rewarded. But the fine balance is for when people are barely starting in they’ll have a chance to, they wont just feel like they’re being passed through a meat grinder. For Vietnam, everyone who wants an automatic weapon will have an automatic weapon and that makes a big difference. In the olden games when we were doing Eastern Front: World War II, if your first experience is a bolt action rifle in trenches…that’s hard to do. Automatic weapons you know just leave it on full auto and when someone surprises you… (Machine gun mimicry with accompanying sound; Brrrrr…Brrrr)
FRANK: Yeah I think I did that by accident once in there in one of the little huts.
ALLEN: Yeah it happens like that.
FRANK: Well I had a blast playing this game. Even though I kind of sucked at it, I did manage to bring down 4 Americans. Oh yeah, I was a Vietnamese.
(laughs)
ALLEN: Well I’m glad you enjoyed it.
As I stated, I did kind of suck at this game seeing as I was killed about 6 times BUT out of those 6 times I did manage to kill 4 Americans. So all in all not too shabby.
The graphics looked really good and one thing I took away from this was how authentic it really did look to pictures I’ve seen of the Vietnam War. There will be plenty of maps ranging from the jungles of ‘Nam, in cities and rolling hills, in US Firebases, rice fields and plantations.
The really cool thing here is if you’re playing on the US side, you will actually be able to pilot 3 different types of helicopters for all your attacking needs.
One thing I enjoyed immensely that Mr. Wilson did state, is they wont be focusing on class ranks, weapon upgrades or unlocked features. While this may be off putting to some gamers, (COD fanatics) I urge you to not be dissuaded by this decision. As they stated “We want to put to put the tools to succeed in the hands of every player,”. And to that I say kudos!
Now, moving on to the opposite side of the spectrum; horror and monsters. Well, I mean Vietnam was horror at it’s finest. And some monsters were perhaps present during the war…I meant in the fictional aspect. You know, kind of like zombies and spider-creatures?
Killing Floor: Incursion is one game I was anticipating. I had seen the large line they had to try out for a 10 minute plus demo, I had seen the gameplay footage and I was ecstatic. Before I geared up to play, we had a chance to speak to Al Nelson; Strategic Consultant for Tripwire about the game:
AL: You know one of our biggest titles was the original Killing Floor which we supported for 5 or 6 years on Steam. We also did the Red Orchestra series; so Red Orchestra, Red Orchestra 2. Rising Storm which was the pacific theatre in World War II. Now this game here Killing Floor: Incursion is based on the Killing Floor universe but it’s a completely different game. Because it is built for VR. Oculus Touch exclusive. So the gameplay is a little bit different, it’s not a fast paced first person shooter, it’s more…you move kind of via teleportation system. And there are more survival horror elements like you find in puzzle pieces. You know it has more jump out moments where like creatures jump out at you and you know it’s also co-op too so that’s pretty exciting. I think we’re the first or one of the first co-op games on the Oculus Touch.
FRANK: Is there a release date on the horizon yet?
AL: We haven’t announced a release date but it is coming out this year. Oculus Touch just came out in December so it’s still pretty new.
FRANK: We’ll, I haven’t played it yet but I will definitely keep an eye out for it. That is after I buy my Oculus Touch. This game is going to be the deciding factor of whether I should buy a Touch or not.
AL: Well when you do play, you won’t be disappointed.
And how right was Al?
Well…I’ve done calculations and if I purchase the complete Oculus set at Best Buy, I should be able to eat again in 5 months…But you know what’s a great little word that allows me to purchase the Touch and still eat out??? CREDIT BABY!!
The controls at first are a little tricky to get a hold of but within the first 3-4 minutes you quickly master them. After that, it is literally your own movie of terror-ific proportions. It puts you PAST the front and center seats as you navigate through a seemingly deserted road picking up a few bits of ammo and health kits.
One by one however the creatures begin to emerge from all directions and using your guns and knives, you go at it with everything you got. This truly is a little horror gem that is perfect for the Oculus Touch.
Follow them on social media to get up-to-date updates on these 2 excellent games and others of course.
http://www.KillingFloorIncursion.com.
https://www.facebook.com/tripwireinteractive
https://twitter.com/TripwireInt
https://www.instagram.com/tripwireinteractive/