Exclusive: Mortyr II Q&A Feature

Gamers with a good memory will remember the original Mortyr, Developed by Mirage; the game is an action-packed follow-up to the successful original. The sequel is set during World War II and follows British Intelligence Officer Sven Mortyr, who is sent to his Nordic homeland to investigate rumours of a Nazi super-weapon. Sven is horrified to find his own father has been forced to work on the unit, and must therefore use all his covert skills to infiltrate the Nazi stronghold, prevent the completion of the weapon and rescue his father.

Derek dela Fuente spoke with Pawel Kalinowski, Producer of Mortyr 2.

Is Mortyr 2 a true follow up to the original game and what made the original such a success?

Mortyr was the first modern WWII action shooter, which paved the way for other extremely successful titles like Return to Castle Wolfenstein and Medal of Honor. What we did in the original was to create a coherent world where flocks of bad Nazis were sent to guard the Wunderwaffe. While M1 had much more sci-fi elements with time travelling and futuristic weapons, M2 focuses and expands on the core ingredients the audience liked the most - loads of Nazis to eliminate with special, but real life based, weapons. M2 is our return to pure playability and added realism.

What has the team been working on over the last 3 years as it does appear that Mortyr 2 has been a long time coming?

During the programming of M2, we have made several other games, from small projects for our local territories to GBC hit Robocop. We were trying our luck with the lucrative franchise of Warhammer 40K, but as a small player we couldn't compete with the big fish that finally acquired that licence. However the project that took most of our time was the game Sniper. Mortyr 2 itself took us two years to develop, a relatively long time, mainly due to expanding the initial design to satisfy the expectations of the audience. I must say that these expectations, the general level of interest and positive feedback in our project have surprised and pleased us immensely.

How focused is the team on new technologies and can you tell us a little about the game engine?

Obviously new technology is important for us, especially where is supports playability. By creating the engine from scratch we wanted to build a solid base for our future games, but first of all we wanted to be 100% responsible for what we do. The fact is that buying the 3rd party engine is overall more cost-effective than building our own tools, but we once had a very unpleasant experience with â??well-marketedâ?? but ultimately flawed engines that cost us a small fortune!! Right now however we have full control over the code. From the gamers point of view the Mortyr 2 engine (codename Argon) has got everything to provide a smooth and pleasant experience - skeletal animation, physics simulation, real-time shadows, fancy pixel shading, etc. We are sure that it will meet everyoneâ??s expectations.

What is the backdrop story to the game?

To cut a long story short - Sven Mortyr, a British Intelligence Officer with Nordic roots, is sent back home to Norway on a secret mission to reveal Nazi plans of total world domination with a weapon of unimaginable power. While crossing the border into Norway, Sven and his companions are ambushed. Being the only survivor Sven decides to continue with the mission. But, first he must meet with Gunnar, Allies' agent in Nazi panzer formation Viking��.

The original game came at a time when FPSâ??s were the hottest genre of games. Do you believe that you can be competitive amidst such tough competition?

The competition is very fierce indeed, but there is still space for a refreshing, reasonably priced and immensely playable game. And the competition also assures us that the theme of the game was chosen correctly.

Tells us about Sven, his skills and some of his varied tasks? Perhaps you can also expand on a favourite event of yours in the game?

Sven Mortyr was born in Norway to a family with a rich military history. He and his mother left for England in the early 1930s where Sven joined a Military Academy. When the war broke out, Sven joined the army and was rapidly promoted to Lieutenant and started working with British Intelligence.

My favourite mission is marking Karl with colourful smoke from gas containers for a Soviet air strike. Karl is a gigantic mortar, one of several interesting weapons present in the game.

There are levels set in Poland, Greece, etc. What distinguishes each location?

Besides standard FPS action we wanted to give every location some different bonus modes of gameplay. There is shooting from stationary MG42 in snow levels, stationary Rocket launchers and shooting from riding Kubelwagen in Poland, prototype helicopter flights and driving a railway trolley in Greece. Of course each location has got a unique terrain, objects and climate and we hope no one will be bored when playing the game.

What kind of injuries can humans receive and can the environment be destroyed or manipulated?

Argon supports full zone hit detection and the injuries are as realistic as it was possible for an arcade game. There are special bonuses for being frugal during battles, like using as small amount of ammunition as possible, head shots for example which encourage the player to use skill as well as brawn. With regard to environmental deformation there are decorations, like exploding barrels and similar objects, but architecture cannot be destroyed. I think PC games are pretty close to having full interactivity with the environment and the next generation of engines (like in 2 years or so) will support the possibility of moving literally every brick in the wall. Next generation consoles will help this, too.

What are some of the actions or covert skills the player can adopt and is it more than just another mindless shooter?

Although Mortyr 2 is definitely NOT a sneaker, some missions can be completed using a small or large amount of stealth. Basically we are not trying to push the player into something really complicated as this game is designed primarily to be fun.

To finish, tell us about one of the innovations on offer!

Mortyr 2 is absolutely the first game on the planet where you can fly the extraordinary Flettner Fl 282 â??Kolibriâ?? helicopter!!!!