UFO: Aftermath Interview Feature

There is slight confusion about a title well into development from Altar Interactive, a Czech based team. With a rich and intriguing background story to events, both game and its history, we were able to talk to chief spokesman, Jiri Rydl, to find out more about the game, UFO: Aftermath and the team developing it for Cenega Publishing.<br><br>The 'acid' test for any game in development is not always the amount of coverage they are receiving (huge amount) but the number of UK magazines that has mentioned their game. UFO: Aftermath has received extensive coverage, and many are calling it one of the games for 2003!<br><br>After finishing Original War for Virgin Interactive in 2001, Altar was offered a chance to continue the Dreamland Chronicles: Freedom Ridge project, which had been cancelled by Virgin. After signing the deal, they soon realized that there was very little to go forward with, so they decided to start from scratch, which brings us to UFO: Aftermath which is a completely new game, despite the fact that Altar has been inspired by many things, including classic games, movies, and comic books.<br><br>UFO: Aftermath is a turn based strategy (TBS), top down, 3D isometric game with a sci fi flavour and Altar has plenty of good ideas in place to ensure this excites gamers as Jiri added. "The alien threat has been a common theme for many years now, so we decided to use it as the background for our simultaneous turn-based strategy game. When it dawned on us that we would have to start from scratch, we decided to rename the game to show gamers that we were working on a completely different game."<br><br><b>"In terms of the game's genre, we have nothing against one system or another, if it's right for the game play. Our previous title, Original War (http://www.original-war.com/) was an RTS, but for UFO: Aftermath we developed an unique turn-based system with simultaneous turns, which features, in our opinion, all of the best elements of both turn based and real time combat systems. It works like this: You give orders while the game is paused, to avoid the frantic rush of a real time system. While paused, you can give your troops very detailed orders, taking as much time as you like. Once you are finished, you simply tell the game to start. Once the game is underway, you can pause the game at any point to update or change your orders, and the game will automatically pause when important events occur, so that you may modify your plans accordingly." </b><br><br>As is customary, to get you in the mood, the background story to the game is very important. The story was written mainly by Martin Klima, the CEO of ALTAR Interactive, Vladimir Chvatil, the senior game designer for Original War and UFO: Aftermath, and Radim Krivanek, the producer for UFO: Aftermath, with assistance from some other team members.<br><br><b>'The day after tomorrow, a giant spacecraft approaches the Earth. Silent, it hovers ominously over the world, and begins to release great clouds of spores into the upper atmosphere. Rapidly multiplying, the spores soon darken the skies, and before long obscure the sun completely. In later days, this period will be known as the 'Twilight'. Having reached critical mass in the skies, the spores began to rain down, and over the course of several days, clog the streets and bodies of water, smothering people in their homes, and burying animals in the wild. During the ‘Nightfall’, as it would come to be called, most of the higher life forms on the earth were wiped out. During the Twilight all human responses were futile. Choosing caution over aggression, the governments of the world didn't realize how quickly the end could come, and were buried alongside those that they governed. A few, however, did survive, sealed in underground bases with stocks of food and oxygen. After several weeks, the spores seemed to have disintegrated, decomposing and settling into the soil. The world seemed safe again, for a time. <br><br>This is where you come in: you must gather together the remaining peoples of the planet, find out what has happened, and, if possible, get your revenge.<br><br>At present there are about 25 people working on the game and interaction, along with some recent changes, has come via their web site pertaining to feedback, discussions, and suggestions, about every aspect of the game, which is open to public consumption. <br><br>Explanation of the make-up of in game 'units/characters' was forthcoming. "Each of your troops has a set of statistics. Their skills are derived from these statistics, and each point that you put into any one of these attributes will have a noticeable effect on that soldier's skills. These attributes are - Strength, Agility, Dexterity, Willpower, Intelligence, and Perception. Raising Willpower should, for example, make the soldier more resistant to PSI influence, raising his Strength will make him able to carry more, etc.” </b><br><br><b>"This way you can, with enough experience, easily make your soldier into whatever you want them to be, either generalists or specialists. You can make snipers, medics, heavy weapons soldiers, or any mix of all of these skills and more. It is very important that you do so, in fact, as a group of random, average soldiers who are good at everything and excellent at nothing will get chewed up as the opponents become tougher." </b><br><br>There are two main portions of the game: In the strategic portion, you must manage your bases, interceptions, and squads. Also important is the 'biomass' - a slimy, tangled mass creeping slowly across the whole of the world. Territory is equal to power in the game - the more you control, the better your interceptor coverage, the faster you can do research, and the more biomass you can repulse. Most of your time, however, will be spent in tactical missions, fighting on the ground against aliens and mutants for the control of territories. Once you control a territory, you can decide what type of base you want there, Research, Military, Manufacture or Biomass repulsion. <br><br>Each tactical mission takes place on its own, uniquely generated battlefield. Altar don't use templates, so each of the fully three dimensional game fields is totally different, so that you aren't stuck feeling like you're playing the same mission over and over, allowing for maximum replayability. That means there are no levels to be completed, just an ever-changing number of missions you can, but don't have to, resolve with your squad. There will be many types of missions, including investigating shot down UFO's, acquiring specific artefacts, gaining new territory in the geosphere, securing new bases, and protecting territory that you already possess from enemy incursion. The missions you do not choose remain available for some time and then they are auto-resolved - this does not necessarily mean that you will lose them.<br><br><b>"UFO: Aftermath offers several levels of difficulty, thus the amount of time necessary for finishing the game will vary. Progress in the game depends on research too, and the player's ability to gain information or alien artefacts can make game time shorter. We expect that UFO: Aftermath will take about 80 hours/100+ randomly generated missions to finish on the toughest level of difficulty." </b><br><br>There will be over 70 weapons altogether. At first, you will have access to normal weapons like the H&K MP5, AK-47, etc. As you capture alien equipment, you can research it to gain access to laser weapons, plasma weapons, and various PSI technologies. Since the Earth is completely destroyed and there are no humans left for governing, trading or manufacturing on their own, you have to gain territories, build bases, find survivors and manufacture every special weapon that you need. On the other hand, common weapons and ammunition is available in unlimited amounts from the beginning, because there is no one left to fight with it, except your squad!<br><br>Will UFO: Aftermath stand out from the pack? Altar thinks so. <b> "There are several features which haven't been used together on the strategy games field yet: simultaneous turn-based combat; randomly generated tactical missions; strong RPG elements; and frighteningly alien setting displayed in full 3D. These features make UFO: Aftermath an interesting title for every strategy games player.” </b><br><br>Gaining territories and building bases is necessary for advancing in the game, bases are the only resource you have to manage, but they are very important. Also, there are flexible controls for zooming and rotating the view, so it's up to the player, which view fits him the best.<br><br>UFO: Aftermath is strictly a single-player game. At present 'mods' is not an important focus but there are plans to release tools for changing the look of your troops or enemies, and maybe weapons and some other game features. Whether or not the editor will be part of the UFO: Aftermath release is a question for the publisher. <br><br>Already UFO: Aftermath is looking tasty and will offer PC gamers a pleasing and engrossing experience as was summed up after the interview.<br><br><b>"UFO: Aftermath combines deep global strategy with tense tactical missions, weaving them together with a compelling storyline and a richly strategic, RPG-like approach to each soldier's attributes and skills. Prepare yourself for the greatest battle for the future of humankind.” </b>