Exclusive: UFO Aftershock Q&A Feature

After the success of UFO Aftermath, developer Altar Interactive, along with publishing partner Cenega, continue to build a brand that is pleasing and exciting its rapidly growing fan base. UFO: Aftershock is a mixture of squad based tactical action and global strategy with the player controlling the actions of elite ground troops, and the running and construction of an intricate network of interlinking bases. Altar presented a very unique style, along with many interesting gaming ideas which very much broaden the spectrum of turn based global/tactical strategy games.

The game starts after many years in their new home, with no sign of the aliens and a failing life support system â?“ the player must find out what happened to the Earth, the people left behind on the surface and the new visitors. A rich story line supports the game and TotalVideoGames spoke with Jiri Rydl from Altar to find out the direction UFO: Aftershock is moving and also to conclude on UFO: Aftermath.

TVG: The opening question Jiri must be, were the team pleased or disappointed with the feedback and scores from UFO: Aftermath with its average mark of around 75% albeit a few discrepancies with some publication scores!?

In general we were pleased by most of the reviews, but itâ??s true that several of them marked UFO: Aftermath well under the average. Why? My personal theory is they wanted X-COM with new graphics. They didnâ??t want to hear we made a game with a different approach. But I understand them perfectly. Iâ??m a fan of some old game series myself and I am aware of, for instance, a possible Master of Magic sequel, but I try to be open-minded. I remember that we live in a different world, games are not the work of one man any more, developing is going to be more expansive and you need to keep pace with the last visual enhancements. I understand that journalists awaiting X-COM are disappointed with UFO: Aftermath, but obviously this is no way to rate a game.

TVG: Ok to the present. What is your mission statement for the sequel and what do you see as the main areas to work on?

In UFO: Aftershock we combine our own ideas and the best opinions of our fans to create a much deeper strategic experience with more possible ways to win. For instance, we add resources management or several different factions to planetary level or we add battles inside the buildings, destructible environment, fog of war or remote-controlled drones to add to the strategic portion of game. I believe we are closer to our original vision with UFO: Aftershock.

TVG: To continue on from the last question: UFO is an expanding brand but how difficult do you expect it to be to create new ideas, offer enough extensions and challenges to please whilst keeping true to the essence of what people expect from UFO?

'UFO' really is not a brand, and if it is, it is used to mean something different. While Aftershock is a sequel to Aftermath, it is too early to speak about a 'brand'. Back to your question, we are not afraid of running out of ideas. We listen to our fans; we look at mods they are creating for UFO: Aftermath and we incorporate their ideas into the sequel. I think fans are inexhaustible with fresh ideas.

TVG: Tell us the backdrop story to the game and will the objectives and mission structures be very much like Aftermath?

The basic story goes like this: The year is 2054. Fifty years ago, something terrible happened and the surface of Earth became uninhabitable. The remnants of humankind escaped to an immense flying island, the Laputa. However, a revolt against increasingly rigid and corrupt human leadership of the island escalated into a conflict that eventually destroyed it. The players are cast in the role of the leader of a small group of survivors and his task will be reclaiming the Earth back for humankind.

There is a much wider spectrum of the objectives in UFO: Aftershock like for instance contacting other factions on the planet surface, researching strange alien objects, gathering resources, defending bases and more.

TVG: How much a focus is the gameâ??s engine and technology? What are some of the objectives pertaining to this area and are you starting from scratch on any technology features?

When speaking about 'engine', it is common but unfortunate to mix up the actual graphics engine, i.e. the part of the program that handles displaying the game to the player, and game engine, i.e. the part that implements the game rules and mechanics.

With regards to graphics engine, the one in UFO: Aftershock is based on the one used in UFO: Aftermath, but with so many changes, itâ??s like a new one. New features include dynamic lights and shadows, daytime changing or better resolutions. Besides, our engine will support modern technologies like normal and specular maps. There will also be special rendering modes for some special equipment (e.g. infravision). The game engine is also based on the Aftermath and the changes are evolutionary rather than revolutionary. We tried to extend it rather than radically change it. We want to enliven the game by introducing a great variety of interesting items instead of bringing in too many new rules.

TVG: In terms of additions to the game, have you thought about creating some interesting base management elements and extending the features/options with resource management?

Yes! The strategic game was completely revamped. You can now influence the direction of your territorial expansion and various territories have various properties â?“ offer different resources and inhabitants. All your bases are connected to a grid and you have to think about which bases you want to connect and where.

There will be one central base that is supplying all your bases connected to the network (bases not connected won't work). Every time you capture new territory and connect it to the network, the resources in that territory will be added to the central base. This can be either a one-time operation (like discovering a cache of the resource) or an ongoing process (like establishing a mine for the resource).

It is up to you what kind of buildings you will build in a base. The buildings are essential for production, research and manufacturing. You â??payâ?? for buildings by the resources you harvest.

TVG: What would be your comments to certain criticism that many of the missions played within Aftermath were almost the same and there wasnâ??t enough gameplay variety to keep the player totally hooked?

One of the most important changes made in the battlefield is the ability to go inside buildings. You can for instance climb on the roof and sniper aliens below or barricade your squad inside an abandoned factory and defend your position from attacking creatures. There is also much wider opportunity to change tactical situation by destroying environment like cars or walls. You can blow up a wall with an alien behind it in UFO: Aftershock! I believe the missions wonâ??t be boring for the players this time.

TVG: What will be some of the discernable improvements with the AI?

All of the less intelligent enemy has been killed off over the past fifty years, and only the smartest remain alive. You will be fighting more intelligent opponents, which are able to attack in groups, taking cover, heal each other, calling for help and more.

TVG: What is the state of play with development and is there a chance it could also be for XBOX?

We are in the middle of development of UFO: Aftershock for PC. We havenâ??t decided yet about the XBOX version, but if there will be one, it would be a different kind of game.

TVG: Sum up in one sentence what you feel the game will stand for within its genre!

Itâ??s up to you, how you combine gathering resources and human power with your diplomatic skills and tactical abilities to win over alien threat!