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Airblade Feature Feature
Derek Dela Fuente
00/12/0000
TVG spoke with Paul Glancy, Creative Manager, about this exciting hover board game for PlayStation 2.
Criterion, who develop for the worldâs leading publishers, go one better with their next title for giant Sony on the PS2. Derek dela Fuente spoke with Paul Glancy, Creative Manager, about this exciting hover board game.
In the game you play a skater called Ethan who acquires the Airblade when his technology genius friend, Oscar Renton, is kidnapped. The kidnappers are actually Oscar's former employers; a massive technology corporation called GCP, in whose labs Oscar invented the Airblade anti-gravity technology. Because GCP has massive energy interests and the Airblade technology would make all forms of traditional fossil fuel powered transport obsolete, Oscar knew that GCP would smother the technology and it would never reach the outside world. Oscar quit GCP, taking the Airblade with him, but of course GCP want him and the prototype back, so GCP is after Ethan and the Airblade and the game is about evading the attentions of GCP, evading their army of heavies and smashing up their trucks, technology and real estate. Ethan has a hacker friend called Kat whom he has to rescue in the first level, and throughout the game she provides him with tips and instructions on what he has to do next. She fills him in on the big picture, but he's the action guy.
The player progresses through the story, facing new and more difficult challenges. You soon discover what has happened to Ethan's friend Oscar, and who these guys chasing him are and what they want. As the player completes levels they are unlocked for use in other game modes. If the player performs well (players are graded at the end of each level), they also unlock characters which can be played in the other game modes. When the player completes Story Mode he unlocks Stunt Attack Mode which requires the player to use the skills they've learned to complete a new set of harder objectives.
This Criterion based idea was designed with the story in mind from the start, but the ideas and execution evolved as the game developed. Although gaming fans might think this is a sequel to the teamâs Trickstyle game Paul was keen to point out that this is a completely different game. "The only thing that connects the two games is the fact that they feature a hoverboard, but the style of game is completely different, as is the publisher. Trickstyle was a racing game set in the future that we developed for Acclaim, but for Sony we made Airblade a more contemporary, mission-based trick game. There are a whole lot of differences in the game so players shouldn't expect it to feel like a sequel.â
So letâs waste no time in finding out what tricks you perform and the rewards. "Each character in the game has around 40 different moves which include ground and air flip tricks, grab tricks, grind tricks and big-air tricks. The player can also modify the tricks by spinning the character and the board. The player earns points by performing tricks and trick combos. Landing tricks and combos earns boost power, which the player can use to ride faster and jump higher and further.â
âThe game environments are very swish! Level one is set in a small, run-down city block area. Level two is set in a large, commercial district. Level three is set at night, in a large, desert-based, security installation. Level four is set inside a high-tech warehouse with a system of cranes and mechanical loader. Level five is set on the rooves of three skyscrapers, with a cable car system linking them. Level six is set inside one of the skyscrapers which the player has to escape from." How large/long are they? Well, big! In terms of floorspace, the smallest is roughly 250x250 metres; the largest is more than twice that!
Airblade offers six Story Mode levels that can be played in the other game modes when they have been completed in Story Mode. There's also a training level. Each level contains five MISSIONS with multiple OBJECTIVES (e.g. destroy three trucks). As the level starts, three of these missions are available. When the player completes any two of these missions, a fourth mission is added to the level. When the player completes all four missions, a fifth mission is added which, when completed, concludes the level and the level's story. A story cut-scene then links to the next level.
The individual objectives can be completed in any order, and although the player is helped with an arrow that indicates where the next objective is, experienced players will discover that they may be able to complete the level more quickly if they work out their own route around the available objectives. In that sense it's quite a nice balance of linear and free form. You always know what you're doing but can choose how to approach it.
Does an 'extreme sports' game really need a story? Isn't it all about stunts? "Well as you will notice there's no racing in Airblade! Personally, I'm always wary about things like driving games with stories because to incorporate the story you may end up including elements that dilute the game. You have to race to a certain place, stop the car, get out and start running about, so you risk breaking up the exciting action that people bought the game for with a completely different type of gameplay that they may enjoy less. Our intention with Airblade was not to swamp the gameplay with story but to add to it. The player accomplishes the story missions by using the board's power in conjunction with tricks, so the story is fully integrated with the trick gameplay.â
"Now, if you're asking why have a story, well, it would have been pretty weak to dump the player in an environment with the Airblade and tell him to just score points. That wouldn't have been the way to get people excited about the amazing piece of technology that they've just been handed. By placing the Airblade at the focus of an exciting story, we've also focussed the player's objectives and purpose in the game. Rather than just giving them the same arbitrary, purely points-based objectives that they've had before, we've given them the ability to use the stunt abilities they learn to achieve more directed, story-based objectives - blowing up trucks, smashing buildings, taking out enemy guards. And this is all integrated into the whole stunt-performing gameplay.â
By using a futuristic hoverboard, instead of say a skateboard, you are offered a game that is much faster, where you can jump higher and perform a more outrageous collection of stunts. Generally Criterion has taken the Airblade's anti-gravity abilities as licence to include a much more acrobatic style of tricks, spinning around poles to launch yourself up to higher levels being one. The player is always riding off the ground so they can perform a whole set of ground tricks that would be impossible on a skateboard and the Airblade can ride over any surface with impunity which allows much greater use of the environment - stairs become ramps, cars become jump platforms. Criterion has also been able to make use of the Airblade's floating physics model to allow it to ride over or around a lot of obstacles that would knock players off if they were on a skateboard. That reduces the frustration some new players feel when they're playing a skateboard game and they find themselves falling off every few seconds. Theyâve kept the speed and flow of the game going by allowing players to be repelled around walls and other obstacles and this avoids the annoying little crashes that punish the slightest mistake and constantly interrupt progress.
Don't get the focus/ appeal of this game wrong for it is not aimed at skateboarders (although they will love it) who want an extended experience. The team believes this will appeal to all arcaders. "We've just gone a step further than other games, using the kind of tricks and deck that most skateboarders would dream of."
One board â“ Airblade. No performance enhancing pickups, just the skill of the player to get through the missions with its challenge objectives. Paul gives a couple of examples. "In level two there is a general âevading surveillanceâ theme and the player has to destroy surveillance trucks by finding them, chasing after them and grinding over their fuel tanks, and also destroy surveillance cameras by grabbing the pole supporting them and spinning around it.â
âAnother task would be - Running between the GCP skyscrapers on level five there is a cable car rail network. The cable cars are carrying GCP security guards and the player has to get rid of them by grinding around the cable car rails, hundreds of storeys above the ground, chasing after the cable cars and grinding over the drive mechanisms that attach them to the rails. Then they crash to the ground in spectacular style.â
Some may say Airblade is a clone of such games as Tony Hawks and SSX, albeit in a different setting. Paul ended by summing up. âAt E3 we heard a lot of people say, 'Airblade is like a floaty Tony Hawk' or 'it's like a cross between Tony Hawk and SSX'. Being compared to the Tony Hawk games and SSX is something we consider a massive compliment, and the fact that the people who were saying it at E3 were also just coming away from playing the demo with big smiles on their faces was very encouraging too. However, our game differs from the games you mention in more than just the setting. The way the game handles, the skills required, the more spectacular tricks, the fact that there is an emphasis on story-based missions and objectives all make this a different experience. Whereas Tony Hawk and SSX games were great entries into the extreme sports genre, Airblade is more of an extreme sports/action game. We've designed it to appeal to an audience that's a bit broader than just the extreme sports crowd.â
Airblade offers a moreish adrenaline rush with plenty of action and challenges. If anyone had to choose between Criterionâs Airblade and a mere skateboard game, the Airblade would win every time. Whether you go into the two player split screen mode or try to complete your task in single player mode the challenge is well tapered. The fact there are also many other modes, including Score Attack mode which is a trick/score game in which both players compete against the clock or in Ribbon Tag where the players have to chase after each other to claim a trailing ribbon, lots of great gaming ideas are on offer!
