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Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse Feature
Derek dela Fuente
20/06/2003
We send Derek off to the gates of Hell to check out an impressive looking title from...3DO!!!
This title has been in development for over 2 years and is one of the most eagerly anticipated games to date from 3D0. Time, money and resources have been focused on 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse but can expectations be met? Derek dela Fuente spoke with
Michael Mendheim - Executive Director, V.P., Sr. Creative Director - keeper of the vision, story and characters, responsible for the product development team, and key personnel.
The team creating the game has worked on games such as Tazmania, Mutant League Football, BattleTanx, Army Men: Sarge's Heroes, Hardball III, Test Drive III, Star Control and Bubsy. Aimed at the 18+ market, the subject matter is strong encompassing war, famine, pestilence and death but will the controversy surrounding the game deflect from gameplay and give the wrong message to gamers?
âThe video game medium is maturing. People that played video games as children continue to play them as adults. I am 40 and still an avid gamer. People donât stop watching movies as they grow older and they wonât stop playing games. Donât forget that this generation is the first ever who grew up with video games. So then it comes down to content. Are people of all ages forced to only watch Disney movies? Of course not, there is a wide variety of content to please moviegoers of all ages. We certainly canât expect 20 to 30 year old males to play with furry little creatures. This medium is growing; there are games in development (like ours) that target the more mature market. These are the breakthrough games and some of them are legitimate works of art.â
Russell Shiffer, director on the game also added him comments on the subject matter. âWe are making this game for action gamers who are drawn to the dark, apocalyptic universe we are creating. We're going to have graphic violence, a little profanity, and some disturbing situations. Satan's minions do some horrific things in this game, like peeling the skin off of people and hanging them on meat hooks, which we show complete with screaming and dripping blood. We need the player to see that these enemies aren't cardboard props to be mowed down, but vicious, demented beings with a desire to have Satan rule the world. Seeing their atrocities makes you want to fight them. That's pretty mature. As for offending people, nobody here wants to offend anyone, but we aren't watering things down either. And the market seems to be big enough that as long as we deliver something compelling we should do fine.â
Four Horsemen is a story-based game told through a mix of in-game movies, full motion videos and graphic comic books. The story is critical to the overall product vision. 3D0 want players to âemotionally experienceâ the story as they play the game and the player to care about defeating evil. Without giving too much away hereâs a brief summary of the story and how it fits into the game.
The player assumes the role of the archangel Abaddon, pitted against the four dark, forces of the Apocalypse: Pestilence, War, Famine and Death, in a timeless battle for the fate of the earth and all humanity. During this epic struggle, the player must find the three mortals known as the Chosen. Abaddon must protect the chosen, strategically using their powers with his own incredible abilities to defeat the dark power of the horsemen. Of course, finding the Chosen is not enough, Abaddon must âturnâ them; they must âchooseâ to help him battle evil out of their own free will. The Chosen consist of Jesse, a prostitute, Jimmy Ray, a convicted serial killer, and Scott Anderson, a corrupt politician. These people, along with Abaddon (a fallen archangel) are the heroes of the game.
Your objective is to find the three chosen - humans God selected to help you - then use them to defeat each of the horsemen. To do that you'll need to do a lot of fighting. Most puzzles will be combat puzzles - how do I defeat these enemies and save the innocents they are slaughtering, that sort of thing. That's where strategy will comes into play.
The story is powerful and gripping as was explained by Michael. âWhen researching the story, I, of course, read Revelations (many times), the Left Behind book series, as well as numerous books on Satan, Hell, and Demons. Also discovering the Book of Enoch was a huge influence in creating this universe. I did my research and then veered away from following everything literally and started to create the story.â
Four Horsemen can best be described as an action/horror game, a combination of mood and violence. It all starts with immersing the player in the world and setting up their expectations - you are in a world on the verge of evil, and it is corrupting everything around you. Not everybody is a bad guy, but the bad guys you do meet are really scary. Intelligent scary. Brutish scary. The team has gone for extreme realism, so if you walk through a pool of blood, you'll track bloody footprints for a while. If you blast someone with a shotgun from close up, you'll blow a bloody hole in their chest and spray blood onto the wall behind them. If you hear a scream from around the corner, expect to find somebody being tortured. Sounds, lighting and camera angles will heighten the tension.
More in game specifics pertaining to cast attributes and characteristics of the player you assume and of the 4 main horsemen was discussed. Russell: âAbaddon is a fallen Archangel looking for redemption. He's sort of a Clint Eastwood, strong, silent type. He has his twin swords and guns that he fights with, as well as some gravity-defying maneuvers he can pull off. He can call upon the Wrath of God, which slows time and makes him very powerful. Abaddon also has skills that can be improved throughout the game, and he can get new weapons and new melee moves along the way.â
Pestilence is a beautiful alluring woman when she wants to be, but her beauty is only skin deep - literally. She morphs into a disgusting, pestilent beast when enraged. War is a mindless destructive force. He's fully armoured and ready to rock. Famine is a ravenous sadist who likes to see people die a long, slow death. He feeds endlessly off of the souls of those he has killed. Death is the brains of the operation and has the ability to⦠Sorry, canât tell you what Death does you will have to find out when you play.
Lots of expertise and ideas have been brought in but perceptions will be made on 3D0âs standing in the gaming community, as well as the code itself. Is all the blood, focus and controversy merely cosmetic? Can this game make an impact, are many issues that will have a say in the final judgement on the game? Glenn Wissner (Senior Producer): âThe days of game development consisting of a programmer and a couple of artists/designer are over. Virtually every top-10 game is made up of 50 or more specialists (Engineers, Designers and Artist) in their field of expertise with two or more years of development time. We have just taken this new model one step further by adding specialist in the field of Story Development, Character Design, Environmental Design, Voice Talent, etc. Going out of house to acquire top talent for specific functions is the way of the future in game development. As a producer, it's my job to add value to my product and support the team by providing them the best services and assets available. Additionally as producer, it is my responsibility to develop a product that will be commercially successful and compete in today's (and tomorrowâs) marketplace. With the quality bar being set higher and higher each year, procuring top talent is essential in maintaining a competitive edge. Regarding gameplay, I believe having professional storytelling, visually compelling characters, realistic environments and superior voice talent, COMBINED with proven game mechanics and well thought out design greatly enhances the gamers overall experience. Is it all just âpretty cosmeticsâ? No way!â
There are many reasons to get excited by this game with its wide breadth of action and many interesting events. You will do a lot of fighting and the enemies are generally pretty tough, so you'll have to beat each one by finding it's weakness and exploiting it. Some enemies are best engaged in melee, while others are best fought at range. Some require specific weapons to defeat them or are only vulnerable at certain times. Once you engage an enemy, you will have to watch for the right moment to attack, parry or dodge. Targeting will be mostly automatic, but that doesn't mean itâs a mere button masher. Far from it. You will be shown a lot of destruction during combat. 3D0 want you to feel the force of each impact, and see the damage it does. Characters will bleed, lose limbs and stagger from taking powerful blows. Deaths will be specially animated and over the top. Don't be surprised if you see a demon bite the head off of a victim and eat it!!
Dialogue and interaction between the cast is pivotal. It has been very important that the team develop Abaddon, the Horsemen and the Chosen as believable characters in the game, so they speak and interact with each other quite a bit. Simon Bisley has done some of the character design and is creating a graphic novel that will use to tell the story, merging that with in-game sequences and voice-overs. As the game progresses, the Chosen will fight alongside you and provide you with aid, while the Horsemen will taunt and oppose you at every turn.
âInnovations are plentifulâ, Olivier Lhermite (Tech Lead), â I'm specifically excited about the destruction and visual effects system that we are setting up for the Four Horsemen. Being able to create realistic visual & audio effects is the key to setting up the ambiance of the game with the scenario and mission goals. The AI is also pretty interesting, it sets the fun of the game, you don't want to fight against 'stupid' creatures. You want compelling and 'intelligent' enemies, you should be able to meet an enemy for the fifth time and still wonder what is going to happen.â
The Horsemen will be mounted during cinematics and on foot when you fight them. Their fights will all be boss battles, with special AI and a sequence of actions that must be mastered. The Chosen are key elements to defeating the Horsemen. They don't fight the battle for you, but they are a necessary part of winning. For example, one Chosen can make a Horseman vulnerable for a moment, allowing you to jump in and do damage. But you'll need to time it so that you can get back to safety before the Horseman starts whacking again. â Getting whacked by a Horseman is definitely a bad thing. For animation, we're using motion capture for all of the humanoids in the game, and hand animating the monsters. We also have physics for cloth and hair in the game, and we'll be doing morphing, facial animation and lip-sync.â
With high value production and presentations (it looks gorgeous) the question of limitation of the machines the game is being coded on was put to Olivier Lhermite (Tech Lead). âWe will use the hardware specific features of each platform to improve the look and feel of the game on every platform. Our ultimate goal is to have a compelling fun game on every platform. Most of our hard-core technologies are fully cross platform: visual effects, Animation, AI, main rendering & objects system. But inside each core technology, you can find some platform specific features that improve the quality of the game on the given platform.â
Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse looks a real stunner and offers the classic good v bad scenario with some really inventive and well-executed ideas!
