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Kane & Lynch: Fragile Alliance Q&A Feature
Jon Wilcox
08/10/2007
As Eidos lifts the lid on one of the freshest multiplayer modes since 'Deathmatch', TVG speaks to IO Interactive about the upcoming title...
Copenhagen: home of the Little Mermaid, the hometown of Helena Christensen, Peter Schmeichel, and Lars Ulrich, and the site of an airport once awarded the title of 'Best in the World'. But scratch underneath this insanely clean Scandinavian capital and you'll find a seedy, nefarious underbelly. A place that's home to a Hitman (or 47) and come November, two Dead Men, thanks to the tireless work of IO Interactive.
Based on the water's edge along a stretch of Copenhagen's harbour-side, IO's centre of operations is surprisingly ample considering that until Kane & Lynch is next released next month, the studio has focused almost entirely on a single franchise, Hitman. Having built two very distinct parts into Kane & Lynch, the single-player/co-op Dead Men and the heist-based multiplayer mode Fragile Alliance, TVG sat down with two of the studio's men at the top to discuss the new brand and the excitingly original gametype: Lead Game Designer Kim Krogh and first of all, Director Jens Peter 'JP' Kurup.
TVG: Kane & Lynch has much faster gameplay compared to Hitman; can you explain how the idea for the game began?
JP: Well we all like Hitman, but we had the need to make something a little bit more casual. Also we wanted to make a co-op game and do some multiplayer. I still think the controls in Freedom Fighters are amongst the best controls I've played with, so we've taken them and evolved them a little bit. We created some characters that we liked...well I don't like them...
TVG: They're anti-heroes...
They're a**holes, but Lynch I might like because it's really not his fault. Kane is a b*****d; life has been unfair to him though I guess not everything that's happened to him is his fault. But it's nice to work with something with a little more edge, try to create a story and a game that would be interesting to gamers our age...well, eighteen plus.
TVG: One of the things about Kane & Lynch is its co-operative Campaigns, but you guys aren't the only ones doing that. What do you think has prompted the likes of Army of Two and yourselves?
I think it's because it's [co-op] starting to work and it's found a home on the consoles. It's just blossomed and I think that's because a few very nice co-op games have started it off. Co-op wasn't at the front of our minds when we started it off. In the very beginning it was 'just a guy with problems', but he had to have some problems with somebody. Lynch was always on the periphery and then it was like, 'we have a buddy movie game on our hands, but let's make sure that it's not like Danny Glover and Mel Gibson'.
TVG: And am I right in thinking that the rights to a Kane & Lynch have already been sold?
[Eidos rep] We have sold the rights to the movies, but that's all we have at the moment.
JP: I think this is one of the things to note about Kane & Lynch - if we look at all of the other work that's being done in creating a franchise, I'm dead proud that the characters work outside. I love to think about Kane & Lynch not in the game, it's just a sign of good characters. If you think of them as being seventy-five on holiday in Paris, you know that's going to be fun. I just see old Lynch in front of the Eiffel Tower when they get really old - and they argue over who's going to be doing the dishes. Kane is being interviewed in Playboy next month and he doesn't even exist - last month it was Pierce Brosnan! That's f***ing cool.
TVG: I like the fact that you're already looking at Kane & Lynch twenty, thirty years in the future when they're the roughest, murdering version of The Odd Couple...
That's one thing that I'm not completely happy with, besides the stuff that I hate because of working with them, is that I'd have liked to have them a little older and fatter and more out of breath. But then they also easily become a little funny, and that's harder to balance. We just wanted them old enough so we believe that this is their last chance - if you're a young space marine you have lots of chances, but when you're pushing forty-five as a Mercenary...
TVG: Obviously Fragile Alliance is a very unique multiplayer mode, but with its reveal coming just six weeks away from the launch of Kane & Lynch was it held back because of fears that it would be copied by others?
Krough: Yes, of course. When we started making the multiplayer part it became obvious early on that we couldn't just get away with just another Deathmatch and the normal multiplayer modes that other games have. Also, it just didn't fit Kane & Lynch. Kane & Lynch is very different from most of the games out there so we decided to make something very different. Right from the beginning we said that we weren't going to do what others do, so we had a look at Kane & Lynch: Dead Men and its themes, and came up with Fragile Alliance.
The reason for Fragile Alliance was basically to have a multiplayer part that fits the part: the R-rated heist with buddies, the greed, the disloyalty, all that stuff.
TVG: It also seems to have much more depth compared to the likes of Deathmatch or Capture the Flag, which operates on a single level. Fragile Alliance appears to be a much more complex multiplayer...
Yeah, I think we used half the ideas we came up for it in the game. As you said, it's quite complex and it could have been even more so. We tried to make it understandable from the first time you play it, but we also wanted to make a multiplayer game that was more strategic than tactical. All the multiplayer games out there are tactical whereas this is based on strategy. Everything you do has to be thought through; you can help each other by shooting at the NPCs together, you could sneak behind and put a few bullets into your team mates and let the NPCs do the rest, or you could back-stab them right from the start and try to get away with it. It's really up to you how you play it and when you want to change tactics. It's a really good idea to come up with a plan before you go into it, and you have to be really quick to change plans too.
The tagline for Fragile Alliance is 'Play like a soldier and you'll lose. Play like a criminal and you'll win.' What we mean by that is if you play like a soldier, you play with your buddies, you help each other, you don't backstab each other, and do what soldiers do. It also means that you run and gun. But a criminal is something different; a criminal minds his own business. He's a crook and he's willing to backstab in order to get the money; he's greedy, and this is exactly what we wanted when we started out making Fragile Alliance - to make a game for criminals (laughs).
TVG: As you've mentioned, the gameplay of Fragile Alliance is complex. How did it develop from the original idea, and when did elements like the 'traitor' dynamic or becoming a cop when you die, come about?
The traitor stuff came in during the prototype. We started out with a very basic idea with a bunch of Mercs, some loot that was protected, and an escape point. We found out pretty quickly that players started backstabbing right away if they can see an advantage in that, and the NPCs weren't enough. That's when we decided that when players die, they respawn as police and help to protect the loot and make sure the remaining players don't escape. But that wasn't enough, so then we came up with the traitor idea. There's a theme in Dead Men about whether Kane is a traitor or not, and we wanted to use that so we added it and discovered that the money and the greed was what drove people.
So we evolved that and said that if you take personal revenge you get a bigger reward. What we wanted there is the hate between players: "We trusted each other and all of a sudden you were disloyal to us; you backstabbed us. I turned my back to you for five seconds and you f***ing backstabbed me, you b****rd!" We had a lot of situations like that when we were in QA [Quality Assurance]. We were yelling "F**k you, I thought we were in this together!"
Another thing that we really wanted here was that in a lot of multiplayers you get that one really irritating player who starts killing his team mates. All of a sudden we were looking at the game [Fragile Alliance] and we had players sitting next to each saying, "OK, let's work together but don't tell anyone." Then they start killing the other players and they become traitors, but they don't kill each other. They're standing next to each other, but they're not killing each other. We went through that and decided it was a strong dynamic that people could be backstabbers, be against the team, be against the irritating players - then it's part of the rules. You can do that, it's not illegal.
TVG: And do you find that there are people in the QA team that are persistent traitors, or do they change their tactics?
We had a few players that we knew were backstabbers. As soon as one guy had $100,000 we knew he would turn against you, so you don't turn your back to him because he will backstab you. But that guy never wins, he's always losing but it's irritating when he kills you. For that reason, we put a black shirt on the traitors so in the next round they start fifty metres away from the others, with a black shirt on them. It shows what their tendencies are so you don't have to remember their names - it's there right away. If you run into an area in the next round and you see someone in a black shirt, you know to stay away from him.
TVG: But at the same time, you can't kill him if he's not a traitor in that round because you'll become the traitor.
Yeah, but you can look at him and keep an eye on him. We extended that a little so the balaclava changes colour according to your rank in the game. So in the second round you'll see one guy with a black balaclava, one with a dark grey, and others with a lighter grey. So the very dark one is the leading player; follow him around because you don't want him to win - and if he's got a lot of money, take care of him...
TVG: All's fair...
Exactly.
TVG: We've been playing Fragile Alliance in eight player lobbies, but how does it perform with fewer gamers? Do bots take the place of vacant spots?
No, we thought about that but we decided that some would have fun with just four players. If we filled up the other spaces with AI, then it wouldn't really add anything to the idea of having this group playing together. It would be just another NPC and would show off very early that it doesn't matter if you kill him. So no, we're not filling up with NPC on the player side. We found that two players was too few for an alliance; three players was still a little low, so we have it for four to eight players and balanced it out for six players. The AI has been balanced for six players, meaning that you'll have an easier time of it if you go through it with eight players.
TVG: You also mentioned in today's presentation that the AI in Fragile Alliance is more challenging than in Dead Men. Do they change tactics each time you play?
That's another thought that I had throughout development. It would be nice if they would change tactics each time, but then again it is already hard to play this game. I could decide to go for different tactics for the NPCs in every round and make them easier or harder each time, or have them the same so you get faster every time. I chose the second one because I want players to get good at this.
But they do have their own minds - they're not scripted.
TVG: One of the nice details that have been added to Fragile Alliance is that in Ranked Matches, the number one and number two players in the world play as Kane and Lynch. How did that come about?
It was actually part of the very early brainstorms we had. We discussed customisation of the characters but what we wanted was instead of having a lot of stuff that you could customise, we wanted to say that the best player in the world is the best criminal - and you can't customise that. So we didn't want to customise anything, instead we said that the higher rank you are, the cooler the character you get. And what would be the coolest character to play as in this game? That's why Kane is number one and Lynch is number two...
When you see them in a game that you're playing, you know you're in for a tough match.
TVG: The maps are based on some of the Campaign environments. How were these changed for Fragile Alliance?
It was basically about looking at the single player maps; it was about telling stories. We didn't think of Fragile Alliance maps or levels as you normally do in multiplayer, we thought of stories instead. I had some stories that I just needed to experience. It's like when you're watching heist movies like HEAT, and you think, "I really want to do that..."
We started out making the stories and found places in the single player maps where we could fit those stories. Then we took those levels and found what worked and what didn't, and re-modelled what didn't work. It was basically taking what worked and what didn't work. The reason why we did that is so people knew the levels. In the bank level we turned it around so you start at the front of the bank. We also don't use the vault here; instead we use the area where the car is and totally remodelled it because we couldn't use that in multiplayer.
But what we found out early on is that the Fragile Alliance levels are linear, they tell a story. You are hired to do this heist; you meet up outside the bank; you know that the car is out there and that they're unloading the truck and you have to get the money before they can move it into the vault: that's the story, and it plays like a story almost.
We tried to make some Deathmatch levels but it totally didn't work, but people lose track and you couldn't tell a story.
TVG: And all of the maps revolve around heists?
Yes, all of the maps are about heists - it's a game totally about heists.
TVG: We're now six weeks away from the release of Fragile Alliance, but is there anything you'd like to have the chance to do in a future follow up?
Well we're definitely doing new maps for download in the future, but if I had the chance to do a sequel then I would look at new game modes. There are so many game modes out there that you've never seen before - Fragile Alliance is just one of them. I'm sick and tired of another Deathmatch; I couldn't be bothered with another Capture the Flag or whatever. What I want to make are more game modes. Multiplayer is just taking off, it's been around for fifteen years but we haven't seen any game modes that try to be different.
This is the first generation of consoles where they all have online access, so this is the time for online to take over. I really hope to see a lot of other games trying out new game modes and different ways to play against each other. I'd definitely like to see other games with co-op in a new way. There are a lot of games at the moment trying to make co-op interesting, and I think they're pulling that off. There's a ton of game modes that can come out of that.
I just hope that we see multiplayer modes evolve in the next five years...
TVG would like to thank JP Karup and Kim Krough for taking time out and answering our questions, along with Gareth Ramsey at Eidos. A full-length preview of our time with Kane & Lynch: Fragile Alliance is coming very soon so check back shortly. IO Interactive's Kane & Lynch: Dead Men (featuring Fragile Alliance) will be released on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC from November 23rd.
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