|
Now when LucasArts thought they had one fixer-upper to leverage their terra-forming shooter, Fracture, they probably didn't see this one coming. Midway's take on John Woo's classic "Hard Boiled", Stranglehold, features Massive D (D for Destruction) that allows the player to not only wear away the enemy's cover with bullets, but also take them out with falling objects from above.
In the IGN blogs for Stranglehold, senior game designer Patrick Curry described their attempts to litter levels with so many of these "gags," so players will be able to experience total Woo-esque action that only a game sporting a Havok physics engine could deliver. Since the game's revelation at E3, they've started work on the Hong Kong Marketplace, and their ideas started from their design of that map. Curry explains in general detail:
The first thing we did was make all of the neon store signs hanging in the Market destructible, so when you shoot them they’ll crush anyone below. Then we did the same to air conditioners, precariously hanging out of windows. And then we got crazy and using our Havok goodness, made signs that swing and take out multiple enemies at once. It was a really fun time in our project, getting to try out all the new tech toys we’d made, and see the fruits of our labor in the form of crazy enemy deaths.
Now they've gone all out, taking turns in designing their own nifty traps within levels to give any player enough options for solving the enemy swarm problem - not that they're much of a problem anyway. Some of the designers, in fact, have become quite adept at designing hidden "gags" that they've become masters at it.
"A couple of our designers have become masters of gags, and when we need something totally over the top and Woo-esque, we bring them in and let them go nuts. It’s totally amazing what they’ve come up with!" blogged Curry. When you do pick up this game for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC, expect to send baddies flying from gas leak explosions, bowling down pachinko machines and squished flat like the critters they are.
|
|
Titles
