Read some stuffs.
RPS: The demo opened at a very methodical, atypical (at least, for games) pace, but ended with slow-mo shooting and cyberpunks dying very real deaths. So, is this an action game, or a game about hacking that just so happens to contain brief, powerful moments of action?
Dominic Guay: It’s definitely going to be an action-adventure game at the heart of things. Every player is going to play differently. It’s an open world, and every mission objective has different ways of pulling it off. You saw how he got into the [art show] center by doing something very subtle – hacking the system. He could’ve also stealthed in through a back door or barged in through the front. So some players may want to play very violently, and some others might want subtlety and control. Obviously, we’re going to give you options to use all of those things, and you as the player – depending on your type of approach – are going to be able to mix that up.
RPS: Is that, in some ways, to your disadvantage, though? I feel like the hacking mechanic – given proper attention and nourishment – could stand alone and really evolve into something special.
Dominic Guay: Well, the reality of things is that we want to give the player a lot of power. So we want Pearce’s actions to have impact. As you saw in the demo, you start a firefight in the middle of downtown – you hack a traffic light to make everyone crash – there’s collateral damage. A woman got killed. And then we choose to save a bystander there amidst the collateral damage. Do I want to do those things? Do I want to create those collateral damages?
Or maybe I could have taken a different approach. Maybe I could’ve followed the guy to the park and then taken him out much more subtly than just starting a firefight. So I think letting players express their freedom – and not just through violence, though he’s definitely capable of it – and mixing it up with his ability for control, that’s the sweet spot. I mean, he hacked a traffic light but ended up in a firefight. That’s the sweet spot we’re aiming for.
That's what I mean by "talking about B and promising C."
All we know for certain is A.
A: Causing a scene, killing some people, saving another dude.
B: This stuff can happen, but it could be different. Could be totally stealthy.
C: Mixing it up and letting the player have control
and deciding which option to go with.
Anyone remember Dungeons and Dragons Online? Every mission was supposed to
have multiple paths of completion: disabling traps, killing monsters, sneaking around.
Guess what. In the higher level content, most traps cannot be disarmed. There's one quest (I don't know the name and can't locate it) that takes place inside a dream. If you fall off the edge and into the void, everyone loses the quest and has to start over (compared to low level content where if one person dies, everyone else can keep fighting). The traps? The undisarmable traps?
They push you.
Off the edge.
There's one route that will let you complete the quest. One method. Not even a party of rogues can complete this quest, because even they can't dodge the traps any better than anyone else.
THAT is what I fear about this game. So much is promised, and so far nothing like it has been delivered, by any company, producing any game, ever.