Legendary Interview

Atari’s new FPS Legendary aims to bring something new to the genre through its intriguing mix of secret societies, myhthical beasts and modern settings. We spoke to developer Spark Unlimited to find out more about the war between man and myth.It has already been confirmed that Legendary will feature levels set in both New York and London. Will the game take in any other major cities? Can we expect to see some famous landmarks?

One of the core ideas for in our game world is that the opening of Pandora’s Box was an event that had global impact. 

So while in the game your core journey is focused around a number of recognizable locations in and around New York and London – you will have a sense that there’s a larger canvas in which your actions are taking place.

What has it been like to work with the Gamecock Media Group? Have you enjoyed more creative freedom than you expected?

Creative partnerships succeed or fail as a result of the people involved and whether or not there is a shared vision for what could be created together as well as an ability to collaborate to find the right solutions when things don’t go as planned. 

For LEGENDARY, Gamecock shared a desire to put together this eclectic mix of modern combat fused with mythological creatures involving epic cinematic experiences wrapped with a metal rock soundtrack. 

We had spoken to a number of other groups who didn’t get it – one rejected it because they didn’t think people would know what Mythology was – so working with their creatively focused team was certainly a good fit for us and this particular title.

Of course, you never know what Mike (Wilson) is going to do so there’s also an element of danger… but as an independent developer we’re used to living on the edge.

The game’s central character, Charles Deckard, isn’t your typical hero. What made you choose such a morally ambiguous character as the lead?

We wanted LEGENDARY to have the feel of a big summer action movie – and the best of that genre usually feature characters with a bit of moral complexity and who have an ability to be changed in some way by the events in which they are involved.

So thematically it fit to have Charles Deckard presented initially as a kind of a predator in that as a thief he benefits by preying on society.  He has to learn to become accountable for his actions and the pain he has caused the world. 

The Signet Deckard is branded with from opening the Box forces him – like a kid getting their hand caught in the cookie jar – to become part of the solution for the first time.  As a result he will be changed forever by the experience and that makes for a much more interesting story.

For us Deckard is like a modern day Odysseus who is personally challenged by this epic journey to save a world he has destroyed.

Can you talk about the two human factions in the game, the Council of 98 and the Black Order? How do they fit into the narrative/gameplay?

In LEGENDARY we have two secret societies that have been at work in the world – The Council of 98 and The Black Order.

The Council of 98 is kind of like the United Nations.  They’re a multi-national military organization that has been, among other things, pacing progress in the modern world.  They want to understand the potential effects of any action before taking the next step and they are part of the group that originally built Pandora’s Box and sealed away the creatures.

The Black Order, on the other hand, believes in progress at any price and they are a disruptive force pursuing innovation, experimentation and elitist based power and control.  They are completely an ends-justify-the-means organization that shoots first and asks questions later.  They’ve been pursuing Pandora’s Box to open it and release the creatures so they can have new forces with which to play and aid their plans for world conquest.

In the first part of the game, Deckard will find that he’s been duped into opening Pandora’s Box by the Black Order – but they didn’t expect him to live through the experience.

In fact, because of the Signet, Deckard becomes the key to building a new box and righting the wrong that he has done so eventually he finds that both organizations want to use him to achieve their goals (one to harness the power of the creatures and the other to put them back).

These two groups are naturally in conflict so it creates a basis to have more traditional human verses human engagement.
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The health system in Legendary seems a little different from most shooters. Can you explain how it works?

In LEGENDARY we wanted to dramatize as much as possible this conflict between the world of man and the natural world as embodied by the creatures.

Deckard, because he is the one that opened the box, becomes branded by the Signet and uniquely part of both worlds. 

In the format of the game experience this is expressed in the way players will be able to use the Signet to draw life force of fallen creatures to increase their health and acquire weapons from The Black Order and other human allies.

What’s fun about that is it forces players to adjust their play style depending on what they need to succeed in the game.  Do you need weapons or health?  Attacking the Black Order might provide cool new weapons – but if health is low than it’s better to go big game hunting for awhile before moving forward into the next big battle.

How many kinds of enemies are there in the game? Will there be boss battles?We have a variety of human enemies and creatures that have been designed to present different types of challenges for the player when they encounter them in the game.

For example, the werewolves really inhabit the environments.  They can crawl on all surfaces, they can pick and throw objects, smash through obstacles and even physically grab the player and throw them to the ground. 

In this way, the wolves are unpredictable and chaotic and able to come at you from any direction.  In most FPS games the enemy stays on a horizontal plane of attack – but in LEGENDARY these creatures are as aware of the world as you are and a much harder to defeat as a result.

Griffons, by contrast, can fly through the environments and are able to dramatically change the landscape by picking up cars, smashing through buildings and generally dealing death from above.  Further, where Werewolves can be hurt by a variety of weapons – you need much bigger firepower to take down a Griffon so the size of the creatures has implications not only for the type of attacks but the kind of strategy you need to use to defeat them.

The Golem, as yet another example, is what we call a titan class creature.  It’s as big as a five story building and impossible to bring down except through a coordinated tactical attack.  These types of creatures, like the Kraken play out a bit more like a traditional Boss battle but the game isn’t strictly structured around that kind of level sequencing.

There’s also a lot of other creatures in the game – Nari’s, Minotaurs, Firedrakes – and what players will find is that each have very specific strengths and weakness.  Learning how to strategically defeat the creatures becomes part of the fun.

LEGENDARY is not a game about just plowing through the world with guns blazing.  You actually don’t last too long if you try to play that way.

How do the different versions of Legendary compare? Will there be any platform-exclusive content? There will be a few differences between the different platforms – but our goal has been to deliver as much as possible the same play experience regardless of platform.

How have you found working with the Unreal 3 engine? Have you encountered any technical difficulties?

As games continue to become larger and more complicated I think we’re going to see increasing specialization.

At Spark we’ve invested in developing a highly creative studio and engineering talent that is focused on bringing to life the game vision as a gameplay experience.

To have the talented team at Epic providing us the core systems and more general production tools allows our guys to save time and dig in on the elements – like the Werewolf behavior systems – that will make our game unique.

Do you plan on releasing any downloadable content for Legendary?

We have some plans for things we would like to do to continue to support the game and the extend the world so if there’s enough audience interest in more content we’re look forward to delivering it!

Can you tell us about Legendary’s multiplayer modes? Will it feature the mythical beasts? Will they be player-controlled?

Our main focus has been the single player game experience but we wanted to include a multiplayer element that would be in keeping with this three-way combat dynamic of humans against humans against creatures.

So for our multiplayer we have a mode that allows you to play against another team to see who can be the first to collect enough of Animus – the life force of the creatures – to win the round.

Because the Werewolves are a chaotic element in the mix the result is a really different kind of online play experience and a nice addition to the game.

Why did you decide to drop “The Box” subtitle?

After a short public Beta test of the subtitle the community *strongly* recommended we put the game in a box but not “the box” on the game.