More from Daniel
HEXUS: Surely those changes had a knock on effect to the game itself? That must have thrown up some new challenges in getting the game to feel right?Daniel:The biggest challenge was having to rebalance the whole game because of all the changes we introduced. It is tricky to reach a good balance for all players, no matter what specialty they choose. We also had to ensure that the difficulty and challenge level would remain the same from beginning to end, meaning that getting a big sword and making extensive use of the environment with the kick move would no longer be an easy option to finish the game.
HEXUS: Ok, so tell us about the multiplayer? You say it will be a brand new experience but can you give us any details?
Daniel:We kept the fundamental core gameplay of the original multiplayer, based on five classes and a campaign game mode. Apart from that, we totally reworked about all that could possibly be reworked or tweaked (skills, maps, effects…) in order to maximize the fun factor, teamplay, and accessibility. For instance regarding the fun factor, we decided to switch from a level-up system to a profile creation mechanic. We did this because we felt it was interesting to let players get all the skills they love from the beginning, rather than to have them level up for several rounds to gain them. So now you just pick up a class and a set of skills (not all of them, of course), and off you go to dive into battle. This fundamentally changes the way the game’s multiplayer is played and leaves room for many other innovations that we’re working on.
HEXUS: Obviously, bringing Dark Messiah to the Xbox 360 means you can take advantage of the Xbox LIVE achievments system so what about the achievement points in the game, will there be new secrets to discover?
Daniel:Lots of achievements have been implemented and a few will particularly reward the players who explore all the levels and secret passages in quest of a special relic item. Dark Messiah of Might and Magic is about action, but it is also about experimenting with creative kills and exploring the areas you are crossing. We want to encourage that.
HEXUS: Now, if I’m honest I have to say that although I personally lovedDark Messiah of Might and Magic on the PC, it was flawed in places with some annoying bugs which, slightly unfairly I thought, were reflected in the mixed reviews it received. Are you tackling those concerns with the Xbox 360 version?
Daniel:Some gamers were indeed a bit annoyed by some bugs that were still present in the master version. Most of these have since been fixed with patches, and many of them were quite PC-specific, because they were related to hardware compatibility issues. We don’t have to worry about that on the Xbox 360 version. Along with fixing previous issues properly, we have also put a lot of focus on providing new content that will provide a richer experience and a wider variety of gameplay.
HEXUS:Daniel, thanks very much for your time… I look forward to getting my magical gamepad of wizardry (+4) out for some more Dark Messiah action soon.
Daniel:No problem, thanks.
