Ask the Producers Q&A – February 8th

Ask the Producers is a Twitter question and answers initiative started by Slant Six Games in order to allow the gaming community to ask questions about upcoming projects that Slant Six Games is working on. The following questions were asked by Twitter users on Feb 8th using the hashtag #REORCQA. The answers have been written by Peter Doidge-Harrison, Lead Producer – Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City - Slant Six Games.

Follow @slantsixgames on Twitter to participate in future Q&As.

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Q1: Will your game support voice chat between team members?

A1: Yes. Headset chat works between everyone in the game on the matchmaking screen, and then when you get separated into teams, everyone on the team can talk together to strategize the gameplay.

Q2: Will your game feature a match recording option?

Q2: Unfortunately not. This was very difficult to fit into the memory constraints that we have to work with.

Q3: Will your game have a matchmaking system?

A3: Yes. You can search for both Versus or COOP games to match-make into. Both game modes support drop-in matching so you can join games that are already in progress.

Q4: Will your game allow private matches?

A4: Yes. You can create a private match in both Versus and COOP, and then invite your friends to play.

Q5: What was the biggest challenge of the development?

A5: The biggest challenge was trying to keep the Resident Evil atmosphere while building a totally different style of gameplay. Capcom was very clear that they wanted a squad-based third person shooter set in the Resident Evil world. I think it works really well – I’ve personally always wanted to go back to Resident Evil 2 with a little more ammo and training, and some squad mates to support me. This decision has allowed us to up the ante with the number of zombies and B.O.Ws as well as the difficulty of some of the encounters, so it doesn’t completely lose the survival horror feel, but it’s been an interesting challenge for sure.

Q6: Can you explain survivor mode in greater detail? The trailer says you can respawn, so how does it work?

A6: In Survivors mode, you and your team are the last ones left in Raccoon City. There’s one last rescue chopper coming to extract you, but there are only four seats and two teams of four players competing for them. The game mode starts out as a fairly traditional 4v4 game mode, but each time you die a little time gets added to your respawn timer meaning that you have to wait a little longer each time before you can respawn. You still rack up XP for kills too, so you need to keep hunting down your enemy to earn XP and increase their respawn timers so that you and your team have a better chance of boarding the chopper. At the end when the chopper lands, it turns into a free-for-all to see who can get a spot on board for extraction. The pressure at the end can be pretty intense!

Q7: There’s a huge fan base in Brazil, any chance of including Portuguese subs in the game?

A7: Unfortunately, Portuguese will not be supported.

Q8: What was the thought process behind redesigning familiar/returning characters?

A8: Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City is only the second title in the series for this generation of consoles, so much of the original art and recordings were aimed at lower-spec hardware – some characters haven’t been seen since the Playstation One – so we had a ton of work and research to do to bring these characters to life on the PS3 and Xbox360. We spent a long time with the team at Capcom Japan to make sure we got as close to the original characters as possible, and we worked closely with the Japanese art director who made a huge number of amazing concept images of the various characters to help guide us in the process. We made careful choices of the actors who played them in the game, and we did laser head scanning of all the actors to make sure we made their in-game

representations as life-like as possible. The scripts were a collaboration between Slant Six Games and Capcom Japan, and we spent a lot of time making sure we got their personalities as close to the original canon characters as possible.

Q9: Beside the changes to Nemesis, how else has the live action movies influenced the game?

A9: The title is influenced mostly by previous RE games. As the title takes place between Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3 elements from the storyline and the setting will be familiar to fans of the series although we’ve had to make some changes to ensure the title is suitable to third-person shooter gameplay.

Q10: Is the music completely new or will there be arrangements of music from 2 or 3’s respective areas shown?

A10: The majority of the in-game music is brand new, from a respected Japanese composer with a history of Resident Evil titles in his background. There are a few moments that might be familiar to you though.

Q11: Will there be a story mode for Spec Ops like the USS has?

A11: The Spec Ops characters feature in the competitive multiplayer modes but the single player campaign focuses on the events of Raccoon City from the perspective of the Umbrella Security Soldiers

Q12: Will there be any free roam in the game or is it all linear?

A12: The gameplay is mission based, and threads through various moments in Raccoon City – from the downtown streets, to the Police Station, to the industrial outskirts areas. While the path of the main story is linear, to find all the hidden collectibles you will have to search through side areas and closed doors. The game certainly isn’t an open world game, but there are hidden places to discover for those who want to find every single item.

Q13: Will Nemesis and William Birkin appear in the multiplayer deathmatches?

A13: We don’t want to spoil any surprises that add to the unpredictable element of Raccoon City so you’ll have to experience the title yourself to find out what other enemies and characters will appear

Q14: What kind of BOWs will be in the game? Will established ones such as the gulp worm appear?

A14: During the COOP game, the B.O.Ws you’ll encounter include Hunters, T-103 Tyrants and the Nemesis, plus a new creature type that you’ll have to discover for yourself. You’ll also find a number of ‘regular’ infected creatures like Crimson Heads, infected dogs and the famous Licker from Resident Evil 2.

Q15: As the game will be “Game for Windows Live” will it be “cross platform” like LP Colonies was?

A15: Unfortunately not. The Xbox360 version will not be able to play against the PC version.

Q16: How much will we learn about the USS Wolfpack? Will we see their faces?

A16: You’ll have to play the game to see what else will be revealed about the Wolfpack. I don’t want to spoil the story here.

Q17: How many missions are in campaign mode and how long is it?

A17: There are seven missions in the USS campaign. It should take you at least six hours to complete if you rush through, and many more if you want to try out all the difficulty levels, achieve high Grades for each Missions, view the alternate endings and try out different characters. It will take quite a lot more gameplay to unlock every single one of the weapons and abilities for each character.