Back at E3 2011 we were given a demo of Ubisofts Wii U FPS, Killer Freaks From Outer Space, and also got to chat to Ubisoft Montpelliers Guillaume Brunier about the game and how Wii U is helping the developers create new experiences for gamers. Now weve got a shiny new website and all that, as part of our ongoing series of interviews with Wii U developers were republishing the feature that ran in issue 65 of Nintendo Gamer magazine.
The opening second of Killer Freaks From Outer Space is a massive relief. After a hardware reveal worryingly light on Wii U game footage, were able to see what the machine is capable of. Moonlight pours through a gloomy British night sky, glinting off the barrel of a gun with more rendered parts than the entire Popcorn Arcade catalogue. The setting a post-alien invasion London reminds us a bit of BioShock. Drier, certainly, but with the same lonely sense of abandonment. You are a lone cockney warrior, a one-man rebellion with a pocket packed with ammo and a mouth rammed with slang.
Playing on Wii Us handheld screen offers huge immersive potential. While dual analogue sliders manage movement, aiming is complemented by physically shifting the screen. The end effect, from our (sadly) hands-off perspective, is of a demonstrator slowly losing his mind. He spins, bends and contorts, as if trying to avoid an invisible wasp. In actuality, every move is felt on screen. Angle it up and down and your gun follows suit. Spin 180 degrees on the spot and you spin 180 in game, too. Ubisoft Montpelliers Guillaume Brunier calls it spatial gameplay, a spherical dimension to what youre playing.
Nintendos virtual garden demo applies similar controls to startling effect. Physically shifting your perspective renders the screen as a window to a world beyond. There, of course, your biggest concern was a disgruntled Koi carp. Killer Freaks rabid (not to mention Rabbid-like) aliens require more than serene contemplation. Is Wii U really viable as a platform for first-person shooters? Brunier thinks so. Weve used the accelerometer feature. If you move very fast the game will know and adjust movement speed. Those familiar with FPSes know how difficult it is to go around 180 degrees. With these new controls it is a thing of the past.
Amazingly, the E3 2o11 demo was built using unfinished machines. The Killer Freaks team worked with the early Wii U dev kits before E3, but even we hadnt seen the actual device until a day before the show, Brunier tells us. His favourite feature of the final design? The new controllers touch screen is cool and allows different ways to interact with menus, your HUD and so on. We also love the idea of being able to play independently of your TV and how we can explore this dimension of gaming. We can get an intriguing taste of this independent play when a second player joins the fray.
In this mode, one player arms himself with a Wii Classic Controller (Wii U handily works with all the peripherals youve already shelled out for) and fights off forces controlled on the tablet. Brunier explains it best. Its called Real-Time Enemy Director, or RED. Its a crossover between an FPS and an RTS think force versus strategy. You effectively become the puppet master the alien overlord, if you will of the Freaks by using the pad with an RTS-style display. You then spawn Freaks tactically within the real-time map, where your opponents will have to defend against the onslaught of bloodthirsty aliens you send their way in an FPS mode.
So as a valiant warrior works a Classic Controller Pro (proving that the game can be played without motion gimmickry), another prods the tablet with cackling laughs. From his birds-eye view of the battlefield the view isnt some crappy map but a real-time 3D world render he can plant freaks, hordes and spawners. An energy cost per unit prevents spamming, because generators must be planted to earn the energy in the first place. In this particular demo, however, Bruniers offensive push is held back by a barrage of shotgun fire. In a nice touch, the words You lose fill his controller screen. A private slap straight to the face.
It looks like jolly good fun, but we do wonder if local multiplayer, no matter how inventive, can pull gamers out of their life-consuming online worlds. Brunier, still smarting from his loss, is enthusiastic. Local multiplayer has a huge place in the heart of gamers, he says. We in the team are I dont know if I can say this big FIFA fans, and the best experiences are sat on the couch, where you can brag, or demand a rematch because you just lost and you want to get your revenge. Thats what we want out of our core experience. When I see [my opponents] screen that says You win, the only thing I want to do is rematch to erase this screen.
R If your measuring stick is the console gen and max pc specs of today, and you are looking at next gen consoles that will all be stronger than current gen but weaker then max pc specs... your comparison is flawed.
