TSA Talks Resistance 3 With Insomniac Games

The launch of Resistance 3 is so close now I can almost smell the Chimera. Actually, that smell might be me after spending a day mucking about on the London Underground.

Anyway, smells aside, the game is very close to release. With this in mind TSA were invited along for a chat with Jon Paquette (JP) and Cameron Christian (CC) from Insomniac Games, as well as taking another look at Resistance 3 in action.

[TSA] How did the team feel after getting mixed fan feedback for Resistance 2?

[CC] It’s a tricky one. A lot of people felt we did a good job. Obviously to spend more time on it and make it even better would have been ideal, but we reflect upon it and we try and make it better for the next round, which I think we did.

[TSA] So, obviously the Resistance 3 beta has been going on. What’s been the feedback so far?

[CC] It’s been good. People are digging the abilities, there’s a lot more back and forth in the multiplayer because we’ve got a lower damage model than games like Call of Duty, so you can be shooting at me but I have a chance to escape, whereas in a lot of other games you don’t have that. People are really liking that, and we’re getting good feedback on the weapons. So generally it’s been really positive.

[TSA] What has been the reaction to Global Resistance?

[JP] It’s been fairly positive.

[CC] Yeah, a lot of people have been on it. Certainly at the launch a lot of people were online.

[TSA] So do you see interaction with social media as a must have for games now?

[CC] Oh yeah, we definitely have plans to do that for all our games.

[JP] I think it’s pretty much a must at this point, not only to have additional games outside, but inside the game itself, something built in so you can share things  and connect with your friends.

[drop2][TSA] In terms of the multiplayer, when was the decision made to trim it down and make it a more focused experience?

[CC] The decision was made very early on. It was one of the big pushes that came originally with single player, we really wanted to focus gameplay, show off the weapons more and have more ‘in your face’ combat. That was one of our mantras, so we applied that to multiplayer. The 40 player matches were crazy, but to try and show off our new weapons, and new abilities; some of that would be lost in those big battles.

[TSA] So did the team feel any pressure when seeing games such as MAG go all out with their huge multiplayer battles?

[CC] No, you know, we tried it and it was fun and it was cool, but we just wanted to step back and focus more on the combat. Plus it let us build much higher fidelity maps, and put a lot more textures and polygons into them. They look a lot better.

[TSA] Our man Jim is very keen to know what level cap are you putting on the multiplayer?

[CC] Well, you’ll cap out at 60, but then you can reset back to zero and you can play through it again but unlock different stuff along the way, so you’ll get more skins , more titles and things like that. We have things in our multiplayer like taunts and some specific abilities that when you hit 60 and start over again you can keep them.

[TSA] The jump from Resistance 1 to Resistance 2 in terms of the sheer size and scale of enemies and battles was very noticeable. Will there be another jump up, or have things scaled back and become more focused?

[CC] It’s a little more focused. We do still have some big guys, but I don’t think we have any quite as large as Resistance 2.  At this point the humans have lost the war, and so it’s a lot more tight spaces, showing that humans are just trying to survive and get by.

[TSA] Parts of the boat level that has been publically shown seem a bit slower than what we’re used to with a Resistance game. Was this done intentionally?

[CC] Well, all our designers had pacing charts that had key points in our levels and a graph showing how the pacing would go along the way, and so early on we could lay all the designer’s pacing charts out and see the flow of the game; where it’s going to be the most intense and where we’re going to pull it back to show a little more atmosphere, and a little more of the human survival element.

[TSA] In terms of the 3D support, was that always intended or did it come in part way through the process?

[CC] I don’t think we had planned for it right off the bat, as when Resistance 3 started I think there were barely any 3D TVs out at that time, so it was like a year and a half in and we decided to push for some 3D and Move. It’s been a trip though, trying to find that right level of depth that doesn’t make people feel sick, and we have a couple of people who are really passionate about that.

[JP] One of the engineers did a lot of research into successful 3D applications, and he found that ESPN has a really good 3D set up, and the one thing that they did differently was bringing the menus into the middle of the depth, rather than to the front. So we kind of learned from that.

[TSA] In terms of the Move capability, a lot of people have tried it with other games and said “yes, it’s great, now I’m heading back to my DualShock 3”. How have you tried to make the Move controls in Resistance 3 a viable alternative to a pad?

[JP] Well it requires a different skill-set. When you’re using the SharpShooter, at first it feels a little cumbersome because we’re all used to sitting there with our pads, but once you get the hang of it the game feels different and requires different skills, so when you get good at it the control scheme becomes a lot more rewarding and you feel more immersed in the environment.