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EXCLUSIVE - HEADHUNTER: REDEMPTION DIRECTOR SPEAKS!

Amuze's John Kroknes talks about Sega's forthcoming next-gen arcade-adventure

15:42 Jack Wade is the uncompromisingly bearded star of Headhunter, a corking arcade-adventure game on Dreamcast that subsequently appeared on PS2.
Not the Metal Gear Solid-style game it was sometimes portrayed as, there were nonetheless moments of undeniable brilliance throughout the title, so we've got high hopes for Headhunter: Redemption, a sequel for Xbox and PS2 from the same development team, Amuze.

Scheduled for release towards the end of the year, we took the opportunity to grill director John Kroknes on the forthcoming title - here's what he told us...

A lot of the characters in the original game died at the end - so can you tell us what the story is in this sequel?

Kroknes: People will find the sequel is quite different from the first game. We kept some of the main characters, but we've also changed the setting - it's more about the drama between the characters this time.

We still have an immersive setting in the world, but it's more focused on actual characters, while the first game was more focused on society.

This time it's quite different. It's kind of difficult for me to explain the story in too much detail, but in broad terms it's about 20-25 years after the first game, so Jack is older, he's a grey-haired guy, and he's still a Headhunter.

While on a routine mission, due to other circumstances he picks up Lisa, who is like a criminal at the start of the game, and he takes her on as a kind of protege.

There's a detailed script - you need the ten or 15 minute set-up to understand everything that's going on. As for the people dying at the end of the last game, people will find this is quite a different take on the sequel; it's still very Headhunter, but the setting is quite different - so it's not that big an issue if we kill most of the characters from the first game!

Can you take us through some of the things that gamers will find most exciting about Headhunter?

Kroknes: I think functionality-wise we've kept a lot of the parameters that we had last time, like the stealth mixed with action, but I would say that the controls are much better this time, the camera is better, the player should find everything is easier to grasp this time.

We wanted to appeal to both the casual and the hardcore gamer. We have a hell of a lot of weapons, all that stuff, in the same way as we did in the first game. But it's definitely easier to grasp, we constructed it specifically for use with the PS2 pad. Functionality wise it's still similar to the first game, as well as being very different as well [laughs]!

How do the two controllable characters interact in the game? Do you swap between them at will, or does it depend on what stage you're at in the plot?

Kroknes: It's driven by the narrative, so you can't choose - it will be dictated by the story; as you progress in the game so the switches are made. You literally play around half of the game as Lisa, half as Jack, so you'll be seeing two separate stories but they will always be connected throughout the game.

Are there differing abilities for each character?

Kroknes: Lisa is faster and more agile, and can do certain moves which Jack can't do. When Jack is back in the game he is heavier and more like the pastiche of an action hero, so he gets the big bad stuff, whereas Lisa is less that way inclined.

Not that she's a lame character at all; they are balanced in the sense that they have slightly different abilities, but Jack is more like your bad-ass weapons guy, all that stuff.

One other difference is that Jack can't hang and climb and stuff, which is something that Lisa can do, but still the controls are the same for the two characters really, you have a learning curve, so when you introduce a new character you can't completely change the control set-up, but they do have different abilities.

Is there going to be a new range of weapons this time?

Kroknes: There are some quite ugly weapons this time [laughs]. Especially when you're in the later parts of the game, there will be the real deal weapons this time around. We're not going for the blood and gore thing, but you won't have disappearing enemies and such - we're trying to be slightly more graphic in the violence.

Will there be more vehicles to use?

Kroknes: We have made a very definite choice that we don't want to compete with GTA III or The Getaway, those games where you can grab any vehicle and drive round the city. We do have the bike, but it's more like the moments we give you to drive on the bike are more "arcadey" this time - it's easier to grasp and you can actually shoot whilst on your bike.

So it's more like a contrast to the other elements of the game. I think the biking this time will be something people find more enjoyable; it's a key feature of the game. In the first game we always saw Jack's bike as an extension of his character, rather than just something used to go from A to B, and so it's not like we're creating a bike simulator, it's more we want the speed as a contrast.

Any new gadgets for the players to get their hands on?

Kroknes: There's a helluva lot of cool gadgets, but it's mainly weapons. We didn't want to go for all the different vision modes that you have in some games. I think one of the main changes we made with vision is that in your sunglasses you have an iris computer which can scan the environment. It's not like in Metroid; it's more like we've used it as a communication device to the player to get the info.

Headhunter has never been a stealth simulator - it's more an action-based game, but we still have some stealth elements, which I think we've improved from the first game. You can still just go in and shoot, but we want to give the player the upper hand if he uses stealth.

So it's quite different from the Splinter Cells and the Metal Gear Solids. Here when you're spotted you'll always have a chance; the targetting system is better this time around, too.

The game seems to be quite a cinematic experience. Were there any movies that you had in mind when you were developing the game?

Kroknes: Well, we always have various movies in mind - you'll find a lot of stuff from sci-fi movies which has inspired us. I would say our main inspiration has been Paul Verhoeven, stuff like Total Recall and Robocop, and also 80s retro action hero films.

I get inspired by a lot of stuff: music, movies, but it's hard to name them all. Hopefully the inspiration is quite subtle. I think it's pretty much our own style.

Narrative-wise there's about two hours of cut scenes, but it's not like in Metal Gear Solid where you feel it's too much - I think it's balanced very well. Instead of using regular game language with objectives, the narrative is used to explain what to do next, so I think it's very good in that sense.

Roughly how long would you say the game experience lasts?

Kroknes: I would say something between 10-15 hours for the average gamer. We don't want to create a game which takes 40 hours or 60 hours - our main mission is to actually have people completing the game, but there are extras for replay value which are aimed at a more hardcore audience.

We want something that people can pick up and grasp; speaking personally, I have tons of games at home which I haven't completed, simply because you don't have time.

I think one of the things that hurts the games industry at the moment is developers creating games that are too big - we have to treat this like any other entertainment medium, like watching TV, watching a movie.

Ico for instance, I found fantastic; a lot of people said it's too short. It's not too short! It gets me craving to play the next Ico game. No-one ever says a movie is too short.

I would like to see a future where games are actually 'completeable' - they shouldn't demand 40 or 60 hours. I think 10 to 15 hours is within most people's grasp. Some people will probably be disappointed because they're expecting a thirty hour experience, but I think the majority will find this to be an enjoyable length.

Steve Colton