Rock, Paper, Shotgun

If it was a 3rd person shooter, I’d be more inclined to be interested.
However, another first-person shooter? Nah, the game would have to impress me somehow more than that trailer for me to spend money on it.

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“After an unending war with the metastreumonic Force…”

Well, someone’s been making up words. Unless “streumonic” is a real word, in which case, hey, I learned a new word.

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Years former to 2116: Dark Ages.
Period from 2116 to 2250: Technological Middle Ages.
From 2250 to 2379: Era of Darkness.
2380: Rebirth and departure of the new era, it’s the new year 0…
Year 15: Where our story begins.

The history of the Earth remains a mystery because of the many wars and catastrophes it underwent. We only know that it’s during this dark period (before 2116) that psychic abilities were studied and admitted by science, initially by the army (in the 1890′s), then by civil science (1970). We also know that the consortium of Mega-corporations was created, at the same time as the first Martian colony.

In 2116, the space colonization began alongside the discovery of inter-dimensional space. Then Mars proclaimed its independence and launched an offensive against the Earth with equipment unknown to the human race.

This flash attack decimated 2/3 of the human race. The surviving countries formed an alliance – the Federation – in order to better counter Mars, but almost all their military equipment had been destroyed. The megacorporations, having their own war weaponry, proposed to help the Federation, hoping to extend their power and influence.

During this war, the Federation used telepathic soldiers. These new troops were called the parapsychic Legion. Its role was mainly to inform, misinform, torture, spy, search for and find traitors … At the end of the war, the legion became the Federation’s “inquisition”, constantly gaining power and influence. It was renamed federal parapsychic army, and was separated from military command in order to keep its autonomy, but remains under Federal control.

[Would you like to know more ? Click here]

No, no I would not like to know more. My brain is already dripping from my ears.

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I guess it’s a bit complicated… Let’s have a little French class here !
“streumon” is the “verlan” for “monstre” (which mean monster). What is “verlan” ? It’s “verlan” for “l’envers”, which means backwards (sort of). It’s a way of speaking where you rearrange every syllable in the words backwards, with a nice recursive name for it.
Thus, “metastreumonic” is basically a silly pun name for any uber evil force… Plus it sounds pretty cool.

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It has lean. Game of the Year.

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That looked interesting to me, even though it looked unpolished. I just recently read a scifi novel where they used weird and made up terminology for everything, and it did alienate me a bit, but it’s a game, so it can better immerse one in the world. Also, the screenshots didn’t look awful? I’ll be watching this one.

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Hey console kids, a litte word of advice: This game and this thread are not for you. If you want your familiar ‘streamlined’ games and awesum action, look somewhere else. This game is for the PC grown-ups who actually want complexity and varied gameplay and don’t mind mediocre graphics. I know, what’s up with that? I guess they are lame and stuff. Ok? Ok, bye now!

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No, dude, you mention FATAL and a kitten is /raped./ Then we roll for its anal circumference.

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I like what I see. :)
I’m always up for some sci-fi fps with added rpg elements(although what I’d REALLY want is more old school rpg’s) and it doesn’t looks half bad either.
For a mod team trying to make big,I wish them luck. It sure ain’t easy,like we saw with damnation…even though it wasn’t THAT bad. :/

But I tend to agree that the quality of RPS is going down fast. don’t know why,but it was different a year ago…maybe it’s the fresh wave of newcomers. Can we please have a civilized discussion here. It’s starting to resemble EG pretty soon. ;)

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Looking forward to this :>

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Hacking looks like it would take forever to get things to work. I think that aspect needs to be streamlined and sped up.

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Hi, I’m Christophe from Streum On Studio, here come the FAQ we wrote if you want to know more about the game:

Since the release of the game approaches, we decided to unveil some of the game’s features. Instead of merely throwing information like with some productions, we preferred to spread information that we have given for over a year on several community discussion boards, or during interviews. Of course, many elements are missing here.
Game modes:

“What features can we expect in the Multiplayer?”
There will be a cooperative mode to play the campaign with two players (up to 4 players, but it’s not recommended) and another cooperative mode with special missions assigned (objective chain) playable with 4 players up to 8 (it’s recommended to not get above this number).
We also implemented a team play mode.

“Is there a true difference between the solo play and the coop play? What are the cooperative game modes?”
The game features solo play AND coop play, not just coop and mulitplayer. The solo play was thought solo play, and is not a pretext to the multiplayer aspect. The cooperative modes allow you to replay the campaign, or to do special secondary missions.

“What is the number of players in cooperative?”
2 players is the recommended number for the cooperative campaign mode. You can currently play up to 32 players, but the gameplay isn’t made with this purpose in view, and performances aren’t that good when the number is above 4 players (for the campaign, the other cooperative mode is good up to 8 players). To sum-up, the campaign is better to 2 up to 4 players, while the cooperative secondary missions are okay to 4 up to 8 players.

We don’t currently think we’ll put a player limit in cooperative, or maybe set it to 8, but it is possible to configure this server-side (client server or dedicated server).

“I was thinking, it is a solo game after all, but if, for example, me and a friend want to play it cooperatively, can my friend join the game whenever he wants or must we play the cooperative campaign from the beginning?”
It is not possible to join a solo game of another player on the Internet, on a LAN game, however… if you modify some things before.
For the “normal” cooperative campaign, the saves are based on the first connected player, the game saves his progression, and everything is done based on him. Of course, the game dissociates the solo saves and the cooperative saves for the progression, but a player can play one character in every game mode, or even several characters, depending on his choices.

“Cooperative mode: what really happens in the cooperative mode? Is the guy joining comes with his own character? Are the items on the floor and experience automatically shared? Does he progress in the story mode?”
Yes, your friend or friends come with their own characters. The experience is shared, but the most hard-working player is the more rewarded, and yes, he progresses in the story. However, there is a dissociation of the solo saves and the multiplayer saves. Concretely, it means that during the solo play, the character has a progression in the campaign scenario, and in the multiplayer he has another progression. But he does keep his skills, equipment, researches, etc…

“Cooperative mode: when we play the cooperative mode with 2 players, how do you adapt the enemies “level”? Twice the number of enemies, or twice the hit points? Did you increase the difficulty one row?”
It is more complicated than this. The enemies have a rank, which frequency and level are based on the chapter, difficulty, enemy type and indeed the player count.

“Cooperative mode: what is really under influence when we are two players? Hit points, number of enemies, something more subtle?”
Playing with two players modifies the game experience, like in every cooperative game. You share the Resurectors-the cyber-implant allowing the characters to revive when you fall in a coma. And there is also the mutual help, thanks to the Medkit, and tactics linked to a teammate.

Gameplay:
Damage system and death:
“How does death work in E.Y.E?”
In E.Y.E, you must distinguish two states when the player character’s hit points reach zero. He falls in a coma when he has Resurectors.
Resurectors are cybernetic implants preventing death for your character, injecting various chemical substances, allowing your character to ‘revive’ where he went K.O. If the player doesn’t have any Resurectors left, he experiences death.

“What happens when you die? I’m not speaking of the coma system and the Resurectors.”
When you die, you suffer from fatal wounds and experience various malus that can decrease your skills and characteristics, and last but not the least, you begin from the chapter’s starting point, but your successful objectives stay accomplished.

“Are the damages localized?”
Yes, there are several zones: head, torso, stomach, left and right arms, left and right legs.

“What are the consequences of localized damages?”
Damage to the legs slows you down with each wound. But the future is now, and there is an action called Maintenance, repairing your cyber-legs. It, however, takes a dozen of seconds, and you can’t shoot or fight during this time.

We didn’t include an aim malus with the arms. It was cool on paper, but in game it was too quickly handicapping.

However, depending of the damages and the zones, you can have some short visual troubles and mental equilibrium losses.

“Can I dismember a NPC?”
You can dismember your enemies; arms, legs and head. Some damages can also make them utterly explode.

“Is there friendly fire in the cooperative mode? If yes, can I activate it?”
There is friendly fire, and you can set a percentage of damages from 0 to 100%.

“Can we have more details on the damages?”
In short, the damage system summed-up:
Weapon damage on the target and type of wound (explosive, sharp, bullet, energetic, armor-piercing, etc…).
Influence of the skills, equipment and even sometimes of the karma
Armor resistance (based on the penetration of the ammunition or of the weapon, and the hit zone on the armor).
Influence and coefficient of the hit zone (head, torso, stomach, leg, arm).
Effect of the damage (hemorrhage, broken bone, etc).

“Some wounds will be fatal and will mark the player’s character. Does that mean we’ll have scars, amputated members…? Will it significantly change the way we play, with a possible reorientation of the character because of irreversible after-effects?”
Fatal wounds won’t be visible on the avatar, sadly. However, these wounds will have a real impact on the gameplay and the character, if you have too much of this type of wound, the handicap will quickly become heavy to bear. But we want to keep the surprise there.

“You can die, it’s not a big deal. But beware, a simple cut on your finger, and it is forever?”
You don’t die, you are just temporarily knocked out, in a coma, and then some combat drugs injected by a cybernetic piece allow you to revive. And cuts on the finger, as you say, are more like cerebral commotions.

Saves:
“The saving system is, it is true, particular. It can be annoying.”
We think it requires a bit of practice and not a short period to judge it, because once again it is inspired of what Diablo 2 did, for example.
It saves when you quit the game, when you fail, when you finish a mission, and it always saves for security.
So, you quit the game during a mission, for example. You’ll resume again when you were in the mission, but physically you will be at your last deployment point.

This system has been chosen for immersion. When the player quits the game, it is as if the character returns at the base, at the temple, so it wouldn’t be normal if he reconnected at the same place and time he was when he departed.
“The saving system is original… Automatically saving the game every 3 minutes, and when the game is released, might it annoy the player who failed a mission and won’t be able to take a previous save to try it again?”
One of our main goals is the immersion, with this system we wanted the player to assume his choices, and live the consequences of his mistakes and acts, like in ‘real life’ or in a boardgame RPG, where you can’t step back. However, the player will be able to ‘restart’ the current chapter, if he’s not happy with his choices.

“And I do hope it is not a save freezing your PC during 10 seconds.”
Even on a weak laptop the save is imperceptible.
Infiltration:

“Do we have the possibility to play stealthily?”
Yes, because you have an invisibility system, and because the enemies don’t know everything and don’t see you 1,000 miles away behind obstacles. You can also have silent weapons, counting silent firearms.

“Is it possible to create an ultra-stealthy character capable of avoiding most of the combat?”
You will be able to avoid a good part, but not everything. The majority of the objectives aren’t mass murder (but there are some, like holding a siege).
So you will be able to do a ninja using discretion during a large part of the game. The game features backstabs with melee weapons for silent murders.

“Can we use shadows to hide?”
Unfortunately, not.

“Can we walk on certain materials to be stealthier?”
Yes, the speed and moving position are as influential as the type of materials you’re walking on.

“With our characters, we couldn’t use infiltration that much because we didn’t have skills/stats for it at the beginning of the game.”
Infiltration without invisibility is, honestly, really tough. Possible, but hard (in a sense that without having played, nor perfectly understood the stealth mechanics, it’s hard to master a perfect infiltration in a few hours).
Stealth can become a specialization depending on the skills and implants you increase.
An example: if you increase the implants in your legs, the noise you make when you move will decrease, add to this a silent rifle and a good invisibility implant, you obtain a character who’s slowly going towards stealth. You can also combine skills, for example create a pro furtive hacker who can do a large part of the game avoiding direct combats.
Missions, factions and life time:

“How long will the solo play be?”
It is really variable, but for a player doing only the main quest, and being a good FPS player, let’s say around 15 hours. For a player who wants more to discover worlds, to explore, to accomplish some secondary quests, this duration can be easily tripled. And for a player who wants to discover everything, do everything, it’s not possible to say. Without counting the almost infinite re-playability of the game

“Can we choose a faction and have an influence on the conflicts? If yes, aren’t they just here for us to have quests?”
Concerning the factions, the player is a member of a secret society and executes missions for it, so he doesn’t really have the choice for a faction. Sometimes you cooperate with the others, to infiltrate them or because you need it, but it stops here; it wouldn’t respect the scenario.

“It is possible to fail a mission without having to lose the game. Does that mean that there are several endings, and perhaps several scenario unfoldings?”
Indeed, the failure of a mission doesn’t mean that the game is lost! Several scenario unfoldings are set per chapter, but the different junctions often lead to common endings. The game will, however, have an alternative ending.
An example: in one of the chapters, the player must retrieve a briefcase containing vital data from a traitor. The player must intercept it during their meeting with enemy agents. If the player doesn’t manage to take it, because the traitor flees for example, then the unfolding changes and there’s no game over, the player will have to either stalk the traitor, or find information that will permit him to know where he is. And even here, the player can fail, and the traitor will have sold the briefcase to other buyers the player will have to eliminate in order to retrieve the precious briefcase.

“The levels won’t be linear, implying a free circulation in the world. What will happen to the scenario and choices?”
The scenario offers several choices and possible paths, the campaign is semi-dynamic. The player will be able to take several junctions. However, every junction will ultimately cross. We preferred to keep a solid narrative line to better tell a story, even if it means losing a bit of the player’s freedom.
However, every action, quest and mission can be solved as the player wants, he will be able to do things differently, and even fail without a Game Over. For example, during the game the player must infiltrate a looter group in their base to locate and assassinate their boss. He will have to accomplish missions for them and sabotage their installations in the meantime. If the player is caught red-handed during one of these sabotages, for example the poisoning of the water, then the looters will become enemies and the player will have a harder time accomplishing his task.

“How does the secondary missions system work? Will they be classic farming missions, like killing a certain number of enemies or finding a particular item?
Secondary missions are randomly chosen between approximately 15 missions when you launch the map. Then they are set-up accordingly, meaning the game randomly chooses from 1 up to 3 missions added together creating a narrative and coherent order.
Secondary missions depend on the world they’re taking place, and aren’t classic farming mission, and are written accordingly. If you are in a big polluted megalopolis, you will have, for example, to deactivate a burner used to purify the atmosphere to poison the air, thus doing considerable damage to your enemy, the federation.

“Aren’t secondary missions just repetitive gameplay we see in MMORPGs for example?”
No, they are true missions, but less story-driven than the campaign, and independent.

For example, you’ll have to plant biological sensors to prevent a Metastreumonic assault, plant bombs on structures, eliminate an enemy general…

Players’ reports:
“You can encounter guys giving you secondary quests to earn BROUZOUFS”

Character and inventory:

“So, your character in muliplayer is the same in solo and vice-verse? Can we have multiple profiles if we want to play frantically and ninja to diversify the multiplayer?”
You can do whatever you want, you can do several characters, some dedicated to the solo play or the multiplayer, or even use them both, or another one for the infiltration and another one for the close combat. Your character can be used for the solo play and the multiplayer! There’s absolutely no barrier between the two!
You can create up to 10 characters.
“Are there some RPG elements in the character’s management, like nano to equip, skill points, etc?”
Yes to everything (10 skills, around 12 cybernetic implants) and a long-term serious wound management, scientific research, an inventory…

“Is there a diet management?”
Nah, you fool! We send the player to accomplish a mission, and missions do not last for days! No need to eat or go to the toilet during the missions, you do that when you’re in the temple, and since we like the player, he doesn’t have to do this.

“Will we be able to ‘stick’ to a wall like an alien?”
Oh oh, no, did you see the armors the player is wearing?

“Is there a grappling hook?”
You don’t need any grappling hook, just increase your leg implants, do the adequate research, and you’ll go higher than any grappling hook!

“Will we be able to bunny hop? I like bunny hop”
There is a cyberjump, but it consumes energy. So there are choices to make. Less energy, less invisibility, for example.

“Will we be able to stick a rocket in the back to do a huge acceleration, like a sort of jetpack?”
Cyberjump level 8+ is as powerful… but beware of the fall.

“I do hope we will be able to lean!”
Yes you can lean left and right. And of course, shoot in these positions.

Players’ reports:
“On the player character’s creation, you can choose a name, and after you have a characteristic sheet a la board RPG (randomly defined, based on traits you have to manually assign).
And then you have PSI powers and implants to add/increase.
The appearance changes with the selected armor.”

“The player will be able to use 10 skills he’ll need to combine. Will the skills choices be done depending on the chosen character class, or will we choose them one by one?”
The player has every skills at the start of the game, and when he levels up, he can choose to distribute points in them, he then creates his class depending on his choices. The player has the choice between a manual mode where he distributes his experience points himself, and an automatic mode where the skills evolve depending on the actions of the player. The player can switch modes whenever he wants, but with a penalty, of course.

“The game says it will break the barriers between solo play and multiplayer… can you say more on this? What is E.Y.E bringing on this level?”
The player will be able to use his character(s) in any game mode, solo or multiplayer without any distinction.
The player’s character can evolve (experience increases, researches…) in multiplayer as well as in solo play.

Weapons, equipment & combat:
“Explain how the shooting/physic powers gameplay mechanics work”
The player can totally choose how to get into a fight or in a situation thanks to his different powers and weaponry.
You have melee weapons, long-range guns, proximity grenades, combat drones, etc… Firearms all have their proper characteristics (recoil, damage, accuracy depending on the movement, etc), some are better for long-range fire, others for assault, or for mid-range combat.
Powers linked to implants and PSI powers consume energy that regenerates with time. The player can use both, able to combine them, and can complement each other. The strength of the implants powers relies directly on the cybernetic implants, whereas the PSI force relies on the corresponding skill level.

“How deep are the RPG Psi-upgrading elements? A bit like Bioshock?”
PSI powers don’t work like in Bioshock, they depend on the PSI skill level of the character and of some of his equipment.

“Are there non-lethal weapons?”
No, they don’t belong to the universe and the background; there’s no captures, nor any need to keep an enemy alive.

“Can you say more about the close combat? Is it diversified?”
Concerning the diversity, yes there are many hits that the player can choose, and several weapons.
He can also do a powerful hit (4 different, and per weapon), a parry (close combat, and even at a distance), and fast hits. The game also counts the length and the trace of the hit.
There’s also a beautiful fusion war hammer, when you hit an enemy, it is pulverized, and there’s a shock wave throwing everything near the impact.
There’s an energetic sword that you can combine with a pistol.
There are double katanas slashing fast and good, that you can hold with a heavy or light pistol.
Every melee weapons slash on an axis.

“Can you do different hits?”
Yes, you can slash horizontally, vertically/diagonally, or quickly, and in this case it is really random. Or you can hold the attack key, look at a direction you want and release it, influencing the trajectory, meaning that the melee weapon hits where the blade goes.

“Is there a possibility to aim in ‘ironsight’ mode with the pistols, assault rifles and shotguns?”
Yes, but not with the akimbo pistols and melee weapons.

“Is there a fist/foot/rifle butt shoving feature?”
No, but the player can release a PSI wave on the enemy, hurting them and shoving them far away.

“I don’t quite understand why the invisibility should wear off when we attack, since it is a camouflage technology, and not a mental troubling spell dissipating once the enemy has recovered his mind because of the attack.”
The weapons in E.Y.E, coming right from the dark ages, have been modified and their hits create perturbations that cancel some fields. Without spoiling too much, the federation (enemy of E.Y.E) has the technological support of a huge megacorporation, and owns fields that don’t dissipate when they shot (the federal special forces have such fields).

“What is the link between implants and invisibility? Are there counter-measures?”
Indeed, the effectiveness of the invisibility and its consummation depend on the implant and its level.
There are counter-measures to the invisibility, but I’ll let you discover them.

Players’ reports:
“When you reload your pistol, you don’t magically get the bullets in the previous magazine back, they fall and that’s it (at the beginning I had the bad habit of reloading after each burst and I threw away a large part of the magazine).”
“Oh and you can parry hits (and some like Jedi) with the melee weapons.
But also with the assault rifles! Indeed, you can lift your gun to try to parry a melee hit.”

“And isn’t there ocular augmentations to spot enemies through walls?”
It is named the Cyber Wave, it doesn’t last very long, it consumes all your energy, and is very hard to get.

“You can send a drone; if you have the equipment, and see through its eyes if I remember correctly.
We could hack our own drones to see through their eyes…”
Indeed, you can send a drone and then hack it. If you hack its sight, you can see what he sees. It’s as if you reprogrammed it.

Difficulty:
“I’ve seen different difficulty levels were available. And I’d like, if possible, know how it is managed.”
Difficulty influences:
- The Hacking.
- The NPCs’ skills.

The NPCs have ranks: rookie, soldier, squaddies, sergeant, captain, colonel, general, master. The difficulty increases the probability of fighting ranked NPCs. It also modifies the player’s hit points and his Resurector number.
However, the more the difficulty is important, the more experience you earn. But the more you can suffer from a fatal wound.

Miscellaneous:
“Will it be possible to talk to a neutral of friendly NPC without your weapon?
Does the presence of your weapon influence the relationship?”
No, it doesn’t influence anything. When you have a weapon and you’re near an allied NPC, your weapon will automatically lower to prevent him from being afraid.

“Are we all alone in the game, or will we be sometimes accompanied by one or more teammates?”
You are sometimes accompanied by your teammates, and even by the clones you can make with your PSI powers, and no-you can’t control them.
“Will there be some frightening passages like the X-16 lab?”
Yes, but I won’t give you any example; there won’t be any surprise then!

“Will there be vehicles?”
No, they didn’t fit in the maps and the general ambiance. At the beginning we wanted to put some in the cities, but it spoiled the gameplay and honestly, the integration wasn’t perfect (driving wasn’t great, and the general management as well).

“Alright, you’ll make big bosses fight in 1,000 vs 1,000 battles?”
Probably not 1,000 vs 1,000, but sometimes there are lots of dudes!!!

“Will there be blood on the camera?”
No, we’re not really fond of things on the camera.

“Why this choice of FPS/RPG hybrid?”
We have chosen to mix these two genres to make the RPG side more intense thanks to the FPS view, and to increase the deepness of the FPS gameplay thanks to the RPG part. And we must admit we’re in love with these two gameplay styles.

“In front of so many different elements, without saying opposite, aren’t you afraid of losing the player and even the identity of the game?”
We tried, during the whole development process, to keep a guideline to avoid this.

Hacking:

Players’ reports:
“The hacking allows you do to 3 things: Spy (see through the enemy eyes), Hack (for example to convert an enemy turret in an allied one), and Destroy.

You have the choice between 5 actions, Attack to attack the enemy firewall, Mask to decrease the enemy firewall’s attack, Shield to increase your defense points, Overflow to increase your attack points, and Scan, decreasing the opponent’s defense.

So you click on an action, it fills your gauge and when it is full you can do another action and the enemy firewall does the same.

Depending on the enemy firewall’s power, the power of his hack in case of failure is more or less important. For example, against this damned door the worst that could happen to us was the smiley on screen and the decreasing of all your character’s cyber (you need to hack yourself to get rid of it), but against something more powerful than a door, your cyberbrain can melt.
You can hack everything that is electronic, or that has a cyberbrain.”

“but the A.I. will never come and hack you by itself.”
In solo play! Because in multiplayer anyone can hack anybody whenever they want.
Madness:

“The psychological management of the character seems to be an important aspect of the gameplay. How is it managed, and will it have an impact on the dialogues and relationships with the NPCs?”
The psychological factor indeed plays a major role in the gameplay; the player’s character can suffer from traumas that will modify his mental equilibrium, for example when a relative dies, when an ally dies in front of him, or when he encounters strange and terrifying enemies. The psychology doesn’t affect directly the dialogues with the NPCs, it has a more visceral action and has repercussions in the actions rather than in dialogue modifications artifices.
The player’s character, if he becomes paranoid, may, for example, eliminate a teammate by himself without the control of the player. We wanted to make the player experience this sensation we call the weird weirdness, or the act without consciousness. We prefer not to tell more about the psychology to avoid spoiling the pleasure and the discovery.

Players’ reports:
“In some situations (monsters attacking you, for example), your ‘madness gauge’ decreases and when it reaches 0 you become insane. My screen blurred and became gray-ish. I had to take some time to recover. When you recover you’re sane again but you may become insane more easily than before (I you were mad once, you’re more fragile).”

A.I.:
“Does it use covers?”
Yes, it can also do leaned shots, standing or crouching.

“Does it fight in groups?”
Yes for everything human, the game chooses from around 12 tactics (for example, while a part of the squad rushes, the other part will cover them or will try to bypass). The tactic is chosen depending on the player’s behavior (you hide, I stalk you) and the specialization of the members of the squad.

“Does it have a behavior other than aggressive?”
Retreat, morale and regrouping are managed.

“Is the player the center of the universe and the action?”
Yes and no, as the NPCs are living their lives with or without the player.

“If we encounter a lone guard, wouldn’t the logic be that he would attempt to flee and call his friends instead of trying to kill us all alone? If a squad comes and sees a dead body, wouldn’t it give an alert?”
It is the currently the case, but it depends of the courage level of the particular unit. For example, there is a monster we call the Forma, and he’s a bit of a coward. If he’s alone, he will hide and try to ambush the player, or try to find his friends to attack the player.

“In video games, the A.I. is always equal, with only three states”
It’s not the case in E.Y.E. You have to add the psychological factor to the A.I., depending on its task (support, assault, mid), of its rank and its elite level. These factors are fear and rage. Depending on the events (for example how many of the NPC’s friends are dead) and the player’s actions, the A.I. can crack out; do suppression fire or attempt to find you at all costs, or even flee.

“The NPCs can use sight and hearing to locate the player, but also smell. How is it managed, will it bring new possibilities for the player? (create a lure for example, or the need to change equipment or wash yourself after a trip in the sewers…)”
Unfortunately, we couldn’t develop this feature as much as we’d liked. We wanted to manage it with the different air currents (like ventilation, wind), and indeed the link with very smelly places and water. The sense of smell is currently a sort of specialization of some NPCs-they can locate you if you hide without the possibility of concealing your scent (out of the water).

“The enemies will be harder to kill at a higher difficulty level. Does it mean that the A.I. will be better, or simply that they’ll have better weapons and resistance?”
The difficulty changes the damages received by the player, and his number of ‘Resurectors’, that is a cybernetic piece allowing to survive death. We didn’t want to decrease the A.I., its equipment or this kind of thing to propose the player a real challenge. Playing in Easy just allows surviving longer, without spoiling the sensation and the game quality. It is a radical decision, but we think it is justified.

Players’ reports:
“The NPCs are sneaky!
On the first map I found my fool self trying to flee a group of enemies just to find another group flanked me from behind.”
“Even if the enemies seem to have an A.I. we’re not accustomed to (but that should be the norm), they shoot at sight without asking questions, not matter the place in the map? Doesn’t it make the whole thing exhausting with this permanent absence of neutrality?”
The majority of NPCs we encounter are indeed enemies, but in some cases they’re allied or neutral, for example in the looter base in chapter 4. They only shoot you if you shoot them, or if you sabotage their installations…

“Is there a way to tell apart a Rookie from a General, other than the skill?”
Yes, ranked enemies from Captain have unique force-fields, and some specializations I won’t spoil.
Some monsters don’t have the same skin or fur color. Or the cops, for example, the ranked can have their head covered with a beret.
Environments:
“How story-driven is the game? Are you let loose on linear levels, or as you progress do objectives change and adapt?”
The main plot is linear, but the missions can adapt to the choices and actions the player makes. For example, in one mission you must poison a water reservoir in a rebel base and you must not be seen. Instead of a game over like in many other games if you get caught red-handed, the mission changes and your objectives adapt.

“Will we be only in urban environments?”
There are many places like canyons of Mars, lost temples, cities…

“What will be the scale of the maps?”
Very big! In short, they’re not maps you’ll finish in less than 5 minutes. Here, a map without any objectives nor NPCs requires between 20 and 30 minutes to visit every corner, and we still manage to lose ourselves in them… even when it is a level designer who plays…

“If I understand correctly, we’ll be able to visit things that aren’t foreseen by the scenario?”
Yes, and more than that; you can go everywhere you want, you can ignore some of your objectives, and even utterly spoil them by killing key characters. But you’ll have to assume then.

“It sucks, so there are only bad guys on the levels, then?”
Caution! I never said that! There are some neutral NPCs, but the chapters take place where civilians aren’t meant to be.
We find neutral NPCs in various factions, and, without spoiling, the relationships with the NPCs vary and result in some cases of the player’s actions.
“So, there’s a fixed hour for each mission (day, night, dawn, etc) or is it a constant night?”
There’s everything: day, and night. It however depends on the planet where the action is taking place.

“Are we surprised?”
Honestly, yes. And pretty often. For example, you are in a secret cache of your so-called allies, you speak to their boss, the conversation goes wrong and then the combat suddenly triggers.
Or you are in a place meant to be quiet, you’re hacking a bank terminal to steal some brouzoufs, and a patrol passes by the area.

“I want to walk in the backstreets and suddenly hear the noise of a sword in my back!”
You’ll like E.Y.E, then.

Players’ reports:
“It’s good. We were 4 to play at the same time in the same level, and nobody was at the same place. Same for the enemies, everyone was at a different place.”
“In short, the enemies continually spawn in designated areas and patrol in the whole map, but since there are allies battling the enemies, there are fights everywhere.”
“The maps are huge (even when they’re indoors) and there are lots of different paths (some of them deviated).”
“Yes, they aren’t corridors with junctions, they’re really big maps where you’re free to go right, left, forward or backward. Usually, in FPS games, levels are lines you follow with sometimes a few junctions. Here, levels are big squares, you appear in the middle and your objectives take you almost everywhere in the maps. It’s not rare to return to your previous path, find an air duct to infiltrate, find yourself stuck and look for another way, etc. The indoor levels or the one on Mars (it’s a canyon, with buildings and undergrounds), are lots and lots of corridors and rooms going everywhere, crossing and overlooking each other, etc.”

“Another question; maps are big, but what do we earn exploring them? Find stuff or money caches?”
Yes, you have some bonus bank terminals to hack, characters giving you secondary quests, etc…

“Does it mean that enemies are infinite on the maps?”
NPCs live their own lives, don’t magically know your position, and aren’t everywhere at the same time. We’re talking about big maps, so you can recover, infiltrate and manage to encounter nobody. And it’s not really respawn, but more reinforcements coming. The nuance may seem to be small, but it makes all the difference.
Scenario and background:

“What is the storyline of the game?”
Here’s a quick summary:
The character the player embodies wakes up in a strange cave under the New Eden megalopolis after a fight and saw his fellow teammates die. He still remembers he’s a member of the weird secret society E.Y.E, itself an armed branch of the Secreta Sectretorum. This last one will attempt a coup against the all-powerful Federation, a coalition of several worlds and planets ruling with an iron fist.
He quickly learns that his own organization, E.Y.E, is plagued with internal conflicts, between the Jian faction, and the Culter faction he belongs to. The player is quickly torn between his superior and chief of the Secreta: the commander Rimanah who’s a separatist with an unstoppable ambition, and his friend and instructor called the “Mentor”. The Mentor tries at all costs, even the most subtle, to unite the two rival but sister factions. The player thus finds himself in the middle of a fratricidal war, as well as political conspiracies and quests for power, in which different groups and megacorporations are implicated.
It is in this context of troubles and changes that mankind is once again attacked by a force of unknown origin, taking from humans their worst terrors with the purpose of causing their own destruction.

“Member of a secret society, will the player have to follow his way, or will he have the choice?”
The player’s character will follow his path, but will have to make choices concerning the ways to accomplish it.

“In the videos, what is that werewolf doing here?”
It is in the background; the weird force that’s attacking takes the shape of human terrors and vices. For example, the werewolf (its little name is Carnophage) represents the human bestiality.

“To be serious now, will the scenario be sandbox, or an adventure with a character who have a dark past and an exceptional destiny, or the two?”
You’re not the super cool One saving everything and everyone, not the hero who doesn’t know what he’s doing here. In E.Y.E, you are a special agent like many others, who must do his job (squash the federation, find some traitors, calm the looters down, do recon missions, retrieve data, sabotage things, etc…) and who will have some surprises.

“We’re infiltrated in E.Y.E to ‘stop’ its ascension, but with who are we really? The Secreta, or the federals?”
You’re not with the federals. The rest will be unveiled as the game progresses.

Inspirations:
“Do you assume a certain link between Deus Ex and E.Y.E?”
If I say no, will you believe me?

“What are your inspirations? Please, say Stalker, say Stalker, say Stalker”
Diablo 2, Syndicate Wars, Deus Ex, Space Hulk and many paper RPGs (Shadowrun and Cyberpunk first).

“How far did you draw inspiration from the RPG Cyberpunk 2020, and from Cyberpunk itself in general?
Does it look more like Shadowrun or Cyberpunk 2020?”
We’re keeping the magical aspect of Shadownrun (PSI force in E.Y.E) and the creatures, while cybertech and weaponry are more based on Cyberpunk 2020.

“Do you like Masamune Shirow?”
Huh, since this guy did Ghost In The Shell and Apple Seed…

“Will you keep the Doom-esque sequences we can see in the trailers, or not?”
We love Doom!

“A small question: is the gun looking like Deckard’s from Blade Runner still in the game?”
Yes, and in two versions: heavy and short!

“You’ve been inspired by H.P. Lovecraft’s The Thing on the Doorstep to create the famous phrase ‘I just shot 4 bullets in my friend and Mentor’s head… yet, I am not his murderer’”.
Exactly.

Modding:

“Will we be able to modify your game?”
We’ll release some tools to create campaigns and maps, but we won’t release a complete SDK, it requires too much work.
Tech:
“What are the recommended configuration to play the game? (decent framerate, graphics that doesn’t make the eyes bleed).”
We’re playing the game at full graphics at 1920*1200 on 2, 3 years old computers. The worst framerate you can have on the most expensive level with the most enemies in a scene is 45, probably 40 if they all shoot simultaneously, and the average framerate is always superior to 60, often more than 100.

On a 2 year-old middle-range laptop, it runs smoothly on high settings in 1280*720.

“Will we be able to create dedicated servers?”
Of course yes.

“Do you plan Linux and a Mac versions?”
We’d really like, we’re working on it to see if it’s possible.

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..also just saw the FAQ.

I can’t even DIE properly?

Why have a ingame mechanism for multiple “lives” if after that you STILL won’t let me be dead?

Great.

This is Bioshock-fail all over.

Best not make it too hard on the player, ey? They might be annoyed. Oh, wait, you already take care of that with the next thing: The ultrafail excuse for not being able to code on-demand savegames.
Sorry, but “Hey, the agent goes to base so you can’t save and load at your convenience in a game you paid for, np” just doesn’t cut it.

I am going to not just stay, but RUN away from this abomination.

This is a really good example of people who have not read the Do and Don’ts of RPS I believe.

I believe this is going to be a classic example of “trying to be too many things at once while being good or even mediocre at none of it”.
Less choice, more focus, more polish, more ACTUAL comfort(_I_ decide what I want to do, how I want to approach a situation and am not forced to replay for that. I get to save whenever I choose. Nothing is unskippable. I can pause at any time. If my char can hack, then I don’t need to click pointlessly myself. Etc, etc, etc) and less “Oh no worries, you can’t ever really die anyhow! No point in really caring about how you behave or run through stuff, yo!” is needed.

Sigh.

Nobody ever, ever learns.

Not letting me quit when real life intrudes and pick up from that very spot again IS NOT IMMERSION!
It’s an ANNOYANCE!
Imagine I only had 5 minutes to briefly play and you reset me 5 minutes from my last location!
Infinite loop, groundhog day, misery! ARRRRGHHH!
*shakes people vigorously to wake them up*

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