Take control of former British Royal Marine James Grayson following the events of Resistance: Fall of Man as you join up with the European resistance to take back the continent from the hideous Chimera. But all is not as it seems, as Grayson discovers that the Chimera have a new way of converting humans to their brood during his mission of vengeance. Fight the Chimera on the go or sync your PSP up with Resistance 2 on a PS3 to infect Grayson with the Chimera virus for all new ways to play and control him. Keep an eye on our Resistance: Retribution launch center for the latest news, previews, videos, and more!
05 April, 2009
"Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 - PS3"
We recently got the chance to get an updated look at Activision's follow-up to the wildly popular Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2. Developer Vicarious Visions' president, Guha Bala, was on hand to give us a look at the game's first level and a peek at some more characters from the roster of playable heroes. The demo showcased the game's ties to the Civil War storyline that ran through Marvel's books last year and the visual polish courtesy of the new graphics engine.
The first level is essentially a prologue to the main game. It sets events in motion that lead to the drama of the Civil War. The action revolves around Nick Fury leading a group of heroes into Doctor Doom's homeland, which has seen some political upheaval that has left the good doctor out of his job of national despot. While a Doom-less Latverian government may sound like a good thing in theory, the reality is that the new leader, Lucia von Bardas, might actually be worse. In order to verify his suspicions, Fury gathers up a small strike team of heroes to go have a look at things. Things go wrong, as if they could go any other way, and the team finds itself busting heads as it makes its way to the castle. The level demo was split into two parts, a run through the surrounding villages around the town and a miniboss fight against Electro. The hands-off demo showcased a few different hero configurations that featured familiar faces. Captain America, Spider-Man, Thing, Human Torch, Thor, and Wolverine were playable with Nick Fury in tow, and there were two newcomers to the roster, Songbird and Iron Fist. The mix of heroes showed off some new power fusions, which continue to be cool and very useful, and the new interface.
While the variety in fusions may seem a bit daunting initially, the game's new interface helps a lot. Though there are a ton of fusions, they break down into specific attributes, such as elemental or healing, that will appear when you hold down the controller trigger to initiate the move. When the button is held down, you'll see a button over each member of the team and the fusion type possible with them. Another facet to the new system is the equipment system, which has changed from the last game. Whereas the last game had you equipping items on your heroes as well as assorted team bonuses, MUA streamlines the system. Your heroes will level up and earn powers as before, but this time out you'll also earn new abilities that seem to be passive, such as Wolverine's health regen. As far as equippable items go, you'll now collect team boost items that offer various group enhancements, such as all members of your team doing fire damage. There will apparently be more than 150 team boosts to find or earn in the game, and you'll be able to equip up to three at a given time, which should be handy. Our favorite new system in the game is the quick menus you can call up during the game to tweak your hero or team. These are especially handy in multiplayer as they can be called up without bringing the action to a screeching halt like in the last game.
The audio was still a mix of final and work-in-progress effects and music tracks, but it already has a good vibe to it. The score has the big sweeping sound you'd expect from a Marvel: Ultimate Alliance game. The effects fit the action but don't quite have the kick you'd want right now, especially during the fusions, but we reckon that will change once the game gets polished. There's plenty of voice during the game, and it all helps give combat a busy feel that works.
We're very hopeful about where Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 is headed. The roster is shaping up nicely, and the gameplay looks like it's doing a good job of covering its bases in terms of what fans want while adding some new content. We especially like the mix of fan service--we doubt Iron Fist and Songbird are as widely known as Spider-Man and Wolverine--and gameplay enhancements. Comic fans or fans of the original Marvel: Ultimate Alliance should be looking forward to this one. Look for more on Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 in the coming months.
The first level is essentially a prologue to the main game. It sets events in motion that lead to the drama of the Civil War. The action revolves around Nick Fury leading a group of heroes into Doctor Doom's homeland, which has seen some political upheaval that has left the good doctor out of his job of national despot. While a Doom-less Latverian government may sound like a good thing in theory, the reality is that the new leader, Lucia von Bardas, might actually be worse. In order to verify his suspicions, Fury gathers up a small strike team of heroes to go have a look at things. Things go wrong, as if they could go any other way, and the team finds itself busting heads as it makes its way to the castle. The level demo was split into two parts, a run through the surrounding villages around the town and a miniboss fight against Electro. The hands-off demo showcased a few different hero configurations that featured familiar faces. Captain America, Spider-Man, Thing, Human Torch, Thor, and Wolverine were playable with Nick Fury in tow, and there were two newcomers to the roster, Songbird and Iron Fist. The mix of heroes showed off some new power fusions, which continue to be cool and very useful, and the new interface.
The start of the demo follows Fury, Captain America, Spider-Man, Iron Man, and Wolverine as they arrive in Latveria and start busting heads. The journey to the castle was broken up with some team changes as our demoer swapped in Human Torch, Thing, Thor, Iron Fist, and Songbird to show off the different fusion possibilities. Captain America and Thor's fusion has the thunder god blasting Cap's shield with lightning, which works as a deadly clothesline to take out any enemies in between the two heroes and can move with them as they move in tandem. Thor and Human Torch create a fiery tornado that clears enemies. Iron Fist combines with the Torch to create a radial chi- and fire-powered blast field to clear surrounding enemies. Iron Fist's fusion with Captain America has the two heroes performing a conga line of doom and plowing through enemies in a charged rushed. Iron Man and Song Bird's fusion has the metal avenger blasting his repulsors into a prism of sonic energy that blasts out deadly shafts of refracted light perfect for clearing mobs. The battle with Electro also let our demoer showcase the aforementioned fusions and had the added fun of Electro zipping around teleporting to different parts of the map and charging up on massive solenoids that had to be destroyed in order to defeat him. The battle looked challenging and full of quips, because, like all villains, Electro sure does like to go on about stuff in the middle of a fight.
While the variety in fusions may seem a bit daunting initially, the game's new interface helps a lot. Though there are a ton of fusions, they break down into specific attributes, such as elemental or healing, that will appear when you hold down the controller trigger to initiate the move. When the button is held down, you'll see a button over each member of the team and the fusion type possible with them. Another facet to the new system is the equipment system, which has changed from the last game. Whereas the last game had you equipping items on your heroes as well as assorted team bonuses, MUA streamlines the system. Your heroes will level up and earn powers as before, but this time out you'll also earn new abilities that seem to be passive, such as Wolverine's health regen. As far as equippable items go, you'll now collect team boost items that offer various group enhancements, such as all members of your team doing fire damage. There will apparently be more than 150 team boosts to find or earn in the game, and you'll be able to equip up to three at a given time, which should be handy. Our favorite new system in the game is the quick menus you can call up during the game to tweak your hero or team. These are especially handy in multiplayer as they can be called up without bringing the action to a screeching halt like in the last game.
The visuals are looking sharp thanks to the new graphics engine and the revamped art style. The combination of both give the game a bit more of a realistic style that is reminiscent of the work artist Gabriele Dell'Otto did in the Secret War miniseries. One of the coolest artistic touches in the demo was the makeover on Electro's costume, which is probably the coolest it has ever looked. This is saying something, considering there aren't many "cool" options open to a villain with green tights and a bright yellow headdress in the shape of three lightning bolts. Beyond that, the roster of heroes was looking sharp and detailed. The mobs of robot enemies weren't quite as detailed but were plentiful, which made for a good amount of onscreen chaos. The effects for the various powers looked sharp--maybe not quite as flashy as we were hoping for but still cool. The fusions were definitely a centerpiece to the visuals with dramatic camera angles and shiny effects punctuating the action. While the game's system camera was still a work in progress, we liked the smart movement in the demo, which brought the view in much closer in tighter quarters and zoomed out when the action moved to more open areas. If it works that smoothly throughout the whole game, we'll be very happy.
The audio was still a mix of final and work-in-progress effects and music tracks, but it already has a good vibe to it. The score has the big sweeping sound you'd expect from a Marvel: Ultimate Alliance game. The effects fit the action but don't quite have the kick you'd want right now, especially during the fusions, but we reckon that will change once the game gets polished. There's plenty of voice during the game, and it all helps give combat a busy feel that works.
We're very hopeful about where Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 is headed. The roster is shaping up nicely, and the gameplay looks like it's doing a good job of covering its bases in terms of what fans want while adding some new content. We especially like the mix of fan service--we doubt Iron Fist and Songbird are as widely known as Spider-Man and Wolverine--and gameplay enhancements. Comic fans or fans of the original Marvel: Ultimate Alliance should be looking forward to this one. Look for more on Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 in the coming months.
"Just Cause 2 - PC"
One of the most appealing qualities of the sandbox action genre is the ability to traverse an entire gameworld at will, free of the restrictions of linear level design. But oftentimes, you're still restricted to the realm of realistic physics when traversing that terrain. That's not the case in Just Cause 2, an upcoming sandbox action game that lets you bounce around a vast Southeast Asian island using a combination of a parachute, a grappling hook, and a deft talent for leaping between speeding vehicles. We recently took some time to see a demo of Just Cause 2 to see that recipe in motion.
This demo was guided by a member of Avalanche Studios, the Sweden-based developer currently working on the game. It began with protagonist Rico Rodriguez falling through the sky with nothing more than a rocket launcher strapped to his back to let you know that he intends to cause some pain when he hits the ground. But it took a good long while before that happened, which gave us the chance to get a lengthy look at the island of Panau--the game's 1,000-square-kilometer setting--from on high. It's a vast collection of varying climate zones that features impressive-enough draw distance to scope out a good stretch of it while going for a leisurely skydive.
Why start the game with a skydiving sequence? As it turns out, the parachute is a critical part of your repertoire, considering that you have the ability to deploy it as often and rapidly as you want. (You'll need to exercise a little suspension of disbelief regarding why Rico never needs to stuff it back into a backpack.) It works well in conjunction with the grappling hook, Rico's other powerful toy. The grappling hook operates similarly to what you've seen in Lost Planet or Bionic Commando: simply aim the reticle at a nearby surface, fire, and you'll quickly zip right there.
But of course, there are a few key differences. For one, you can cut the grappling hook short in midswing and use it as a way to slingshot yourself up into the air, at which point you open the parachute to sail off to a distant location--or just shoot your enemies from up in the air. The developer guiding the demo was able to perform an impressive string of movements that included zipping up and over armed guard towers while latching onto ledges for cover. Another use is slightly more diabolical: You can tether bad guys to objects by latching your hook onto them and then a second object. Feel like hanging an enemy from a light post like Spider-Man would? Go right ahead. Feel like tying him to a moving car and shooting him while he's being dragged at top speed? Probably not what Spider-Man would do, but have at it.
Speaking of vehicles, the way you're able to leap from, to, and over them plays a
big role in the fluid sense of movement in Just Cause 2. At one point, we witnessed Rico float down onto a moving car with his parachute, yank out the driver, launch off of a bridge, eject, and float down onto an airplane about to take off from its runway. And of course he stole that one, too. You can also hop from one moving car on the road to another, or just parasail from them if you don't want to get your hands dirty. Combined with the ability to fling yourself into the air using the grappling hook, this sort of acrobatic movement should make Just Cause 2 feel like a fairly unique sandbox action game. But given that this was a hands-off demo, we'll reserve our judgment until we see the learning curve that goes with pulling off all of those maneuvers.
All of these abilities will be put to use in a storyline that assigns Rico the goal of overthrowing the island nation's dictator, Baby Panay. Rico's method for doing this is simple and straightforward: cause as much chaos on the island as he can. Chaos is a sort of currency that unlocks key story missions by drawing the attention of all local factions and giving you new opportunities to earn friends and enemies.
As with any sandbox action game, you'll also find plenty of weapons and vehicles. Weapons available to you include an array of destructive black-market firearms and explosives, and the vehicle tally comes in at north of 100. You can upgrade your skills in both departments by collecting packages scattered around the island--an incentive to search around instead of just focusing on missions.
If you enjoyed Mercenaries 2's style of straight-to-the-point, morally bankrupt sandbox action set in a tropical locale, it looks like Just Cause 2 should offer similar frills with an added emphasis on fluid mobility. We're waiting to see what else the game will offer in terms of side missions, considering that one of the criticisms of the original was its lack of stuff to do outside of the main story. We should have more on Just Cause 2 in the coming months. No release date has been announced.
This demo was guided by a member of Avalanche Studios, the Sweden-based developer currently working on the game. It began with protagonist Rico Rodriguez falling through the sky with nothing more than a rocket launcher strapped to his back to let you know that he intends to cause some pain when he hits the ground. But it took a good long while before that happened, which gave us the chance to get a lengthy look at the island of Panau--the game's 1,000-square-kilometer setting--from on high. It's a vast collection of varying climate zones that features impressive-enough draw distance to scope out a good stretch of it while going for a leisurely skydive.Why start the game with a skydiving sequence? As it turns out, the parachute is a critical part of your repertoire, considering that you have the ability to deploy it as often and rapidly as you want. (You'll need to exercise a little suspension of disbelief regarding why Rico never needs to stuff it back into a backpack.) It works well in conjunction with the grappling hook, Rico's other powerful toy. The grappling hook operates similarly to what you've seen in Lost Planet or Bionic Commando: simply aim the reticle at a nearby surface, fire, and you'll quickly zip right there.
But of course, there are a few key differences. For one, you can cut the grappling hook short in midswing and use it as a way to slingshot yourself up into the air, at which point you open the parachute to sail off to a distant location--or just shoot your enemies from up in the air. The developer guiding the demo was able to perform an impressive string of movements that included zipping up and over armed guard towers while latching onto ledges for cover. Another use is slightly more diabolical: You can tether bad guys to objects by latching your hook onto them and then a second object. Feel like hanging an enemy from a light post like Spider-Man would? Go right ahead. Feel like tying him to a moving car and shooting him while he's being dragged at top speed? Probably not what Spider-Man would do, but have at it.
Speaking of vehicles, the way you're able to leap from, to, and over them plays a
big role in the fluid sense of movement in Just Cause 2. At one point, we witnessed Rico float down onto a moving car with his parachute, yank out the driver, launch off of a bridge, eject, and float down onto an airplane about to take off from its runway. And of course he stole that one, too. You can also hop from one moving car on the road to another, or just parasail from them if you don't want to get your hands dirty. Combined with the ability to fling yourself into the air using the grappling hook, this sort of acrobatic movement should make Just Cause 2 feel like a fairly unique sandbox action game. But given that this was a hands-off demo, we'll reserve our judgment until we see the learning curve that goes with pulling off all of those maneuvers.All of these abilities will be put to use in a storyline that assigns Rico the goal of overthrowing the island nation's dictator, Baby Panay. Rico's method for doing this is simple and straightforward: cause as much chaos on the island as he can. Chaos is a sort of currency that unlocks key story missions by drawing the attention of all local factions and giving you new opportunities to earn friends and enemies.
As with any sandbox action game, you'll also find plenty of weapons and vehicles. Weapons available to you include an array of destructive black-market firearms and explosives, and the vehicle tally comes in at north of 100. You can upgrade your skills in both departments by collecting packages scattered around the island--an incentive to search around instead of just focusing on missions.
If you enjoyed Mercenaries 2's style of straight-to-the-point, morally bankrupt sandbox action set in a tropical locale, it looks like Just Cause 2 should offer similar frills with an added emphasis on fluid mobility. We're waiting to see what else the game will offer in terms of side missions, considering that one of the criticisms of the original was its lack of stuff to do outside of the main story. We should have more on Just Cause 2 in the coming months. No release date has been announced.
"Dark Void - PC"
While Dark Void might not have the name recognition of other games in the Capcom library, it's generated a fair amount of buzz thanks to an intriguing combination of gameplay types. Developed by Airtight Games, Dark Void looks to offer a mix of cover-based combat, perspective-altering platforming, and ample flying. The man with the challenging task of scoring all those gameplay elements is Bear McCreary, better known as the composer of the new Battlestar Galactica TV series. We recently spoke with Bear about his role crafting music for the game.
You're best known for your work in Battlestar Galactica. How has the transition been from Battlestar to Dark Void?
Well, it's been very exciting because not only is the medium different--I'm going from television to games--but the style of the music is actually quite different as well. So I've really gotten to explore new sounds that I haven't been able to use on Battlestar, so it's really exciting.
From a creative perspective, is there anything you learned or tried out in the later seasons of Battlestar that you've carried over to Dark Void, or are you starting with a blank slate?
I think that in the later seasons of Battlestar I learned things that I'm going to carry with me for the rest of my life, and certainly into Dark Void. The interesting thing about my score for Dark Void is not how it connects to my recent work, but for me it's how it's connected to older film scores. Dark Void gave me an opportunity to experiment with the orchestral language that I haven't been able to use on Battlestar, the kind of film scores that I used to love when I was growing up. So in many ways there's an element of this that feels very contemporary, and I think people who know my work from Battlestar will very easily be able to identify Dark Void as being my work. But there's also a grander orchestral presence. I really was a lot more inspired by Elmer Bernstein, and Jerry Goldsmith, and Bernard Herrmann, and even John Williams--these composers that traditionally worked in a more orchestral setting than I do on Battlestar.
What sorts of elements in particular do you think people might recognize instantly as your own personal work versus elements that might take them by surprise?
I'm not actually the best person to judge what defines my personal style, because I obviously can't listen to my music objectively. But the percussion riding is very intense. The score has a very tribal, energetic, aggressive sound. The drums are just mean and nasty. A lot of the same soloists that I work with on Battlestar and Terminator [The Sarah Connor Chronicles]--and all my projects, really--are also working on Dark Void. So you'll hear sounds that are musicians that I like to work with on everything I do. They're certainly part of the Dark Void sound. But there's also a lot of aspects of the Dark Void score that are, for me, totally unique.
Going into this project, did you know much about the game itself, or were you more looking at Capcom's track record as one of the more successful and well-known publishers out there?
I've been aware of Capcom as a company my entire life. I grew up playing Mega Man, Mega Man 2, Mega Man 3, and Mega Man 4, so just the idea of working with Capcom was really exciting. But aside from that, when I had my first meeting, I saw some of the early footage of the game. I saw some early production drawings, and that basically sold me. I can't say that I was entirely sold on doing any game. I've been waiting for the right game to score, and Dark Void was absolutely the right game. When I saw
the design and found out the story, I knew this was something I could put music to. I knew that this was a universe that needed a really iconic, signature sound. Honestly, I knew that it would be fun, but I really didn't anticipate how much fun I would have writing this music. I really got to explore and let my creativity go crazy because I'm used to working against picture. Now, to be able to look at these drawings, and look at the characters, and listen to the ideas for the story, and just write music on my own without time constraints, this was very liberating for me.
As you've seen the game in its varying states of completion, from original concept art on through the more completed state that it's in today, has that affected the sound that you've gone for? Has the sound evolved as the game has?
I can't say that it has. And part of the reason that it hasn't really changed is that I did the bulk of my writing at a very early stage. There really wasn't much of the game for me to look at. I had gone up there, I had gone up to Airtight where it's being developed, and I got to play a little bit of it and see where it was going. I basically wrote the music imagining what I thought the game would look like. It was very incomplete. I had lots of production drawings. And I would say the production drawings were my biggest inspiration. After the score was finished, I started seeing more complete footage of gameplay, and I remembered thinking the footage is looking as good as the music sounds. In many ways, I wouldn't have written the music any other way. I feel like the music fits perfectly. I was scoring for very incomplete footage, which was fun.
Was that much of a challenge compared to scoring for a TV show that's still going through the editing process?
Initially, it was. I've got to admit, the first couple of days, I kind of sat in my studio and didn't know what to do. But once I made that leap and let myself go for it, it was not a challenge at all. If anything, it was liberating--that's the word I keep coming back to. It was liberating to write music without time constraints.
Let's talk about the specifics of the sound for a bit. Why the decision to go with the orchestral score versus some of the synthesizer or spacey guitar effects you hear in a lot of science-fiction work?
Well, I hate synth orchestra. I hate it. You'll never hear it in my projects. I'm always very concerned when I hear that in games especially. I'm a gamer, and I must say that my pet peeve is, I hear orchestra in the main title and a couple of big cues, but in a lot of video game music there's still fake orchestra all over the place. So in Dark Void, you're not going to hear that. Ever. There's live orchestra on virtually every cue, and on the cues that don't have live orchestra on them, there's just no orchestra. There's other instruments. And that's where I borrowed my philosophy from Battlestar, which has always been rather than doing synth orchestra,
you write for whoever you have and whoever you can get to come in and play.
As for the orchestral side of it, I was a little nervous at first because I got hired, I think, because Battlestar was so successful. I'm very well known for a certain kind of sound. And when I looked at the project, I felt like it needed a bigger orchestral sound. I didn't think that the kind of sparse, minimal approach on Battlestar--although Battlestar isn't really sparse or minimal anymore--but certainly the thing that I thought I was known for wouldn't work on Dark Void. I remember speaking with the producers and the developers and saying, "I know why you hired me. I don't think that sound is going to work. I think that this needs to be bigger. I think that this game needs a sense of grandeur, it needs something that only the full orchestra can bring." And they went for it. In fact, my first demo went over great. It set the tone for what would become the most lyrical, adventurous, and honestly one of the most beautiful scores I've ever written. The use of themes in this game is the same way I approach film or TV. It's a very thematically interwoven score. My hope is that it's a very rewarding score. I want gamers, when they're done playing this, to be able to identify the themes for each character. To be able to identify the musical elements that are in the score, associated with the various parties and characters and places that you go. That kind of development isn't something that I hear in a lot of games. I really felt strongly, and still feel strongly, that a game is a long experience and anything I can do to make the experience more worthwhile and more entertaining, the better.
One of the biggest challenges for you to put that into effect is the technological differences of the medium. In TV, you've got a set cue where the song will start playing at the same point every time. But in the game, it depends on the player's progress. A lot of times, if the player is moving slowly, he or she will be exposed to that song again and again and again. It loses its effectiveness as it repeats over and over. How have you dealt with that? I know you've toyed with the idea of resequencing different tracks so they play dynamically. Is that right?
That's exactly what I was going to say. As the player takes the game slowly, it's not going to repeat. You're not going to hear the same thing over and over again. As the game goes on, the music will adapt and evolve in ways that, I hope, will keep players on their toes. Because I think that repetition in video games is a major problem in the experience. Ultimately, no matter how exciting a piece of music is, once you've heard it three or four times, it becomes comforting. It becomes something you settle into ... But in a game where you're supposed to be in danger, where you're in combat, it doesn't help to have the music become so familiar ... My goal is that when you play through a certain level, and if you play through it again, it wouldn't be exactly the same. It would be close, but not exactly the same. Not enough that you could predict what could happen, and it's that unpredictability that would heighten the experience.
One of the other challenges that exists for you with this game is that one of the big selling points for Dark Void is that it's not a one-dimensional game. There are lots of different gameplay types: shooting, flying, rocketeering, dogfighting. What sorts of challenges does that pose for you as a composer?
In the initial stages, it was an issue. When we were first talking about the game, they were telling me you could fight on foot, you could fight in the air, so the obvious decision was, let's have music for when you're on foot and music for when you're flying. Which is a nice intellectual idea, but in practice it didn't work. Unlike in a lot of other games, these different styles of gameplay are up to the player. The player can stop flying whenever he or she wants. So in order to do that,
you'd have the music starting and stopping every five seconds if you wanted to fly and then walk, fly and then walk. So we threw that idea out the window. And what we did instead was, I approached it almost like a really long movie or miniseries. And I looked at it like one giant arc, because our character goes through a major shift from the beginning of the story to the end of the story. I approached it more thinking about what the character and ultimately what the player is going to be thinking about. So the combat at the beginning of the game is very sparse and mysterious, because you're in this strange new place. It's intense, but it's not crazy. It's more about the atmosphere. And as the game goes on, you start learning more about your environment, you start learning more about the other people there with you, and the score becomes more complex.
Is there any type of video game genre, or story or themes, that you're interested in working on in the future outside of sci-fi action?
Yeah. Honestly, there are so many games that would be fun, and so many genres. I'm a big fan of the Metal Gear Solid series. The thing I really admire about MGS4 was the time and attention that went into the cinematics in that. I know that a lot of people felt like it was too much, but I didn't think so. That idea that the cinematic part of it can be as much of the experience as the gameplay part of it is something that I find really interesting. Maybe that's not a genre necessarily, but a style of game that I find interesting would be something that has more in-depth cinematics ... Because as a composer, you get to do both--you get to do the cinema and you get to do the interactive quality. It just depends honestly on what comes my way.
You're best known for your work in Battlestar Galactica. How has the transition been from Battlestar to Dark Void?
Well, it's been very exciting because not only is the medium different--I'm going from television to games--but the style of the music is actually quite different as well. So I've really gotten to explore new sounds that I haven't been able to use on Battlestar, so it's really exciting.
From a creative perspective, is there anything you learned or tried out in the later seasons of Battlestar that you've carried over to Dark Void, or are you starting with a blank slate?
I think that in the later seasons of Battlestar I learned things that I'm going to carry with me for the rest of my life, and certainly into Dark Void. The interesting thing about my score for Dark Void is not how it connects to my recent work, but for me it's how it's connected to older film scores. Dark Void gave me an opportunity to experiment with the orchestral language that I haven't been able to use on Battlestar, the kind of film scores that I used to love when I was growing up. So in many ways there's an element of this that feels very contemporary, and I think people who know my work from Battlestar will very easily be able to identify Dark Void as being my work. But there's also a grander orchestral presence. I really was a lot more inspired by Elmer Bernstein, and Jerry Goldsmith, and Bernard Herrmann, and even John Williams--these composers that traditionally worked in a more orchestral setting than I do on Battlestar.What sorts of elements in particular do you think people might recognize instantly as your own personal work versus elements that might take them by surprise?
I'm not actually the best person to judge what defines my personal style, because I obviously can't listen to my music objectively. But the percussion riding is very intense. The score has a very tribal, energetic, aggressive sound. The drums are just mean and nasty. A lot of the same soloists that I work with on Battlestar and Terminator [The Sarah Connor Chronicles]--and all my projects, really--are also working on Dark Void. So you'll hear sounds that are musicians that I like to work with on everything I do. They're certainly part of the Dark Void sound. But there's also a lot of aspects of the Dark Void score that are, for me, totally unique.
Going into this project, did you know much about the game itself, or were you more looking at Capcom's track record as one of the more successful and well-known publishers out there?
I've been aware of Capcom as a company my entire life. I grew up playing Mega Man, Mega Man 2, Mega Man 3, and Mega Man 4, so just the idea of working with Capcom was really exciting. But aside from that, when I had my first meeting, I saw some of the early footage of the game. I saw some early production drawings, and that basically sold me. I can't say that I was entirely sold on doing any game. I've been waiting for the right game to score, and Dark Void was absolutely the right game. When I saw
the design and found out the story, I knew this was something I could put music to. I knew that this was a universe that needed a really iconic, signature sound. Honestly, I knew that it would be fun, but I really didn't anticipate how much fun I would have writing this music. I really got to explore and let my creativity go crazy because I'm used to working against picture. Now, to be able to look at these drawings, and look at the characters, and listen to the ideas for the story, and just write music on my own without time constraints, this was very liberating for me.As you've seen the game in its varying states of completion, from original concept art on through the more completed state that it's in today, has that affected the sound that you've gone for? Has the sound evolved as the game has?
I can't say that it has. And part of the reason that it hasn't really changed is that I did the bulk of my writing at a very early stage. There really wasn't much of the game for me to look at. I had gone up there, I had gone up to Airtight where it's being developed, and I got to play a little bit of it and see where it was going. I basically wrote the music imagining what I thought the game would look like. It was very incomplete. I had lots of production drawings. And I would say the production drawings were my biggest inspiration. After the score was finished, I started seeing more complete footage of gameplay, and I remembered thinking the footage is looking as good as the music sounds. In many ways, I wouldn't have written the music any other way. I feel like the music fits perfectly. I was scoring for very incomplete footage, which was fun.
Was that much of a challenge compared to scoring for a TV show that's still going through the editing process?
Initially, it was. I've got to admit, the first couple of days, I kind of sat in my studio and didn't know what to do. But once I made that leap and let myself go for it, it was not a challenge at all. If anything, it was liberating--that's the word I keep coming back to. It was liberating to write music without time constraints.
Let's talk about the specifics of the sound for a bit. Why the decision to go with the orchestral score versus some of the synthesizer or spacey guitar effects you hear in a lot of science-fiction work?
Well, I hate synth orchestra. I hate it. You'll never hear it in my projects. I'm always very concerned when I hear that in games especially. I'm a gamer, and I must say that my pet peeve is, I hear orchestra in the main title and a couple of big cues, but in a lot of video game music there's still fake orchestra all over the place. So in Dark Void, you're not going to hear that. Ever. There's live orchestra on virtually every cue, and on the cues that don't have live orchestra on them, there's just no orchestra. There's other instruments. And that's where I borrowed my philosophy from Battlestar, which has always been rather than doing synth orchestra,
you write for whoever you have and whoever you can get to come in and play.As for the orchestral side of it, I was a little nervous at first because I got hired, I think, because Battlestar was so successful. I'm very well known for a certain kind of sound. And when I looked at the project, I felt like it needed a bigger orchestral sound. I didn't think that the kind of sparse, minimal approach on Battlestar--although Battlestar isn't really sparse or minimal anymore--but certainly the thing that I thought I was known for wouldn't work on Dark Void. I remember speaking with the producers and the developers and saying, "I know why you hired me. I don't think that sound is going to work. I think that this needs to be bigger. I think that this game needs a sense of grandeur, it needs something that only the full orchestra can bring." And they went for it. In fact, my first demo went over great. It set the tone for what would become the most lyrical, adventurous, and honestly one of the most beautiful scores I've ever written. The use of themes in this game is the same way I approach film or TV. It's a very thematically interwoven score. My hope is that it's a very rewarding score. I want gamers, when they're done playing this, to be able to identify the themes for each character. To be able to identify the musical elements that are in the score, associated with the various parties and characters and places that you go. That kind of development isn't something that I hear in a lot of games. I really felt strongly, and still feel strongly, that a game is a long experience and anything I can do to make the experience more worthwhile and more entertaining, the better.
One of the biggest challenges for you to put that into effect is the technological differences of the medium. In TV, you've got a set cue where the song will start playing at the same point every time. But in the game, it depends on the player's progress. A lot of times, if the player is moving slowly, he or she will be exposed to that song again and again and again. It loses its effectiveness as it repeats over and over. How have you dealt with that? I know you've toyed with the idea of resequencing different tracks so they play dynamically. Is that right?
That's exactly what I was going to say. As the player takes the game slowly, it's not going to repeat. You're not going to hear the same thing over and over again. As the game goes on, the music will adapt and evolve in ways that, I hope, will keep players on their toes. Because I think that repetition in video games is a major problem in the experience. Ultimately, no matter how exciting a piece of music is, once you've heard it three or four times, it becomes comforting. It becomes something you settle into ... But in a game where you're supposed to be in danger, where you're in combat, it doesn't help to have the music become so familiar ... My goal is that when you play through a certain level, and if you play through it again, it wouldn't be exactly the same. It would be close, but not exactly the same. Not enough that you could predict what could happen, and it's that unpredictability that would heighten the experience.
One of the other challenges that exists for you with this game is that one of the big selling points for Dark Void is that it's not a one-dimensional game. There are lots of different gameplay types: shooting, flying, rocketeering, dogfighting. What sorts of challenges does that pose for you as a composer?
In the initial stages, it was an issue. When we were first talking about the game, they were telling me you could fight on foot, you could fight in the air, so the obvious decision was, let's have music for when you're on foot and music for when you're flying. Which is a nice intellectual idea, but in practice it didn't work. Unlike in a lot of other games, these different styles of gameplay are up to the player. The player can stop flying whenever he or she wants. So in order to do that,
you'd have the music starting and stopping every five seconds if you wanted to fly and then walk, fly and then walk. So we threw that idea out the window. And what we did instead was, I approached it almost like a really long movie or miniseries. And I looked at it like one giant arc, because our character goes through a major shift from the beginning of the story to the end of the story. I approached it more thinking about what the character and ultimately what the player is going to be thinking about. So the combat at the beginning of the game is very sparse and mysterious, because you're in this strange new place. It's intense, but it's not crazy. It's more about the atmosphere. And as the game goes on, you start learning more about your environment, you start learning more about the other people there with you, and the score becomes more complex.Is there any type of video game genre, or story or themes, that you're interested in working on in the future outside of sci-fi action?
Yeah. Honestly, there are so many games that would be fun, and so many genres. I'm a big fan of the Metal Gear Solid series. The thing I really admire about MGS4 was the time and attention that went into the cinematics in that. I know that a lot of people felt like it was too much, but I didn't think so. That idea that the cinematic part of it can be as much of the experience as the gameplay part of it is something that I find really interesting. Maybe that's not a genre necessarily, but a style of game that I find interesting would be something that has more in-depth cinematics ... Because as a composer, you get to do both--you get to do the cinema and you get to do the interactive quality. It just depends honestly on what comes my way.
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