RFA Community Q&A #1
Before E3 started, we asked our community members to put up 3 questions each regarding what they would like to know about RF:A. We're still collecting questions between now and our release in March of 2011, so if you've been wondering about something seen in a recent screenshot or an interview, that is the thread you should seek out first.
If your question doesn't get answered in this first session, don't feel bad. You may have asked a question about something we're not ready to reveal yet, or maybe we still haven't finished that specific part of the game. We will do our best to answer every question within the Q&A thread as we continue on.
To start off, I managed to score some time with Lead Level Designer, Jameson Durall, to be the first on the chopping block.
Q: Will there be deformable terrain in RF:A?
A: One of the things we found in the early Red Faction games was that the player had trouble telling where they could do destruction. We actually had to put an X on some of the spots to make it clear that it was a place destruction was necessary. In Red Faction: Guerrilla we made the switch to everything man made was completely destructible and any kind of terrain was not. This made it very clear for the player and made the gameplay experience much more enjoyable and understandable. We’ve decided to continue with that line of thinking in Red Faction: Armageddon, but we’ve added an additional element. You can now use the repair function of the Nano Forge to also repair anything that is manmade. The player now has the option of destroying the entire world and bring it back up again if they choose to.
Q: In RF:G, the AI only ever caused destruction accidentally. Can the AI in RF:A use destruction to its advantage, and could you give some examples of how?
A: The enemies in Red Faction: Armageddon are quite a bit different than enemies in our previous games and we’ve taken this opportunity to make them act a bit differently too. Some of the enemies do in fact have destructive weapons and will target destructible elements in the area when it’s to their advantage to help take you down. If you are trying to make your way across a bridge to their location, they may decide to fire on the bridge to hold you off. If you find a good sniping point in a building, they may begin targeting the building to take it down with you inside of it.
Q: Will the game have a similar amount destruction/ buildings to destroy?
A: One of the advantages of going underground is that we now have the walls and ceilings to place destruction elements on so you become surrounded with things to destroy. The tighter environments also allow for much more dense destruction so you feel like the entire world can be brought down around you. A huge focus or us in Red Faction: Armageddon was taking the destruction technology and tying in gameplay better. One of the ways we’ve done that is by creating weapons to better utilize destruction, like the Magnet Gun. It takes anything in the world and turns it into a weapon by launching it anywhere you choose. The amount of destruction it causes is amazing while also being extremely effective in combat.
We may have only covered three questions so far, but we'll have many more editions of Community Q&A in the future. Remember, if you haven't submitted your own three questions yet, join in by posting them in this thread.
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