An Interview with Pandemic

It's a long way from Battlezone to Full Spectrum Warrior™: Ten Hammers, but veteran developer Pandemic Studios has always had a flair for mixing action and strategy. We recently hunted down Wil Stahl, the Creative Director for Ten Hammers, to get the inside scoop on how the game differs from the original Full Spectrum Warrior™, how to use those cool-looking Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles (IFVs), and what's up with the Pulp Fiction-esque story line.

Xbox.com: Although the Bradley's control scheme is similar to a squad control scheme, it is obviously a much different weapon. In game terms, what do you like about the Bradley, and what are its weaknesses?

Stahl: Firstly, it's hard not to like its firepower. In multiplayer, if you see a Bradley and it sees you, you're probably dead already. Second, it's great to have an armored vehicle when there's no other cover around. You can move it up a street and have your men move in behind it.

Entering buildings, which includes climbing to the roof, adds another dimension to the game.

Xbox.com: Splitting fire teams certainly provides more flexibility, but what is the downside? Aren't troops less likely to use their weapons when they feel isolated?

Pandemic: The downside, for the Coalition force, is that a smaller team has a less formidable defense—there are fewer eyes scanning and less weapons available should your team get flanked from the rear.

Xbox.com: There are civilians everywhere! Well, kinda ... I think it's a great touch, but you want to avoid plugging the locals. How does the game punish indiscriminate civilian shooting?

Pandemic: The game now scores your performance after each mission and killing civilians will impact your score negatively. You won't have to repeat a mission if you get a low score, but if you want the bragging rights of being a superior squad leader in FSW: Ten Hammers, you'll have to complete your objectives and get a high score.

Xbox.com: So, unlike the original FSW, if one of your team dies, they die. Why did you decide to implement that mechanic?

Pandemic: We felt that the ability to continually heal your soldiers at CASEVACs was one of the few aspects of the last game that really undermined the game's authenticity. Also, now that your men can be killed, it creates more tension in the game—when one of your men gets hit, you need to get to him right away, but if your other men are under fire, you have to make some tough choices.

Xbox.com: The four-chapters-to-a-mission-Pulp-Fiction story borders on genius. Do you remember when you decided to go with this and what prompted the decision?

Pandemic: It's funny you should ask this question after the last one because it was the "soldiers can now die" feature that prompted us to break up the story this way. Basically, the problem with allowing soldiers to die is that they might have lines of dialogue they need to deliver later in the game. Most games solve this problem by either not allowing key characters to die (they are invincible no matter what you do) or to just magically bring them back to life in the next mission.

The way we solved the problem was by breaking the game up into four chapters of three missions and giving you a completely different squad in each chapter. This way, each chapter has a different story that is only three missions long and we can figure out how many replacement soldiers we need to create to deliver all the proper dialogue to continue the story in that chapter. Since each chapter has its own unique story, we realized that there was no need to tell the entire game's story chronologically—i.e. there was no reason why chapter one couldn't be about the end of the war.

The visuals are as detailed as they are lush. Look at the ivy climbing the far wall.

Xbox.com: How do feel your method of story telling compares with traditional linear FPS stories? Is the story in Ten Hammers a glimpse of the future of game stories?

Pandemic: In a way, I think. But, truthfully, there's no reason why a first-person shooter (FPS) couldn't tell a story the same way we have—some have, I think. I think a true interactive story will be achieved when a game can tell a story and still give me total freedom to, for instance, kill off my "love interest" if I choose. It's the difference between discovering the end of a story (what most games do today) and creating the end of the story (what a truly interactive experience should be).

Xbox.com: Reviewers liked the original FSW, but some claimed it was too repetitive. How did you feel about that analysis and what do you think is the most important change made in Ten Hammers to address that criticism?

Pandemic: I would tend to agree—it all hinged on your tolerance for following Army doctrine. You have to remember that the first game was done in parallel with the Army trainer. Each impacted the other in positive and negative ways. You also need to remember that we were introducing an entirely new kind of squad-based game to players. We may have been a little gun-shy about making the game too hard for casual players. One of our primary goals with Ten Hammers was to add more replayability and scalability to the experience.

The main way we did this was by redoing the enemy A.I. system, making it more dynamic and unpredictable. In Ten Hammers, enemies will no longer sit and wait for you to move against them; if they can flank you, they will. The A.I.'s aggressiveness can be adjusted depending on the difficulty level you select, so casual gamers like me can adjust the experience to their tastes. The end result was, you can play the same mission several times and it will play slightly different each time.

A Bradley wastes unseen bad guys.

Xbox.com: I like what I've heard about multiplayer. There will be significant differences between Coalition and Zekistan forces. Could you describe those differences?

Pandemic: The Coalition Forces control just like they do in the single-player game. They move as a group and carry more firepower; however, they are required to operate under Rules of Engagement—meaning that they cannot incur heavy friendly or non-combatant casualties. They must also pull their wounded out of the battlefield in order to get another replacement soldier.

The Insurgency player isn't as organized. His fighters move as individuals so he can't do more advanced actions like clearing rooms or setting up parameters. He also doesn't carry as much firepower; however, he is not bound by any rules and he can go out into the world and recruit the local population to take up arms against the Coalition Forces. This gives him an almost limitless pool of extra fighters he can draw from.

Xbox.com: I understand that there is a multiplayer add-on that will be released after the game ships. Can you tell us a bit about that?

Pandemic: There will be downloadable content available shortly after the release of the game. This content consists of a single-player mission that can be played cooperatively as well as one extra multiplayer mission.

Xbox.com: Fire teams can enter buildings in Ten Hammers. How do you feel that enhances the play?

Pandemic: It's another component that broadens the strategic options in the game—especially in multiplayer. In the first game, you could flank an enemy from the left or right. Now you can also flank that enemy from above. Firing from elevated windows denies enemies almost all the cover at street level, so taking and securing an elevated fire position is one of the best things you can do in Ten Hammers.

Xbox.com: Precision fire allows riflemen to root out Zekistanis behind cover—something that was near impossible in FSW. What prompted the change? When do you feel that tactic is most effective?

Pandemic: That was one of the features we added to add more flexibly to the game and give the player a mechanism, if used correctly, to force his way through an obstacle if he doesn't have the time or desire to employ more advanced tactics to the situation.

Article by Jad Reklaw