E3 2008 News
Monolith’s James Mulkey Talks Project Origin
July 17, 2008
Tucked away in the far corner of room 325 of the convention center the Warner Bros. booth is hosting one of the breakout games of the show, Project Origin. Dave Matthews, primary art lead on the game at Monolith Studios gave the play by play while Jeff Nachbaur, producer at WB Games handled the driving. The new title, a successor to F.E.A.R., blends Japanese horror with Matrix-style shooting and general ass kicking. Monolith even threw in driveable armor mechs, the Elite Powered Armor, to raise the mayhem level. Gamers will get a chance to stomp around in the bipedal killing machines for nearly a third of the game. We caught up with John Mulkey, lead designer of the game, via email to talk about this anticipated sequel. Check the interview after the jump.
Das Gamer: Can you bring gamers up-to-date on this franchise, especially those who may not have played the F.E.A.R. games?
John Mulkey: The game takes place in the immediate aftermath of F.E.A.R. The city has been devastated by a massive explosion, but there’s something even worse happening related to Alma Wade, whose destructive influence is spreading now that she’s been let loose upon the world. You’re part of a special forces team that was sent in to remand Genevieve Aristide, the person responsible for the crisis, into custody just before the blast. Basically, what was supposed to be a simple errand turns into an apocalyptic ordeal that could spell the doom of humanity.
How are you pushing the Mature rating and what has that allowed you to do?
John Mulkey: We really push the power of the player and the arsenal they bring to bear. When you shoot an enemy in the chest with a semi-auto combat shotgun he flies in two with a stream of entrails splaying out between. Our game is all about exaggerated over the top action and it carries through in the bloodiness of our combat. The other thing is that our characters tend to have foul mouths. It is kind of a funny story, when Nathan Hendrickson (Senior Designer/Cinematics Lead) and I sat down to talk about story, characterizations and dialogue we talked about trimming back on the profanity. He was a very big proponent of cleaning things up a bit, and I was open to this. I figure the less we use profanity, the more impact it would carry when we did. But after this discussion it seemed that every time I would write some dialogue and send it to him for feedback, he would send it back to me with a bunch of profanity added back into it. I thought it was pretty funny since he was the one really pushing to clean things up. He said he couldn’t help himself, it was just right for the flow of the dialogue. Since then we have come to something of a balance, but there will most certainly be profanity in the game; less than there could be, but probably more than there should be.
Can you talk about what you’re bringing new to the table in terms of weapons?
John Mulkey: The Arsenal is going to be a mix of modern day and near future high tech weaponry. Some of the changes to the way weapons fit into the play experience are that you can now carry with you four varieties of grenade types and four firearms. This will allow the player to carry around a larger “toolbox” of weapons, and introduce less anxiety in trying out different weapons since we will not be asking them to throw away a weapon they love in order to try something new. We have added fire modes to some of the weapons so that you can choose between single fire, burst and full auto. We have also added true iron sight-down the weapon aiming to the game. As far as call out additions to the arsenal go, we have added a pretty cool field practical laser rifle that allows the player to literally slice enemies in half.
What types of new enemies will players confront?
John Mulkey: One of the creepier new enemies the player will face is what we are calling the “Abomination.” These creatures are the emaciated remains of failed attempts to genetically engineer psychic commanders. They have been genetically manipulated and physiologically programmed in ways that are more torture than science. Armacham has been unsuccessful so far, but they continue to try again and again. The failed attempts are kept alive in holding pens for the genetic reference and mutations coursing through their veins, but sometimes they get out. These things are gangly wads of muscle that move through the environment with an incredible agility — like a cross between a bat and a spider.
Where does the name Project Origin come from?
John Mulkey: In the context of the game fiction it refers to an illicit genetic engineering program Armacham Technology Corporation (ATC) is running as part of a military contract. The purpose of the project, codenamed Origin, is to develop psychic commanders that can lead squads of bioengineered soldiers telepathically.
Why weren’t you able to use the name F.E.A.R. this time around?
Vivendi Universal Games owns the name F.E.A.R., and since we are no longer working with them we can no longer use the name…but rest assured we own everything else. That is why we are in the position of delivering the true sequel to F.E.A.R. The only caveat is that it will be under a different name; Project Origin.
