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Saints Row 2 - Q&A with Scott Phillips, lead designer
Were you pleased with the success of the original?
Absolutely, with over 2 Million units sold worldwide to date we're extremely proud of what was accomplished. Saints Row 1 was the first Open World game for Volition so we had a lot of learning to do, lots of systems and technology to build from the ground up, and lots of methods and practices to create and establish as standard. All of this was thrown on top of being one of the launch window titles for a brand new console, the Xbox 360. It was quite a challenge and we really feel like we started something special with Saints Row 1.
Was the intent always to go with a more tongue-in-cheek approach in terms of the humor/gameplay of the sequel?
The style established in Saints Row 1 was of a Pulp Fiction, dark and funny nature and we felt it was important to maintain and improve upon that in Saints Row 2. While we have the humorous Activities like the Septic Truck, where you spray poop on property for money, we also have a compelling and sometimes dark main storyline told through 4 gang mission arcs. We feel that this variety allows players to choose how they want to have the story told, will it be serious or will you wear a hotdog costume in all of the cutscenes? It's up to you as the player and we feel that's extremely important.
What plans do you have for the franchise going forward? Was the intent always to set SR2 as a return to Stilwater?
Volition would love to continue bringing the Saints Row franchise to fans. We love making Saints Row and if fans continue to support SaintsRow 2, who knows. Given the cliffhanger ending of Saints Row 1 it made sense to return to Stilwater and continue the story of the main player character from Saints Row 1. We needed to show the outcome and results of his actions in Saints Row 1 and allow the player to truly complete this characters' story.
Will there be a demo for SR2 as there was for the original?
We don't currently plan on releasing a demo for Saints Row 2. Demos for open world games are notoriously difficult, as we found in Saints Row 1, as the core gameplay of an open world game is at odds with demos which need to be small and tight experiences. We wanted to focus all of our efforts on the retail version of the game so that fans get the best game experience possible.
Will the talk radio station hosts Mike and David make a return in SR2?
In Saints Row 2 we've chosen to remove talk radio from the dial in order to provide more and better licensed music tracks to listen to while cruising around the world of Stilwater.
There are lots of great voiceover talent in SR2 (Eliza Dushku, Neil Patrick Harris, Michael Dorn) - did everyone slip into their roles easily and was the experience enjoyable for the cast?
I can't really speak for any of the actors but for us it was great to see them really personify and bring to life these characters that we had on paper for years. All of the actors took hold of their roles and brought them a real sense of weight and personality that they didn't have previously. It's a pretty amazing process to build a character from scratch, design their look, create them, put them in game, and then when voice is finally recorded to see that character become a real person in the world.
Do you plan to include different voiceover talent in the future and would you like to see any of the new talent in SR2 reprise their roles in the next iteration of the franchise?
We loved working with all of the actors on Saints Row 2 and would love to see those characters that survive the story of Saints Row 2 to come back for future games in the franchise.
Can the game steal any of GTA's thunder?
We feel that Saints Row 2 is an extremely strong competitor to every game out on the market place. The huge amount of variety, amazing gameplay and combat, unparalleled customization, and the best ever Open World Co-op make Saints Row 2 an extremely compelling and enjoyable game. Those features are just a very few of the enormous set that Saints Row 2 delivers and we can't wait for fans to get their hands on it.
What sort of improvements can we see since SR1?
Everything. I'm serious, every single thing has been improved since Saints Row 1. There isn't anything that we didn't touch, rethink, polish and improve from Saints Row 1. I had a press member come up to me a few weeks ago and say that after he played a few hours of Saints Row 2 he went back and replayed Saints Row 1 and was amazed at all of the big and little things that had improved and how seamless that improvement was. I truly feel like we accomplished our goal of maintaining the same core game as Saints Row 1 while improving upon it in every way.
What sort of game mechanics have been added to faciliate 2-player story co-op?
In addition to specific Co-op difficulty balancing differences, Co-op gameplay modifications of single player gameplay, we've also added two specific Co-op 'Diversions' that are available at any time while inCo-op.
The first Co-op 'Diversion' is called "Deathtag" and is essentially a one on one deathmatch where you try to kill your partner with a specific set of weapons in order to score more kills than them. This all happens directly in side the world and you're free to use anything in the world to your advantage: homies, cars, cops, etc.
The second Co-op 'Diversion' is called "Cat & Mouse". In this mode one player is put into an attack helicopter and told to chase down and kill the other player who is put into a sports car and told to drive from checkpoint to checkpoint. The longer the player in the sports car survives the more points they earn, so it's in the best interest of the player in the attack helicopter to kill the other player as fast as possible.
For game balancing we didn't just change a few health and damage numbers, we did things like adding additional enemies to certain missions and adjusting police AI behaviors to ram the players more often. Our gameplay modifications consist of having each player do different things in missions and activities than they did in single player gameplay, creating a lot of variety and variation to Co-op which makes it a very different and unique experience.
In the same respect, should gamers in a co-op game session expect the same experience to the one in single player in terms of story/missions structure?
The same core story structure is there in Co-op, but we made sure that everything that either player does while playing Co-op is carried over into their savegame. So there is no wasted time playing in another players' game that only nets you some cash or small baubles. In Saints Row 2 Co-op both players are making full progress towards completing the story every time they play. There is also no tether so you're free to roam around the world and go your separate ways if you want to spend some time doing different things.
Obviously the main reason for playing Co-op is to play with a friend and that experience is amazing. We're really proud of Co-op in Saints Row 2.
Will all the weapons from the original Saints Row or similar traditional weapons be included, or is there really more of an emphasis on the new heavy weapons in the Saints Row 2?
Many of the weapons from Saints Row 1 are returning, refurbished, in Saints Row 2. We chose specific weapons that would be the most worthwhile and fun to carry over from Saints Row 1 while at the same time looking for lots of new and fun weapons to bring into Saints Row 2. The variety of weapons is enormous and everyone will find something they enjoy killing with. Be it a samurai sword, shock paddles, chainsaw, AR 50 with an attached grenade launcher, laser guided Annihilator RPG, or the ever enjoyable Satchel Charges that stick to everything and go boom when you push a button.
What can a player who hasn't played SR 1 expect from SR 2?
Saints Row 2 players can expect an open world filled with a huge variety of gameplay to suit every taste, a compelling story that is available in either single player or cooperatively over system link, Xbox Live, and PSN, as well as a unique and compelling competitive multiplayer mode called Strongarm, the likes of which have never been seen in multiplayer games.
From many of the trailers and stories covering this game you've seem to gone the complete opposite direction Rockstar has with their realistic makeover, was this part of your intentions?
Development of Saints Row 2 was started before Saints Row 1 was even finished, so the direction that Saints Row 2 has gone is completely unique and not influenced by any other game. The direction that we've gone is a continuation of the unique direction that we started on in Saints Row 1. We made choices about where to take Saints Row 2 based upon some simple logic, "is this fun?". That logic served us well and helped us to produce one hell of a fun and enjoyable game with many features that haven't been seen in an open world game before.
Looking at the image of the limited edition pack the Stilwater map looks very similar (almost the same) as the original, will there be any episodic content with further areas beyond stilwater such as a suburb called wavywater perhaps opening up?
The world of Saints Row 2 has been expanded nearly 50% over the size of the original Saints Row. Along with adding new areas we've also gone back and retouched and improved every single square inch of the Stilwater from Saints Row 1. I think ever players of Saints Row 1 will find that the city is familiar but brand new in many ways.
As for DLC, we've been planning for downloadable content for months, but obviously can't talk about the nature of that yet.
Will there potentially be downloadable content which perhaps either adds an additional gang with new missions or even a revival for a gang and new missions?
No DLC content has been announced just yet, stay tuned.
How much of a nightmare is it developing an open-world game and has making a multi platform title added any additional headaches?
It's a pretty enormous undertaking to do an open world game, period. But to do Xbox 360, PS3, and PC development all at the same time was quite an incredible task. We're glad to be bringing Saints Row 2 out on so many platforms so that more people get to experience it, but yes, it's been a tough road at times. It's been a great learning experience for Volition and that hard won knowledge will serve to make our future games even better so it was well worth any trouble we had to deal with.
We?d like to thank Scott for answering our questions
Posted By: Scott Strickland
Date: 2008-10-15
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