Interviews
Raven Studio’s Brian Pelletier explores the world of X-Men: Legends
“The look of X-Men: Legends is a blend of realistic-looking detailed skins and textures with a black outline to give an inked look like a comic book”
They trip lightly through the stuff of which modern legends are made of, appealing to the imagination and mind on several levels. They are an allegory for the ills plaguing the world and yet they are much more – they are heroes battling for all that should be, but seldom is.
When Stan Lee created the X-Men, he did more than mimic other leagues of superheroes, he chronicled the frustrations, the insensitivities and the prejudice of the modern world. He created a group of heroes that were more than the costumes they wore, but struggled with the problems of life and tried to balance the duty they perceived that came with the power with which they were blessed.
Little wonder that the X-Men would walk through pop culture and become a fixture with comics and cartoons, and major motion pictures chronicling their journey. And, of course, the X-Men have had several forays into the videogaming world. But all X-Men fans had better get ready for the next wave in action-adventure. Activision, Marvel and Raven Studios are bringing an intensity to the X-Men genre, and showing off a certain passion for these icons, with the release of X-Men: Legends.
This title will be available on the GameCube, PlayStation 2 and Xbox platforms, and while it does bear some semblance to titles such as Baldur’s Gate, in terms of general gameplay, make no mistake about it – this is going to take the X-Men to another level in the gaming world.
Brian Pelletier, the lead artist at Raven Studios, talked with GameZone about this title, with an assist from a fellow Raven Studios’ designer.
Question: In dealing with characters that are a part of American pop culture, that have been documented in comic books, cartoons and film, how do you derive the look for the characters? And, in the same vein, Stan Lee was notorious for infusing real personality in his characters - does that bleed over in any form into the characters? To you, what are the defining characteristics of the X-Men in relationship to how they are portrayed in this game?
Brian: The look of the characters is drawn and inspired from the Ultimate X-Men Universe. Marvel and Raven both agreed that we needed to pick one look for the characters. Being that the Ultimate X-Men comic is the most popular of the three different X-men comic titles at this time we went with it. X-Men characters in our game who are not part of the Ultimate X-Men team in comic as of yet were conceptualized and designed by Raven Artists and former Ultimate X-Men pencil artist David Finch, to have the Ultimate costume look.
The personalities of the characters are drawn from the rich history of the X-Men characters in general, and not from any particular line of X-men titles. However, most or the personalities and character backgrounds come from the Uncanny X-Men Comic title. Just like the comic, we portray our X-Men as real people with real internal struggles and relationships. This game portrays the X-Men as true believers in what Professor X stands for. They are heroes who want a peaceful coexistence with humans and will protect and save the humans who hate them. And in doing so, hope to change the perception of mutants as something to fear.
Q: How many X-Men will be appearing in this game (regular playable types and, without mentioning names, surprise visitors)? And, because the X-Men can truly shine without decent enemies, how many of their opposite numbers will be in the game?
Brian: X-Men Legends has 15 playable X-Men heroes. There are 13 different named villains, like Mystique and Blob, or groups of enemies like the Morlocks. There are also at least seven characters from the X-Men universe who are friends of the X-Men and are big part of the game and story. Needless to say the game boosts a large number X-Men comic cast of characters.
Q: How many levels will this game have?
Brian: We have at least 23 missions in the game, each mission is comprised of smaller-sized levels we call zones. The number of zones is at least 115. We also have areas or zones you visit multiple times, like the X Mansion and Muir Island research facility.
Q: Since this is a team-based game, let's talk a little about the game's AI. What challenges did your face in making the non-player-controlled characters functional within the team concept?
AI Programmer Simon Parkinson: The biggest challenges were keeping all the members of the team on screen and involved in the combat whilst still giving the player room to maneuver and control the pace of combat. The AI is focused on supporting the player by: 1 - ensuring that they aren't overrun by enemies, 2 - using their powers where appropriate, and 3 - acting as a cohesive team. Also, if the player needs help with a particular tough enemy, they can call on the entire team of X-Men to unleash their powers and pound on them with a tap of the Ally button. This allows the player to easily control the actions of the team between focusing on one enemy, and clearing a room of smaller grunts.
Q: Does the game have difficulty settings or an evolving AI that continually sets the challenge to the skill of the player? What about replayability - does this game chart a linear path through the levels?
Brian: There is no difficulty ramping. Since there’s a team of characters to play, the strategy variables are quite high. It’s too hard if a player plays well or if they picked the perfect combination of teammates for a particular mission. Players will find that some X-Men are better suited than others during certain missions. For example, when I encountered a mission that was extremely difficult for me, I sat back and thought about whose powers are best suited for these battles I was having trouble with. After adding Jean Grey to my team for her psychic-shout radius attack power, the mission was easier to beat.
As for the replay value of the game, this will be with X-Men Legends’ Multiplayer mode, where players can face off with each other in the Danger room using the X-Men heroes and villains of the game (you basically get a fighting game within a game). After beating the game the player will then be able to play through again, this time with all the available X-Men they’ve unlocked and a few other fun things.
Q: Tell us a little about the skills that the X-Men sport and how they level up.
Brian: Each X-Man has four mutant powers - you start with one and you have to unlock the other three. You can upgrade the powers to be bigger, better and stronger. Some higher upgrades actually change what the power does. Iceman, for instance, has a freeze blast. At lower levels it slows down enemies by chilling them to the core (they turn blue as a result of this). When upgraded, the freeze blast encases enemies in solid ice – rendering them completely immobile and giving you enough time to switch to a teammate such as Storm so you can call lighting down to strike the frozen fodder. It’s quite gratifyingJ!
As part of your skill set you can add accuracy to ranged attacks or healing factor to Wolverine and unlock flight for X-Men characters that have the ability to fly. One of my favorites is Iceman’s “Ice Tracks”, which allows him to skate on a suspended ice path in midair, as he does in the comics. You can also upgrade traits, like striking (increase attack rating), agility (increase defense rating), body (adds to you maximum health and health regeneration) and focus (adds to you maximum energy and energy regeneration).
Q: Did you do anything new graphically? What kind of graphics engine does this use?
Brian: The look of X-Men: Legends is a blend of realistic-looking detailed skins and textures with a black outline to give an inked look like a comic book. Its not all cell shaded, but something entirely different. The black edging helps define the already detailed environments, enemies and heroes, giving them a bold look. All of the graphics are processed through Vicarious Visions Alchemy - a middleware program that allows us to make the art once and have it exported to the three different platforms and be appropriately optimized for each.
Q: Who is your favorite member of the X-Men and why?
Brian: It’s hard to choose a single favorite X-Man when they are all so diverse, and some better than others for different circumstances encountered in the game. Some of my favorites are: Wolverine - his healing factor makes him not use your valuable health items, plus, upgrading his first power makes him take out enemies with one slash. He rounds out a good team because he’s perfect for slicing through enemies who have resistance to energy attacks. Jean Grey - her telekinetic power is just too much fun. You can levitate enemies and throw them into Wolverine for the batter-up combo. Or, you can levitate an exploding barrel from across the room and toss it at a group of enemies hiding behind the cover of a crate. Nightcrawler - Teleport Frenzy power allows him to teleport amongst a group of enemies kicking one guy, teleport to another, hit him, teleport to another, hit him and so forth. Like the Nightcrawler scene in X2 when he’s attacking the secret service in the White House. It’s devastating to a Sentinel. Gambit - his throwing cards make for a great spread ranged attack and his staff slam is a good radial attack when swarmed by enemies. He can kinetically charge objects to explode, so any simple object like a chair can be charged up to explode like a time bomb. You see an enemy taking cover behind a crate, just charge up the crate, back off and watch it explode in their face.
Q: Why do you think pop icons like the X-Men are so popular?
Brian: I think that in many ways people can relate to the personal struggles and issues that the X-Men characters go through. They are not glorified as heroes with powers to save the world; instead they are outcasts because they are different and misunderstood and don’t belong. I believe that correlates to a lot of people when thinking about their high school yearsJ. We all went through these same struggles at one time or another in our lives, so we feel more connected to these characters.
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