DESPERADOS III
We posse up with design director Moritz Wagner
Format PS4 ETA Early 2020 Pub THQ Nordic Dev Mimimi Games
Playing like an isometric Hitman (if Agent 47 had gunslingers backing him up) Desperados III looks like it’ll scratch our stealth itch. Design director Moritz Wagner explains how we’ll win the west…
OPM: How are the game’s controls being handled on PlayStation 4?
Moritz Wagner: Gamepad controls are a top priority for us from the start of every project. Every ability and character is designed so it works well on a gamepad, even in early stages.
The main difference to the control scheme compared to mouse and keyboard is that you directly control the characters. This makes the game feel different, but I think in a very positive way. It’s more immersive.
Another very important aspect for our gamepad controls is Showdown mode: with this feature it is possible to save actions that characters can execute at a later time. That way, you can still have your whole team act at once and still control one of the characters directly during that time. It makes multitasking with your characters very easy and fun.
OPM: What kinds of stealth kills can players perform? Does the western setting enable you to have fun with the ways to defeat enemies?
MW: Every character has their own skillset, allowing for different tactics in how you take out enemies. For example, Hector can place a trap and lure enemies into it, while Cooper uses his throwing knife to silently take guards out from a distance. The most special skills belong to Isabelle: she can connect two guards, so anything that happens to one of them will happen to the other as well. Her abilities are very sandboxy.
Another sneaky way to take out guards is environmental kills, using objects you find in the environment and then use to your advantage. You could drop the cargo of a crane on unsuspecting people walking below it, or maybe annoy an ox so it lashes out at someone in front of it. There are numerous examples of these throughout all of our levels, and the best thing about them is: when the dead bodies are found, guards will assume it was an accident, so no alarms are raised.
OPM: How does the setting affect the combat?
MW: Regarding the western setting specifically: we put a lot more work into how our guns work with this game. Every player has unique gun skills, and they are very powerful. But it’s a risky thing to use them carelessly, since they require ammunition and their noise can alarm guards. So there is always this decision of ’Will I blow my cover and go into a full gunfight? Or should I keep stealthing?’ Of course, nobody has to use them. If you want to stay in the shadows and ghost your way through, you can do that.
OPM: How open are the missions? Will there be hidden objectives?
MW: For us it is very important to make levels as open as we can. There is never only one solution to a problem. This is true for the large objectives on maps, but also for every single encounter. Even if you replay a mission, you can choose a very different approach.
Regarding hidden objectives: we have special challenges for each mission that we call ‘badges’. Once you complete a mission, you can see which badges exist for it. Some will challenge you to play the mission in a different way, showing you options you might not even have thought about. Others will be small puzzles to solve, or difficult things to achieve on that map. They create lots of replay value.