GamesBeat: What is the strength of the story from your perspective? It’s a war with aliens, it’s got action, but what’s going to keep the player really interested in the story?
Finley: The story that we’re telling is about this guy William Carter. He’s in a pretty low place when he starts the game. He was a military guy, an intelligence guy, and he had enough tough times in his life that he’s fallen into alcoholism. He’s been demoted and demoted to the point where, when you meet him, he’s sitting on the floor of his hotel room. He’s got his bottle in front of him and he’s waiting to just hand off a package. He’s sitting there drinking and waiting to be called into the next tedious assignment in his descent into failure. It just happens that he’s delivering a package at the moment where ground zero happens with this full-scale alien invasion. He gets a shot, because of that, to become a field commander, to have a set of agents that he’s responsible for in the field and be able to take on an enemy that outnumbers and outguns him. But he can out-think them.
So it’s about both the evolution of that character and the evolution of the XCOM organization. There are folks you can talk to in the base who can give you more or less backstory – as much as you’re personally interested in – to get a sense of what’s going on in real-time and what’s happened in the past. I don’t want to say too much about where the story goes, but I will say that we believe in making sure that there’s something there for the player to discover, something that’s interesting for them. I think this story lives up to that promise.
GamesBeat: This is a pretty lengthy development cycle. Is there something that’s the hardest part of putting this together?
Finley: One of the things that’s great about working for 2K, they follow a principle of supporting development teams and finding the vision that they’re passionate about. We’re our own worst critics, and to a certain extent that makes it hard, but at the same time it’s the best gift you can get, the time to develop out an idea to the point where we can show it and feel really proud of it.
GamesBeat: Back to these blends of different kinds of games inside this, some people will look at those and say, “Well, that’s too much like Mass Effect.” They may like it or not like it based on that. The series was so popular; it seems like there’s a benefit there in that it’s familiar and easy for people to learn. But how much do you feel like the gameplay relies on some things like that, and how much is purely original?
Finley: There are people who have played different games who will find a familiar vibe in our control scheme, but—I’ll be really honest with you. I don’t think we’re trying to make a game that’s for everybody. We’re not trying to say, “This will be the game that everybody in the world should play!” XCOM is a franchise that has principles to it. What we want, for instance, is for this to be a hard game, a challenging game, a game where we ask you to bring your skill to the table. XCOM is a game that demands heroes, to a certain extent.
If what you want is a mindless shooter, we’re not trying to say that we’re the game for you. We’re trying to say that we have a game where you bring your own skill and tactical awareness and use abilities and guns in real-time to take on a fairly overwhelming force. We think that’s neat and fun to play around with. We think that’s bringing something new to the game space. But we’re not trying to claim that this is totally new or revolutionary or for everyone. It’s for somebody who wants a challenge, who wants to exercise their skill. We think we offer something there.
GamesBeat: The person who tries to play it purely as a shooter is not going to succeed, I take it?
Finley: The challenge that person would have—One, it’s not really a game set up favorably for run-and-gun Rambo kinds of techniques. The thing about the agents is that they do grow with you. They gain additional skills and abilities and perks as you all get experience in the game. But if one of those agents drops and you just let them die, that guy’s gone forever. Death is death in XCOM. We think that absolutely fits with the franchise, but it could also put you in a situation where you’re by yourself. If you don’t care about your team, if you’re not working with your team, you might not have enough guns to make it through some of the challenges of the later levels. Just as in the classic XCOM game, you can put yourself in a situation where you will not be able to succeed, no matter how Rambo you can be. Again, that’s part of the interest this game brings to the party, and it’s true to the XCOM tenets. Death is death.
GamesBeat: The pace of movement, even with the sprint, seems a little slower than the average for a shooter. I wonder if that pushes back at the run-and-gun style.
Finley: We do intend for the player to approach things deliberately. You don’t want to run into the middle of an ambush from a whole patrol of aliens. We’re encouraging you to take it slow, look around, and be aware of the battlefield before you engage, yes.
GamesBeat: I was a big fan of the Mass Effect series, so I got used to playing that way. When The Bureau diverged from the gameplay of Mass Effect, I started wondering why. There aren’t, for instance, as many tricks you can play to get you and your allies out of trouble. Do you not want it to be so BioShock-like, where you can have ten ways to tear these guys up?
Finley: I think a good part of it is that we don’t want the abilities to outweigh the guns, or vice versa. We’ve taken the XCOM ramping, where bullets are the best until they’re replaced by lasers, and then lasers are replaced by plasma. We want your artillery to play a part in the game just as much as your abilities. Also, the way the RPG system works is that for each agent, you can’t pick every possible perk over the course of leveling up. There can be some variety in different agents, even if they have the same class. That’s intentional, to encourage you to nurture your team back and the base and make sure it’s bigger than just the two guys you have at any given time, and also to provide some customization. It’s a balancing act. Every tool we put in there is one that we believe can be used to support the tactical gameplay we’re trying to encourage. Also, it’s the same arsenal that the aliens bring to bear. Anything they bring to the party, you can end up getting over the course of the game.