We've just spent the last half hour or so in front of PC and Xbox 360 action-RPG Elveon and we're still picking our jaws up off the floor after bearing witness to one of the most beautiful in-game environments we've ever clapped eyes on.
A forest, with gorgeously rendered trees bending gently in the breeze and rays of sunlight filtering through leaves and branches, a lone wolf perched atop a rocky outcrop, ground so realistic it feels like we can almost reach out and touch it - it was simply incredible. We could probably write a thousand words on it and still not do it justice - check out some of the screenshots we've uploaded to get an idea of the visual glories.
Granted, what stunned us was leaning toward a tech demo, a 'fly-through' of the environment - no in-game action was involved - but it's clear that Elveon developer 10Tacle Studios is putting Epic's Unreal Engine 3 to very good use. And if the forest scene is indicative of outdoor environments in the final product... Well, let's just say if Oblivion's outdoor world impressed the pants off you, Elveon's will blast your underwear into orbit.
In contrast, what we saw of structures in Elveon was a stone-grey world of walls, pillars and roofs, rather bland in comparison to the beauty of its great outdoors. Still, with a year of development remaining there's enough time to spruce things up and anyway, we stepped inside to get a brief taste of the game's combat rather than gawp at the scenery. Combat turned out to be a surprisingly cagey and strategic affair, normal strikes, blocks that have to be well-timed and beat-'em-up-style combo attacks coupled with a stamina bar meaning a bit of thought has to go into fighting.
As luck would have it, combat was just one of many topics we queried Elveon mastermind Slavo Hazucha about during a recent interview in which he spilled plenty of details on the game. Read on to find out what he had to say...
Elveon tells the story of the ascendance of Elvish culture. What can you tell us about the storyline behind the game? Have you been influenced by mythology or Tolkien or is it an original take on creating an Elvish backstory?
Hazucha: To tell you the whole story would be too long for this interview and perhaps also for one game. We took the challenge and developed an entirely new Elvish universe. The world and story development took us four years. So there really is a massive background behind Elveon. Our game and our fantasy universe depict an ancient era where the Elves still are a cunning and dynamic race on their rise to power, with great deeds not the fairy-like fading culture that is known from most other fantasy stories.
So this is the story in three sentences... The gods have left the world of Naon in a rush, it is the place they had wanted to transform into their paradise. The Neamas, the Elves of the ancient times and fellows of the gods have remained there all alone. A smouldering conflict is gaining more and more importance and a new era starts which is marked by envy, malevolence and relentless wars that prevent the gods' descendants from entering upon their inheritance. You are the hero of this epic and your mission is to achieve your objective, the fulfilment of the prophecy - namely the liberation of the city of Nimathar - as the mightiest warrior of Naon because this task is normally made for a god.
We see Tolkien and his world as a great inspiration and a reference that cannot be entirely neglected, but we try to do our own thing. In our world and story we focus on something every genre-fan has heard of but had no opportunity to see or play it - the magnificent history of a fantasy world in the age when the Gods and the Elves were the only ruling powers. This is what we want to depict with Elveon. If I should put it into Tolkien language, our story is definitely Silmarilion and not LoTR. But in making the world and story, we were strongly inspired by ancient mythologies, particularly in the Greek heroic epics.
The Elvish elite warrior you play carries out a mission intended for a god. Can you expand a little more on the character and his storyline?
Hazucha: The story describes the journey of an Elvish elite warrior, who follows the path of a legend that leads him on the trail of an ancient Elvish king who attempted to find and claim the rumoured paradise and centre of power of the world - the city of Nimathar and the tower of the Gods Starspear - and claim it for the Elves to lead them in a new era of greatness. Our hero follows the trail of this ancient king and, to be able to fulfil the task the king has failed at, he must become more than any Elvish elite fighter before him.
To achieve this, our hero makes pacts with divine powers from the background of the material world that let him become a supernatural champion. The story bears many surprises and revelations - the powers granting the gifts will not go without taking their price and the discovery of the rumoured paradise Nimathar and Starspear will as well be accompanied by several revealing story twists. All in all, we intend to present a dynamical and emotional story accompanied by more than just a touch of nostalgic Elvish atmosphere, bringing the player on a journey into the depths and dark corners of our heroe's Elvish soul parallel to his worldly journey to Nimathar.
What kinds of supernatural opponents will the player face? Can you tell us about different classes of enemies as well as bosses?
Hazucha: There will be many opponents, all kinds of Elves coming from different cultures and presenting very different doctrines in close- and ranged-combat, monsters, demons and supernatural and divine opponents. The action challenge will be frequently changing - a fast-paced ranged combat sequence where the player has to keep five opponent archers at bay to allow his ally to cross a nearby bridge covered by their fire will be followed by a boss fight against a divine guardian of the area who will posses unique special attacks and often a few specific weak spots and will give him a hard time in single combat. The opponents also differ in size from small monsters to huge demons towering over the player.
It sounds as though the combat system is a key part of the game. Can you explain what choices will face the player regarding combat? We understand that players can choose to go to specific weapons schools. Is that compulsory, and will players be able to switch weapons during the game?
Hazucha: In Elveon we have four different combat classes - bow, spear, sword and daggers. Each class has his advantages and disadvantages. At specific points in the game, the player will interact with divine avatars that will give him major character upgrades and new combat actions in their area. Each weapon class will have such a divine avatar. This system allows the player to either specialize his character in on weapon class or be an average fighter in all of them. On the other hand, it will also create a connection between the players character and the powers in the background of the world that is one of the key points in our story. Of course, you can switch in the game between the weapons but your skills and amount of combos with the chosen item is linked to your master grade.
Can you tell us more about fighting techniques supported in the game, such as combos, blocking, different types of attacks and jump attacks? How many weapons can you carry and use?
Hazucha: Elves are a noble race of perfectionists and such is the way they have to appear in combat. The combat moves of Elveon are designed by a group of professional martial artists, who develop new 'Elvish' combat styles and choreographies for the different races we are going to put into the game. Each race will have a specific preference for combat, and within that, you will be able to quickly discover who (expert or rookie) is standing in front of you simply from the way he stands and moves. The way we do that is one of our key gameplay features. The amount of weapons you can carry is linked to your inventory, but this part is in the development at the moment so I can't give you a number here.
What's it like working with Unreal Engine 3? It seems to be the next-gen engine of choice for pretty much everyone at the moment...
Hazucha: That's right, but there is a big difference between the development of a first-person sci-fi shooter or a third-person fantasy game. So we put a lot of effort into the development of our own features for the engine, to create a unique 'Elveon' style. This affects mainly the graphics, where we have done a lot of our own development to be able to display opened mountain and forest exteriors according to our ideas, but also things like the animation and camera system, where we needed very specific functions to make our complex close-combat system work efficiently and look smooth at the same time.
Can you tell us more about the arcade-style, on-rails ranged shooting missions?
Hazucha: The arcade mode is a supplementary game mode where you will be riding or flying a huge mount and shooting static enemies on the ground and opponents riding similar monster mounts. These sequences should be the most fun-yielding way to get the player from A to B and provide occasional fast-paced sequences to diversify the gameplay.
Will the game be essentially linear, or is it possible to free-roam?
Hazucha: The game will take place in levels, but the story covers a millennia-old ancient Elvish legend and will be told in a non-linear way - so that you will have the opportunity to see some levels both in 'present' time and in the past - we want to give the world a very mythical dream-like look and feel, so that the player will feel like he is really walking in an ancient heroic legend. There will be multiple possible ways, endings and answers in Elveon. And you wont know it all unless you try more than once. The gameplay and the character development system will also encourage replayability. Elveon will be playable in multiple ways and will always bring new viewpoints.
How many missions are there in the game?
Hazucha: We cannot really count the game in missions, since it covers a main storyline and many missions will be optional, but we can give you a hint about the overall length. With many optional quests, the gameplay will definitely also depend on the player - at the current stadium of the developmental period we are locating a game play time of approximately 15-20 hours for the action-only player, going up to around 25-30 hours for the investigative RPG fan.
How will the divine powers that you can acquire work? Can you give us any examples?
Hazucha: We will not use a classical magic-system with fireballs and ice bolts, but the interference of the divine powers will be on a more general scale, resembling the relation of the ancient Greeks to their Olympian gods. Elveon will create the atmosphere that the Gods are watching the events and interfere when they think it proper to do so. For example, a God will grant the player partial invisibility for a time at a place that he would never pass if the enemies could see him. At some points, the player will be able to call divine help, on some occasions he will have to rely on the Gods to have mercy and come with their own solution at their given time.
The environments look very impressive...
Hazucha: Unreal Engine 3... offers a superb material editor that allows us to achieve superior visual asset quality without a radically increased effort compared to present generation asset production. Besides that we are developing our own tools and feature sets and have licensed some other solutions, like for example the SpeedTree technology for a living environment.
Can you give us any details about the multiplayer side of the game?
Hazucha: Elveon will have an integrated multiplayer mode. In this area, we want to fully use the Xbox 360 advantages and new features, so the multiplayer will be also constantly enhanced via the Live capabilities with downloadable content and Marketplace features
Are you on target for a summer 2007 launch? What stage of the development process have you reached at this point?
Hazucha: The static graphics are done and we are working with a version of the engine that will be the technical base for the release version. We are improving the visuals while we are scripting the final levels and testing the direct gameplay.
How have you found developing for the PC and 360 platforms? What advantages and challenges does each hold?
Hazucha: Developing in parallel for PC and Xbox 360, especially with the UE3, is actually very comfortable. We have met no critical points where the development for these two platforms would go so far apart to pose an actual problem or to make it necessary to cut key technical or gameplay features on one or the other.
Are you envisaging Elveon as the first game of a franchise? Will you be continuing the story in follow-up games?
Hazucha: With Elveon we will introduce a completely new and exciting fantasy universe. We are looking forward to inviting the gamers into this world. I would not say at this point that the game is going to be a franchise, but there will be definitely some more chapters to open in this book.
Copyright 2006 - 2009 Future Publishing Limited, Beauford Court, 30 Monmouth Street, Bath, UK BA1 2BW England and Wales company registration number 2008885
