Ritualistic

SiN Episodes will give you plenty of tools to get the job done.

Blade’s Magnum will naturally return, but apart from that, most of the weapons are new. We’re trying very hard to make each weapon useful, even in the later stages of the game. For example, the Magnum can now fire a depleted uranium shell that can easily penetrate lighter materials, so you can actually take out enemies hiding behind doors. It’s a neat little tool that will make the Magnum so much more useful than it was in the first game.

SiN had us fighting a variety of enemies, ranging from lowly foot soldiers to heavily armored commandos and – of course – a rather creative assortment of SinTEK mutants. I suppose SiN Episodes will return to that mix, so can you share any details about the enemies we will face?

That’s right, we’re going to have both human and mutant enemies in the first episode. The beloved SinTEK grunts will be back, and some will even be equipped with jetpacks, so be sure to watch the skies. We also have a bunch of new mutant characters, including one that keeps growing and evolving until you finally take him out. Be sure to take care of those as soon as possible, or you might be in for a nasty surprise.

Meet Jessica Cannon, the newest member of HardCorps.

The SiN universe has evolved somewhat since the first game. JC has grown up and matured a bit, and even Blade has become a bit more bitter and sarcastic because of his past experiences with SinTEK. The two are joined by HardCorps hotshot Jessica Cannon, who is helping Blade out in the field. Jessica sometimes has trouble keeping her temper in check, but she is quite athletic and able to reach places Blade can’t get to, which makes her an invaluable asset.

A few weeks ago you said that SiN Episodes wouldn’t ship with multiplayer, but that it was definitely planned. Can you tell us anything more about this?

Multiplayer is definitely near the top of our to-do list and we have several unique ideas for it. We do want to get the community’s input here, so we’re going to have a multiplayer survey on SinEpisodes.com in the near future.

For a while now, you’ve solicited community feedback and opinions using the Question of the Week threads in our forums. How important a role does the community play in the development of SiN Episodes

The community is extremely important to us. In the end, they’re going to be the ones playing the game, so we want to make sure that we deliver a gaming experience that meets and exceeds their expectations.

For SiN Episodes, we’re actually toying with the idea of having global community-driven action-based outcomes, which are decided by whichever path is chosen by the majority of people. At the same time, we understand that it may be frustrating to not see “your” outcome become a reality, so we’re still determining the extent to which this feature will be implemented.

Episodic delivery also gives us the opportunity to respond and adapt to community feedback from one episode to the next – if a feature is well-received by gamers, we might expand its role in the game, whereas aspects that aren’t liked can be changed or phased out completely.

Driving missions will be a big part of the first episode.

We’ve added a number of enhancements to the engine in order to get the most out of it for SiN Episodes: Emergence. There are now damage zones for vehicles, so you can shoot off parts like the windshield or the doors. We also have a new system dubbed Context Look, which allows non-player characters to accurately respond to what the player is looking at. Blade might be going through a cluttered room looking for a specific device, while JC reacts to what he is looking at. So he might go “That’s not it, boss, that’s just a useless PDA,” or “Quit looking at those magazines and get back to the mission.”

We would, of course, very much like to have a release date…

SiN Episodes: Emergence is currently on track for a release in late Fall of this year.

An ancient and evil alien race have kidnapped Duke Nukem and Col. John Blade to do battle in a tournament that shall determine who is the greatest, most badass hero in the perpetuality of the universe. The two gladiators are equipped with machineguns, rocket launchers, whatever weapons they can imagine and then dropped inside the arena. What happens?

Our boy Blade would kick ass, of course! …but it would be considered a technical victory because when the battle was supposed to start, Duke would still be in the locker room getting ready to come out ;)

That's all for now, folks. We would like to thank Steve Nix, Tom Mustaine, Shawn Ketcherside and the Levelord for taking the time to answer our questions.

Keep visiting Ritualistic for the latest SiN Episodes news and announcements!

Related Links:
· Discuss this interview in our forums!
· Game Info: SiN Episodes
· Official SiN Episodes site
· Ritual Entertainment