Tomorrow will be revelation day for SiN 2 but I have obtained some information ahead of schedule for you all courtesy of Eurogamer:
The feature then turns its attention to Ritual's tweaking of the Source engine. First up is what’s being termed 'Context Look', which essentially gives the game the ability to script NPC conversations on the fly. In other words, characters will know what Blade is looking at by where you're pointing the mouse cursor and be able to respond dynamically.
Elsewhere, the AI has been tweaked with some location damage enhancements, so that enemy AI will, for example, be able to fire back at Blade even if they've had their legs shot out from underneath them, while NPCs will help drag wounded back to their feet and so on. Enhanced object handling is also promised, with items pivoting from the players' hands rather than 'levitating' in front of them like in Half-Life 2. This is set to have gameplay implications, Ritual promises, with players able to grab objects and position them with precision and set up cover points.
But perhaps the most interesting implication of Ritual's decision to go for broke on the Episodic Gaming front is that fans themselves will be able to influence the progression of forthcoming episodes. Apparently players will occasionally be forced into making choices, and depending on how the community reacts as a whole, certain things will change in the next. For example, if you choose to save a key character their appearance may well be different in the next episode than if you had chosen to leave them to fend for themselves.
With Ritual able to track exactly what players choose to do, the way is clear for the community to have a direct influence on how the eventual plot plays out - with the potential for players to replay sections to influence the direction. Interesting indeed. Ritual's creative director Robert Atkins seems unsure to what extent it will have an influence, though, admitting in the PC Gamer interview "Right now it's a concept we're going to implement, but we don't know to what level yet. We figure the fans are going to help us out." But to be clear, there is not going to be any obligation for solo players to contribute, with an 'opt out' option provided.
In essence, your actions can actually influence the course of events through the subsequent episodes of the game.
The feature then turns its attention to Ritual's tweaking of the Source engine. First up is what’s being termed 'Context Look', which essentially gives the game the ability to script NPC conversations on the fly. In other words, characters will know what Blade is looking at by where you're pointing the mouse cursor and be able to respond dynamically.
Elsewhere, the AI has been tweaked with some location damage enhancements, so that enemy AI will, for example, be able to fire back at Blade even if they've had their legs shot out from underneath them, while NPCs will help drag wounded back to their feet and so on. Enhanced object handling is also promised, with items pivoting from the players' hands rather than 'levitating' in front of them like in Half-Life 2. This is set to have gameplay implications, Ritual promises, with players able to grab objects and position them with precision and set up cover points.
But perhaps the most interesting implication of Ritual's decision to go for broke on the Episodic Gaming front is that fans themselves will be able to influence the progression of forthcoming episodes. Apparently players will occasionally be forced into making choices, and depending on how the community reacts as a whole, certain things will change in the next. For example, if you choose to save a key character their appearance may well be different in the next episode than if you had chosen to leave them to fend for themselves.
With Ritual able to track exactly what players choose to do, the way is clear for the community to have a direct influence on how the eventual plot plays out - with the potential for players to replay sections to influence the direction. Interesting indeed. Ritual's creative director Robert Atkins seems unsure to what extent it will have an influence, though, admitting in the PC Gamer interview "Right now it's a concept we're going to implement, but we don't know to what level yet. We figure the fans are going to help us out." But to be clear, there is not going to be any obligation for solo players to contribute, with an 'opt out' option provided.
In essence, your actions can actually influence the course of events through the subsequent episodes of the game.
