BeyondUnreal Interview - Scott Dalton, Senior Level Designer, Legend Entertainment
World Press Preview Event: November 7, 2002
Chantilly, Virginia, USAQAPete: Your human teammates in one of the early objectives have enough intelligence to scout the area, take positions behind rocks, assemble the field wall, etc.Scott Dalton: They'll also talk to you, make comments to you, make sure you're ok and things like that.QAPete: Are there any non-linear aspects to the game, or is it pretty much always funneling you through to each objective?Scott Dalton: We tried to keep the game fairly linear, although the marsh level, which you were just referring to, can be played through in a number of different ways, as it's pretty open - there's no really set path through the level. Some of the levels later in the game, where you need to control your guys, are really replayable in that they're really non-linear. Depending how you set your defenses it plays out very differently. You can really concentrate on defending an area where there's something that they want to get to, or you can set up outer and inner defenses and do different things like that.QAPete: You've obviously been playing the game for a long time now. Do you still find it enjoyable to go back in and replay portions of it?Scott Dalton: Yeah, I really do. Obviously, when you have scripted events, those things are not as fresh when you go back into them and don't have the same appeal as the first time, but like in the level I used for the weapons demonstration, that's one of those levels where there's waves of guys assaulting you. I really get into it, because there are so many different ways of setting up your defenses. What is the best way I can set this up to totally take these guys down? Sometimes you can set little sections where you totally fence off an area where a Drakk is going to come into, have turrets all around it. You know certain things are going to happen, but it's fun figuring out different ways of dealing with it.QAPete: So, for a change, you can open up the console in a particular level and basically set it up the way you want it?Scott Dalton: Sure. You can cheat, add extra things or just play the mission normally. You can set it up in just totally crazy ways where you're setting up different traps and ambushes for the guys, seeing how they'll handle it, etc.