PC Gamer's Article:
When I first heard about Squadron 42, Star Citizen’s FPS campaign, I was expecting Call of Duty in space. A parade of cinematic set-pieces with an all-star cast and a handful of linear missions. The appetiser to Star Citizen’s main course. But as I spoke to the talented team developing it—Wilmslow-based Foundry 42—it became clear that they’re attempting something far more ambitious. Lead level designer Mike Barclay, whose previous work includes the Crysis series, tells me about Squadron 42’s design philosophy. He cites games such as Thief and Deus Ex—particularly the way their freeform design encourages creative play—as a big inspiration. Foundry 42 wants the FPS component of Star Citizen to mirror the open-ended, player-driven design of its space sandbox.
Barclay loads up a level to give me an example. We’re in space, and I see a station orbiting a colossal gas giant. Taking control of the camera, he flies us towards the station, and we transfer seamlessly inside. Suddenly, with no loading breaks, we’re in an FPS level. This smooth transition from space to detailed interiors is an important part of Squadron 42, which lets you both fly ships and travel on foot.
We pull back out into space, and Barclay explains his open-ended approach to mission design. He considers the game’s levels as being more like multiplayer maps than linear mazes that the player is funnelled through. He spins the camera around the base, showing me several different entry points, some stealthy, some noisy.
There’s a landing pad, but if I land the enemies guarding the station will see me and go into high alert. Which is fine, if I want an action experience. If I want to avoid combat, I can get close enough to avoid their scanners, eject from my ship, float over, and slip quietly into an airlock. That’s just two examples, but Barclay says every level will offer multiple ways to enter, exit, and complete objectives.
If you cause a ruckus, enemies will call in reinforcements, but they won’t magically appear from what Barclay calls a ‘monster closet’. They’ll be nearby, in ships, and will fly in to help. But if you manage to sneak onto the base quietly, you might be able to take over its AA guns and blast that backup out of the sky, leaving the base helpless as you begin your assault. This kind of systemic design is what defines some of the best games on PC, and it’s encouraging to see Foundry 42 embracing it here.
Squadron 42 will take place in a small area of Star Citizen’s overall galaxy—but that’s ‘small’ in a galactic sense. It’s a massive chunk of space, and, the team promises, completely open. They say you’ll be able to fly freely between stations and star systems, pursuing both the main story and secondary, optional missions. As Barclay gives me a tour of the level I can see markers on the vast starfield behind it, indicating distant worlds. This is to make moving around such an enormous space a lot easier for the developers.
Barclay also talks briefly about so-called ‘secondary stories’ that will populate the open world. These self-contained narratives will, he says, be open to interpretation, comparing them to The Chinese Room’s post-apocalyptic Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture. He won’t elaborate further on this, and gives no specific examples, but it certainly piques my interest. It’s amazing just how many different ideas they’re trying to squeeze in.
I do wonder how the hell they’re going to build all this. There are 200+ people making Star Citizen, but they’re making a gigantic space sim as well as an FPS. I ask lead environment artist Ian Leyland, who reveals a secret. Exteriors and interiors in Squadron 42 are made from what they call kits. Every structure you see is made of a relatively small selection of parts—walls, vents, doors, windows, etc. But you’d never know it, thanks to the talent of the level designers, and things like lighting and set dressing.
Leyland brings up a near-finished level—a miles-long space station in the middle of an asteroid field—and tells me that it was made entirely using the kit he showed me earlier. It’s amazing, and I can’t believe it’s composed of snapped-together pieces. Thanks to this solution, designers can easily alter the layout of levels, too.
Spaceships will obviously be a crucial feature. I took some time on my tour of the studio to see a few of these being designed. An amazing amount of work goes into them. If your ship is under attack, the lights will flicker, and smoke and sparks burst from the interior. On larger ships, this means you’ll have to navigate through the chaos to reach engineering and repair the damage.
It was mentioned several times that development of features for both Star Citizen and Squadron 42 are, in a lot of cases, simultaneous. For example, the flight model will be developed by the Star Citizen team then implanted into the FPS campaign. But I’m not sure how much crossover there is in terms of purchased ships, and whether you’ll be able to play using your own personal hangar of spacecraft. As it’s a separate story, and you aren’t playing as the same character, it seems unlikely.
Squadron 42 boasts a cast of motion-capped actors including Gary Oldman, Mark Hamill and Gillian Anderson. Between the more openended missions, there’ll be a cinematic storyline to follow that’s more in line with traditional, linear first-person shooters. These enclosed set-pieces will, if all goes to plan, slot neatly into the sandbox, and feel like a natural part of your progression through the game.
As much of what happens as possible will be viewed through the player’s eyes. Your home is a vast capital ship that’s like an spacefaring aircraft carrier—think the Battlestar Galactica—and you’ll return here regularly throughout the game. Over time, Foundry 42 want this place to feel like home. You’ll learn its layout, the routines of its crew, and the personalities of your comrades. On a number of occasions they compared Squadron 42 to the Wing Commander series, but on a much grander scale.
The Foundry 42 team is working on a conversation system that will, they say, see you forging meaningful relationships with the cast—and not always positive ones. But this won’t be relayed by some kind of binary love/ hate meter; instead, you’ll have to determine how much, or little, someone likes you through their performance. Insanely high-res character models, motion-capture, and a talented cast of veteran actors should help convey the nuance required for this to work.
But here’s the thing. I didn’t see or play any of this. Squadron 42 seems to still be very much in the early stages of development, and I wasn’t shown a working build. Everything I saw was in the CryEngine editor or described verbally by one of the developers. The concept is fantastic—a game that combines an open world, a cinematic story, and a deep FPS—but it remains to be seen whether they can actually pull it off.
The team at Foundry 42 are highly talented, so I’m optimistic, but cautious, too. They’ve taken on one hell of a task. Often when I visit game studios the room is filled with a quiet murmur, but when I walked into Foundry 42 there was a genuine buzz in the air. These people are clearly hugely excited to be working on this project. Let’s hope this translates into something that lives up to the ferocity of their ambition.
http://www.pcgamer.com/inside-squadron-42-star-citizens-ambitious-singleplayer-campaign/
Videos
Reveal Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EC4WHPxnrk
Mark Hamill Teaser
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjSXcdvd-ME
Pre-Alpha Gameplay (work in progress)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8YkjRs-S8w
In a nutshell
- Squadron 42 is taking inspiration from Thief and Deus Ex.
- Game will be immersive, where you can approach the scene from any direction, in real time.
- Gameplay is built to offer freedom of choice, where there are multiple ways to enter a location, and multiple ways to complete objectives.
- Secondary objectives are confirmed.
- Levels will be Sandbox-y.
- No loading screens.
- Conversation system to build relationships, without morality meter and check box dialogues.
- Different play styles, including aggressive gameplay, exploration, stealth etc.
- Enemies don't spawn randomly but are on their actual duties and will come to attack you if the character is detected.
Few Corrections (from article)
- Squadron 42 is primarily a Space Sim.
- You won't be able to fly those ships in Squadron 42 that you own in Persistent Universe.
- At the end of the campaign, you are not rewarded with ships that you flew in Squadron 42, so you can use them in Star Citizen's Persistent Universe, but you will get some rewards and Citizenship.
- In Squadron 42 you will fly ships that military will provide you, and in some missions you will have a choice to choose ship among xyz number of ships available for that mission.
- Your character in Squadron 42 and Star Citizen are the same. Squadron 42 is past of your character, who is now living in Star Citizen's persistent universe.
- Squadron 42 is prequel to Star Citizen. Basically Squadron 42 is Warcraft 3, while Star Citizen is World of Warcraft.
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Sounds Excellent!
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