X-Men: The Official Game Interview (con't)

FiringSquad: How would you describe the combat and combat system in the game?

Jason VandenBeghe and Scoff Bandy: Our combat system is different for each character.

Wolverine’s combat centers around fighting many enemies at once. Each enemy type has a strong defense against certain attacks (blocking, evading, etc), and vulnerabilities against other attacks. The trick is to learn what works well against each enemy type, and to use the right attacks at the right time. Given that you’ll generally be fighting two to three different types at once, we keep you on your toes.

Nightcrawler’s combat is more focused on one-on-one fighting, although he does from time to time have to mix it up with a crowd. Nightcrawler has a variety of ground and jump attacks, but his fighting is all about using teleportation. For example, if you are locked on to an enemy at a distance, and press attack, you’ll teleport to that enemy and strike him. You can then teleport back out of range… it’s nice being a teleporter.

In addition, Nightcrawler has a thing called a “relocation attack” which lets you teleport behind and above an enemy, and beat the crap out of him, and then as he turns around, teleport behind him again… yeah. It’s fun.

Iceman’s combat is on the fly: he’s moving at 50 miles an hour, blasting and freezing enemies in front of him. :) Pretty straightforward.


FiringSquad: What other unique gameplay features will the X-Men game have?

Jason VandenBeghe and Scoff Bandy: Our upgrade system, for one.

Our system is based around Mutations, which are points you use to enhance your character’s powers in a particular way.

You earn Mutations by completing each mission. How many Mutations you earn depends on what difficulty you play the game (harder difficulty gives you more Mutations, easy difficulty gives you fewer).

After each mission, you can “mutate” your characters. Each character has five different stats to spend on, each of which gives a direct gameplay benefit (health, strength, regeneration, etc).

Mutations are permanent, so they stay with you when you replay missions. So, when you replay a level you will be more powerful.

This allows you to “mine” Mutations that you may have left behind: your increased mutant power will make it easier to complete earlier missions on a harder difficulty.


FiringSquad: What can you tell us about the graphical look of the game and will the Xbox 360 version have any extra features?

Jason VandenBeghe and Scoff Bandy: We went to great lengths to construct locations and characters that will immerse the player into the visual world of the X-Men the way it is presented in the film. The lighting, palette, and texture choices will all be consistent with the world the fans of the films have come to love.

Similarly, all of our characters are designed and built to reflect the their counter-parts in film and in the comics. From the detail of the character models, to the smallest costume elements, our goal is to allow the player to experience this world first hand, and we’re very confident we’ve done just that.

FiringSquad: Finally is there anything else you wish to say about X-Men: The Official Game?

Jason VandenBeghe and Scoff Bandy: Since virtually every member of the development team is a huge fan of the X-men, it was a genuine thrill to have the opportunity to bring these characters and the world they live in a new way. Having the great partnerships we enjoyed with Marvel and Fox on this project helped in ways too numerous to mention, and allowed us to hit new heights of authenticity. We hope everyone enjoys playing the game!

We'd like to thank Jason and Scoff from Z-Axis for answering our questions about X-Men: The Official Game. We look forward to checking out when it debuts later this year.