Silverfall Interview (con't)

FiringSquad: What will the quests and locations be like in the game?

Jehanne Rousseau: While Silverfall is fundamentally a hack-and-slash experience, we’ve made a significant effort to ensure that fans of traditional RPGs will find a lot to like. So, in addition to the typical “kill this monster” type of quest you’ll usually find in action-RPGs, we’ve also included quests that task you with escorting another character, or multi-pronged quests in which you may, for example, be tasked with defeating a group of bandits, only to take the bandits’ side and turn on the original quest-giver. These multiple-choice quests are at the core of Silverfall, as it’s through them that the player will gain his loyalty points, which will lead him toward one path or the other.

The locations in Silverfall vary greatly. We’ve crafted a visually rich world that bears some similarity to traditional fantasy, but we’ve infused it with a steampunk-like feel; the location designs incorporate nature, technology and fantasy to create something unique. So you’ll go from swamps to cities in the sky, suspended by giant balloons, from icy tundras to a volcano city… And, of course, in addition to these strange cities or environments, we have lots of creepy dungeons set in different environments, too.

FiringSquad: What sort of weapons and items will Silverfall have?

Jehanne Rousseau: As in any good hack-and-slash game, we’ve ensured that item collection is a lot of fun. Items are generated randomly, so you can spend hours searching for the best sword or piece of armor with the enchantments you’re hoping for. Of course, there will also be several unique and rare items.

Followers of the technology path will be able to make use of devastating projectile weapons like guns, and once they’ve reached a certain level of technological involvement, they’ll be able to use cyborg parts like mechanical eyes, which is a fairly new concept for a fantasy game. Nature followers will gain access to some more tribal-but-fun-looking weapons, like a living globefish mace for example, or chitin spiked armor. Of course, all this stuff can be magical, too, and it can take hours just to collect the perfect armor for your alignment with the best enchantments around.

FiringSquad: What are the dev team's favorite monsters in the game to fight?

Jehanne Rousseau: Personally, I love the necroraider creatures. They are the crazy scientists in our world, who do completely improbable Frankenstein-style experiments which are all very original and really surprising. But I think everyone in the team has his favourite. I very much love the boss at the beginning of the game, the ravager, which made me live through some nightmarish hours when he was not yet very well balanced and particularly hard to defeat!

FiringSquad: What can you tell us about Silverfall's combat system?

Jehanne Rousseau: Silverfall is, as I’ve mentioned, a hack-and-slash game, and fast-paced combat is a major component of that. As we’ve left character development fairly open-ended, the combat is suitably unpredictable. You can have a character that hacks away at incoming foes with a swift battle axe, then unleashes lightning bolts at the reinforcements in the distance. There are also a wide range of special attacks related to hand-to-hand and weapon-based combat, to help mix things up a bit.

The addition of companions in single player also has an impact on the combat system, as you can’t control them as you do in Baldur’s Gate-like games, but you can nevertheless interfere a bit more than in Diablo. They allow the solo player to specialize a little more in this or that branch as the player likes, without being a burden on him, without forcing him to pause the game to give out precise orders. Nevertheless, at times you’ll need to choose the right companions, depending on the stage of the game and on your own skills.