MEGamers Exclusive: Interview with the producer of Spec Ops: The Line

We spoke to Greg Kasavin, ex-Gamespot-ian and now the producer at 2K Games, about his upcoming  shooter Spec Ops: The Line. Depicting a Dubai worst than its current economic state, we inquire about the game’s story, which promises to be involving and morally “complex”, its gameplay, the process behind pixellizing our beloved (?) state, their plans to promote and support the region and of course, the ban. Get reading!

MEGamers: Could you give us a brief on the story and why Dubai is portrayed the way it is?

Greg Kasavin: Spec Ops: The Line takes place in the near future, after the city of Dubai is struck by a number of devastating sandstorms that leave the region shattered and uninhabitable. Most citizens manage to escape from the catastrophe, knowing the sandstorms were coming, but some remained behind – including the U.S. Army’s Colonel John Konrad and his battalion, who defied orders to flee the city in order to help the humanitarian evacuation effort taking place there. But after the worst sandstorm hits, Konrad is cut off and presumed dead. Much later, an Army relay station picks up a distress signal that appears to originate from Dubai, suggesting that Konrad may, in fact, still be alive. They promptly assemble a special operation to find him. As Delta Force Captain Martin Walker, players are charged with entering into the devastated region to locate the revered Colonel Konrad and bring him home. Once inside the city, however, Captain Walker will find that the Colonel is indeed still alive and has undergone a profound, disturbing change through the course of his experience.

Recently, you said that Spec Ops will be a very provocative shooter. What exactly did you mean by provocative and in what sense?

We intend for The Line to be a provocative shooter in the sense that it will make players become emotionally attached to the characters and story, as well as feel conflicted about some of the difficult decisions that Captain Walker and his squad will have to confront during the course of the game. The situations in The Line are intended to be morally ambiguous and complex. The story should be one that sticks in players’ minds long after they’re finished playing the game.

You have talked about the morality system present in the game. What exactly are the moral choices the players will have to make and what will be the difference in the consequence of the decision one makes?

We won’t give away the exact nature of the moral choices at stake in The Line, other than to say they’ll typically be life-or-death choices affecting the people in the story. There will be no right or wrong answers in these situations and even taking no action will be a decision within itself. Players will receive immediate feedback through the narrative. For example, Captain Walker’s squad mates will likely have an opinion on his decisions, and there will be some longer term consequences as well.

Let’s talk about the shooter elements of the game. Obviously, the game borrows a lot from present successful shooters in the market. But what does Spec Ops do differently to stand out from the rest? Because, as we have seen, unless one has an extremely popular title on hand, a ‘basic’ shooter only gets by with avg. reviews and below par sales.

Like the best games in its genre, The Line takes inspiration from the finest shooters available while adding its own twists. Delivering an extremely intense moment-to-moment combat experience is one of the game’s main goals, and we’ll achieve this through having unique tactical opportunities in the environments, as well as through our combat spaces that support up-close-and-personal combat. This is an action-packed game where you’ll often find yourself in dangerous close quarters with the enemy, which adds to the intensity and emotional impact of battle. What’s more, the sand-filled setting opens up some exciting new possibilities to use sand to your tactical advantage. For example, you might shoot out a window holding back thousands of tons of sand, causing an avalanche to crush your opponents. You will also battle within raging sandstorms that add a whole new layer of chaos to your shoot-outs.

You have an excuse to call the game a sandbox, but is it? Or does the game take a linear approach to stay focused on the narrative?

Due to The Line’s focus on delivering a strong narrative, the experience is generally linear, in the sense that the player will constantly be moving from one major objective to another. This is not an open-world, sandbox game. That being said, the combat supports a variety of play styles and encounters, which will never play out the same way twice due to the game’s advanced artificial intelligence and numerous viable tactics.

We know the game has a squad control system. How fleshed out will it be?

You have full control over your squad in The Line, meaning you can order your squad to go anywhere or attack anyone in the vicinity. You can coordinate with your squad as much as you want, and many combat encounters will give you a lot of flexibility to do this. At the same time, your squad mates are intended to be intelligent characters that can make good decisions on their own, so if you’re the sort of player who would rather not direct them through each battle, they can effectively follow your lead. Your squad isn’t just there to help you survive, of course. They’re key characters to the story and one of the driving forces of the narrative. You’ll also have a number of unique commands to issue to your squad in certain contexts.

How about the AI? We have witnessed some horrible friendly AI, especially in military based games, were going Rambo is preferable over managing a bunch of dimwits.

Our narrative goals for The Line absolutely require top-quality artificial intelligence, because if the actions of characters in the game do not look believable, then the emotional impact of the gameplay would be ruined. As such, the development team at Yager has invested heavily in AI, and built sophisticated tools that make authoring and editing dozens of lifelike AI behaviors as streamlined as possible.

Could you tell us something about the multiplayer that is planned? Can we hope for a 2/4-player co-op mode?

We’re not revealing multiplayer in The Line at this time, other than to say that multiplayer is absolutely an integral part of the game. Multiplayer will have unique connections to the campaign’s narrative and is designed to support all popular play styles, including co-op, team-based, and free-for-all. We’ll have much more information about multiplayer later on.

Are there any DLCs planned, or is it too early?

You guessed right… it’s too early!

How about a demo?

Same here!

Let’s talk about the game’s setting. Why Dubai? How did your development team come to a decision to base the game in Dubai?

Dubai is one of the most fantastic-looking, imaginative, and ambitiously designed cities in the world, and these qualities are the primary reasons behind the choice. Part of what makes videogames entertaining is their ability to transport the player into amazing and immersive environments, and given the real-world nature of Spec Ops: The Line, we wanted to pick a setting that was visually stunning but still believable. At the same time, the version of Dubai in this game is much different than what you’d find in the real world, due to the fictional premise of these powerful sandstorms changing the landscape of the city. That’s another part of the reason for the setting – the development team was experimenting with gameplay involving sand, such as sand avalanches and sandstorms. We wanted to draw a contrast between immensely powerful natural events such as these, together with the height of human ambition in architecture.

Is the game’s setting used as a mere backdrop or does it play an important role in the overall story of the game?

The setting is absolutely important to the story, because the fictional back-story of a natural disaster in Dubai is the premise for what happens in the story. The millions of tons of sand in the environments will have a gameplay impact and are not just for show. At the same time, the story of the game is really focused on the characters and their actions; Dubai is the setting for what takes place, but is not strictly the subject of the story.

The story of The Line takes inspiration from Joseph Conrad’s famous short novel, Heart of Darkness, and Francis Ford Coppola’s classic film adaptation, Apocalypse Now. As in those works, the contrast between the suffocating power of nature and the raw ambition of humankind are central to the themes in this game. As in those stories, The Line is about the actions of specific characters that lose themselves in worlds that are half-natural and half-manufactured.

How geographically accurate will Dubai be in the game? What prominent Dubai landmarks will the game feature? Also, what sort of research went into bringing it to life visually?

The geographic accuracy of the game’s version of Dubai is not a priority due to the fictional premise that the city has been struck by a series of tremendously powerful sandstorms. The game also takes place in an indeterminate near future, so players won’t be led to expect an exact replica of the city, given this context. Further, The Line is not an open-world game so players will not be free to explore every avenue of the city.

In terms of researching the look and feel of the city, the development team’s art director and lead designer visited Dubai to gather photographic reference and also spent a lot of time in the desert interacting with sand, noting what it looks like when someone falls down a sand dune, gets sand encrusted in their hair and clothing, and so on.

According to The National, a local newspaper, a government official from the National Media Council said that they weren’t informed that 2K Games were making a game based in Dubai and that they have yet to review the game. Has any progress been made in this matter?

The Line is currently still in development and therefore is not in a reviewable state. We plan to work with all major age ratings boards to ensure the game is rated appropriately in all territories we seek to release it in.

What measures is the development team taking so as to not step on any religious and moral beliefs of the country? Does the game have anything to do with Islam or the politics of the country at all?

The story of The Line has nothing to do with religion, and no religious themes or symbols appear in the story. The story also has nothing to do with modern politics in the sense that it takes place entirely in a fictionalized version of Dubai, where society as we know it no longer exists.

While the game is intended to be provocative, we will not achieve our narrative goals if the end result merely comes off as offensive, so we are approaching the subject matter with care. It’s worth noting that the Berlin-based development team at YAGER is a truly multinational team hailing from more than 15 nations around the world, and who have varying beliefs and creeds as individuals.

Are there any special promotions planned to promote the game in the region, assuming it is given the green light? (answered by David Halse, ROE PR/Product Manager, 2K Games)

We are currently working with our distribution partner [Red Entertainment] in the region to evaluate possible activity for The Line. This will be all confirmed closer to the release.

What about regionalization? Can we expect Arabic language support and such? (answered by David Halse, ROE PR/Product Manager, 2K Games)

At 2K we constantly evaluate the possibilities for supporting other languages. However, it is likely that players will at least hear local languages being spoken by various characters within the game as one of the players team is a translator.

What do you think of the potential of the Middle East region as a whole? What do you expect in terms of sales? (answered by David Halse, ROE PR/Product Manager, 2K Games)

Some of 2K previous titles have performed very well within the UAE and we constantly look to grow and support the market. We work closely with a fantastic partner who offers us a great deal of support in reaching the audience within the UAE.

And finally, since it is very prominently shown in the trailers, what will the game call it – Burj Dubai or Burj Khalifa? :p

The names of any structures are generally not important to the story of The Line. The characters in this story have far more to worry about than trying to identify Dubai’s famous landmarks.