Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow Producer Answers Questions in IRC Forum

Game Goes Gold on Xbox, Gets Set for Shipment March 25

It is a world of your making – one in which you succeed through stealth, or use a variety of weapons to accomplish your objectives. Sam Fisher is back in action in the pending release of Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow.

But make no mistake, the threat is real and must be stopped. But then, that is why you were sent to East Timor in the first place. The game itself has seen a fair amount of changes from the first title. One of the more obvious is that Dennis Haysbert (senator and then President David Palmer on the television series “24”) will voice Colonel Irving Lambert, the Third Echelon Operations Coordinator.

Pandora Tomorrow is the second in the Splinter Cell series from Ubisoft, and plays off the themes so common to Clancy-based games. On Thursday, producer Domitille Doat took time to field questions on Ubisoft’s IRC chat channel on the game.

What follows are the questions and her answers. Some of the content has been edited:

The original was accused of stealing gameplay ideas from MGS series ...

Domitille: Who said that? I do think in SC2 we will be the one accusing, especially because of the online part.

Prince of Persia had easy-to-master, yet very flexible controls. Don’t you think having fewer buttons to remember adds to the capability of “feeling the tension?” Will controls in SC2 Pandora tomorrow be simplified?

Domitille: Yes, the controls have been simplified, but accessibility is not only with the control. The mission over system is different. The first reason why we have worked on a lot of the pad configuration is because we have the online and off-line gameplay to handle. The second is because we have new moves to master. The idea is to accomplish visually striking actions without touching more than twice the pad.

Will Xbox version include support for 7.1 sound?

Domitille: We are 5.1

There will be Xbox Live downloads, such as online maps?

Domitille: As many as humanly possible

While not completely ruling out online play for the GC, Domitille said she is “not far from saying it, no. All the other formats will have online gameplay, of course.”

Which console version will have the best graphics:

Domitille: The idea here is that whatever your console, you will be blown away. I promise you this will be the case. Am not really interested in the little console battle though.

Who did the Xbox version, Montreal or Shanghai? And what about other systems?

Domitille: Shanghai and Annecy in France produced and developed SC2 for the Xbox and PC format. France is lead the PS2 version. This is to ensure that we make the most of all systems.

Will enemy IA be more tactical?

Domitille: We have more than enemies in SC2, as we have civilians in the streets, in trains, in airports going through their everyday lives. This means that the IA is going further than ‘I see you, I take a gun, I shoot you.’

For enemies, they now have a memory, they have memory of what has happened, what they have heard, they cover and protect themselves in real time when they feel danger, for instance. This is more stressful, more dense also because you don’t want a civilian to get a bullet in the head because of you.

How is it to work as a woman in the game business? Do you have any problems with respect?

Domitille: I think I am the worst nightmare a team can have, this is the cost of being a woman in the industry

Do players who know the first part have an advantage?

Domitille: They only know that Nicolatze is dead if they have finished the first game. They can also know that the use on non-lethal gadgets is a more clever way of playing.

Will the first level be a camp with a combined training and mission?

Domitille: Yes. We did not want the training to be hell - i.e. two hours in a box doing moves without reason. The first 20 minuets of the first missions are soft and leave you time to master the basics.

You say there will be civilians in the game. Will enemies be able to use them as human shields?

Domitille: Yes, they will and they do. The only way to save them is a discreet bullet in the head of the enemy.

Will karmadata (rag-doll physics) be implemented?

Domitille: We have used karma for a specific part of the gameplay in the jungle and Indonesian environments.

Will PS2, Xbox and GC versions be released the same time?

Domitille: Xbox and PC will be released in March, the 25^th. PS2 and GC will be a little bit later.

Will there be a PC demo before release? Or are you planning one afterwards?

Domitille: We are trying the best we can to make it happen before release.

Has Splinter Cell 2 a multiplayer mod?

Domitille: Yes and there is a specific chat about it in two weeks because this mod is worth a whole discussion about it.

Will there be parts of the game where you have to kill a whole bunch of enemies, such as the first game in the Abattoir where you found the five American troops, a whole squad will come in and you have to kill them?

Domitille: It is different. You can reach the last maps and play till the last mission without having been seen and without killing one single enemy. The last mission, however, is a little tricky.

Is Pandora Tomorrow actually Splinter Cell 2 or not? People keep telling me it’s only an expansion pack but priced as a full game.

Domitille: SC2 – 8 missions offline, 8 missions online.

What’s the story behind Pandora Tomorrow?

Domitille: We are in the Tom Clancy universe so the background story is geo-politically based. East Timor declares independence and refuses to be part of Indonesia. The U.S. backs up East Timor as the youngest democracy in the world and sends troops in to help them. Indonesian government refuses that and external forces get involved in their own business and finance terrorist group and Suhadi Sadono to fight them. Their weapon is a biological weapon.

What was the most memorable event for you that happened during the production of Pandora Tomorrow?

Domitille: The moment the game was approved by Microsoft and went into production because this means holidays for us.

You said Microsoft approved the game, does this mean it’s gold?

Domitille: Yes we are, this was 2 hours ago.

Share Glink It

---