An Unlikely [Hero?] Saves The Day In Torrente; First Screens Inside

by Louis Bedigian

The international best-seller comes to the States and we’ve got all the juicy details to ease your anticipation.

Life is good when you’re a cop.  You get to wear a cool uniform, carry an important badge, and have a baby with Shannon Elizabeth.  (Well, you would if you were Kelso on That 70’s Show.)  For the rest of us being a cop is all about donuts, highway patrols, and ticketing speeders.

Being a cop nearly ruined one man’s life.  Torrente, the star of the game of the same name, lost his hair and expanded his belly size while on the job.  After all the hard work he put into devouring case after case of cream puffs, Torrente is kicked off the force.  Worst of all, he can’t seem to understand why.

What’s an aging former cop to do?  Become a private dick and show the world what he’s really made of (which might actually be more than saturated fat!).

An international best-seller, Torrente won over gamers and critics alike with its dark sense of humor, action gameplay, and the crazy ex-cop that’s determined to prove himself.  Now that the game is coming to North America, GameZone Online’s Louis Bedigian pulled himself away from Metal Slug 3 long enough to chat with Torrente’s Creative Director, Jesus Iglesias.

The game's star, Torrente, is dismissed from the police force due to his questionable involvement in a sordid case.  Just what happened that led the police to believe he was guilty?

Jesus Iglesias: Torrente was fired because he was absolutely incompetent and unable to apprehend a Mafia gang – he mishandled most of the missions he had to accomplish due to his reprehensible actions and addiction to booze and women…

Where does the humor come from?  Is Torrente a wise-cracker?

JI: Well, he is a wise-cracker but he uses a very dark humor. He is basically a ridiculous and pathetic guy that looks dirty and ugly. He is obviously not the typical hero: he is fat, bald, and wears terrible clothes and glasses from the 80s. Just looking at him makes you laugh because you cannot believe that you are helping this guy!

During the game he never stops saying stupid and funny things to the enemies and even to the citizens.

He is very proud of himself and tries to look like a tough guy, but in reality he is really a coward - he usually runs away when things get difficult.

It is the absurdity of the situations and his personality that hopefully will make players laugh many times during the game.

Snipering, a gamer’s favorite pastime.

Each mission objective can be accomplished in more than one way.  Give us two examples of how a player might tackle a particular situation.

JI: The environment is completely open and you can reach your objective by going on any of the streets in the city - no matter which route is chosen the player will find enemies. Many missions can be solved in not only two ways, but even three or four different ways.

For instance, a hostage might be held in the square of the city. You can approach the square by a side street to look at the situation and where the enemies and snipers are located to establish your procedure for this mission, taking each enemy out individually. On the other hand, you could go in guns blazing, rescue the hostage and try to make it out alive before they are able to take you down.

What makes the environments immersive?

JI: The game takes place in very large environments within the Spanish cities of Madrid and Marbella, and in the streets you will find hundreds of elements like cars, citizens and objects that dramatically affect the gameplay. It’s not only the number of elements that is unusual for this kind of game, it’s also the interactivity with them that makes the gameplay very unique. For instance, when you are in a shoot-out sometimes you will be forced to cross the street and fire at the same time, but you must also be careful because a car could run over you! Citizens that appear by the hundreds on the streets can affect the gameplay because they may cross in front of you when running away scared and looking for a safe place, and you have to avoid shooting them because you will be penalized if they die or get hurt.

The game also has a fully-featured physics engine that affects all objects and makes the city more interactive.

How does the length or the number of objectives vary among the game's 60 levels?

JI: The game has a story line that affects the order of the missions. The story starts in the streets of Madrid and later moves on to Marbella. In both cities you have to accomplish a lot of different mission-based tasks, but every mission is different. For example, in one mission in Madrid you have to deactivate bombs that the enemy has placed all over the city, and in another mission in Marbella you have to escort and protect a pageant queen going to a contest on the beach!

In addition, we have also included bonus missions with gameplay similar to games like Virtua Cop/Time Crisis, where you have to shoot enemies in an animated sequence.

The game has plenty of surprises, different and original missions and small details that you will notice as you play through the story. 

Couldn’t we just run this guy off the road?

Really, we can’t?  Alright, I guess I’ll just shoot him instead.

How many weapons are featured in Torrente and what can you tell us about them?

JI: There are 14 weapons in the game. A the start you only have a knife and a handgun. During the game, and depending on the mission, you will find more deadly weapons like machine guns, grenade launchers, bazookas, uzis, etc.

You have an inventory where you can access the different weapons but as this game also has a strategic component you will have to find ammunition and manage it well so as not to waste it.

How does the game change as you increase or decrease the difficulty setting?  Are there more enemies to kill?  Does enemy AI become smarter?

JI: Basically the AI changes according to the player’s style. If you get better or play at higher difficulty settings, the enemies see you sooner, hear you better, have a better shooting accuracy and also cooperate a lot more amongst themselves to take you down.

Torrente is said to have a sharp artistic style.  Talk about it.

JI: The game has a very comic-book inspired style and everything is very "contrasting" - sometimes it might look like a game for kids but all the action and shooting gives the game a very unique feel – it’s a very stylized product.

Torrente is a very pathetic and ridiculous guy and we simply couldn’t imagine him looking very realistic or serious. All the characters have very different and funny designs; the citizens are also very unique.

Freeze!  You’re on Candid First-Person Camera.

What can you tell us about the game's music and sound effects?  Also, were any voice actors used to help tell the story?

JI: This is one of the best features of the game. We have a 3D environmental sound system and very good sound effects that help make the environment believable. The music we composed is very nice and every mission has a soundtrack specially composed for it.

In the Spanish version of the game we have the original voice of Santiago Segura (the real actor/comedian who plays Torrente in the movies), and in the English version we used another actor who sounds very similar.  Torrente’s voice is a narration explaining the story and also the briefing before every mission, as well as dialogue within the game.

During the game there are a lot of funny comments that Torrente says when shooting, walking, killing, etc. Torrente is constantly after beautiful girls and he always has something hilarious to say to them!

Thank you for your time.