Protect the Federation! “SpecForce” Challenges Gamers to be the Ultimate Special Forces Operative
By Louis Bedigian

“Team cooperation is extremely important. Players will have to use voice commands to quickly inform their teammates about the situation.”

With all this talk of public space travel, space expeditions and space vacation resorts, you can't help but become fearful of the consequences. In SpecForce, a first-person shooter set in the future, players are asked to defend the universe from certain doom.

You control a Special Forces operative (a SpecForce) for the Federation. The Federation has united humanity, but as we witnessed with the release of War of the Worlds, in extreme situations humans don't always act humane.

Limited resources, greedy outsiders and evil souls threaten the peace of the Federation. It's your job to protect the peace and stop the universe from falling to pieces. Can you do it?

We chatted with PR and Marketing Specialist Kacper Michalski to find out.

SpecForce is big on multiplayer action and we want to hear more about it.

Kacper Michalski: The single-player mode is still the gameplay’s main element, and the 11 available missions guarantee hours of entertainment. The multiplayer mode, along with its tactical elements and team cooperation on the Team Domination maps, is also very interesting. You’ll also get to use armored vehicles, including large mech walkers, which are a real blast to play.

What does the Power Armor do? What other items or armor types are available?

KM: The Advanced Power Armor is the key element of a SpecForce agent’s equipment. It has five distinct systems:

• Motive Support – an exoskeleton which improves the motoric abilities.

• Camouflage Layer – an active masking system.

• Power Shields – the basic defense system, shielding the player from hostile fire.

• Neural Boost – a neural stimulator, which accelerates basic body functions

• S.M.A.R.T. Recon System – a target identification and fire coordination system

The Power Armor is also equipped with a neural link, allowing the player to hack computer terminals and drive vehicles.

Explain the game's tactical elements, both in single-player and the multiplayer mode.

KM: An important element of the single-player gameplay is the usage of all available shields and the proper deployment of the equipment you brought or stole from your slain opponents. For example, a heavy sniper rifle is of no use in a dense jungle, because most of the combat takes place on short distances. It’s best to take out enemy armored vehicles with EMP grenades or the rocket and grenade launchers. The grenade launcher is especially interesting, since it gives you the option of indirect firing. The multiplayer mode requires players to carefully choose their weapons for each map. Team cooperation is extremely important here, so players will have to use voice commands to quickly inform their teammates about the situation on the battlefield.

Please provide an outline of SpecForce's vehicles: their purpose, their functions, etc.

KM: There [are] a number of vehicles in SpecForce – anything from single-seater unarmed speeders and light four-wheel reckon vehicles, through light and heavy walkers, up to armored troop carriers. The first two are meant to help you travel through the battlefield quickly, though the jeep is also armed with a heavy machine gun and can even take on a heavy infantry unit. The light mech walker is great for killing enemy ground troops, while the heavy walker is best used for taking out the enemy armored troop carriers. The armored troop carriers are great for moving a large body of men anywhere on the battlefield.

Deathmatch and Capture the Flag are well known multiplayer modes – what is Team Domination all about?

KM: Team Domination is a very interesting new mode of play, requiring team members to both attack and defend given positions, across long distances. The team that controls more of the positions earns victory points. The game ends when a point quota, set individually for each map, is reached by one of the teams. This means that there’s always combat going on close to the key positions. Team members must choose to either attack the enemy or defend their own position.

Moving onto the single-player mode, we'd love to hear about the story, as well as the futuristic urban environments and uncharted territories.

KM: The game is set a number of years before the events of Chrome took place. SpecForce and Chrome have common elements – the characters of Bolt Logan and Ron “Pointer” Harper. Both men, members of the elite SpecForce unit, encounter an unexpected problem during a routine mission. They’ll have to go against a mega corporation of the future, while cooperating with the rebel factions of Estrella – a planet on the border of the known universe.

Are the weapons as futuristic as the environments? How many are there and what are their functions?

KM: There are 10 weapon types available in SpecForce, a number of grenades (EMP, classic and cluster grenades), mounted guns and, naturally, armed vehicles. When we designed the weapons for SpecForce, we used available data about the possible weapons of the future. There’s no lasers here – instead, you’ll get to use attack rifles with caseless ammunition and long-range automated grenade launchers. Generally, a seasoned FPP player won’t be surprised, but rather feel right at home with the game’s familiar and functional equipment.

What is SpecForce's universe like? Are there aliens or any creatures that do not exist on Earth?

KM: In the process of creating the game, we decided to limit the plot to the events taking place on a single planet. This doesn’t mean that the available maps are not varied. As far as the extraterrestrial fauna and flora are concerned, SpecForce features a great deal of animals and plants that you’d have never seen on Earth. The world is inhabited by both large, dinosaur-like plant eating animals and fast, carnivorous creatures, that may prove to be a problem during one of the missions :)

How much importance rests on the player's camouflage? Do enemies use camouflage too?

KM: As I’ve mentioned earlier, one of the key elements of the Power Armor is its camouflage layer. It’s an active opto-electronic masking system, which allows the player to pass unnoticed even at close ranges. Chrome SpecForce doesn’t feature classic stealth missions, where you’d have to sneak by several dozen sentries … however, the idea with SpecForce operations is that sometimes it pays to liquidate the enemy from a concealed position or hide from enemy patrols to ease future operations. It doesn’t really pay to strike enemy positions upfront – though the Power Armor, thanks to its multiple support systems, could handle such an attack. During the course of gameplay, you’ll come across enemies who also use optical masking.

The S.M.A.R.T. Recon System is supposed to help coordinate fire in rough terrain. Could you tell us more about this?

KM: The S.M.A.R.T. Recon System is another integral element of the Power Armor. It gives you the possibility of following live targets across difficult terrain and low visibility. A dense jungle surrounding is a fine example of this – without the S.M.A.R.T. Recon System, it would be hard for a SpecForce soldier to see the enemy, even up close. Activating the Recon System allows you to see all enemies in your immediate surrounding. The aiming system marks the target, so that the player can follow it. The system also improves aiming substantially.

SpecForce features advanced AI - what makes this game's enemies superior and more intelligent than the average first-person shooter thug?

KM: We created Chrome SpecForce as a tactical FPP shooter. Thus, the AI was designed to facilitate this idea. Enemy soldiers cooperate and defend each other, and shield themselves from hostile fire, using natural barriers, like trees, or special tactical walls. AI soldiers can also use mounted weaponry and fight inside closed spaces.

Team Domination and Team Deathmatch are available for multiplayer. Are there any team elements used in the single-player quest?

KM: The single-player mode regularly requires you to cooperate with member of your unit. Usually the soldiers operate in pairs, but some of the missions require players to work as part of a much larger unit, conducting a strike on an enemy base, or coordinating the defense of a strategically important installation. SpecForce also features missions where the player has to defend a key member of his team – loosing that person to enemy fire will result in failing the mission.

Lastly, SpecForce's graphics are gorgeous. Share with us the beauty that we'll see when we play the final version.

KM: I think that the best way to get an idea about SpecForce graphics is to download the newly released single-player demo, available at www.specforcethegame.com.

Thank you for your time.