October 20, 2008

Breaking Out of Prison and Into Saint’s Row 2 With Lead Designer James Tsai
By Louis Bedigian

“While the story we’re putting forth is compelling, we never take ourselves so seriously that it conflicts with the extreme, over-the-top feel the game has.”

Not too long ago, Saint's Row blasted its way onto the Xbox 360, giving Grand Theft Auto clones everywhere – and the real GTA – a reason to be fearful. The new guy in town came with features and scenarios the others didn't have, which proved to be a big hit with many gamers. Now that Saint's Row 2 has arrived, we wanted to get the developer's take on this exciting open-world shooter.

"The Saints Row 2 team draws from a lot of film, games, and TV for overall inspiration, but our opening escape sequence wasn’t modeled or mirrored after any one particular source," said James Tsai, Lead Designer. "Overall, we just thought of all the cool stuff we’d love to see in a prison break and worked to integrate it into an exciting mission. Stealthy, sneaky prison breaks aren’t nearly as exciting as ones with spotlights, shootouts, alarms, machine guns, helicopters, and a boat chase back to the city of Stilwater."

What comes after the prison break? A car chase?

James Tsai: Once you’re done breaking out of jail, you can either go on to the next mission in the story right away or spend some time exploring the city. I won’t give too much away right now in terms of spoilers, but I will say that your character isn’t the only 3rd Street Saint that’s been behind bars. Johnny Gat has also gotten to know the Stilwater judicial system quite well, so well in fact that he might need a bit of help before the two of you can resume your killing ways together.

Tell us about some of the new vehicles coming to Saint's Row 2.

JT: While the original Saints Row featured your expected array of cars and trucks, in Saints Row 2 we’re giving the player a full complement of vehicles to explore the world in. Motorcycles, speed boats, dirt bikes, assault helicopters, fighter planes, jets, monster trucks…it’s all in there this time around. You’ll have the means to go anywhere you want in Stilwater.

Are any changes being made to the vehicle controls?

JT: We’ve added some enhancements to give the player more vehicle control in Saints Row 2. For example, we now have cruise control to make tracking or drive-by shooting at moving cars easier, since players can now focus on steering and aiming and not have to continually move their thumb onto a button to depress the gas. And some vehicles have mounted weapons that the player can aim and fire now as well while driving, opening up several new outlets for repressed road rage.

Are the vehicle upgrades mechanical or visual?

JT: Both. A visit to the mechanic in Saints Row 2 will allow you to customize all kinds of visual aspects of your car, as you’d expect – there’s a whole array of rims, spoilers, paint styles, window tints, decals, bumpers, and other stuff to personalize the look of your vehicle. But you can also add things like nitrous, stronger tires, a reinforced frame, and a beefier engine to enhance the performance of your car as well.

What are some of the finishing moves being planned, and how will they work in gameplay?

JT: We have several melee fighting styles the player can use throughout the game, each of which has its own set of combos and finishers. Aside from adding that nice visual flourish to finishing off opponents after a flurry of strikes, the finishing moves and counters are used heavily in our fight club activity, as well as some cool sword fighting boss battles. You’ll have to time and counter attacks and follow up with strikes of your own rather than just pummel away.

In what ways will the new or enhanced weather effects affect the gameplay?

JT: The weather in Saints Row 2 adds a lot to the game. For example, we have some cool chase sequences that happen out in the open waters of the ocean and through Stilwater’s harbors. If the weather is stormy, you’ll be dealing with large swells that toss your boat around a lot, making for a far rougher ride than if the day was clear and sunny. It’s really exciting to be gunning down boats and helicopters while cutting through large waves and dealing with the risk of getting capsized.

We also use weather for cool visual effects as well, whether we’re setting the mood in a dramatic cutscene or to using it to make the atmosphere of a mission brighter or darker. Players will see a full range of rain, from a light drizzle up through powerful thunderstorms in the game.

Chainsaws and flamethrowers are among the new weapons being planned for Saint's Row 2. What others can we expect?

JT: With the weapons arsenal in Saints Row 2, we went in the direction of fun rather than going for an authentic gang collection. So the player isn’t just limited to submachine guns and pistols, but instead gets stuff like automatic shotguns, assault rifles with grenade launchers, laser guided rocket launchers, remote charges, flashbangs, and swords, to name a few of the toys. There are also some very cool reward weapons that get unlocked as the player completes higher levels of activities. And if the guns we provide aren’t the right tool for the situation, the player can always pick up a bottle or a brick or rip a sign post of the ground to use as a bludgeon.

How will these new weapons control? Are you going for an arcade-type feel?

JT: Every weapon in the game has its optimal range, a unique rate of fire, varying degrees of accuracy, and so on. But we’re definitely erring on the side of fun and not going for a true simulation feel. One assault rifle may be better at long range while another hits harder and fires faster, but either one should get the job done in most situations. We even share ammo across different weapons of the same class, so that players don’t have to stress about leaving reserve ammunition behind like they might have in the original Saints Row.

The story is going to be much darker this time around. Can you tell us about that?

JT: Saints Row 2 is a story about gangs and criminals – as you’d expect, it has its violent elements. There is still plenty of humor and there are funny moments throughout the game, but there are also some undeniably brutal happenings in some of the missions and cutscenes. At the end of Saints Row, your character was blown up and left for dead, so understandably there are a lot of revenge themes going on in the plot. But while the story we’re putting forth is compelling, we never take ourselves so seriously that it conflicts with the extreme, over-the-top feel the game has. We have an activity about shooting human excrement on people, for goodness’ sake!

Limitless destruction seems to be a popular theme in games these days, with Red Faction: Guerrilla and Mercenaries just two games headed in that direction. Will there be any hint of that destruction in Saint's Row 2, such as the ability to freely blow up buildings or other structures?

JT: Saints Row 2 has lots of chaos and crazy moments, but it won’t have the unrestrained destructive capability that Red Faction: Guerrilla features. The player can wreck tons of things in Stilwater such as fences, mailboxes, park benches, market stands, et cetera, but not entire buildings. Our game engine specializes more on the complex interactions of a living, breathing city – we have pedestrians that go about their daily lives, complex traffic patterns, realistic police response and ambient gang life. Introducing destruction to the mix would be building a very different game from what Saints Row 2 is all about.

Thank you for your time.

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