SPECNAZ: Project Wolf Gives Players a Different Perspective on War

by Louis Bedigian

“I think that the 'WOW' effect doesn't need technology but especially good gameplay.”

Weapons are a gamer’s primary defense in video game warfare.

Does anyone have a brush?  I need to comb my crosshairs.

You can use other options.  It’s always good to utilize all that is available to you.

Clearly this green camouflage isn’t working too well.

But in the end, the sniper rifle is your best line of defense.

It’s impossible to see past this guy’s head.  Luckily I have a gun attached to this scope. 

Now I can drill a hole right through.

SPECNAZ: Project Wolf is the first FPS where you get to play as an actual SPECNAZ member.  What’s the story behind it?  What did the developers draw their inspiration from?  Development Director Martin Equino-x Hornak reveals the details. 

You're going all out to make SPECNAZ: Project Wolf a FPS Tactic game, a sub-genre not acknowledged too often.  What has it taken to design such a game?  Where are you drawing inspiration?
 
Martin Equino-x Hornak: The first idea had just a topic character. Looking around the market we found out there had been a lot of games about special forces. It is interesting that most of those games' concepts are targeted against the Russian special forces or the Red Army forces. Developers should not be blamed for anything, of course, we all lived in the era of cold war and it's clear whom the enemy was. I think everyone was afraid of the word SPECNAZ (read SPETSNAZ) because no one had an idea what SPECNAZ really means. In relations with army activities, of course.

We focused on developing a game and putting a position of SPECNAZ on a player. I think that the topic of Russian armies and in general of special forces was missing in the mentioned games in which we were the members of DELTA FORCE, SEAL, GSG9, etc. SPECNAZ forces have a great potential, which can be excellently projected in the computer games. I am convinced that there are many people who would simply like to try it as a member of SPECNAZ. And will SPECNAZ be interesting? It will be interesting at least for the reason that there doesn't exist any other game with this topic.  This was probably the biggest inspiration

As far as the gameplay goes, what makes this a tactical FPS?  How does it differ from Doom or Halo?

MEH: Our purpose is to make a game of which mission will player be able to play in various ways and in which the enemies and your own squads always behave [in] different ways. Every team has his own orders and try to accomplish. If the player follows briefing, he wouldn't have big problem to reach successful finish of the mission. However, you may progress through a mission your own way, break orders, but in this case you could endanger other members of the team, because for example you won't be able to provide them support when they need, etc. [How SPECNAZ differs between] Halo and Doom is big because it is [a] completely different topic.

Thank my lucky stars, a ladder!

 
Could you go over one of the game's coolest missions for us?
 
MEH: I don't know right now to say [which] of the missions is the coolest, but I can disclose some objectives that will be in the mission. For example, in Iran you'll be supposed to save prisoners through the use of bus and transport them to safety. In Uzbekistan, you'll have to infiltrate to a jail complex and escort an informant who will give you important information regarding next mission, etc.

What did you do to ensure that the action and tactical elements felt balanced throughout the whole experience?
 
MEH: Our approach is very simple. We did it the same way as John Carmack and John Romero when they had balanced guns in the game Doom.

Are there any multi-character tactics?  For example, you signal several troops to follow your lead – you then sneak into a building and take out the enemy?
 
MEH: Yes, following the type of the game you will choose, you'll be able to manipulate with your team members as in the classic real-time strategy game.

What are the Wolf skills and services?  Why are they so important?
 
MEH: Primary function of the wolf is territory survey. It (he) will be able to locate enemy guns and military equipment. The wolf will be helping the player in 60% of the missions; the player will be using the wolf’s abilities in order to accomplish the mission successfully.  The wolf will understand simple commands. He will be wearing a skeleton with the attached weapon systems, which will be at a full disposal during the whole mission.

The player will be able to choose the army equipment for the wolf himself before the mission starts. He can either attach to the skeleton one antitank mine and four grenades or four anti infantry mines and two grenades, etc. The player can decide himself. He will be able to send the equipped wolf to the enemy base and distribute the arsenal quietly.

The trained wolf will be able to liquidate the guards quietly before entering the base, as well as to eliminate the machinegun nest crew at the unreachable spot where a man would not be able to get, but especially he will be able to carry case bomb safely where ever on the continent. This will guarantee the variety, which will be used by the player for successful accomplishment of the mission. He will have other members of SPECNAZ at disposal whom he can give limiting commands. In the case of SPECNAZ the wolf [isn’t a] necessity but [a] possibility which will our game provides.

Nice shadows.

 
Talk about the AMOEBA engine.  What graphic capabilities does it offer – why was it the best choice for this game?
 
MEH: The technology isn't such an important thing in our project as it seems at first sight. As you can see the game is made easy to understand for the players, and the engine is very close to reality. Momentarily we are using [the] minimal [amount] of the features that graphic accelerators offer. At the time we haven't [received] support from the graphic cards companies as ATI or NVIDIA. But we are working on it and I hope we will soon able to use whole potential that graphic cards offer.

I think that the "WOW" effect doesn’t need technology but especially good gameplay. Capabilities of the AMOEBA engine are seen on the screenshots.

Amoeba 3D is the technology developed by BYTE Software. It wasn’t our choice for this game but it was purpose to do AMOEBA. [The] engine brings freedom of [movement], with long line of sight and huge area and it was designed to satisfy anything we need to display. At the time the process of optimalizing in order to reach its best performance. Our engine allows free camera movement which bring us new opportunities of control of the game by creating a new user interface for each kind of sight. Amoeba 3D includes editor of missions called PROTHEUS, and editor of particles called PROTOZOON. We aren't planning a public editor at the time, but [we may at a later time].

Can your original vision for the game be found in the final version?  Or has your vision slowly evolved as the team advanced the game's development?
 
MEH: [Our] original vision [didn’t] include many [of the] features we added to the game later. However, I can say that our project, comparing with our original vision, will be done for 150%.

Thank you for your time.