Gunman Chronicles Interview

If you're a long-time fan of Half Life, like I'm sure most of you reading this interview are, then you've certainly heard the word "Gunman" mentioned among the hardcore crowd in the past couple of months. At first, the community looked at it as simply another Half-Life mod, but than the word spread, and the mod grew in the eyes of hardcore gamers. Finally, it reached the status of a full-blown single player experience, set to draw the players into its exceptional gameworld full of dangerous enemies, surreal sceneries, and intense action. Gunman Chronicles is a fast-paced futuristic 3D-shooter based on the Half-Life engine, by Valve Software. Although it uses the Half-Life engine, Gunman Chronicles is a completely new stand alone game, taking place in a universe unfamiliar to Half-Life veterans.

The Gunman world spans across four unexplored planets, with all-new enemies, both alien and human, and with support for innovative gameplay features like configurable weapons that allow players to adjust their firepower to meet the situation at hand...

We were lucky enough (thanks to Genvieve, Sierra's lovely PR lady) to get a few of our questions answered by Herb Flower, President and Lead Designer on the project. Dig in boys and girls, and remember to take a look at the exclusive screenshot of Herb's favorite Xenom model, the Alpha-Species, included in this interview.

Tell us a bit more about the main character's background, apart from the fact that he's a Gunman.

[Herb Flower (ReWolf)] Your name is Archer, and you are one of the few survivors of the Battle of Banzure Prime. That was five years ago, and it was the first incident involving the Xenomes. Today, the Xenomes are everywhere and deadlier than ever. No matter how many you blow-away, more appear to replace them. Eventually you discover that you must lead your team to find the source of this Xenome infestation.

"...More than 70 levels in 4 differently themed areas--Mayan, Rust, West, and the Rebar Facility." Have you had specific influences for each of the themed areas?

[Herb Flower (ReWolf)] Each episode has a different style of gameplay. West is full of spacious areas, where the sniper rifle and tank are the weapons of choice. Rebar is an indoor facility populated with several interesting characters and scripting you'd expect from Valve's engine. Meanwhile, Rust and Mayan offer themes and styles all their own.

If you had to pick your favorite Xenom model, what would it be? And what does it look like?

[Herb Flower (ReWolf)] One of the freakiest of the Xenomes would have to be the Alpha-Species -- the first Xenome that the Gunmen encounter. They're huge!!! (shot attached)

CONFIGURABLE WEAPONS seem to be one of the focal points of the gameplay. You've given the example of M.U.L.E. and the Energy Pistol. Could you give us one more, maybe? Ahh, c'mon...

[Herb Flower (ReWolf)] "Polaris Blade." -- an electrical weapon that seems somewhat tame at first, but reveals itself as being a bit more lethal once properly configured. Some settings create a powerful lighting stream that crawls along walls and really brightens up the room as it moves from monster to monster. Another setting creates extremely powerful single bursts of lightning. And, these can be mixed and matched, of course.

Tampering with Acid, Base, and Pressure to come up with the right Energy Pistol combo, seems to eat up valuable seconds. How did you deal with this "problem"? Tell us a bit more about the method/interface used for weapons' customization.

[Herb Flower (ReWolf)] First, not all the weapons are so complex. For example, the Mechagun can spin-up to its double-barreled high fire rate mode with a simple right-click and press of a single button. We're also doing what we can to provide choices for how players want to customize their weapons-such as allowing players to bind keys to preset configurations in addition to the onscreen, in-game interface.