One Must Fall: Battlegrounds Interview

Does 'One Must Fall: 2097' ring a bell? For those of you who don't have any idea of what I'm talking about, it was back in 1994 that One Must Fall was one of the best hand-to-hand combat games. Now, six years later, Rob Elam, the project's leading programmer and designer is back with a powerful team of developers by his side - they bring you the long awaited sequel One Must Fall: Battlegrounds. Saul Bottcher, the Musician who's working on the OMF soundtrack, was kind enough to update us with a few details about the game.

Action Trip: It is well-known that OMF: Battlegrounds is in development for some time now. Specifically, what's your team currently working on and when can we expect the final version of the game to surface?

Saul Bottcher: I can't get too specific in this area, but it's safe to tell you that the game content is not finished, nor is the gameplay and testing. :^) Our team is working well and we expect to have everything done sometime around the end of this year.

AT: We know for a fact that the period of OMF is somewhere around 20 years later than the first One Must Fall game. How does that influence the story? What has changed in the meantime?

SB: One of the major changes in the OMF universe is that the "sport" of robotic combat has become all-encompassing in those 20 years. Instead of using retrofitted construction or repair robots, pilots now use machines custom-built to look good and perform in the arena. The characters from OMF:2097 have all moved to new periods in their life, some of them leaving the sport, but many staying involved at some level. New arenas have been buit, old ones re-built, and, most importantly, ratings are up. :^)

AT: One of the most interesting aspects of OMF: Battlegrounds is that it will allow players to roam through the arena and find the best possible way to knock out the opponent. How large will the battle areas be? Name some new features we can except to see inside the arenas?

SB: At one end of the scale are the smaller arenas, such as the Blade Pit, which encourage constant fighting and are suited to 2-4 players. At the other end of the scale are fairly large arenas like the Desert, which let the players roam around a large open area and can easily hold 8-16 players. In terms of new arena features, there are some exciting changes. First of all, the hazards in Battlegrounds are much more interactive than most fighting games. Avoiding hazards will be an important part of a player's strategy. Furthermore, a player can actually take control of certain hazards and turn them against an opponent. On top of the hazards, arenas will contain power-ups ranging from offensive weapons to energy boosts. And finally, the arenas take advantage of the 3D environment, and contain strategically important areas.

All in all, a player can no longer enter a match with the mindset that the arenas are "the graphics behind my fighter". A successful will use the arena to their advantage and their opponents' disadvantage.

AT: Speaking of the combat features, what new-fangled moves await the gamers?

SB: Well, speaking in general terms (I'll discuss specific robots in the next question), we've added a lot of 3D-movement abilities, like side-rolls, flips, side-stepping, and dives. Our combo system is extremely intuitive: players can link together any standard moves they like, but moves that preserve momentum (like spinning the fighter clockwise or counter-clockwise) will result in a faster, harder-to-block combo. Instead of learning arbitrary button combinations, players can experiment with standard moves and create combos that flow naturally.

AT: Name some of the special abilities of the robot fighting units.

SB: Each robot has several special moves that require "super-energy" (gained through powerups or by attacking opponents) to be used. These moves include projectile attacks (such as Jaguar's concussion cannon and particle beam), defensive moves (such as Force's reflector) and more. Each move fits in with the robot's overall theme and complements its standard moves and combos. Plus, they usually come with an extremely cool particle effect or animation to make them more satisfying. :^)

AT: OMF will have a selection of 30 pilots that control the robots. Tell us a little bit about those pilots and the way their skills will affect gameplay.

SB: Before a match, a player selects both a pilot and a robot. Pilots each have four attributes: agility, strength, endurance, and focus. These attributes affect how the robot will behave - it's quickness, ability to deal damage, ability to recover from being stunned, and the speed at which it builds super-energy. The robots themselves determine the moves and super-moves available to the player. So, by selecting their preferred combination of pilot and robot, the player can use whatever strategies appeal to them. Want to get in close and deliver some punishment? Take a slower, more powerful robot and a strong pilot. Want to deal damage from a distance without getting your hands dirty? Take a robot with good projectile attacks and an agile pilot.