Republic: The Revolution Preview

Imagine two guys sitting under a palm tree, in a desert... One guy says to another - how ‘bout we build something here? Like what - asks the other guy? Well, I was thinking of this huge monument... you know really huge, made out of stones and symbolizing our divine culture... All we need is a bunch of slaves and...

The president and his goons...

This is a town square folks!

That is how the pyramids were born, way back in the days of Ancient Egypt. Well, not exactly like that, but close to it. And you know what, when I think about Elixir's upcoming game, I cannot help, but make allusions involving huge projects, conceived, and built on sheer brains and brawns of the people involved... Er... forget about those earlier mentioned slave analogies, as they are not appropriate for a modern day development team (yeah right :-), but the rest of the comparisons, hold very true. Sure enough, the idea sounds rather common; "You’re a powerful faction leader and you must oust the President of the Republic... by any means." but there is so much more content to be found behind a relatively simple sounding concept of Elixir’s Republic: The Revolution. The key words here are "by any means", giving hints on what seems to be the ultimate plan to redefine the term "open-ended" in gaming. I don’t know what impresses me more really; the incredible specs of the 3D engine or the enormous potential of heaving million living breathing citizens, totally unique, each with their own daily routines, ethnic backgrounds, religious beliefs and political leanings. The monster 3D engine will be able to render an unlimited (as in no limits) number of polygons in real-time each frame, allowing millions of triangles to be used to model each structure or human character. The out of this world zooming, smoothly going from a satellite image of the 1240 square-mile large Novistrana to focus on the smallest detail anywhere in the world. The engine will also feature special effects, including self-shadowing, unlimited real-time light sources, and physically based material models. Did these specs make you drool yet? Just a tiny bit?

If the Republic: The Revolution sounds like an idea vaguely similar to what Peter Molyneux might imagine, you are partially on the right track. Few teams in the world can boast such incredible academic resumes as Elixir Studios. Established in 1998, the Camden based team is unique in its blend of outstanding academic achievement and industry experience. Four members of Elixir Studios hold Double First Class Degrees in Computer Science from Cambridge University. In all, over half of the company's employees are Oxbridge graduates. Managing Director Demis Hassabis made his reputation as a games industry whizzkid whilst co-creating the game Theme Park at the age of 16 for Peter Molyneux’s Bullfrog Productions, and later on working as a Senior Programmer on Lionhead’s Black and White. Although you can feel a breath of similar interests, the young Jedi, has gone to do something on his own, and it looks like the time and incredible brainpower of a fantastic team are working on his side.

Republic: The Revolution

The game’s story begins after a break up of the former USSR. In the midst of total confusion, dozens of autonomous countries spring from the crumbling remnants. It is into one of these, the Republic of Novistrana, that you enter the fray as a minor faction leader. Elixir Studios is creating a true 3D world of Novistrana. As I have mentioned earlier, the game will feature million unique citizens, all with their specialized choirs and duties, like taking a cab and going to work. Further more, there will be around 50 towns and cities all rendered down to an incredible level of detail. What this means is a creation of a completely open-ended, autonomous environment evolving and growing with or without player’s assistance and direct influence. To me, doing something like this in a video game sounds downright impossible, but I am giving Elixir Studios the benefit of the doubt. Imagine what kind of freedom would such a concept bring to the player. The levels to which our imagination could sore... The player starts with a single loyal supporter, a tiny secret HQ and a very small base of local support. From such small basis, we must build up a nationwide faction powerful enough to oust the President and rule the Republic of Novistrana. The real beauty of it is that you have to take into consideration the factors that are not directly under your control. Since Novistrana is going on with its virtual existence, you have to take the blows as you go and expect the unexpected, just like in real life. Again, I am skeptical (simply because the concept sounds too good), but if they pull it of, I dare say, Republic: The Revolution could represent the next step in PC gaming.

There are many ways to reach your goals, and while you are at it, up to 16 other factions (human or computer controlled) will be doing everything in their power to stop you and seize control for themselves. Most formidable of all is the President, as he’ll go to any lengths necessary to hold onto the sweet taste of power. The player can choose one of five different types of given characters: politicians, businessmen, criminals, religious leaders or generals. Each character will have the power to change the country, but how you decide to go about doing that will really reflect your relationship to unlimited rule. You could either be a rational, and charismatic leader of the nation, or a paranoid tyrant, like Richard III, Stalin or Hitler... The players can persuade, hire and recruit all manner of specialist characters to do their bidding, or use less ethical methods such as brainwashing or blackmailing to achieve their aims. The specialist characters range from army generals to TV film stars to archbishops...

Just look at this real-time shadows.

Novistrana looks all right.

I must say that although the idea where you have no moral boundaries in a game sounds like something that has been done by Peter before, it only represents a small fraction of the big picture. Add to this a living breathing virtual world, with all the factors that can influence the coarse of the game; the incredible polygon pumping 3D engine that will generate whole cities, and you have the most open-ended idea for a game ever. Not to mention all the other enemy fractions, and the superb AI behind it. Republic: The Revolution is still wrapped in a certain veil of mystery, but mere hints of what we might get, make me glad I’m doing any work in this (still) creative and imaginative industry of ours.

And to top it all off, we present this little chat session with the man himself, Demis Hassabis, talking about the different aspects of the title...

Action Trip: Could you give us a brief description of the game’s concept?

Demis Hassabis: It’s the 1990s and the mighty Soviet Union has just broken up. Dozens of autonomous countries spring from the crumbling remnants. It is into one of these, the Republic of Novistrana, that you enter the fray as a small time faction leader. Starting with a single loyal supporter, a tiny secret HQ and a very small base of local support, you must build up a nationwide faction powerful enough to oust the President and rule the Republic of Novistrana. There are up to 16 other factions (human or computer controlled) that will be doing everything in their power to stop you and seize control for themselves. And of course, most formidable of all is the President and he’ll go to any lengths necessary to hold onto power.

AT: Which genre (or group of genres) would you say Republic: The Revolution belongs/ resembles to? We’re asking this question so that we could get an idea of what to expect from the game. People usually try to place new things in relation to some familiar concepts...

DH: We hope that Republic: The Revolution will be considered unique. We’re calling it a strategy sim as it combines elements from both types of game.

AT: In your opinion, which is the most original and unique aspect of the game? Something that is new to the world of PC gaming...

DH: Republic: The Revolution is a uniquely original game that will give gamers the greatest freedom they will have ever experienced in a game, in an exciting and consistent real world environment that pushes back the boundaries in virtually every area from design to graphics to AI.

AT: Radical AI techniques, real physics models, we’re just curious; what kind of a PC would you say can run the game the way it’s supposed to be played (with most of the features on, visual or otherwise) once its out?

DH: The minimum spec for Republic: The Revolution is only a PII-266 with some form of graphics card and it will run very well on a PII-400 with something like a TNT. Considering that the game is about a year away from release, these are very modest system requirements. Most of the new techniques we’ve come up with require a threshold level of power for them to be feasibly implemented, but beyond that they are totally scalable. This means that if you have a gigahertz PC with a ninja graphics card Republic: The Revolution will take full advantage and hopefully produce some truly amazing results.

AT: The game in itself sounds pretty complex. Can you tell us a bit more on some of the interface elements that are to make our playing experience an easy and intuitive one? Give us one or two examples...

DH: A complicated game can be incredibly easy to control - look at chess. The complexity of a game should be in the gameplay itself, not in the game controls. We have an internal standard called ‘The Parent Test’. The idea is that one of our parents should be able to play the game within ten unsupervised minutes. It’s a stringent test. The player will choose to view the action in whichever way he chooses. The advantages of our 3D engine will really come into play, allowing players to see dramatic events from a variety of angles. Imagine making a fly-by as one of your characters gives a speech to thousands of people in front of the parliament building.

AT: How much of the game’s activities will carry on autonomously from the player’s decision-making? In other words it sounds like you guys are creating a virtual world, so is there a possibility that some events could happen independently from player’s control, and could those events actually influence the coarse of the game?

DH: Absolutely. If you left the game playing it would carry on changing despite the lack of player input.

AT: Could you reach your goals (of carrying out a revolution) by being another Hitler as well as by being George Washington, and how will that affect the face of the virtual world of Novistrana? Come to think of it... The ultimate goal of the game is to carry out a revolution, and overthrow the President. The game ends once you’ve overthrown the President, right?

DH: The game ends when you become President or when you control the President. You can achieve this end through peaceful or violent means - revolution is just one way to do this. Both routes have advantages and disadvantages, as with the real world. If you play violently, don’t expect the international community to sit on the ssidelines; they’ll be supporting your democratic opponents.