Interviews// Exclusive Chat with CliffyB

Epic Games’ lead designer Cliff Bleszinski, known to all and sundry as CliffyB, has recently assumed the status of one of the games industry’s top gurus thanks to his latest effort, the glorious Gears of War. Gears of War is the Xbox 360’s answer to Halo – the machine’s first shooter with the sheer presence, sophistication, production values and gameplay design to drive sales of Microsoft’s next-gen box. Cutely enough, it’s scheduled to hit the shops at almost exactly the same time as Sony’s PlayStation 3.

Despite his burgeoning status, CliffyB is an affable chap with a dry wit and no trace of the rampant egotism that you might expect. As he puts the finishing touches to Gears of War, we managed to pin him down and subject him to a grilling, in which he unmasked the previously shadowy in-game character called the Cole Train, revealed that Epic regularly takes on Bungie at beach volleyball, explained the origin of the phrase 'roadie-running', talked us through game modes, and discussed what happens if Marcus Fenix shoots his sidekick Dom.

SPOnG: What stage are you now at with Gears of War? Polishing? And do you have any more news on a release date?

CliffyB: We’re polishing, balancing, and bug-fixing the heck out of this game right now. We recently announced the release date of November 12th in the US. It ships November 17th in Europe.

Gears of War is being widely touted as a PS3-killer, encouraging further uptake of Xbox 360s at around the time the PS3 arrives. Is that something that you hope it will achieve?

We’re hoping to get as many copies of the game we’ve laboured over for the last two years into the hands of eager gamers everywhere.

We’re now pretty familiar with the storyline, involving Marcus and Dom, and the Locusts breaking through the crust. But can you give us any other tantalising (and hitherto unknown) hints about plot twists?

One of my favourite characters in the game you meet a few hours into the campaign; his name is Augustus Cole aka the 'Cole Train', a former Thrashball player who is now throwing grenades instead of balls. Generally speaking, the more fun he’s having, the more trouble you’re in!

In what way does Gears of War’s gameplay differ from that of existing FPS games? We know that the emphasis is more on using cover, and that Locust AI is significantly more lifelike than usual in an fps. But what will that mean in gameplay terms?

Well, first and foremost, the game is not a first person shooter, it’s over the shoulder 'parrot camera' so you can see Marcus (or Dom) onscreen. This allows us to do many unique things with the player that you could not accomplish from a first person view, such as allowing you to peek around corners, fire your gun without aiming it around that corner (called 'blindfiring') as well as seeing your character interact with the environment. It’s very engaging.

Gears of War’s control system also differs from the (Halo-inspired) norm, with its targetting button. What was your criteria when designing the control system, and what are the gameplay implications? Can you envisage other developers copying your control system?

We wanted to craft a control system that was built around the idea of the player making conscious decisions and trade-offs. We’re not a run and gun game, we’re more 'stop and pop'. The player has to target in order to be accurate, but when you’re targeted, you have a limited field of view so you’re more vulnerable to side attacks. You can run faster in the game but you cannot shoot while doing this panicked 'roadie run'. Grenades? They’re extremely powerful but you have to swap to them before you can toss them. It’s these kinds of trade-offs that we force the player to make while playing Gears which makes it a bit of a 'smarter' shooter.

How big a part of the game is controlling your squad members? Is it optional or compulsory?

It is entirely optional. The orders system in Gears is more of an AI override system. I believe that ordering squad members is one of those features that can rapidly turn into babysitting. Either your pals are smart enough to figure out what to do, or they’re idiots who are taken out easily. Why burden the player unnecessarily? Let it be an option and let him focus on the fun.