DL: When we showed it at last year's E3, we had a different design for the Mantel stuff. It was less hi-tech, and it was more a blue-tinged kind of thing. Around that time, someone had come up with this concept art for this design. It had such a strong aesthetic compared to what we used to have, and because of the strong colours, and the prominence of the hexagons, and linking that back in with Nectar, it just seemed to link everything together in such a neat way that we really wanted to adopt that look for the whole of the Mantel side.
And, yeah, some of the bits are a bit infeasible. If he was a real soldier, the peripheral vision would be terrible. He'd be dead from shots from behind and the side.
RY: It's the future, Derek!
Some people have said that if you're a soldier and you're going into battle you don't want this bright yellow thing on your head, because it doesn't exactly disguise you very much. But the whole point about Mantel, is that with all the technical support they've got, and with Nectar: they've got this tremendous amount of arrogance about their ability to wage war. They go into battle believing that they're going to win. They don't need protection because they have the best weapons and they have Nectar to help them.
SPOnG: I guess they look kind of intimidating...
DL: Yeah! When you're playing as a rebel in certain sections, and you see them dosing up, you see them hitting the Nectar – and the armour glows more strongly – it really is a thing where you think 'he's on Nectar now, I need to be backing off. He's going to be really going at me now.'
RY: [Looks pleased] Also, yellow is the colour of the sun.
SPOnG: Thanks guys.
What you didn't get out of this interview is all the discussion of fighting deities, crisps, and Jack Thomspon's death move. You might want to check SPOnG's First Ever Interview Outtake for all that and more.