GDC 2011: We get a taste of what’s possible using InFamous 2’s new mission creation tools.
InFamous 2 and developer Sucker Punch are giving the power to the players. Alongside all of the missions you would normally encounter in the game’s story mode, players will now be able to create their own custom missions using the game’s mission editing tools. The tools will allow players to tweak a variety of different gameplay types, such as platforming, racing, and shooting gallery. You can then filter what types of missions you want to populate your world, and they will appear alongside the normal missions in the single-player game. If you create a truly rad level–and enough people give it a good rating–Sucker Punch might even take notice and bump you up to Sucker Punch Featured Content status. We got the chance to go hands-on and test out a few example missions during this year’s GDC.
We talk with senior game designer Karl Deckard about the new edition tools available in InFamous 2.
The first custom mission we tried out was titled ‘Save the Cathedral’. Our objective was simple: round up the local militia and disarm a bomb within a two minute time limit. The action started almost immediately as we rounded up four NPC allies and charged into the fray. We fought our way through the city streets using a lot of the same skills and tactics we’d learned in the previous InFamous. The combat felt just how we remembered it. Blowing up a cluster of a bad guys with a well-placed lighting grenade always brought a sadistic smile, and finishing a stunned foe with a vicious melee attack just never got old. The cathedral was just a hop, skip, and a jump away and, with the aid of our militia’s covering fire, we were able to disarm the bomb just under the time limit.
The next mission, titled ‘Onslaught’, was basically a high-voltage shooting gallery. From atop our wooden platform, complete with a pair of fully charged generators, we took on wave after wave of enemy troops who were trying to get by. Unfortunately for them, the area they had to run through was littered with explosive barrels. Since we could only attack using ranged abilities energy management was a constant concern. Timing shots and employing a little barrel management paid out big for us as only six enemies made it past our defenses. While this mission was designed to be short and sweet, we could definitely see the potential for an explosive, tower defense style mode.
After that we tried out ‘Angry Cole – Clock Tower’ which was definitely the most bizarre of the four. The goal of this mission was to rack up points by blowing up dancing enemies standing on hovering garage dumpsters using explosive barrels. Oh, and they’re all in front of a clock tower. We had a limited number of barrels, and each barrel used took points away from our score. The trick was to see how many baddies we could knock out with one blast. Luckily, we had the luxury of watching a few players try this out before us, so we had a pretty good idea of where to line up our shots.
Finally, there was ‘Ring Race’. In this mission it was a race against the clock to grind from rooftop to rooftop along metal wires while trying to pass through as many colored rings as possible. The more rings we hit, the more time was added to the clock. And while this mission was pretty simple, it served as a good example of diversity found in these tools. We are excited to see what sorts of oddball missions the fans create, many of which we would probably never see in the game otherwise. Get charged for InFamous 2 on June 7 for the PlayStation 3.
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