Interview – Alles was du über Hired Ops wissen wolltest

Der neue Online Shooter Hired Ops ist seit kurzem im Early-Access, deswegen hab wir uns die Entwickler geschnappt und ihnen Löcher in den Bauch gefragt:

MGM: What are the main differences between the four classes? What do the different roles look like in the battles?

AbsolutSoft: Well, you have to understand that in Hired Ops classes don’t just go and change the gameplay completely. Hired Ops is and will be about your “skill”, about how well you can work with basic game mechanics, and classes are there just to provide you with means of doing it in a more personalised and tuned way. Meaning, that, for example, while Stormtrooper is the most heavily armored fighter among the Hired Ops characters, with higher resistance and armor, but you still won’t be able to just go and get your face slammed by bullets from enemy team like this is nothing – you will die, and really fast. Being stormtrooper would mean that you should go ahead of your team, as you won’t be killed as fast as others, but still while being cautious and using covers.

MGM: What about the Maps? How detailed can we destroy the different objects around us?

AbsolutSoft: Currently, objects on maps are indestructible. We have tested a couple of possible solutions to introduce a partially destructible environment, but so far we are not satisfied with their quality. However, we definitely plan to implement such system during later stages of development.

MGM: Will there be day and night maps or a changing weather?

AbsolutSoft: Definitely. Right now you can find both day and night versions for each of 5 maps. In future, every new location will also have both day and night variations. Moreover, we plan to introduce additional weather and time modifications, such as rain, snow, dawn and so on, but we can’t provide any timeframes as of now.

MGM: What will be the focus of the setting? Indoor or outdoor Maps?

AbsolutSoft: Our setting allows us vast possibilities when talking about locations. Expect to see different ecosystems, cities, buildings and so on. We don’t want to limit users with just one dimension, so we will not firmly categorize maps, rather, most of maps will have both indoor and outdoor parts allowing different approaches.

MGM: Can you tell us something about the different game modes? What can we expect here?

AbsolutSoft: In the first version of Early Access we’ve introduced two game modes – Deathmatch and Team Elimination. We plan to open at least 3 more modes before the end of Early Access. Two of them would be familiar to Contract Wars players, but Hardcore mode is something new. In it, user will have to play without visual interface and any wound would cause bleeding and can be fatal.

MGM: What possibilities do we have when it comes to in-fighting? Will there be knives or different punching-moves?

AbsolutSoft: Right now we are focusing on guns, but, obviously, knives and melee in general is an interesting game mechanic. Currently we are playing around with a number of possible ways to implement melee fights, as soon as we have something that we think fits gameplay as a system we will show it to everyone.

MGM: Will it be possible to use vehicles? If yes, what kinds of vehicles? If no, why did you choose to leave them out?

AbsolutSoft: We do not plan to introduce vehicles, at least not in the version that would leave Early Access. That being said, we have already tried messing around with some possible vehicle mechanics and it looks quite promising, so I would not eliminate such possibility completely, maybe be in some major update after release we’ll make it happen.

MGM: Have you thought about realizing a PlayStation or Xbox Version of your game? Why did you choose Steam and not another platform?

AbsolutSoft: It is quite simple – we wanted to get the game to our players as fast as possible while we are still in development. Steam, by far, provides the best functionality for this. We will consider PlayStation and Xbox versions when we are out of Early Access, but we can’t make any promises here.

MGM: What have you planned for the future after the release? Will there be DLCs with new maps or some other additions to the gameplay?

AbsolutSoft: We develop Hired Ops with cyber sport in mind, so we plan to constantly improve the game by adding new game mechanics, modes, maps, weapons and other content. Considering DLC – we do not intend to use it, at the moment, the only possible situation for us to proceed with paid DLC would be an introduction of major game changer like Vehicles or something similar, that would basically mean totally new experience comparing to the original game.

MGM: Last but not least: Why did you changed the name of the game from „Contract Wars Standalone“ to „Hired Ops“?

AbsolutSoft: Initially, the project was started as an enhanced standalone version for Contract Wars. But, at some point during the development, we started to introduce more functionality, features and content to the project, and to do everything we wanted we needed much more time than was required for a just a “port”, so one day we felt that calling Hired Ops just a standalone version would be an understatement and this game deserved a separate title.

Wer sich noch mehr mit Hired Ops auseinandersetzen möchte, der kann sich hier die aktuellen News zum Spiel durchlesen.

Videos zum Spiel finden sich auf dem offiziellen Youtube-Kanal.