Hidden & Dangerous 2 interview

"Just 3,000 miles on the clock. One careful owner."

Ever since we ran our exclusive preview of Hidden & Dangerous 2 we’ve been inundated with questions, mostly about the co-operative mode. Not wishing to leave anyone in the dark we arranged an e-mail interview with the game’s UK development director, Luke Vernon.

Vernon has worked on such disparate titles as Age of Wonders and Vietcong and is the main point of contact in the UK for Illusion Softworks, the Czech developers of the game. They, of course, also worked on the first game, as well as the controversial Mafia - also for Take-Two.

I asked him a number of questions regarding the game and the preview I saw a few weeks ago. You can find his answers in full below, just don't blame us if you don't like what they say!

DJ: Which of the main features within Hidden & Dangerous 2 will help to differentiate it from the now very stiff competition?

LV: A difficult question to answer only because there isn’t one thing in the game that distinguishes it from the competition; there are a thousand small things. Throughout the game there are so many small touches that will catch the player’s eye or small details that will make the player realise how much effort has gone into the game to make it special. And now that the user interface has been completely overhauled, so many more people are going to find Hidden & Dangerous 2 a game that is really easy to get into and then impossible to put down. Okay, if I had to say one thing and one thing only, I guess it would be the Tactical Map. It’s not the be-all and end-all of the game but is definitely something that the many other games in the genre still haven’t tried to emulate since it appeared in the original game. See next answer for more details.

"Go on sarge, say boo!"

DJ: What would you say are the main differences between Hidden & Dangerous 2 and its original? What were the most important changes you wanted to make for the sequel?

LV: Well, there is now a complete 3D and real environment for the tactical map mode. What you see is what you get, that makes a big difference. There is also much more freedom when using real-time tactics and quick commands. The interface is simple and quick but necessarily comprehensive for those trickier and more sensitive moments. We’ve paid much more attention to the use of stealth during action as well as to the role of various physical features in influencing the gameplay. The friendly and enemy artificial intelligence has also been completely rewritten to add the best possible feeling of realism from the game’s numerous characters. Otherwise the game is as faithful to its roots as possible while still managing to raise the bar from where it last left off.

DJ: The AI I saw in the preview seemed highly impressive – how did you go about designing this element of the game and how does it compare to similar titles?

LV: Illusion Softworks went about designing the enemy AI to simply ‘make it the best’. It’s a Czech thing. They decided to model some of the AI on that seen in the original but then to add more emphasis to the use of stealth during action. Hand-in-hand with this they examined the role of various physical features in influencing the gameplay (and AI) and so figured out how to make levels that allowed both the friendly and enemy artificial intelligence to convey the best possible feeling of realism from the game’s numerous characters.

DJ: The graphics have also improved greatly, what were you primary aims here and why did you choose to create your own custom engine rather than use an off-the-shelf one?

LV: Illusion Softworks like to use their own technology. They can have specialists create bespoke engine features that will allow for appropriate (and optimised) gameplay features in each of their games. If you have the programming expertise, this is a far more ‘mature’ approach than a ‘let’s use <generic> middleware engine’ one. So, Hidden & Dangerous 2 uses an enhanced version of the LS3D engine that was seen in Mafia. Yes, there are generic parts that allow for the generation of large, detailed exteriors but then the H&D2 specific enhancements have allowed for better performance in battle scenario, a newly overhauled Tactical Map mode (like an RTS!) and then nice touches such as inverse kinematics which allow for realistic (and sometimes unnerving) reactions from humans when suffering the impact of different calibre weaponry. An off the shelf solution would just not have given the same power and flexibility.

Pte. Pike is mocked for forgetting both his hat and umbrella

DJ: How important is realism in the game, both in terms of physics and historical accuracy?

LV: The game is based on a number of historical facts and on events from the war but it is no way a historical re-enactment. We have used artistic license to bring various facts together to create great game settings. Saying that, the game is definitely more on the ‘sim’ end of the scale. Characters have very human limitations, objects react as would be expected from their real life counterparts and even bullets act more or less as one would expect in real life (if you can imagine that). But the game is not a war-sim; it is, more importantly, a game. As such we have slightly altered behaviours and the rules of nature to allow for a better gaming experience. For example, the game allows players to shoot certain calibre weapons through certain materials but we have toned down the ‘ballistic modelling’ to ignore factors such as wind / ambient temperature / possible imperfections in material / the age and state of the weapon etc…. these factors would influence a bullet’s trajectory but they would not help the game be any more fun and so they are ignored.

DJ: The control system seems to have been overhauled quite considerably from the original game, what were the main improvements you wanted to make there?

A: Both the control system and interface have been seriously overhauled. The control system of the original required thirteen fingers to operate intuitively and the interface (just to get into the game) required knowledge of abstract reasoning to be used quickly. I’m glad to say that after a thousand revisions, the game is now very much ‘pick up and play’.


DJ: The first Hidden & Dangerous game was infamous for its bugs. What additional steps, above and beyond the usual QA have you made with this sequel to ensure the same problems do not occur again?

LV: When we released the original game was released, Illusion Softworks were a small team working from a disused underground silo and we (the publisher) were selling copies from the back of our cars to make up the numbers. Today Illusion has over 120 employees including 15 testers and Gathering’s QA resources have grown from 10 keen chaps to an army of some 40 testers. We’ve also been using controlled Beta test groups, external consultants and more to ensure the quality of the game.

DJ: Although the preview I played was excellent fun it seemed quite unfinished for a game due out in October. Is it likely the game will slip and have you been given free reign to ensure it is complete as possible before release – including the option to delay the release date if necessary?

LV: The game will be released at the end of October

Hidden and Dangerous 2

DJ: We have been inundated with questions about the multiplayer mode – in particular the co-operative element. Does this feature still exist in Hidden & Dangerous 2 and how does it differ from the original? How important was this element to the overall game design and are you aware of the level of its popularity amongst fans?

LV: Yes, everyone involved with the project realises the appeal of the co-op campaign but this won’t be possible in the initial release of the game.

DJ: How much time have you spent working on the multiplayer mode, compared to the single-player?

LV: Hidden & Dangerous 2 is very much a single-player game with a tantalising taste of the multiplayer game included. To quantify, I see H&D2 as being 80% about the single player experience, and 20% about the multiplayer game. This doesn’t mean that we’re by any means skimping on the multiplayer content and the initial game will feature over a dozen maps, many of which have multiple gameplay modes.


So, enough hints there to suggest some sort of patch or expansion pack that will allow co-op mode and perhaps other multiplayer options, but for now it appears that Hidden & Dangerous 2 is currently all about the single player mode. If the game lives up to its obvious potential (and they manage to get rid of all those nasty bugs) that shouldn’t be anything to complain about.