Superman Returns producer Jeff Peters is interviewed by Firingsquad about their plans for the DC Comic super hero game. Here are a few of the interesting answers.
Question: First, the Superman Returns game was originally going to be released around the time of the movie’s release in theaters. What happened that caused the game’s delay?
Answer: Through a series of internal reviews and external playtests, we gradually came to the conclusion that a few more months of development could push our game from ‘good’ to ‘very good’ or ‘great’. Playtesters really liked what they saw, but they wanted more – more stuff to do, more variety in the buildings, etc. The delay allowed us to spend the summer addressing the feedback received, resulting in a more polished and cohesive gaming experience. Our focus with this product was to always to create the best game possible, and this was a collective decision to allow us to do that.
Question: What can you tell us about the storyline of the game and how it differs from the movie version?
Answer: The core storyline mirrors that seen in the film. However, there are several sequences added to the story, which fill in gaps in the film’s timeline (for example, what was Superman up to during his time away from Earth?). There are also additional story threads which parallel the movie plot, specifically the introduction of various Supervillains attacking Metropolis. In the end, we finished with about a 50/50 split of movie content and original content, which felt about right.
Question: The game takes place in the open world enviroment of Metropolis. How hard was it to make the game have such a setting and develop a fictional city from the ground up?
Answer: Building Metropolis was one of the biggest challenges faced by our team. The scope of the city is absolutely enormous – 80 square miles, with thousands and thousands of buildings arranged very precisely to allow for various flight paths through the city. No game has previously attempted to deliver a city of this size and scale, and to this level of detail. You can land on the ground to interact with citizens and pick up individual light poles; and 20 seconds later, you can be 2 miles in the air, looking down on the entire city below you. The ability to support these highly divergent levels of detail took many, many months to get right, but in the end we’re bringing something new to the table that gamers haven’t seen before.
Question: What kind of powers will the player have access to as Superman?
Answer: Every major superpower you’d expect is represented in the game. There’s flight and superspeed, which is necessary for traveling the city and quickly responding to threats. There’s super strength, which allows you to uproot almost any object in the city, as an aid for completing objectives and defeating minions. There’s heat vision, which is a highly-effective long range attack. And there’s your breath powers, which allow you to freeze any object in the game world (including enemies), or blow any object into the distance. Each power is upgradeable as well, making them even more useful as you progress through the game.
Question: How interactive will the world be to the player in the game?
Answer: On the Xbox 360 version, almost everything in the world is interactable. You can pick up and carry people, cars, rooftop ornaments, statues, etc. With many objects (such as traffic lights), you can also wield them like a baseball bat, or throw them at a targeted enemy. Many objects have dual abilities and are awaiting the player to experiment and explore. For example, there are water towers that can be plucked off the rooftops to help extinguish fires, or tanker trucks that create an enormous explosion when needed. The interactivity adds a lot of variety to the gameplay experience, as you’re always stumbling on new ways to defeat the minions attacking the city. The PS2 and Xbox versions have slightly fewer interactive objects, but still more than enough to make combat engaging and varied.
Superman Returns: The Videogame is out now, here’s a cool trailer to get you warmed up for the game.