E3 2015: Focus Interactive Round Up
Ted Hentschke
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If you primarily game on the console, then the name Focus Interactive and many of its titles are likely foreign to you. Developer and producer of titles that are generously considered “B+”, Focus’ games have always felt distinctly European. Its a concept that is hard to quantify, and if you live outside of the mega-nerd realm that I and the rest of the Illuminati inhabit, you probably need some explanations.
European type games are best described as eliciting about half of the bizarre uncomfortable disconnect that JRPGs do when you have no affinity for the weeaboo plague/subculture. Words are inflected just slightly wrong, dialogue is often nonsense, and characters react with seemingly random levels of emotion. It’s like everything was run through a translator that only knew what words meant what, so all the exclamations are done in ways no native speaker ever would. The amount of times someone awkwardly shouted “fuck” or pivotal scenes flew right by without any acknowledgement in Of Orcs and Men could fill a Devil’s handbook on how to make a game more confusing than a jigsaw puzzle with no corners.
The gameplay is also just a little clunky, with an overall lack of connection. Animations don’t line up right, with reactions to hits not quite matching up with the impact. Gameplay is generally unbalanced, with one skill tree almost always being far superior to others. Mechanically, there is almost always a “superior” option, with the side options being unviable at various points in the game. If you are going stealth, they aren’t afraid to present you with a solo combat arena, take your armor, toss you a dagger, and just shrug. It is worth mentioning I am talking about the Focus RPGs and strategy games in terms of gameplay. A vast portion of their catalogue is dedicated to games like Farming Simulator and Pro Cycling Manager, and their Sherlock Holmes series is pretty good despite the previous paragraph’s criticisms still applying.
So their games are a bit sloppy, unpolished, poorly scripted, and invariably a day one purchase for Ted. Despite the shortcomings, their titles have more charm than a party of bards, creating truly unique worlds. You have to respect games like Magrunner: Dark Pulse, which can best be described as “Portal as written by H. P. Lovecraft.” Even their Warhammer franchise games have thus far been football/deathmatch/tactics games. I look forward to see what they will do with their titles, not exactly how they do it.
So when the good people over at Focus asked me if I wanted to get a sneak preview of a number of their titles, I set aside a two-and-a-half-hour block to see what they had. Time is more precious than souls at E3, so lets just say that the commitment was worth at least two galleons of cursed Incan gold. Focus has gotten much bigger of late, expanding into new IPs and publishing titles that really catch my eye in ways their previous games only tickled my fancy. For this wrapup, I’ll be going over Space Hulk: Deathwing, The Technomancer, and Battlefleet Gothic: Armada. I also saw Divinity: Original Sin – Enhanced Edition and Mordheim: City of the Damned, but look for articles on those to accompany the video interviews I did.
To expedite the process of showing the first three, they sat a few of us in a room and had the developers come to us in a train of video game journalism. First up was, the devs of Space Hulk: Deathwing came in to show us a level of the game in alpha. Of the three, this title looked farthest along in the development. A squad based FPS set in the Warhammer 40K universe, the name Space Hulk should be readily recognizable to anyone familiar with the source material. A beloved tabletop game based on a beloved tabletop game, Space Hulk was released recently on Steam as a poorly received trainwreck/well received update that fixed all of the problems. Those titles follow the boardgame turn-based strategy design, so don’t assume that Deathwing is just an attempt to cash in on the success.
The first thing I noticed about Deathwing was that it looks really good. This surprised me for a Focus title, which usually look stiff. The environments were both stunningly massive and cramped, with an incredible level of detail put into making this feel like the 40k universe. Character models were still a bit unpolished and death animations distracting, but if released now looking as it does it would pass as a final product.
Players load out their squad with a variety of weapons based on the character’s specialization. Each Space Marine is equipped “Terminator” armor, which essentially transforms them into lumbering weapons platforms. Ranged specialists can equip various autocannons, while heavy weapons specialists can field devastating plasma cannons. Melee specialists rip through crowds with hammers and claws and swords, oh my! Loadouts are set at the start, with new weapons and supplies being found on the fly.
The squad leader (read game host) plays as a powerful Librarian, whose glasses and tight ponytail forge boners no man can withstand. If that doesn’t work, vast reality warping psychic powers should do the trick. They didn’t quite get into how this would all work in multiplayer and how it would all balance out, but it should be fun to blow up space bugs with mind lasers no matter how over/underpowered.
Despite the inherent barbaric power of the Terminators, they are not invulnerable. The derelict Space Hulks of ages long past have become infested with deadly Tyranids, who jealously guard their bounty of forgotten technology in hopes of luring in a tasty Terminator buffet. The “Genestealers” and other Tyranid baddies can quickly rip through an unsuspecting Terminator, using their speed and vicious biological arsenal to tear your lumbering ass in twain. To overcome the odds, you will have to assign your squad to cover various choke points and make sure that flanks are properly secured. Doors can be locked, but after being smashed open cannot be closed again. Bringing the right loadout is crucial, and remember that your size can be an enemy. You make a better wall than a window, so your team can’t shoot through you to hit the bugs running at your face.
Next up, we had The Technomancer, an apocalypse fiction fantasy game that takes place on a conflict laden Mars. You play as a titular Technomancer, warrior mage mutant things that kick ass and shoot lightning. The game looks a lot like Mars: War Logs, and might very well be in the same universe, though no info to that effect was given.
If you have seen their other games, you know what the combat kind of looks like. Players either use a staff, club and shield, or gun and dagger to fight, with Technomancer powers being the casting choice available in all styles. You can specialize your character into any of those four trees, of which I will be choosing the one that had “gun” in the descriptor. I actually had a chance to ask the devs about this, noting that their previous games were lacking in balance. They promised me that they had learned from their previous mistakes, so trees were more about style than drastically changing how you fight. It should address the broader power imbalance, but I’ll have to see the final product before I reach a verdict.
The most intriguing thing about the game for me was the companion system. Certain doors or areas can only be accessed with a certain companion. Given the warring factions of the planet, some companions will leave if you side with a conflicting faction. It is a lofty goal, and I really do hope they manage to deliver. As I’ve said, their strength has always been world building, and I look forward to see what they do with this concept.
Last up, we had Battlefleet Gothic: Armada, a word-salad that perfectly elicits thoughts of Warhammer 40k. This was simultaneously the least complete title and the one that gave me the biggest erection. This looks like the perfect merger between my love for tactics and the macabre.
Of the 40K games that have come out in recent memory, this is the one that best captures the insanity and power of the Imperium of Man. The sprawling battle barges are dual war machine and church, with buttresses and steeples housing massive cannons and fleets of boarding parties. Crew are twisted and deformed with mechanical enhancements, looking more machine than man. Has a planet for too long been under the sway of Chaos? Wipe it off the map with an Exterminatus order. For a universe where death is not measured by the man, but by the billions, only a title of this scale can capture that. At launch, the playable races will be Chaos, Eldar, Orcs, and the Imperium of Man, each bringing their own flavor to the battlefield.
I’ll have more info on the Warhammer games as they develop, but in the meantime, check out my coverage of the other two Focus games, Divinity: Original Sin – Enhanced Edition and Mordheim: City of the Damned. Let me know what you guys are most excited for, and look forward to purging the vile mutant scum in the near future.
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