Crysis 2: Crytek's Nathan Camarillo

Written by Nicole Kline  on September 15, 2010

Interview: Newsflash: Crysis 2 will be playable for everyone!

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GT: I heard some rumors about the beta being available for only the Xbox 360...will the beta be available for all platforms?

Camarillo: I'm not sure if that's been announced. Other than that we're doing one and it'll be towards the end of the year, that's all I can say. I know all of the details but that's all I can say.

GT: How many maps are going to be available in multiplayer and how many modes will be available?

Camarillo: With just the modes, we're showing 2 of them here that I can talk about, Team Instant Action which is Team Deathmatch, and then there's Crash Site, which is like King of the Hill or Capture and Hold, but the cool thing that we do is, because it's an alien crash site, there's a ship that flies in, and then it drops the pod in. So unlike most games where the objective is here, here's where the next flag is, then you've got to capture it, here's the location. It just kind of pops in, you can see it (the ship) coming in advance, so people kind of converge, everyone's following around like Уwhere is it???Ф All right, it goes here, you think it's going to drop, no, it's going to go over there, so you see everyone running to the location trying to be the first ones there, to secure the zone. So it's really cool to play like that where it comes in, it flies over approaching it, then it blows up, then everyone's all looking for the crash site again, so it's a little bit of a twist on a familiar gameplay mode, you know with the Nanosuits and everything else.



We're going to have 12 maps that are all in signature locations throughout New York or in the shadow of a landmark that you recognize. The two we're showing are Impact and Rooftop Gardens, and they're very different styles. One's a little of a tight map, it's tighter and claustrophobic, but there is some vertical layering on a few points in the map, so it's very congested, very tight, focused team play. And then Rooftops has more verticality and interior spaces. It's pretty cool for Team Instant Action or Crash Site, the ones that we're showing, we're psyched about that one. It has a lot of layers, you can jump up on things, pull yourself up. You see guys running and jumping and cloaking in mid-air, we have different modules on that you saw like the air combat, like when you're in the air, and jump but you see a guy below you, you press the melee, you go down towards the ground, it's like Iron Man, it's something like BAM you squish somebody underneath you. I love melee gameplay in other games, and I try... and this goes all the way back to Counter-Strike, like you play in a Warehouse or something...

GT: Awww yeah, there you go!

Camarillo: ...and you jump off a roof on the top of a warehouse, and you stab a guy in the air, it's like how can you go a little further? So you see somebody and you do a power jump with the Nanosuit, and you're soaring through the air, and you see a person below you, and you go OOOOOO SQUASH! and flatten them, and it's awesome, you're in the middle of combat, and you just see units, like a big explosion that flattens everybody, it's just fun, it's a fun diversion, you kind of create games within games with the modules, it's not just about building the classic guy who goes around and stabs everybody maybe you want to be really mobile and attack people from above, or have stomping power, or you want to be the scout, you kind of make all these different roles and classes yourself, and it's very different and very cool.



GT: Will there be more than the 5 classes?

Camarillo: There's 5 starter classes, you can unlock 5 custom slots, you can loadout whatever you want, with weapon loadouts and what not. And then based on the gameplay mode, I think I said this earlier, you may want to rebuild them because if you're playing Crash Site you may want different things to keep things from happening, or if you want to be a flag runner for a different type of mode you may need something completely different and 5 slots just won't cut it so you're always swapping them out.

A lot of games have done this well, but this is something I really like about it, it's like you're playing Magic: the Gathering, with your loadouts in multiplayer and stuff, what deck am I taking into battle. УOh man, I should have brought something differentФ or "OK, cool, I brought a good one for this scenarioФ and then someone sees you doing something, and you're close and you're sniping, and you're doing this, OK i'm going to find where you are and kill you over and over, how's this guy killing me, OK i'm gonna trump that with another loadout. It's what gives it longevity. LIke you guys probably saw some of the cool moves like people jumping or cloaking or you watch the killcams you can see how someone got you, or if you're really mobile you can run and slide.

GT: I saw somebody sliding, it was really cool!

Camarillo: one of my favorite moves is to find somebody and they're trying to get a headshot on me, and you're running at them and you slide, now they have to aim down, you're sliding towards them, you're close enough, you throw on armor that stops your slide and you stand up, and that makes your melee stronger, and then BOOM you punch him in the face and kill him. So not only do other people see that happens, you slide up and punch them, the guy watching the killcam is like Уaw man I just died that way? How did he do that?Ф And then it spreads like a virus from server to server people will figure out neat things they can do, new mechanics, new loadouts, new tactics and it'll spread so this thing just really builds a lot of longevity. And there's that community education factor, it's not just about firing guns and throwing grenades, and spamming and getting tied up on one kill that's really hard to detect or a really defensible position, it's not about that, it's about getting into the heat of combat, being mobile, cloaking, or both teams playing cloaked and obliterating everybody until someone goes, Уoh I need cloak detection, we need to stop this right now.Ф



GT: So will console versions have dedicated servers as well, not just peer-to-peer?

Camarillo: it's going to work peer-to-peer. With quick match you jump in, you find well matched players to your skill set and connection, that's why we stuck with gameplay with so many players, with 12. We focus on tight gameplay, support, clan gameplay, but also pick up and play is very easy to populate, easy to create a party and find a match.

GT: Are you guys going have an in-game party system on PS3 where there's no universal party system?

Camarillo: I can't speak towards that, but we want to make this as friendly as possible.

GT: Can we ask about the campaign? The story mode?

Camarillo: Oh yeah, yeah.

GT: Well who's going to be the protagonist?

Camarillo: YOU!

[laughs]



I think it might've slipped that you'll play as a character named Alcatraz, I don't know if he slipped it, but it was something we weren't sure if we were going to talk about it.

GT: we were reading about it today, and we were like Alcatraz? Who is this guy? How is he going to figure in? So are we going to see Nomad again?

Camarillo: Can't say.

GT: So you guys really set the bar with the first Crysis, and now with Crysis 2, is this really going to take it to the next level?

Camarillo: we've been very economical about the design, we've been able to go further with some of the choices with the sandbox, but the big thing is the AI. Our game isn't like most games, linear games where you walk through... there's always a guy with a rocket launcher either there or there, it's not the same every time. In an encounter space you may face the same number of enemies, but they're not scripted in any way, because you can move around the environment, you can cloak, you can go armor, use the modules, we need them to be able to adapt to how you're playing the game. They need to be involved, too, and they need to be able to navigate the game's space and challenge you. So all this stuff is not nearly as heavily scripted as most games, it's very, very open about gameplay and our AI needs to be smarter, it needs to be the smartest of all AI in the industry, just to be able to handle how you're playing.

It's very easy to make AI that can kill you.... basically you make AI that always sees the player, instantaneously, their weapons are 100% accurate. Anybody can make very, very challenging but unfair AI, the hard part is making very believable AI, and the even harder part is making believable AI when the player can do anything he wants. It's not arrogance when I say that they're the smartest, they have to be the smartest or our game doesn't work. And then on top of that we have the aliens in Crysis 2 and they're bipedal so they move on the ground much like soldiers do, but you have a lot of verticality, a lot of vertical space you can use like on the map, so they need to be able to challenge that as well so if you can get somewhere, they need to get somewhere, so they need to be able to jump up on things. In some cases they can do even more, they can slide down buildings, they can jump even further than you can. So they challenge your use of your space all throughout the game. it's all about pushing the player around the space, letting him feel powerful, challenging him by giving him more enemies, letting him get used to the enemies, then introducing him to new enemies, giving them additional powers so now you need more modules, better weaponry, better firepower. It's an arms race.



GT: Who do you guys see in a franchise or a studio that is your biggest competition?

Camarillo: Everybody's competition. I mean, really, other than really bad games, everybody's competition, not just form a marketing standpoint. Gamers only have a limited amount of time, I'm a gamer as well, I only have a limited amount of time, they only have a limited amount of money to spend on games, as do I, I don't have unlimited funds to buy games, and I don't get them all for free, but if anyone wants to send themЕ

[laughter]

Еbut they only have a limited amount of time and have a limited amount of money to buy them, and everyone's constantly raising their quality bar, the visual presentation, the animation, the graphics, the AI, the sound, and weapon effects, the visual effects, you know, pistol handling, it can be anything, someone's always making stuff better and that's always competition. And we always learn from everyone else and they always try to outdo us. But you can't beat everyone, ever. you would never be able to finish a game if you were trying to be the best, but you need to pick something you're unique at which we've clearly done with Crysis 1 and Crysis 2, we try to take something that we're unique at, that you can own it, and do it better than anyone else, and you keep up with everyone else in the other areas. You don't want to go alone with what is considered industry standard but you don't have to innovate everywhere. But you try to innovate at what's unique and you really make your game stand out.

And the other thing is, too, I've been in the industry 12 years, I'm an old man at this point. I have friends who've worked everywhere in the industry at all different studios. I have friends who worked on Halo who used to work with me on some projects, I have friends who left other projects I've worked on to go work on Call of Duty, so it's about respect, I'm not going to rag on another game that's the work my friends do. There's a camaraderie there, Уyeah OK, awesome, man, good job, I wanna play that, I can't wait for that game to come out.Ф So there's a camaraderie with developers, that, yeah, it's a competition, but it's friendly, I'm not really the guy to do that cause I'm not going to talk crap about my friends. [laughs]

GT: You guys have this reputation with the first Crysis game for being unattainable for most gamers to play. How are you guys going to combat that reputation with Crysis 2? With my own friends, I've been asking them if they're going to play Crysis 2 and they're like Уwell, I didn't play the first one, so...Ф How are you guys going to get to those gamers and prove that you're worth it?

Camarillo: I don't think it'll take very long. Those gamers who said УI can't run thisФ are very vocal. And when someone says Уwow I can run it and it was fun and it looked great, it looked better if your PC is slightly more powerful than a consoleФ, they'll go Уyeah it's a little bit better than the console version.Ф УReally, cause I have something like that, I'll go buy it.Ф And then your friend that has the 7,000 dollar computer or whatever will go УOh my God, it's the most amazing thing I've ever seenФ and you'll go, УOK, I don't have a 7,000 dollar computer but I know I can play it as well.Ф So that community is very vocal and there may be some hesitation initially but then the word of mouth will spread really quickly through community forums, Internet news sites, sure you'll lose some visual fidelity depending on what you're playing it on, but it's still fun, it's still has the same framerate, you have to be wise what settings you choose, but you can play it, and it'll still be a lot of fun.

We wrapped up our formal interview with Nathan there, but hung out with him for a little while longer, asking him questions mostly about the first game. The best moment was when we asked him if Crysis would ever come to consoles, and he told us that with Crytek, anything was possible. That was music to our ears. Crysis 2 will be invading living rooms on March 22, 2011, but watch out for the beta - and our preview of the game - before then.