Around the time that Call of Duty: Black Ops Declassified was revealed at Gamescom, I got a chance to talk to Nihilistic Software CEO Robert Huebner on my podcast. Since that time, the game has been progressing at a brisk pace, and both media and fans alike got hands-on time with it at an event in Toronto. This week, Robert was nice enough to field a few more of my questions about Black Ops Declassified’s graphics, how it uses the Vita’s rear touch panel, and why you shouldn’t expect a port of a game you’ve already played.
One of Swords: The Gamescom reveal led to a lot of strong and varied reactions from the COD community. What did the dev team take away from fan responses to that reveal?
Robert Huebner: The video and screenshots released at Gamescom showed early work in progress; we knew the final look of the game would continue to come together, so the reaction to the early footage wasn’t a big surprise.
An updated lighting pass has given the graphics a boost.
1oS: Hands-on reports from the recent press event in Toronto suggests the game has received a graphical upgrade in the last few months of development. What has changed – textures, level geometry, some other optimization?
RH: A little of everything. Models were increased in resolution, particularly enemies and player weapons. Texture LOD was tweaked to use higher detail level textures, and things generally optimized across the board. The biggest visual improvement comes from doing final polished lighting passes on the environments.
1oS: Declassified offers something called Hostile mode. What is that, exactly?
RH: Hostiles is a single-player mode where the player begins with a particular weapon loadout, and has to survive increasingly challenging waves of different enemies, and receives care packages between waves to switch weapons, replenish ammo & grenades, and so on. Hostiles missions are not story driven, so it’s more about surviving as long as possible and racking up top scores & stats for the leaderboards.
1oS: How are you incorporating the rear touch panel?
RH: Rear touch is currently used for “breath holding” when you’re scoping in with a sniper rifle.
Where does Declassified fit into the Black Ops story? Right in the middle.
1oS: Declassified is neither Black Ops nor Black Ops II — it really does occupy its own space. You’ve spoken about the key similarities that COD fans can expect, but what would you say are the core differences? What will feel unique about Declassified as opposed to what gamers have already experienced on consoles?
RH: Nearly every aspect of the controls, player capabilities, weapons, and multiplayer features are based on the past Call of Duty games. It was actually great because our designers, most of whom are die-hard Call of Duty fans, were able to really pick & choose their favorite elements from the series.
The biggest difference is in terms of the game focus. Declassified is not about the big campaign storyline and huge cinematics, it’s more focused on the multiplayer essence of Call of Duty and bringing that to a portable device as completely as possible, and in bringing short, objective-based missions and score-driven gameplay with lighter story elements to create what we call the Operations missions. Then adding in some bonus modes like Time Trials and Hostiles to make a product that delivers the core Call of Duty experience in a mobile package.
The goal was not to make a product that is a port of any past or present Call of Duty game, but to make a tailored experience for the Vita that adds new content and new background about Woods and Mason’s careers for players who have played the original Black Ops and will almost certainly be picking up Black Ops II.
The North American bundle comes with at least all you see here.
Robert also confirmed that Call of Duty: Black Ops Declassified is slated to ship on November 13, 2012, the same day as its less portable cousin, Black Ops II. I’ve also learned that North American copies of Black Ops Declassified will include a bonus game download — Call of Duty: Roads to Victory, which was previously only available for the PSP. When the game is available in stores, the back of the box should offer confirmation of this.
Declassified will also be available as part of a bundle with the PlayStation Vita system in the US as well as Europe, though that might not include Roads to Victory — the exact content of the bundles in each territory is still being finalized. I’ll look into it and report back when I know the details.
