[h1]Steve Beran talks making the characters the stars and putting the emotion in to MKX[/h1]
Fighting games aren’t kid stuff where Mortal Kombat is concerned. Notice how each iteration of the game has gotten more pumped up than the one before? We have, which is why we asked Steve Beran, Director of Art, NetherRealm Studios, for details about the upcoming Mortal Kombat X — so we can get ready.
Man Cave Daily: How did you get involved in MKX?
Steve Beran: I started at Midway in ’91 when Mortal Kombat was first being tested in the arcade. I was lucky enough to join in on MK3 with 10 guys, and now in Mortal Kombat X, there’s 170 staff working on the game. The game’s not just a simple “two guys facing off and fighting each other to result in a fatality” — there’s much more to it than that. Even back in the “old school” days, there were load screens that told a story and gave out endings – that’s the only method we had at the time. Now we’re emphasizing the epic, cinematic story — MK9 in 2011 had an elaborate story mode retelling the game’s history and it was well received — it was a two-hour movie within the game.
People get really wrapped up in the characters; in a way it’s very much like an ongoing soap opera that people get addicted to. We had big success with Injustice, and we’ll continue that with Mortal Kombat X with an even more elaborate story mode.
MCD: What about the characters?
SB: We’re introducing a ton of new characters. At the end of the last game, we killed off about half of the roster, so it’s a good way to breathe new life, literally, into the franchise. That doesn’t mean we won’t have returning favorites though.
MCD: And the game mechanics ?
SB: This game rethinks how the fighting goes: Once you select a character, you can choose from three different variations. So picking Scorpion, for example, you’ll have his traditional moves that fans know and would want to use, but every character will also have three different traits, which makes for a different form of strategy. You’ll have a weapons based system and it all will look very different — for example, being engulfed by fire or launching fire or summoning demons from hell; depending upon what your style is — whether more defensive than offensive. This all totally switches up the game and affect how you play. Tournament fighters are going to find this very, very interesting.
MCD: Is this the most violent game ever? What could be more violent than ripping someone’s spine out?
SB: Beautiful brutality, is how I like to say it. I’m the director of art so while new-gen tech is more realistic, at the same time I like to think of it as an art form, because when you actually looks at the moves and the skin being peeled back and the musculature revealed along with the vascular systems and the skeleton, it’s actually a cool mix of art and over the top despite the gore. And people end up laughing at what happened.
MCD: Is the level of violence so over-the-top that it becomes a parody?
SB: Your character gets up as fast as he gets knocked down, so even with what looks realistic, the action is still fantasy based – more lighthearted than real.
MCD: Which do you see as being more popular — first-person shooters or third-person fighting games?
SB: We are more popular as we’re making the player into a superhero, doing moves that you can’t really do.
MCD: How do you grab the player’s attention right away?
SB: First and foremost, our characters are the stars. New-gen tech can do close to limitless polygons, and we want the player to be impressed with the characters. They’re pretty big, and so we try to inject personalities from the intro scene down to the animation. When you start the fight, the characters engage in a dialog that’s much more emotion based. Every character has custom lines for interacting with other characters, which pulls players in more of a cinematic experience as we get more involved/comfortable with using film-based cameras within the game. Tech lets us make the gameplay look like a movie, and there’s no reason not to do that.
MCD: This has got to look good on a big screen HDTV
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SB: I grew up playing games on a 19″ crappy TV, and now have three TVs and a 70″ monitor that I play on every day. It definitely changes the experience. And when you add in the level of sound quality that we can get today, it totally engulfs you. Yes, it’s a 2D view, but there’s so much going on in the game in the background that it pulls you in. It’s a monumental experience, and one that pulls you in much more so than any movie possibly can.
WB Games will make Mortal Kombat X available on April 14, 2015 on the PlayStation 3/4, Xbox 360/One and PC Download