The Agency - interview

As the game's an action shooter with persistent character development, how are you ensuring that new players aren't overwhelmed by enemy veterans who have built up their characters with new gear and skills?

HM: This is a great question. When we first started developing the character progression plan we knew that standard power curves don't work. After all, a bullet to the head is a bullet to the head. We want to ensure that an impeccably skilled player is not punished simply because they just started playing. If you can aim for the head and hit, you should be rewarded.

Here's an example I'll probably give another eleventy hundred times. In a standard MMO, if a very high level player is beset by a large group of entry level players, well that high level player will be able to just stand there and laugh while all of the entry level players effectively bounce off him or her. The way the curves work, those entry level players can't even do enough damage to pass through the high level player's armor.

Our title will work quite differently. That same high level character would be killed by the group of entry level folks, however he or she will likely take down a few of them with some earned skill and abilities the entry level guys haven't yet unlocked.

So, if you're new, you can still potentially take out someone who has been playing a very long time indeed. At the very least, you'll gain some insight on the skills and abilities you'll want to unlock to make yourself even more dangerous. But you won't just be able to rely on your experience, you'll also need to keep your personal skills up to snuff if you decide to compete against players.

How are you tying missions in with the main over-arcing storyline, and does the game world actually evolve/change as a result mission completion or failure?

HM: We're not quite ready to talk about this yet, however, you will have a career story that sets up the world as a whole. This will lead into other content in the future. We are also developing an episodic system to keep a live storyline flowing over time.

We'd love to get a couple of mission examples...

HM: I'd love to, but I'd probably be erased. You will have the ability to participate in missions and encounters that will test an individual or team's ability to use combat, stealth, and support to overcome madmen in a variety of environments.

You'll break into secure facilities, use disguises or raw firepower to overcome threats, go into deep cover to infiltrate an enemy syndicate, gamble enough to draw interest from a mark, even chat up that exotic assassin to gain access to the villain's sanctum sanctorum. We're building a suite of combat and non-combat activities that should keep players busy for quite a long time.

We will spill the beans on some more specific excitement at a later date.

Is there an end-game in The Agency?

HM: That depends on the player. Finishing out the main career story and recruiting and building up the roster of operatives you've dreamt of may be enough for some. However, we're developing some ideas we're waiting to share that should answer that question down the road. Besides, I'm about to tell you more about Operatives than I should in the question below, so allow me to keep some secrets!