Answers by: Jeramy Cooke (Game Director, Brothers In Arms Hell's Highway, Gearbox Software)
1) BIA has always been a violent series, mostly because of the topic it’s covering. Will BIA HH follow the same path?
BiA HH will continue to show the horrors of war be they physical gore or mental trauma. We feel it's important to treat the subject with respect but at the same time help people feel the intensity of the violence. War is at its core a violent act and gore is something that goes with the territory.
2) We all have in mind the incredible opening scene in Saving Private Ryan and BIA has always tried to be very realistic. How did you reach a decision for the level of gore that you wanted in the game?
Really it was a very straightforward decision. Each area of the game that depicts violence is specifically to illustrate an important story point or convey the terrible nature of war. We never really ask ourselves about the "Gore Level" instead we focus on the drama and purpose of the scene or game system. If gore happens to be a part of that experience then so be it.
3) What is the biggest technical challenge that you had to face during the development of the new gore system?
The main challenge was making sure the physics was fast enough on each of the different platforms. Since each platform has different performance characteristics we had to tune the simulations to match. As well it was a challenge dealing with the additional memory required to break apart different enemy types in so many ways.
4) Finally, did you cut some of the gore features you planned on implementing in the game originally?
Actually the gore system landed a fair bit ahead of where we had originally planned. Since our game is not about gore we generally wanted to keep it in the background and thus we didn't plan on spending big into the tech. However there were a number of features the team promoted internally such as headshot specific gore and dripping blood on walls that weren't in the original plan.
