To celebrate today's release of Legendary, from developer Spark and publisher Gamecock Media, we sat down with producer John Garcia-Shelton to talk about what gamers can expect from the mythological shooter. Check out the full interview below and stay tuned for our detailed review later this month.
1) Can you introduce yourself and tell us a bit about your position on the Legendary team?
My Name is John Garcia-Shelton and I’m the Producer of Legendary. I’ve been in the gaming industry for more than 10 years starting at DreamWorks Interactive. My passion has always been creating escapist entertainment and games are such a great medium to do that it’s been a dream come true. I am responsible for all the game content in Legendary and how it ties together.
2) Give us the backstory (plot) of the game, how deep does the story get?
You play as Charles Deckard, an Art Thief, hired by a Professor Reinhardt LeFey to steal the contents of a newly discovered antiquity which is about to be part of an exhibit opening at the NY Art Museum. What you don’t know, is that the box you are opening is Pandora’s Box and by opening it you unleash the creatures of myth and legend into the modern world. This catastrophic event wrecks NY City and is felt around the world as the creatures return to reclaim what was once theirs. You, bonded with the Signet (the key that was used to lock the creatures inside the box eons ago), are the only person who can return the creatures to Pandora’s Box. This sets off a Secret War, hidden since the creatures were sealed inside the box, between the Council of 98, the group that sealed the creatures in the box, and the Black Order, a group committed to releasing the creatures and returning the world to its chaotic state. LeFey is a member of the Black Order. Deckard is an important piece to the game they have been playing for thousands of years.
3) The protagonist hero of the game looks very interesting, tell us a bit about him.
Deckard is not your typical FPS hero. He’s not in battle armor or a military uniform. He is a Art Thief who lives in the margins of society. We like the idea that the hero you play is actually the breaker of the world. He has caused this destruction, even if he was tricked into doing it. But because he opened it he has the hope at redemption since he has the Signet. It is more of a regular person that you can connect with.
4) We noticed that Legendary features a lot of "mythology" in it, how accurate is the mythological aspects of the game and can you explain?
Its accurate but perspective colors everyone’s visualizations of myths so much. We didn’t want to limit our creatures to classical Greek mythology because we really liked the global nature of Myth. In the narrative of Legendary we look at all mythology and rooted in all myth is a warning, a story told from person to person that warned of these destructive creatures and what to look out for. Globally many creatures can be seen in many ways. I always like to think of the Yeti as the same creature as the Sasquatch or Bigfoot or Windigo. The name and the framing of the creature takes on the culture telling the story but in the end the creature is still one creature from the past. An example is the Nari, one could look at it and see a Harpy or a Faerie or a Will of Wisp but we didn’t want to be tied into the standard Harpy or Faerie myth - we wanted something with a little more bite. We also did tons of research on the creatures and their surrounding mythologies. We wanted all of our creatures to be tied to real myths.
5) What is going to set this game apart from the countless other games coming out this holiday season?
We created challenging and Dynamic AI that moves and forces the player to react to it and to move in space. It forces the development of responses that is fundamentally different than other FPSs. It takes a bit for players to learn the difference but soon they are moving in the space like its second nature and that is different. Think about how important player movement is to most FPS game, not player control, aiming accuracy and weapon feedback but movement. It’s never talked about because it’s never challenged. Our AI challenges the player. They force the player to not only think about what is in front of them but what avenues of escape they have all around. The creatures stand up and can adjust to your fire so they don’t go down easily this challenge is what makes us unique.
6) What kind of enemies/monsters will we be battling in Legendary?
Werewolves and Griffons, Nari and Firedrakes, Golems and Krakens. Creatures that fly, walk on walls and ceilings, posses objects and are walking firebombs. And a whole lot more. You have opened Pandora’s box and a lot of creatures have returned to the world.
