Earlier this year, The Farm 51 released an intriguing teaser trailer from a brand new IP they they are currently working on. Get Even has been categorized as a first-person shooter filled with evolving thriller and survival horror aspects to keep players guessing on what’s real and what’s not. The game also had a successful Steam Greenlight campaign and is expected to be compatible with the Oculus Rift once it finally hits retailers in 2015.
Today, I had an opportunity to speak with Lead Combat Designer Artur Fojcik about their mind-bending shooter and asked a few hard-hitting questions about his views on the genre as a whole. Please feel free to check out the full interview below and find out why Get Even has the ability to change the FPS scene forever.
What movies, Video Games, or other forms of media would you say inspired you to create Get Even?
Artur Fojcik: There are many movies that inspired us, but most important would be Inception, Source Code and Butterfly Effect. Changing your memory, fixing mistakes from the past, balancing between dreams and reality – you will find all common points of mentioned movies in Get Even storyline but in darker and scarier versions.
It’s much more difficult to show our inspiration in video games. I blindly love Hideo Kojima and admire Naughty Dog, play Battlefield every week on lunch breaks and spend few years on World of Warcraft hardcore raiding. I beat most of the triple-A titles, many indie games, and it is still hard for me to show direct inspiration. That’s probably because one of our main design decision was breaking away from the mainstream. We are trying very hard to find our own way.
Is Get Even currently expected to be one game or do you guys have plans to make this a series of games?
Artur Fojcik: We would like to make Get Even a closed and final title, but there is always a room for something more if players enjoy our game. As in Bioshock series – characters, places and storyline are different in every part but some key features are the same.
How do you view FPS games today and can you elaborate on how Get Even will be a unique entry within the genre?
Artur Fojcik: At this moment, we got two big players on the market – Call of Duty and Battlefield – and another two exclusively on selected console – Halo and Killzone. Like I said before, I have played Battlefield for many hours with my friends from work, but I also beat every Call of Duty, Killzone and a few parts of Halo. For me, they are very same in many aspects – big conflict between two factions, military/soldier story, cinematic experience, and a strong emphasis on multiplayer mode.
We are breaking with those schemes in every way. Get Even will be a lot more intimate with more regular characters and more credible conflicts between them. Multiplayer is not separated from the campaign, it will be a natural part of story campaign. That’s only tip of the iceberg. Get Even will have unique weapons based on reality (heard about cornershot? Google it!) and innovative storytelling with a place for self-understanding. And if we put action aside there will be a lot more to do in Get Even without shooting, but it’s probably to soon to speak about that.
Can you describe a little more about the multiplayer experience in Get Even and how it will effect the overall single-player experience?
Artur Fojcik: First of all – there is no classical single-player and multiplayer experience, they are mixed together all the time. We got two campaigns, each for every main character. When you play as Black, you can simply run on Red controlled by another player. That player is playing his own campaign, just like you, on the other side of the conflict.
From the Black perspective there is another catch. Red is not fighting by himself, but he can take control of every character in the game and change them into his servants. Harmless citizen can be transformed into armed soldier right after you turn your back on him. Of course, you don’t have to play with other players if you don’t want to, but you will lose some of this unique and unpredictable experience.
Are you guys considering having a multiplayer beta or demo of the game before it officially launches in 2015?
Artur Fojcik: There is no multiplayer without single-player in Get Even. Because of that, I’m not sure that we will be able to split storyline into enjoyable demo, especially if we would like to show both characters. We will definitely run some focus test and closed beta on selected people, but about content open for everyone at this moment the only honest answer is – I do not know…
Are there any other projects that you’re currently working on that you can talk about? Also, can we expect more Painkiller games in the future?
Artur Fojcik: We are still supporting Deadfall Adventures and Painkiller. We also have plans to release expansions for these titles, but now the main focus for most of the team is Get Even. Splitting team would impact quality, and we don’t want that to happen.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCnETE5XXD8
Get Even is scheduled to launch on the PC, Xbox One, and PS4 sometime next year. For more updates and info on the game, please feel free to visit www.facebook.com/getevengame.
Are any of you intrigued by Get Even? Please feel free to let me know your thoughts on the game and more in the comments section below.
