Ice Nine brings first-person shooting to PS2 with a unique stealth twist

by Louis Bedigian

Developed exclusively for PS2, Ice Nine is ready to impress with a unique take on the FPS genre.  Lead Designer Alex Hutchinson reveals all in this exciting interview. 

Early this morning, the GameZone staff was informed of an important, top-secret mission that must be accomplished by the end of the day.  We suited up – packing heavy artillery, bulletproof vests, and a Game Boy Advance SP (just incase).

We climbed the mountains and approached the goal.  We were told to look for a firm snake.  They informed us that if we find a loose snake, we’ve gone too far.  This one must be solid.

Minutes later, we found one slithering in a tree.  It was hard to tell if it was the right one from where we were standing, so I moved closer.  The others warned me not to proceed, but I just had to know.  I reached out and grabbed the snake!

Then the lights came on, and the CIA promptly escorted us out of the simulation chamber.  We had failed the test five times in a row now, and are no longer allowed to re-apply.

My colleagues were furious.  The first time around I grabbed a poisonous mushroom.  How was I supposed to know it wasn’t a 1Up?  Then I failed to summon Bahamut and defeat Sephiroth before he could kill Aeris.  Like that’s even possible!

My punishment for keeping GZ out of the CIA: “constructive” criticism by Simon Cowel.

“Your performance was absolutely dreadful.”

Although we will never have the joy of living a life of stealth and tactical espionage, we do still get to experience the joy of killer spy games.  One of the most promising is Ice Nine, due for release exclusively on the PlayStation 2.  Lead Designer Alex Hutchinson took us behind closed doors and told us everything we wanted to know about his upcoming game. 

Ice Nine is an intriguing title.  What does it mean?  What does it have to do with the content of the game?

Alex Hutchinson: Ice Nine is an electronic bomb capable of destroying electrical equipment. Ice Nine began as a sequel to the film, 'The Recruit', and the virus is taken from that.

Tell us about the gameplay.

AH: Ice Nine is a first person shooter, with the emphasis on stealth. You play as Tom Carter, a CIA trainee who gets suddenly finds himself embroiled in an international conspiracy.

We've moved away from traditional stealth features such as light and dark (like Splinter Cell) or occlusion (like Metal Gear Solid) and we're using a unique system based on the Logitech headset that will ship with the game. Basically you are in constant contact with your superiors at the CIA who have access to continual satellite feeds and information about your location. We think it will be very fresh, and provide a unique play experience!

There might even be a little voice recognition if we can get it working the way we want.

Are the controls more like a console FPS (Halo, Golden Eye 007, etc.) than a PC FPS (Quake, Unreal, etc.)?
 

AH: Absolutely. It was designed as a console game and as yet no other versions are planned, meaning it's been tailored specifically to the PS2 control pad.

Expect to explore a variety of different locations in Ice Nine.

What features do the controls have aside from the standard FPS functions (strafing, jumping, etc.)?
 
AH: It shares a few of Halo's innovations, like the quick release grenade on the shoulder button and a restriction to two weapons, but we've also included lean, duck and jump functions.

Does Ice Nine have any multiplayer modes?

AH: No, as we wanted to focus on delivering the best single player game we could. A lot of recent shooters seem to have lost focus by trying to be everything to everybody.

And to be honest, if I wanted multiplayer gaming, I'd stick to my PC at the moment. Consoles are slowly gaining an online audience and eventually it'll be huge, but at the moment it seems like a poor allocation of resources.

With Sony's online network up and running, what made Torus decide to keep this a single-player game?

AH: It wasn't working for the first year of development, which meant it wasn't really an option.

How are the levels and missions dispersed in the game?  (Some first-person shooters have a few missions per level, some only have one.)

AH: There are twelve missions, fifteen if you count the double agent specific missions, each with multiple objectives.

What kind of weapons and gadgets will players find in Ice Nine's arsenal?  (What functions do the gadgets perform?)

AH: There are over a dozen different weapons in the game and a PDA which performs many functions, from a motion tracker to a dart gun that can fire distraction pellets to lure enemies away from their posts, or tracking bugs and poison darts.

Helicopter Pilot: “Bob, I told you we should’ve taken the SUV!”

How closely related are the PlayStation 2 and Game Boy Advance versions of the game?

AH: The PS2 version is a direct sequel to the events in the Game Boy Advance version!  Play them in order for the full experience!

Are they being developed by the same people?

AH: Yes, both are coming to you courtesy of Torus Games. We used the same engine for Ice Nine GBA that we used for Doom 2 and Duke Nukem Advance, and it looks better than both. In fact, it's already finished and waiting for release, which will coincide with the PS2 version. The PS2 version is, obviously, still in development.

The gun-toting enemies revealed in screenshots [of the PS2 version] look pretty deadly.  Are all of the enemies in Ice Nine human?

AH: Absolutely. Human enemies are generally more interesting because they behave in a way the player can understand. You can predict their movements and fill in the gaps in their behavior much more naturally than you can with 'invented' enemies.

Usually it's just an excuse to have the enemies walk around in mindless circles -- they're aliens, you see, ALIENS. They can travel through space but they can't follow you around a corner.

That said, focusing on human opponents means that when they do something stupid it's extremely obvious so it makes the AI programmers jobs harder...

Excuse me, would you mind turning around?

I don’t like to shoot people in the back.

What kind of tactics will enemies use to defeat the player?

AH: The enemies can hear the player if they make too much noise or see them if they step out of darkness and into the light.

In terms of attacking, some enemies call reinforcements, others trigger alarms, while some, like those you mentioned above, just open fire.

How severely do your decisions affect the outcome of the game?  Are there multiple story paths or endings?

AH: There are two different paths each with a separate ending, depending on whether you remain a loyal CIA agent or switch to the dark side and become a double agent. 

We've worked hard to make the major branch point a little clearer and more exciting than most games...

Sounds great!  It’ll be fun to explore Ice Nine’s world and see where the story leads.

Thank you for your time, Alex.

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