Posted in Design Hidden Asset
Design ideas
I wanted to write a blog post about some of the design ideas I have for Hostile Takeover. A lot of the stuff I’ve been adding to the engine so far has focused on shooting, which has probably given off the impression that Hostile Takeover will be a very action oriented game. It won’t.
While shooting and melee combat will certainly play a part (you are, after all, an assassin), the game will equally be about avoiding direct confrontations through sneaking, diversions and puzzle solving. And I don’t mean puzzle solving in the sense of sliding around tiles to open a door (watch that end up in the finished game now!), but more in the sense of figuring out how to use your environment to gain access to locked off areas or tricking guards into leaving their post.

Hitman: Contracts by IO Interactive
Furthermore, all weapons will have two Suspicion ratings. One for when the weapon is concealed in your inventory, and one for when you’ve armed yourself with it and is carrying it openly (I imagine the latter will just be double the former). This means that while you could just take along your entire arsenal for a job and shoot everybody, your Suspicion rating will be sky-high and your payout will suffer – giving you less cash for buying more and new equipment for future jobs. Figuring out the least amount of equipment required to successfully complete a job will be key. I also hope that this will provide the game’s missions with some form of replayability in that even though you’ve managed to finish a job, there’s always the possibility that there might be a way to finish it with a smaller amount of Suspicion being generated.

Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis by LucasArts
Hopefully this will have given you a better understanding of what the finished game will play like. But, of course, the game is in early development, so everything is still subject to change.
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