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The Bourne Conspiracy, the game based on the massively successful action suspense movie franchise, is in UK stores right now. We caught up with the game’s director Emmanuel Valdez and lead designer Rory McGuire to talk Matt Damon, US reviews and why a Wii version might be a bad idea.
VideoGamer.com: How does the game compare with the films and books in terms of the story?
Emmanuel Valdez: Bourne Conspiracy doesn’t exist obviously in the five books that have been written or three movies. We’ve taken from the main story points and action moments from the Bourne Identity movie and we’ve created original back story through flashback missions in game, where Jason Bourne remembers when he was a Treadstone agent.
VideoGamer.com: The game’s been out in the States for a bit. What’s your opinion of the critical reception the game has received from US reviews?
EV: Very pleased with it. Most of the reviews that I’ve read have been very fair. We agree with a lot of the points good and bad. So no real surprises.
Rory McGuire: The reviews were really positive. There have been a few that I’ve disagreed with. That’s all good. You’ll always have that when you release a game. They’ve been very positive.
VideoGamer.com: From our time with the game, we most enjoyed the hand to hand combat, which really captures what the films are all about. What were the challenges you experienced creating that?
EV: There’s a lot of big challenges. One of them is the fact that we were really inspired by the looks of the movie of course. There was a particular style of martial arts called Kali with a little bit of Jeet Kune Do and the way we were able to overcome that was we hired Jeff Imada, who was the fight choreography on the movies. So with that collaboration we feel we’ve achieved the visual style. The other challenge was basically the gameplay. The controls and what we enabled players to do and experience in the game. Not only did we want them to look like they fought like Jason Bourne but they had to feel like Jason Bourne when they were fighting. To marry the two together was a huge challenge.
VideoGamer.com: What do you guys think of quick time events, because there’s quite a lot of them in the game? Are there too many?
RM: The general idea we took with the Quick Actions was that through Quick Actions you’re able to do things, in sort of moments where you become Bourne. We try to give a warning to the players, there’s a sound that plays to indicate that they’re coming. It’s essentially an extension of being hyper aware, that hyper awareness of Bourne. We let you do things we wouldn’t let you do otherwise – diving under a gate as an explosion rockets past you and all these crazy things. Without them it would be less of a game so I definitely think it benefits overall.
VideoGamer.com: What’s happening next? Obviously you’ve got another couple of films to play with. Would you like to make another Bourne game?
EV: That would be awesome! We would enjoy the opportunity of creating another Bourne game, especially since we invested so much time on this game and really felt that we established a franchise here.
VideoGamer.com: There’s no PC or Wii version of Bourne Conspiracy. Could it come to PC and Wii?
EV: We talked about it. It’s more or less our publisher’s decision on the platforms we develop for. Everyone agrees that something like the Wii would be somewhat of a challenge with the current design of the game. But I think we would come up with some great ideas if we were approached to develop for those platforms.
RM: Ultimately the decision’s up to Sierra.
VideoGamer.com: But you guys wouldn’t say no if they asked you to do a Wii version?
EV: Well imagine doing take downs with the Wii controller (laughs). I think there would be a lot of TV sets destroyed out there, people getting hurt!
RM: In a good way!
EV: In a fun way!
VideoGamer.com: I guess the Wii’s motion control really lends itself to the visceral combat and the quick action events.
RM: Oh yeah for sure. We could think of some really fun situations and some pretty hilarious situations too!
VideoGamer.com: The game’s a movie license but it doesn’t have Matt Damon’s likeness. Did that hinder the game at all, was it a disappointment or is it irrelevant?
EV: Reading the reviews I think it became irrelevant. Early on we were focus testing the game and that was one of the first questions that was brought up by our focus testers – where is Matt Damon? Because obviously Matt Damon is the visual representation of Bourne. So a lot of Bourne fans or movie fans relate to Matt Damon being Jason Bourne. Ultimately our goal and our challenge was to really have players feel like they become Bourne. Bourne the character not necessarily the likeness of an actor. It’s obviously something that’s come up. Every review we’ve read that point was brought up and I think they agree that at the end of the day when they finish the game or when they play the game they still feel like the character Bourne without necessarily looking like Matt Damon.
RM: It’s a question that often comes up before someone plays the game and then after playing it people are like, right I felt like Bourne. So people didn’t need it.
VideoGamer.com: You’ve expressed your desire to make more Bourne games based on the other Bourne films. Would it be the same situation? Is it definitely no Matt Damon for future Bourne games or could you get his likeness?
EV: Anything is a possibility. We’ve created our own version of Bourne. If Matt Damon picks up our game and really loved it and calls us up and says he wants to be in it I don’t think we’ll baulk at the idea. Would you?
RM: Well when we originally worked on whether or not we put Damon in as our Bourne he originally had stated at the Cannes film festival that he wasn’t interested in doing the character any more. So at that point there was no question of course. Now he’s changed his tune a little bit so yeah, I think we’d re-evaluate.
VideoGamer.com: Hasn’t he said he’s not for video games in general, that he doesn’t like the violence. Have you seen that?
EV: Oh yes!
VideoGamer.com: So wouldn’t that then make it doubtful that he would be up for that kind of thing?
EV: Um, could be. It’s not like he doesn’t play any games. He has a certain view about violence in video games in particular. We’ve taken a lot of strides to really capture the character Jason Bourne who doesn’t kill innocents just like you’ve seen in the movies. A lot of that came from Matt Damon’s input as far as the development of the movie version of the character and we took that same approach for the Jason Bourne in our game too.
VideoGamer.com: Does it not come across as a bit disingenuous for him to say that kind of thing about video games given the movies?
EV: Ha ha! Er, what’s the PC answer for that?! You know it’s his views. We respect them. That’s all I can say (laughs). If that’s how he feels that’s perfectly fine with us.
VideoGamer.com: Fair enough! So, what about High Moon going forward, what’s your philosophy on game development, the kind of things that interest you development wise?
EV: When we established High Moon studios we set out to do original IP, Darkwatch being our first title. We have a group of very talented developers here that have a lot of passion for making games and have a lot of experience doing original IP. When we were approached to do Bourne we found it an intriguing proposition of actually getting experience and learning how to do deal with an IP. I think there are definitely disadvantages and advantages of going original or working with a license. I feel right now as a studio we have the capability to do both. With the Bourne Conspiracy in particular I think we’ve proven that we can take a property, maintain the integrity of the property and take it to new places. It’s basically a companion piece to the entire Bourne universe. As a studio I think now we’ve really carved a niche out for ourselves. We can actually take a license and approach the development of the game much like we do with an original property. We take it to places and expand on it and do some original things with it.
RM: Our last title was a vampire western first-person shooter and now a movie license third-person action game. I’m ready for just about anything! They’re both fun titles. Short of doing an MMO or an open world GTA game! But yeah professionally they’re both challenging, they’re both a lot of fun to work on, so whatever curve balls we get we’re ready for what comes.
VideoGamer.com: What strikes me is the potential for multiplayer components. Is that something you ever considered?
EV: It’s funny you ask (laughs)!
RM: It’s certainly something we evaluated, but with Bourne it’s really about him versus the world and we weren’t 100% convinced we could pull off that experience in multiplayer and not have it detract from the single-player quality. So with Conspiracy we just endeavoured to deliver a solid single-player experience which we feel we did.
VideoGamer.com: I guess if you go online everyone wants to be Bourne and not everyone can be Bourne I guess?
RM: Exactly.
VideoGamer.com: That’s great, we appreciate your time.
Bourne Conspiracy is out now for Xbox 360 and PS3 now. Expect a review early next week.
