http://www.seganerds.com/wp-content/upl ... able_1.pdf
No facial structure customization but you can seemingly mess around with facial hair.
10 skills, but they mention skills for each of 4 weapon types plus close combat skills so as far as I can tell half your skills are combat. Other skills mentioned are hacking, damage resistance, and lock-picking. Stealth seems pretty much based on hacking cameras, staying out of sight, using sound suppressors, and apparently equipment to lower your audio profile to enhance sneaking up behind people for takedowns. Game also includes jumping (its presence is not exciting, but its absence in a shooter is pretty annoying, such as in Mass Effect), zip-lining, and some form of cover system. No mention of any light/dark mechanics or shooting out lights or body-hiding for ultimate Sam Fisher goodness, though. Specifically, "there are no big tricks to it."
Gun-skill upgrades increase damage and critical hit chances most of all. It's seemingly implied that if you are good at shooters, you won't necessarily need to upgrade the gun skills so much. They say that upping your gun skill 'won't improve your aim necessarily' so I get from that that it either won't improve your aim at all, or that it's minimal at best. So I don't foresee having trouble aiming weapons like you did in Deus Ex if you weren't trained with them. They also say that you can compensate for lack of character skill in weapons by using weapon mods, or obviously, the mods will further your weapon mastery. However, upgrading skills unlocks the special abilities like Chain Shot (essentially a Time Stop spell that lets you line up a bunch of shots, unfreeze time, and then pretty much instantly blast everyone you targeted) for the pistol which can be used in conjunction with a sound suppressor so seemingly you can kill like 5+ guys all in one room in 2 seconds without making a noise. Chain Shot in particular (no mention of others) is on a cool-down timer rather than being per day or based on any sort of energy bar (like I believe Bullet Time mechanics usually are in all the games which use that).
However, in talking about how important to them the gun mechanics and such are, Chris Parker specifically says "You don't have to use them." I don't know if that's a promise or whatever but if it's the truth either you can viably do everything hand-to-hand or maybe even avoid combat altogether.
Most equipment mentioned is weapon modifications, which they say you 'find.' Very little explanation of the gadgets beyond saying that they wanted gadgets that you'd use more often rather then stuff from the Bond movies. So perhaps some stuff from Sam Fisher's arsenal or other things.
No mention if dialogue is at all skill based, and I assume that it isn't, although there are apparently at least 2 unmentioned skills. However, there aren't really dialogue options but rather stances that seemingly if you would prefer the game play like a shooter you can just pick a stance at the beginning of a conversation and just watch the whole thing play out like it's Halflife 2 or something.
Still discussing downloadable content with Sega, but no promises. Actually seemed kind of pissy when asked about it. "I hate that question. We’re still working it out with SEGA. We’ll have more information in the future it’s just that nothing has been decided actually. Sorry."
The faction system seems entirely dependent on various choices you make and as far as I can tell won't be dependent on character builds. I could be wrong, though. Stealth seems like it will be enhanced by character skills but more dependent on player skill.
Seems like it could be a pretty fun game. Not much RPG in the combat despite whatever skill system they've devised. I mean, in Splinter Cell you could sneak and do everything hand-to-hand, you could avoid everyone entirely, or you could just murder everyone (which went against the premise of the game, but you could do it on most levels). I wouldn't be upset if they ditched the skill system and just let players play the game how they want. Though I suppose unlocking some really badass takedown moves will be cool. The real role-playing in the game will simply come in the choices you make and the factions you align yourself with.
Basically I'd love the gameplay of Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory with many times over the choices and consequences of Splinter Cell: Double Agent (no consequences until the last mission, 2 choices before the last mission affected the ending, and 1 choice at the beginning of the last mission greatly affected the last mission and the ending...plus the Trust meter affected the ending and several choices affected the trust meter I suppose).
No facial structure customization but you can seemingly mess around with facial hair.
10 skills, but they mention skills for each of 4 weapon types plus close combat skills so as far as I can tell half your skills are combat. Other skills mentioned are hacking, damage resistance, and lock-picking. Stealth seems pretty much based on hacking cameras, staying out of sight, using sound suppressors, and apparently equipment to lower your audio profile to enhance sneaking up behind people for takedowns. Game also includes jumping (its presence is not exciting, but its absence in a shooter is pretty annoying, such as in Mass Effect), zip-lining, and some form of cover system. No mention of any light/dark mechanics or shooting out lights or body-hiding for ultimate Sam Fisher goodness, though. Specifically, "there are no big tricks to it."
Gun-skill upgrades increase damage and critical hit chances most of all. It's seemingly implied that if you are good at shooters, you won't necessarily need to upgrade the gun skills so much. They say that upping your gun skill 'won't improve your aim necessarily' so I get from that that it either won't improve your aim at all, or that it's minimal at best. So I don't foresee having trouble aiming weapons like you did in Deus Ex if you weren't trained with them. They also say that you can compensate for lack of character skill in weapons by using weapon mods, or obviously, the mods will further your weapon mastery. However, upgrading skills unlocks the special abilities like Chain Shot (essentially a Time Stop spell that lets you line up a bunch of shots, unfreeze time, and then pretty much instantly blast everyone you targeted) for the pistol which can be used in conjunction with a sound suppressor so seemingly you can kill like 5+ guys all in one room in 2 seconds without making a noise. Chain Shot in particular (no mention of others) is on a cool-down timer rather than being per day or based on any sort of energy bar (like I believe Bullet Time mechanics usually are in all the games which use that).
However, in talking about how important to them the gun mechanics and such are, Chris Parker specifically says "You don't have to use them." I don't know if that's a promise or whatever but if it's the truth either you can viably do everything hand-to-hand or maybe even avoid combat altogether.
Most equipment mentioned is weapon modifications, which they say you 'find.' Very little explanation of the gadgets beyond saying that they wanted gadgets that you'd use more often rather then stuff from the Bond movies. So perhaps some stuff from Sam Fisher's arsenal or other things.
No mention if dialogue is at all skill based, and I assume that it isn't, although there are apparently at least 2 unmentioned skills. However, there aren't really dialogue options but rather stances that seemingly if you would prefer the game play like a shooter you can just pick a stance at the beginning of a conversation and just watch the whole thing play out like it's Halflife 2 or something.
Still discussing downloadable content with Sega, but no promises. Actually seemed kind of pissy when asked about it. "I hate that question. We’re still working it out with SEGA. We’ll have more information in the future it’s just that nothing has been decided actually. Sorry."
The faction system seems entirely dependent on various choices you make and as far as I can tell won't be dependent on character builds. I could be wrong, though. Stealth seems like it will be enhanced by character skills but more dependent on player skill.
Seems like it could be a pretty fun game. Not much RPG in the combat despite whatever skill system they've devised. I mean, in Splinter Cell you could sneak and do everything hand-to-hand, you could avoid everyone entirely, or you could just murder everyone (which went against the premise of the game, but you could do it on most levels). I wouldn't be upset if they ditched the skill system and just let players play the game how they want. Though I suppose unlocking some really badass takedown moves will be cool. The real role-playing in the game will simply come in the choices you make and the factions you align yourself with.
Basically I'd love the gameplay of Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory with many times over the choices and consequences of Splinter Cell: Double Agent (no consequences until the last mission, 2 choices before the last mission affected the ending, and 1 choice at the beginning of the last mission greatly affected the last mission and the ending...plus the Trust meter affected the ending and several choices affected the trust meter I suppose).
