PAX Australia - BattleCry: A Chat With Rich Vogel

Have you heard the battlecry? Or more importantly have you heard about the game BattleCry? BattleCry is a team based online action game where players need to work in order to succeed.

The game had its first playable sessions at PAX Australia and Bethesda had even sent members of the development team including the games main designer and producer Rich Vogel. If that names does sound familiar to you, Rich has been in the industry for sometime and has brought some amazingly popular games to market, including Star Wars The Old Republic and Ultima Online. I had the chance to sit down with Rich and talk about BattleCry and why bring this type of game to market.



I was curious to learn why Rich and the team wanted to make BattleCry and the answer was pretty simple, there simply was nothing like this on the market. There are plenty of online games, but none that really focus on team work. Which is very true, games like Team Fortress 2 or Counter Strike do support a team style of play should you wish to play that way, but if you want to go solo those games allow you to without any repercussions, BattleCry is not like that. Teamwork is crucial in BattleCry if you are to survive and win, running of on your own is a sure way to meet and early demise. Rich then explained that while they were coming up with what the game would be, they started working on lore and back-story for the game. "There was a war that lasted for 100 years which has made gunpowder impossible to use" and once they had that in place, they were able to become more creative with their classes.

In the build they were showing off at PAX Australia, there were only 3 of 5 playable classes around, one of which was the Duelist. The Duelist, as you can imagine carries duel swords, which are equipped with the ability to generate electricity. One of the classes not playable yet is the Gadgeteer, this class can create traps, lay down mines and even use ranged attacks. The game draws inspiration from various sources like games such as God of War, Batman Arkham Asylum and Devil May Cry, players will be drawn into the world thanks to a tight over the shoulder style camera along with, fast combat and big htis to your own character.

The game itself is set in the around the time of the first world war, but because gunpowder is not around in this world, that war has been replaced. There are three factions that are fighting in this war, British, Russian and a yet unnamed country or even group. There was only one level that was playable at PAX Australia and Rich pointed out that the levels will take inspiration from real world locations. One future location will take place on the bridge that not even the Germans could take from the Russians.

I then asked Rich about the levels, how will they make use of verticality, with the multiple class types, Rich assured me that the levels will take advantage of multiple planes. He even went on to say that the games lore and story will be hidden in the levels thanks to the in game graffiti and propaganda and even as the game gets closer to launch, players will be able to read more on the games official site to learn more.

Of course one question that was on my mind from the moment I heard about the game was why Free-To-Play, there has been a question about if games can really succeed in that model and would there be a benefit to those that paid. Rich and the team have obviously thought the same things, they are aware of those issues with the market and wanted to reassure me and others that at no point will you be able to purchase your way to a win. Players will be able to purchase new looks for themselves, to help make their character truly their own, but that is about it.

On the show floor only one mode was playable, Land Grab, a capture the hill style game type where the longer you hold one of the three points, the more points you earn. Once you have drained a space of all its points, it will respawn somewhere else on the map, meaning you then have to move over and attempt to win control again. More games modes are planned for launch and post launch more levels and modes will be released, the game will continue to grow and evolve over time.

The final question that I had to ask was around platform release, as Bethesda have only ever talked about PC, but for the build on the show floor each PC had a controller hooked up to it as well. Rich did state that the game was built for PC and consoles, but they are only focusing on the PC version for now.

Bethesda have really got something here with BattleCry, when I played I learnt real fast you won't survive on your own. People in line were seeing that in action before they played and were able to form teams with random people straight away. The people that did this were usually on the team that won as well, which meant they scored some nice swag. Having someone like Rich Vogel at the helm means that this game is going to mean serious business when it releases and anyone who wants to give the game a shot can register for the beta here and join in the fun early next year.