Great thanks to Leonardo Mecchi that brought this new!!
The X-Files's Game
Fox Mulder and Dana Scully don't have an easy time of it. They're
either dropping their super-charged flashlights in dark rooms or
having the key evidence that can blow the whole lid off the huge
conspiracy stolen, or finding themselves hip deep in Newark sewage
wresting giant liver fluke, or some other inconvenience. And we just
love it. "The X-Files" has become an astonishing success, tapping not
only into the desire for good old sci-fi on TV ("Quantum Leap" and
"Next Generation" fans needed to watch *something*), but also into a a
rich vein of pre-millennial panic, paranoia, and mysticism. UFO's and
general strangeness is here, and it's hot.
Of course, Fox couldn't pass up an opportunity to turn one of their
most valuable properties interactive. "The X-Files: The Game" is in
the very early stages of production as we go to press. The first
hurdle was cleared right away: stars Gillian Anderson and David
Duchovny have been signed to shoot entirely new footage for the game.
Show creator Chris Carter and some of the show's top writers will have
a hand in the scripting, and the rest of the cast--Skinner, the
Smoking Man, Krycek--are in the process of being signed. The shoot
was supposed to begin this past summer, but delays kept pushing it
back, and now that the new season is in full swing, a break might not
come until the first hiatus. ("The X-Files" shoots year round in
Vancouver.)
Paul Provenzano, Executive Director of Product Development at Fox, was
giving out only a few tantalizing clues as to the content of the game
which will be produced by Gary Sheinwald and developed by Hyperbole.
An 800-page design document already exists, and the show's dialog
writers are creating dialog. The entire game will be shot on video on
sets, with no (or at least very little) blue screen work. The notion
of an all-video game raises the question of whether Fox cosndiered
this an "interactive movie," a notion Provenzano is quick to squash,.
He says, "There's an obvious danger when people start taliing about
interactive movies, which I don't think this is. This will be a
completely immersive environment. You can go into a room and explore
anywhere in that room."
You'll play a special agent named Craig Wilmore, who's working with
Scully and Mulder from the field office in Seattle. The plot line of
the game will pick up on the episode "Piper Maru," In which some form
of body-hopping entity--taking the form of an oily cloud behind the
victim's eyeballs--is raised from the bottom of the ocean by the
salvage ship Piper Maru. The plotline, which was used over two
episodes and resulted in several twists, will take off from there, but
just where it will go no one will say.
The video will be "hot," and you'll be able to pull things from it to
put in inventory for use in later puzzles. A PDA will help you track
the information you glean from files and investigation, and phones in
the field office allow you to follow up on leads. There will be no
rendering in the game. When you want to look around a photo-realistic
location, you're able to isolate certain areas to investigate things
more closely. There's also going to be quite a lot of dialog and
interaction between Mulder and Scully. "Part of the appeal of the
show," Provenzano says, "is how they interact with each other, and we
want to capture that. The characters will not only be in the game,
but they'll be 'intelligent.' If you start going off in one direction,
they may prod you in another direction to get you back on track."
Provenzano is also busy turning another hot Fox property into a
computer game: "Independence Day"....
This reported has been produced by the PC Gamer Magazine
