Mars: War Logs Interview

There’s a short interview with Spiders CEO Jehanne Rousseau over at GamingBolt, which focuses on their latest release, the action-RPG Mars: War Logs. Here’s a snip:

Ravi Sinha: The combat is pushing for different styles and abilities, but how will these abilities affect other areas outside of the game like exploration and puzzles? Will there be multiple ways to approach a problem using the skills you have?

Jehanne Rousseau: There definitely are multiple ways to approach a problem, but for the very most part they rely on the choices you make in dialogues. Some of the Feats you can develop throughout your character progression may increase your chance of looting interesting stuff, or improve your crafting skills (so you can make better upgrades for your equipment) for instance, but in the end your abilities remain dedicated to increasing your chance of survival in a post-apocalyptic setting that will have you getting you into a lot of fights.

Now, of course, if said problem actually IS a tough fight, some abilities can help you win the battle before it even starts, or make sure it doesn’t happen at all.

Ravi Sinha: Is combat meant to be more tactical and less twitchy? Even moves like dodging and fighting seem more calculated than the twitch-happy nature of most action RPGs these days.

Jehanne Rousseau: Combat is meant to be dynamic, but tactics do remain essential, or you will find yourself surrounded and your companions knocked down unconscious pretty quickly. and then things will probably get lethally twitchy on you too eventually! So you need to analyze and adapt. Just dodging and rolling around until you get a clear shot can do the trick for some time if you’re lucky, but this mostly suggests that you had just better hit the Tactics Menu command and take the time to rethink the situation.

Mars is said to be a difficult game, especially as the main character Roy and his allies are just human beings and can only take so many hits before they die. But actually it’s all about taking advantage of every option you have. Every single skill, item or upgrade whether skill or equipment is useful and can make a major difference in battle when used properly.

Once you’ve understood the mechanics and tools at your disposal best suited to your playing style AND the kind of enemy you are fighting, then combat should get that satisfyingactory ‘˜almost too easy’ feeling even on the higher difficulty levels. and becoming the most dangerous guy on the planet feels all the more rewarding.