We are talking with the producer Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus: “Even more madness!»

Show a large trailer Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus became one of the brightest events E3. There is nothing to be surprised here: the first part was a real gift for lovers of single jokes and good old ultranasia. And the developers, judging by what we saw, intend to only raise bets. We phoned Jerk Gustafsson, an executive producer of the game, to talk about the return of the B-jezia Blaskovich, the Nazis, drugs and plans of the studio for the future (all these things, of course, are connected).

The same trailer.

A woman will become above the port, not sleeping

– Take the bull at once by the horns. According to the popular theory, in The New Colossus the head of William (Bi-Joya) Blaskovich is waiting for a transplant to a new body, which is at least partially confirmed by what we saw in the trailer. This is true?

Yerk : Sounds pretty bold, maybe even too much. I can't say anything about this yet. You will learn everything in the game!

– I really hoped for another answer.

Yerk : Sorry! (laughs)

– Good! But you can at least confirm that there are technologies in the world that allow such an operation?

Yerk : Yes, of course! We have, for example, a character – a beloved pet of Blaskovich ..

-Yes, the same cat-carrier from the trailer.

Yerk : Yeah, the head of a cat on the body of a monkey. The cat was ill with cancer, and I had to transplant her head to a new body. So such technologies exist.

Here, Blaskovitz is still forced to use an exoskeleton.

– I will perceive it as "yes". Then another question with the hill: how Bija survived the events at the end of the last game?

Yerk : He is there with one foot in the grave and gives the goat to his comrades in resistance so that they clean up the entire territory with the help of an atomic bomb ..

– Yes.

Yerk : But, of course, they first return after him. And after a long treatment, about six months later, the events of The New Colossus begin. By this moment, Blaskovitz has not yet left the coma, he is still in the hospital at the main resistance base-on the submarine.

-That is, in fact, there is no mysticism or science fiction nonsense, just the good old heroism: “And let's pull the wounded comrade a moment before the explosion”.

Yerk : (laughs) yes, yes! Exactly! Blaskowitsa cannot be so just killing. But of course it was thoroughly patted.

– By the way, about the "battalion". I appreciated the phallic symbolism on your screen in the first seconds of the action scene from the trailer. You know, with a machine gun in a wheelchair. Thanks for that!

Yerk : (laughs like a child) We are glad that you appreciated.

Holding your torch with lightning inside

– Now about more serious things. The game raises a number of unexpected issues; It reminds, for example, that Nazism is not the most cool idea ..

Yerk : (laughs) that's for sure.

-You felt some special responsibility when working with such material?

Yerk : (thinking) Of course, we had to consider what we work with. And even if we have a lot of absurdity in our game, let the game constantly juggle serious and funny things, we always take the material extremely seriously.

At the same time, of course, we want to tell the story. Therefore, some moments can cause you irritation, somewhere it will seem to you that we went too far … But we consciously went to it in order to get a story that we believe will really work at the exit.

– By the way, you have difficulties with the publication of the game in Germany?

Yerk : This is always a definite challenge. You know, the Germans have certain laws prohibiting the demonstration of Nazi symbols. Therefore, we have to release a special version of the game for Germany, where there are simply no these characters. Yes, these are additional difficulties – but we still want to release the game in Germany, so … what can you do.

Here the most important thing, at least for me, is that in the end we can convey exactly the same game to German players. There is simply no symbolism; Otherwise, this is the same Wolfenstein.

Mother expelled!

– In the first game, the player had to make a difficult choice. In which of the two possible universes do the events of The New Colossus take place? In fact, is there a “canonical” version of the development of the plot? And will there be similar mechanics in the new Damslots sister sites game?

Yerk : And we have both options at once, and with Fergus, and with Vayatt.

– That is, at the beginning of the game it will be possible to choose who you saved last time. Or how it will work?

Yerk : Exactly as you described.

– Will there be new, additional, forks? Some new difficult choice?

Yerk : Again, I can't directly answer this question. You will find out soon. But there will be a similar mechanic in the game, yes. And this time we approach these forces a little differently. We want not only history to change in different versions, but also the gameplay itself: in New Order there were changes, um, not very many.

– Many players and journalists, let’s say, admired the “acidic” part of the trailer with E3. This is an important part of the game? We really will have such a gameplay?

Yerk : (laughs) here, rather, we are talking about plots. We wanted to deepen the image of Vayatt, and he has certain … problems. No, not like that: he has experience in using substances. You saw a piece of this experience in a trailer.

– So I see headlines in all newspapers. Executive producer Wolfenstein II: "To deepen the image of the character, we needed drugs".

Yerk : (laughs)

– I will clarify for clarity. These are all the plot moments with Vayatt are just an example of unique stories that can be seen in only one of the possible universes? In the world with Fergus, all this will not be, so?

Yerk : I will say this: stories will be different. Therefore, we, in fact, do them. But the difference is not only in drugs.

Their bitter screaming

– And what about the secrets? It has always been an important part of the games of the Wolfenstein series. Whether we can finally spend on something found Nazi gold? In other words, will our findings influence the gameplay?

Yerk : In New Colossus, darkness is a thanking secrets, collection objects and all that. Some of them are more valuable than others, some really affect the gameplay. There are those that do not affect the game – all sorts of art, for example. The main thing is that there will be much more secret zones and interesting items than in New Order.

– Partly technical question. It is already known that there will be a number of new elements in the game: the opportunity to take different weapons, a call to help in the left and right hand, as well as an ax (this, of course, is the most cool innovation) ..

Yerk : (laughs)

-Are there any other innovations that we should know about?

Yerk : For me personally the main changes two. Firstly, a new improvement system. Secondly, the fact that now you can shoot with two hands from guns of different types, as you said. This is if we talk about weapons.

– how flexible the improvement system will be? Is it possible to collect something completely unusual?

Yerk : Unfortunately, there are always certain limits. Now we generally have everything … Although the "total" here is the wrong word, there are a rod of combinations. In short, we have three improvements to the gun. And most importantly, all these improvements can be “turned on” and “turned off” at will; between some of them you can freely switch right during the game.

– That is, during a shootout?

Yerk : Exactly. And you can also make improvements of various types on weapons in the right hand and in the left. So, for example, it can be achieved that one gun will additionally shoot missiles and the other – grenades. And then fade from them at the same time.

– Damn it! It sounds very good.

Yerk: Yes, not bad (laughs).

Homeless and tortured

– Now there will be a slightly unexpected question, do not be very surprised. There are a lot of things in your Wolfenstein, which remind of … Fallout: Dungeons, Robosobaki, even a characteristic font from the shelter door. Is it worth waiting for an epic crossover?

Yerk : No, I … we about it … (laughs) We didn't think about it. Probably, many intersections are explained simply by the fact that our game focuses on a similar time period, in the sixties. And of course, the fact that we are in Machinegames We love retrofantics very much. In principle, this is why we wanted a plot with an alternative story so that we have robosobaki in our game and all that.

So all this is just a coincidence. Naturally, we learn a lot, we have a great relationship with Bethesda, with the developers of the Fallout series. But consciously we did not draw any parallels. Somehow it turned out.

– You are breaking my dreams ..

Yerk : Sorry! (laughs)

– The New Order was a rather bold game. You risked many. But here she came out … and turned out to be a hit. The New Colossus is a child of more freedom? Or, since we are talking about big money, you have settled down a little?

Yerk : You know, we are glad that the first project was so successful. And our publisher, Bethesda, did not drive us into any framework. We always had creative freedom. Bethesda really understand what this means.

And seeing how enthusiastically the players met New Order, we realized that we can go even further. Even more madness! Much more, in fact. We have every opportunity to make a truly cool thing, and I think … I hope!.. that we will succeed.

– And what place The New Colossus occupies in your Wolfenstein trilogy? This is a separate story, or you are so laying the foundation for the third part?

Yerk : Whatever we do, we always try to think about the future. A good example is what happened to Frau Engel. We introduced the player to this character back in New Order, in the scene with the train. And in the new game she is your main adversary. We will continue to work in the same vein, so in The New Colossus you will see a few more similar examples. I can't tell you about them yet. But true, during the development, we usually think quite a large scale, we try to understand what it will turn out in the future – and we make sure that everything corresponds to our global plan, which includes all three games.

Also read our preliminary review Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus