Unreal-Ops

Interview by ‘Unreal Ops’ (August 6, 2003)

-dp-: Tell us a little bit about the mod and what you are doing at the team behind it.

Chicken+Ribs: Out Of Hell is a horror-based game, which will promise satisfying combat against grotesque creatures and a tense and frightening atmosphere. At this time I’m working on it alone with the exception of my brother who works on the storyline and script.

-dp-: Many mod teams seams to go for the “realistic” anti terrorist/war mods, what inspired you to do a horror mod like this one?

Chicken+Ribs: I’ve played almost all of the horror games available and quickly became a big fan of the Silent Hill/Resident Evil series and BW: Rustin Parr. I wanted to see if I could make a gaming experience as memorable as those. The last big horror TC that I remember was ‘They Hunger’ for Half-Life, so there’s a lot of room for scary mods right now. I like horror, there are no horror mods for UT, so it was only logical. 🙂

-dp-: Is this going to be a pure singe player experience or do you have any plans to incorporate some kind of multiplayer mode?

Chicken+Ribs: I have no immediate plans to give it a multiplayer aspect in any way. I am not ruling out this option for the future, but for it’s debut, Out Of Hell will be purely single-player. Besides, it’s scarier when you’re alone. 😉

-dp-: Can you tell us anything about the storyline without giving away to much of what is going to happen to you in Out Of Hell?

Chicken+Ribs: The finer details as to how and why this occurs will be revealed throughout the game but the basic idea is that droves of demons begin appearing at the heart town. Everyone is caught by surprise and most of the residents are butchered, eaten, or are possessed and used to inflict more torture to anyone who is still around. The main character lives on his boat on the outskirts of town, so he doesn’t witness this at first. He will eventually meet up with other people who have holed themselves up around town and help them repel any attacks while working out a plan to escape.

-dp-: What will we be up against in Out Of Hell, is there mainly fictional monsters or do you get to meet people who wants to harm you as well?

Chicken+Ribs: Demon creatures and zombies make up for most of the encounters. They won’t be prominent, but there will be looters and store owners that will attack you in order to protect their stash and property, and there is also the odd crazy guy wandering around town screaming and shooting at everything.

-dp-: How will you defend yourself against that which seeks to do you harm, tell us what kind of weapons will be used?

Chicken+Ribs: For the most part the player will be using melee weapons. I tried focusing on things that people would find and use in such a situation so nothing out of the ordinary like sniper rifles in the trashcan behind the dollar store. 😉 The player will also have a few long ranged weapons such as shotguns and pistols, but ammo is very scarce forcing the player to find other ways of escaping harm instead of shooting through everything.

-dp-: What kind of environments do you go through and can we expect to see any classical settings from any horror movies?

Chicken+Ribs: I’ve tried to cover as many creepy locales as possible like sewers, corn mazes, old hospitals and alleyways and such. I’ve actually been to many of these places like the woods, corn fields, inlets, docks and old train/truck yards at night before, so I know how creepy it gets when it’s dark and the wind starts to pick up. I’ve tried to implement the mood and atmosphere that I felt when I was at those places into this game. Ever walk by a partially built house at night where you could barely see through to the other side and the tarps and plastic sheets start rustling about? It’s in here. 🙂 The atmosphere is thick, and the player will be edgy long before he encounters his first swarm of enemies. As far as classical settings, I’ve tried to stray away from that whenever possible. Nothing exact from any movies will be present (at least, not on purpose) Reason being that Out Of Hell isn’t really inspired by any horror movies, although I like them very much.

-dp-: The music and sound FX is one of the things that really enhance the scaryfeeling in both horror movies and games, how are you doing these for the mod?

Chicken+Ribs: I actually discovered a way to do eerie sort of music (I guess that’s what you can call it) by accident. I had a couple of theories while fooling around in UED and when I put them to practice, they worked! I can’t tell you how it’s done, ( It’s a trade secret 😉 ) but expect outdoor environments to contain their natural sounds such as wind, rain, rustling branches, leaves etc. and eerie music to be played in the more naturally quiet areas such as buildings and such. Some of the sounds I record outside and others I get from a royalty free sound CD.

-dp-: Since its going to be a singe player mod, will there be different levels with different bosses?

Chicken+Ribs: Each of the 12 levels will take place at different areas either in or around town. 8 out of the 12 levels will feature a boss creature/situation. I’ve come up with some interesting ways to defeat each of these bosses. I won’t reveal how to defeat them, but know that it will involve much more than just shooting your way out.

-dp-: I’d like thank Chicken+Ribs for taking the time to do this interview. To get more scary pics and info about this cool mod, just go here to visit his site.