Dev log ·
Dev log 3: your squad, and the road out
New game now starts by making your own squad of six, from ten roles. After the relay there's a new ending, a running fight from the convoy's truck down the spillway road. The wounded can be carried out, every gun fires and sounds like itself, and the music follows the chase.
Two big additions since the last dev log: you make your own squad now, and the demo no longer ends at the relay. There's a short video of the first, Creating your squad, on YouTube.
Make your squad
New game now opens the squad creator. (Demo is gone from the title screen; New game is the way in.) You start from the built-in six and make each one your own, beginning with the leader:
- a name, and an origin: baseline human; augmented, with a bionic arm, leg or eye; or synthetic, in a white or metal finish;
- a background, which brings the role's signature ability, and points to spend on attributes and skills;
- a weapon: service rifle, marksman rifle, carbine or shotgun;
- how they look: twenty outfits, skin, hair colour and styles (dreadlocks, braids and ponytails among them), beards, helmets and face gear, on a live figure you can turn and zoom;
- and a voice: there are sixteen to choose from, ten of them new this week.
There are ten roles now. The four new ones each bring a new signature ability: the Demolitions expert's breaching charge, the Infiltrator's smoke, the Officer's rally and the Bodyguard's guard. We played every squad of six (no role more than twice) through the game's simulator, and tuned the signatures so no single role swings the odds by more than a few points.
The road out
The relay used to be the end. Now, once the all-clear is sent, the convoy's truck comes up onto the dam crest and parks. Everyone still standing has to get to it, and anyone who's down and not carried there is left behind for good.
Then the truck runs for it down the spillway road, with the squad aboard. Each round, you steer for Captain Hale first: pick a speed (slow, steady or fast), lay the path, swerve, and ram whatever's in the way. Then you fight from your places aboard: the back door, the passenger seat, the hatch and the roof gun, each with its own view and its own cover. Machines on bikes and drones come after you, and more join the longer the run takes. The truck can be patched up from inside, and it can be wrecked.
Nobody left behind
- Carrying. An operative can lift a downed or dead squadmate beside them. While carrying, they can only move or put them down.
- Stabilising. Anyone can now stabilise a casualty beside them: one action with medical training, two without.
- Medkits. Everyone carries one, and the Medic carries six. You can toss them to a squadmate nearby, take them from someone who's down, and find more in crates and cases along the way. Treating between fights uses them up. ## The fights, reworked
- The pump hall. The pump control is now up on a platform, reached by a ladder, and the water rises on the floor below each round you hold it. At full pressure the squad climbs up, the water is electrified, and every machine standing in it goes.
- The relay is harder: its terminal can be worked once a round, its machines start nearer the mast, and you have ten rounds.
- The camera centres on each machine as it acts, and the levels above you are drawn see-through.
Every gun is its own
Each weapon fires and sounds like itself now. The marksman rifle kicks the muzzle up and settles, the carbine snaps, and the shotgun shoves, then racks its pump with the hand riding the slide and throws a red hull. Brass flies with every shot, flashes are sized to the gun, and the machines have a cold discharge of their own.
The squad also moves better. Going down, lying wounded, climbing ladders and dropping a level have their own motions now, and hands hold their guns properly.
Music that follows the chase
The chase has its own score, and it follows the run. The tempo climbs as the truck gets further down the road, there's a hit for every machine you wreck, and a drop when you reach the end. Ramming something lands a heavy hit, and the rest of the music ducks under it.
From your reports
Dozens of the issues testers raised were closed in this stretch, from crates that now open their lids to captions that no longer run across ORACLE's screen. Keep them coming: the bug in the top-right corner of the game is the quickest way.
Thank you for playing.