The World War II shooter has been done to death, but Stuart Black still thinks he can make one that’s exciting.
International publisher City Interactive has announced the creation of a brand new in-house studio in London with Black and Bodycount designer Stuart Black as creative director. The studio is currently working on a WWII shooter, to which you might say “boo,” but it’s reportedly something the genre hasn’t seen before, to which you might say “yay.”
Black left Codemasters in October after completing his duties on Bodycount, a spiritual sequel to Black that was meant to give the same visceral feeling of blasting off weaponry and destroying everything in the environment. Stuart Black’s previous works have been described as “gun porn.”
Black evidently plans to bring gun porn to the WWII era, describing his first project at City Interactive as an “exciting new story-driven WWII shooter that will emphasize high adventure in a genre that’s become bogged down in reverence and historical accuracy.” In other words, we’ll be blowing the crap out of Nazis, or perhaps robot Nazis, or perhaps robot Nazis on the Moon? Sounds good to me.
In late October, City Interactive revealed that it licensed Crytek’s CryEngine 3, the technology behind Crysis 2, for two upcoming first-person shooters. Black’s WWII shooter will no doubt be one of those games.
In the past, Black has said that many shooters are really boring and that realism is not always ideal for a videogame. His philosophy seems to focus on making the most entertaining experience possible, and if realism doesn’t add to that, throw it out the window. What this will mean for a shooter set in WWII is still unknown, but I’m making the call right now that explosions will be involved.
