Sure, NetDevil’s Auto Assault is one of the most anticipated PC titles of 2005, but the game’s concept can be somewhat hard to comprehend when comparing the vehicular combat title to your typical massively multiplayer online (MMO) RPG. So is Auto Assault really a racing MMO? Or is the game an action oriented title similar to Sony Online Entertainment’s Planetside? In a recent phone interview project lead Scott Brown, who also serves as the president of NetDevil, gave us the low down on this somewhat mysterious MMO.

Lockergnome Game Invasion: What exactly is Auto Assault?

Scott Brown: Auto Assault is the fastest, most destructive MMO ever made. What we mean by that is that it’s a game in which we try to keep you in the action, and the action is more intense than anything you’ve ever seen before. There’s no travel time, there’s no death penalties and there’s quick grouping. Again, the idea is, simply no matter where you are, you can get to the combat you want to go to quickly, and you’re in the game playing missions instead of trying to level.

How did this project come about?

SB: When we started NetDevil there was several games that we kind of always wanted to make and seemed sort of ignored by the rest of the community. When we pitched the idea of a car combat game to NCsoft, they were really excited about it. And we kind of took it from there.

I remember when the game was first announced on April 1 2004, a lot of people didn’t take this project seriously upon first hearing about it. It must have been a hard sell to the gaming press there after?

SB: [laughs] Yeah, it’s one of those things that’s been difficult to explain since a lot of people wonder what kind of game it is. Is it a racing game, is it a driving game? It’s been a-little bit vague for people, and it’s because what we’re trying to do is combine action with RPG. You still have a character, you still have levels and statistics, its still dice rolls determining whether you hit or miss. Whoever it’s also action paced and so you’re driving and smashing through everything. You still have to aim and pull the trigger, but its dice rolls that determine whether you hit or miss.

How does Auto Assault differ from your typical MMO?

SB: The biggest difference is the combination of action and RPG. In Auto Assault you’re actually controlling more of the combat, as in your typical MMO you’re pretty much moving to a point, then targeting your enemy and pressing on your skill bar while watching the combat take place in-front of you. In Auto Assault you’re in control. You are firing the gun; you’re controlling the vehicles while you and your enemies are moving. The way you’re playing is that you’re trying to keep as many weapons to bare on your target at one time and the more you keep on the target the more damage you’re going to do.

Of course it’s also a car game and it’s also post apocalyptic, which are things people have never seen before in an MMO. And the other thing of course is that we’ve integrated full Havok physics into the game so the entire environment is destructible. While you’re fighting your way through all the enemies on the map, you’re also destroying buildings, jumping off of ramps, smashing through walls and other thing like that.

Basically this is for an audience that likes the first-person shooter mixed with the World of Warcraft player? This is for an audience that likes it a-little faster?

SB: I think that’s fair. There’s going to be some MMO players who are looking for a-little faster paced gameplay. And I believe there’s also going to be a lot of action gamers that find the current crop of MMO’s maybe a-little too slow paced, or that they don’t require enough player skills to satisfy them. We think we’re going to get some of both.

Will there be any character classes or races in the game? If so, can you give a brief rundown for each of them?

SB: There are three different races. There’s the biomek race which is sort of a bio-mechanical race of humanity. Then we have the mutants who are basically people who survived the mutations and then there’s the humans who have been hiding underground for a long period of time kind of waiting out the worst of the apocalypse and now they’ve kind of returned to the surface of the planet.

Each of them has three sort of different meta-classes, if you will. The first being that each group has kind of the tank class, which are the guys who drive tanks, HUMMVs and fire the heavy weapons. Many of their skills are passive. It’s pretty much of a straight forward get into the game, shoot and drive things over kind of class.

The next class is sort of the officer or lieutenant class. They’re really the summoner and kind of the group buff of the game. They drive the faster vehicles such as the sports cars. They’ll have a lot of different summons.

But how each race will actually function is pretty different. So the mutants would summon something by creating something from the alien contamination that’s in the air, where humans might call in reinforcement and pods fall from the sky and a guy with a machine gun hops out and helps you fight.

The third group is kind of the engineer or the scavenger type of class. These guys drive a lot of the big vehicles like big rigs, buses, vans and things like that. The way they work is that they can do both combat/healing as well as a kind of the secondary combat. Turrets, traps, mines and things like that are really there specialty. They also have scavenge abilities to try to find extra loot.

The fourth class is sort of the ranger or scout class, and they drive dune buggies, motorcycles and other very light weight vehicles. Their advantages are maneuverability and speed. They have abilities like stealth and damage over time kind of attacks.

What about character creation?

SB: Character development is a big part of the game. It’s the mix of action and RPG. While your vehicle represents your current weapons, armor and things like that. The character is where your level is, your attributes and all of your skills are. So when you create a new character you can choose between male and female, a variety of different bodies, accessories and colors to try to help customize what you want yourself to look like in the world.

In Auto Assault there kind of two different of modes of play. One is that you’re in a town or peaceful location and in those areas you’re always on foot. Or you’re wherever the battle is happening, and that’s when you’re in your vehicle.

How’s the combat going to be handled for this game?

SB: It’s very faced paced. It’s similar to the pacing found in a lot of modern first-person shooters that have vehicles in the game. You have what we call “tact arcs” which are pie wedge shaped pieces that come-off of the car for each of your different weapons. What you’re doing when playing is while driving you’re trying to get as many targets as possible into these arcs before you press fire. And then depending on your weapon, your abilities and your statistics it’s going to determine whether you hit or not, and if you do for how much damage.

Will you feel comfortable with the controls if you’re used to playing modern first-person shooters?

SB: The controls should feel very comfortable. The real big difference between what we would think of as an action RPG and an action game is that in an action game you have kind of a targeting site that you have to precisely line-up and when you pull the trigger its all player skill that determines whether you hit or not. In our game you just have to get it within a relatively close inside of these “tact arcs” and then when you pull the trigger it’s a dice roll.

How will this game be divided?

SB: It’s divided into several different maps. There are kind of three different types of maps. One is a town and that’s where you’re walking around on foot. One is a highway, which are massive maps where you and maybe hundreds of other players are driving around at the same time. And then third is what we call the highway exit, and these exits are the kind of instance maps for players used to other MMOs where you or your convoy fight together through more of a scripted encounter.

Can this game be played solo, or do you need to be part of some sort of group or guild?

SB: It’s absolutely solo able from start to finish. One of our goals was that while we love playing with friends, we also don’t always want to have to go through and find a group. So we’ve tried to make the game support group and solo the entire way.

Seeing how successful Guild Wars has been, will Auto Assault be based on a monthly fee subscription or will it follow the same structure as Guild Wars?

SB: Auto Assault will be a monthly subscription.

Will there be weekend beta testing events similar to what was being done with Guild Wars? And when is that expected to start?

SB: There are weekend events on the way. The best way to find info on that would be to visit www.autoassault.com for more details.

Is there a possibility that we’re going to see Auto Assault as a Next-Generation console title, as it seems like such a game would work well as a console game?

SB: Yes… It is a possibility!

Finally, if a one line sales pitch was needed, how would describe Auto Assault?

SB: Our marketing pitch is that it’s the fastest most destructive MMO ever made and I think that it’s a pretty fair description of what the game is. What we’ve tried to make is a game that features everything you love about action games in terms of getting an adrenaline rush with that kind of combat pacing combined with everything we love about RPG in general. The fact that you’re collecting cool loot, leveling-up your character, spending points on skills with all the fun of long term character development mixed with the adrenaline of an action game.

Thank you very much for your time and I look forward to playing the game.

Auto Assault is being developed by NetDevil and will be published by NCsoft later this year. Pick-up a pre-order copy of the game in-order to sign-up for future beta events.

-Andre Barriault
http://www.gamingcult.com
http://channels.lockergnome.com/game/