BIS: TORN E3 2001 Report

BIS: TORN E3 2001 Report
May 24, 2001

With a record of acclaimed titles including Fallout 2, Planescape: Torment and Icewind Dale, the Black Isle Studios division of Interplay has established a solid position for itself within the top rank of CRPG developers. As a result, when BIS: TORN was unveiled at the Game Developers Conference two months ago, we were very interested to learn about its latest project. As it turned out, we were lucky enough to speak at length with members of the team on the floor at GDC, and to obtain a pair of massive interviews in which Lead Designer Dave Maldonado and Senior Producer Ken Rosman provided a considerable amount of information about the game and its background.

At E3 last week, we managed to catch a couple of rehearsals on Wednesday during set-up, but TORN was the first presentation we saw after the doors officially opened Thursday morning. Dave Maldonado was kind enough to join us and to give us the run-down on the progress that the team and the game have made since its unveiling. The most significant occurrence during this time has been the upgrade of the LithTech game engine to the most recent version 3.0. According to Dave, this process proved to be a little more time-consuming than originally expected, but aside from having caused to a few long days for the programming team, he didn't seem to feel this would have any real impact on the overall schedule.

While we were told that some features of the engine such as bump mapping were not turned on in the demo, the visuals were certainly impressive. Real-time lighting and shadows were working nicely, and the environments themselves looked sharp and well drawn, giving good reason to expect that the visual aspects of the TORN gameworld will live up to the high standard set by Black Isle's 2D titles. Another area where we saw the results of the team's recent work was in a couple of cool new spell effects, so magic users can look forward to some eye candy in the game. Also notable in terms of visuals were a couple of imaginative monsters. One was a gigantic slime beast with valve-like openings that periodically spewed forth small slimes, the other a large, demon-like creature with a long, thick, tail-like appendage hanging forward from it's rotund belly onto the ground.

These two would seem to be examples of the team's desire to take advantage of the game being set in a completely original world by using its imagination and creativity to build a world and a game that reflects Black Isle's unique personality and sense of fun. Dave Maldonado explained that the challenge of creating an original setting and of making it the foundation for future titles in a greatly expanded world is one of the major challenges and also one of the most exciting aspects of the project. Based on what we saw in the demo and also considering that many of the team members collaborated on the unusual yet compelling setting for Planescape: Torment, it seems reasonable to project that this will be one of TORN's strengths as well.

Aside from this, Dave briefly showed off and talked about various aspects of the game that are familiar to fans who have been following the game. It will include six races ranging from humans to hulking ogres and lithe sidhe (pronounced shee) plus elves dwarves and halflings. Character development will be skill-based using a variation of the SPECIAL system developed at Interplay for the original Fallout. Character customization will be possible in a number of ways including custom portraits and sounds. The game will be party-based, with the player character and up to five AI-controlled NPC companions depending on the main character's charisma. The action will take place in pausable real time, and multiplayer will be enabled for up to six players. The point of view will be isometric, with players having a limited degree of control over zoom and circling. And the projected release date remains as late this year.

It has only been a couple of months since I saw BIS: TORN, and the team has done a commendable job of keeping fans informed since then, especially via the game's message boards and Dave's series of Designer Diaries here on RPG Vault. As a result, I wasn't expecting any huge revelations at E3. Instead, I was interested to see how the game has progressed and evolved during this time frame. Based on the demonstration and on what we heard during subsequent conversations with a couple of other team members, there is certainly good reason to watch BIS: TORN even more closely during the months ahead.

Related Links
BIS: TORN E3 Gallery May 24, 2001
BIS: TORN Designer Diary, Chapter 4 May 18, 2001
BIS: TORN Designer Diary, Chapter 3 May 14, 2001
BIS: TORN Designer Diary, Chapter 2 May 4, 2001
BIS: TORN Designer Diary, Chapter 1 April 20, 2001
BIS: TORN Interview #2 March 29, 2001
BIS: TORN Interview March 22, 2001

Other E3 2001 Reports
Anarchy Online May 22, 2001
Dark Age of Camelot May 22, 2001
Neverwinter Nights May 24, 2001
Shadowbane, Part 1 May 22, 2001
Shadowbane, Part 2 May 23, 2001
Star Wars Galaxies May 22, 2001
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic May 23, 2001

Richard Aihoshi - "Jonric"