Uplink 'Spiritual Sequel' Subversion Detailed

7
Having finally launched the Xbox Live Arcade edition of Darwinia, independent developer Introversion has shed some light on its next project, a game titled "Subversion."

Described the the company as the "spiritual sequel" to Uplink, the studio's first release, Subversion expands on the hacking adventure game. Players take command of a "team of skilled operatives" trying to infiltrate various "procedurally generating cities."

Though the game is still being prototyped and is "certainly not in full production," lead designer Chris Delay offered a brief rundown on The Introversion Forums:

The combination of your guys physically on site using their own special skills and equipment, mixed with you taking control of building systems via computer hacking, opening locked doors, disabling cameras, exploiting weaknesses in security systems, is something of a holy grail of game design for us.

The demo I showed on stage during BATFA showed how a team of two agents could infiltrate a high security office. They used a variety of gadgets like wall scanners and motion trackers to gradually unveil the office layout, which begins invisible and requires various Recon tactics until you have revealed the layout. One of the agents was caught and tazered by a security guard, but not before I'd hacked in and taken control of the cctv cameras dotted around the office. This massively expands your view of the location, and uncovered the primary target - a secure server room with some data we needed to destroy.

... There's still a long way to go, and a great deal of work to do. Internally, we still haven't hit what we'd consider a "first playable", and we're certainly not in full production. We are still experimenting and prototyping, but things are coming together rapidly now. This blogging process began in December 2006, so you should of course take that with a massive pinch of salt :)

Chris Faylor was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

Filed Under
From The Chatty
Hello, Meet Lola