HomeLAN - Some people might say that Nina: Agent Chronicles is similar to the Tomb Raider games or Monolith's No One Lives Forever. How do you respond to that comparison?
Maciej Miasik -Such comparison was inevitable since we decided to have a female protagonist in the TPP action adventure – we were afraid that we would be constantly compared to Tomb Rider game no matter what we did. But what could we do if we really wanted to have a female leading character? Why isn’t each of male protagonists compared to the very first male lead, whoever that was? Anyway I’m not a right person to compare our character to Tomb Raider’s Lara because I’ve played only two first Tomb Raider games and I’m rather badly outdated if the latest Lara’s features are concerned. I’ve never player NOLF game and nobody here in our company has, so I won’t be able to offer any decent comparison.
Anyway, we didn’t want to create just shorter Tomb Raider rip off, or any TPP shooter or action-adventure for that matter. We had to come up with something more suitable for our short development cycle. We decided to mix the most interested, in our opinion, elements of various genres. Also, when it became obvious that for technical reasons we had to drop the third person perspective idea, the fear of constant comparisons to Tomb Raider significantly diminished.
The game offers decent amount of shooting and killing, but the weaponry is very limited, similar to that the tactical shooters offer – Nina carries only one weapon besides pistol – this is something the real people usually do. Although she is trained agent of secret anti-terrorist agency, she would prefer to use her tools instead of her physical skills – so jumping, climbing would be also limited. These limits are primarily because of the target audience – casual gamers - who can have problems with using loads of weapons and items, or complicated character’s moves.
Nina has something which will definitely differentiate her from other female leading characters in the games – her unique psychic power allowing her literally “suck” opponents mind into her own and keep it there for some time. All she needs it a physical contact with the victim – simple touch is enough. Unfortunately, after the process her “mindless” victim dies. That’s why she became a very valuable asset for the anti-terrorist organization, not her physical or weapon skills.