Three years ago we published an interview with the team behind Neuro, Revolt Games' first person shooter with various missions, tasks, environments. Now that the game is almost finished, we caught up with Sergey Mironov to discuss the upgrades that his team implemented into the game. He provided us with interesting information and eight exclusive screenshots.

GGMania: Could you introduce yourself to our readers and tell them a little bit about what exactly you do on Neuro?

Sergey Mironov: the producer and the art-director of the project. Among my duties are: general management of the project, preparation of the necessary design and accounting documents and also management of the art-department.

GGMania: To start off, can you give us a brief overview of Neuro?

Sergey Mironov: Neuro is a futuristic first person shooter, focused on all admirers of science fiction. The Universe of the game is a prospective future of mankind after the invention of the hyperspatial engines and colonization of hundreds planets of our galaxy. However, events will take place only on two planets, but on which! The first is Sorgo, a huge planet-city, and the second - perfectly familiar to fans of our space simulator HomePlanet - Clouto - the house of unpredictable neuro-addicted clans.

Key feature of the game is the psi-abilities of the protagonist. At the execution of the first operative task the young and impulsive fighter attracts serious troubles on both himself and his partner, infringed on interests of the influential corrupted politicians.

GGMania: It's been a long time since we've heard anything on Neuro. How is the game's development coming along?

Sergey Mironov: At the moment we remind the hi-tech high-speed express train which at any minute will arrive on station of its destination. All our difficulties and global problems which arose at a stage of mass-production and broke the development have been overcome. And now, at the final stage of development, we work tensely but with quiet soul. All that is required from us is to finish work as we have conceived it in the beginning.

GGMania: It was scheduled to release sometime in 2003. Why the delay? What's happened?

Sergey Mironov: It is necessary to admit, that we had problems at the certain stages both with engine and with graphic assets. At first we really don't want to concede to the games using Unreal or Quake 3 engines. These technologies obviously overtook us so it was necessary to catch up and try to rise beside. Certainly, it took time. I shall remind, that our engine is own development and we are proud of it.

The other aspect is game physics - a very much a challenge for programmers. Thus, we have decided, that we are not capable of making a good physical module ourselves. So, under the arrangement with our publisher (for that - separate thanks) we've bought a license to physical engine Meqon. Actually, the engine has appeared to be appropriate and meeting all our requirements, but at the same time had a quantity of bugs which we've eliminated together with programmers from Meqon Research AB.

A lot of time has been lost during implementation stage of the physical module in our engine that has added a headache to programmers and change of technological chains of game levels design as the usage of an external physical engine had to be taken in mind by both game-designers and by level-designers.

Speaking about the graphics, I think, that you will note that visually the game has qualitatively changed in the best party. It is very appreciable on screenshots. We have changed graphic style, having left from the cyberpunk towards sci-fi.

GGMania: Have there been any major changes to the game's overall design from the last Q&A (3 years ago)? 

Sergey Mironov: Certainly, much has changed in the last three years. Though, the main idea of the game has not changed.

First, the plot has changed completely. At some point we have understood, that the story originally thought up by us does not find room within the limits of quantities of locations, planned for Neuro, so, we have decided to alter some of plot's twists and turns. As a result it has turned out so, that today's plot of Neuro is prequel to "origin", initial plot of Neuro (which as we at heart hope, will be sometime incarnated by us).

Secondly, the weapons' arsenal in comparison by that has been described in that old interview is strongly changed.

Thirdly, certainly, in these three years our engine has strongly added in capacity.

GGMania: Can you reveal a bit more details about the psi-abilities in the game and how will they affect game-play?

Sergey Mironov: The protagonist is provided by a number of parapsychological (or psionic) abilities. We've tried different variants, but, eventually, have stopped our choice on five "psionic spells", which, in our opinion, were well implemented in gameplay of Neuro:

- Mental restoration (treatment) which has allowed us to refuse first-aid sets;

- Mental impact, instantly both silently and instantly putting the opponent out of action. This skill also adds basic elements of stealth;

- Extrasensory perception (extravision) that gives the player tremendous alternative opportunity to be guided at a level. It forms a lethal combination with the submolecular resonator - artful gadget, capable of killing through any walls and the reservation;

- Aggressive suggestion (berserk) - an artful way to bring chaos in rows of numerous enemies;

- Pyrokinesis - not the most effective, but very spectacular way of making a punishment above the opponent.

GGMania: What can you tell us about Hyper-engines in the game?

Sergey Mironov: Many spacecrafts in the game are equipped by such engines that enable them to move between remote planets. It was the important part of a gameplay in HomePlanet, however, in Neuro hyper-engines are only a story element, a part of the game's Universe. Our hero doesn't have to go into technical details of interplanetary flights instead he has much more essential problems - for example, to rescue a life of the comrade.

GGMania: Tell us about the tech that's being used for the game's artificial intelligence in fights?

Sergey Mironov: For programming of artificial intellect we have created scripting system on the basis of language Python. It includes three important components: base AI patterns, flexible bot customization system and in addition - powerful scripting macrolanguage for missions (objectives, helps, retorts of characters, subject inserts, etc.)

GGMania: What kind of missions can we expect to see in Neuro? Are there any other features you have planned to help differentiate the gameplay from other first-person shooters?

Sergey Mironov: Gameplay is built to draw attention of the player to psi making the abilities of the main hero a powerful tool which will help during furious fights with the opponents. Therefore, there are missions with basic stealth, and also missions where practically unarmed player is attacked by numerous opponents. All these have been made with only one purpose - to force the player to apply psi without which separate locations are simply impassable.

But we do not aspire to make categorically difficult game. For those who are not fond of high difficulty levels, we have provided EASY difficulty level which can be played in classical FPS way - with guns, applying psi only for a variety and entertainment.

GGMania: Approximately how many gameplay hours would you say Neuro encompasses?

Sergey Mironov: Gameplay is expected to take approximately 10 hours at a normal level of difficulty. The most time is spent in fighting stages: you know- it is not so simple to deal with the next group of malefactors :)

GGMania: Graphically, what can gamers expect from Neuro?

Sergey Mironov: At least, they can expect the modern last generation engine with support of all modern effects: normal mapping, specular, reflections, refractions, self-glowing of objects. In this aspect Neuro's engine does not concede to similar decisions in others advanced FPS.

GGMania: Will Neuro include any multiplayer components?

Sergey Mironov: No. Unfortunately, Neuro won't be featuring multiplayer this time. We have to admit that it was not a simple decision. Now it is difficult enough to compete with games having not only the deathmatch, but also other interesting network modes. And it is absolutely impossible to resist to games where the main attention is paid to a multiplayer. I mean such games as Call of Duty, for example. Making an interesting multiplayer mode is not less time-consuming, than a single player mode of any given game. In our case we have made a choice in favor of single player because, firstly, our product line has an MP game already and, secondly, - the solution of our problems with an engine has eaten a lot of time and we physically could not make adequate multiplayer mode for the current version of Neuro.

GGMania: What is your favorite part of the game? Which scene do you look at and think "Wow, we did a great job right here"?

Sergey Mironov: Well, sometimes we come further away and we say something like "Nevertheless, Neuro is a damn excellent game" :)) Speaking seriously, there are very good stages where the player needs to operate together with partners. And there will be several such moments. Scripted stages are also looking impressive, for example, when the landing ship drops out on a huge platform infantrymen from a hostile clan Placktor.

We are proud of our plot and our AI. And, though, much has turned out not in the way it desired and reflected, as a whole we are happy with the turned out result. As for favorite episodes... Well, I like that meat grinder that takes place at the third level, in inhabited quarter where the protagonist is pursued both by gangsters and police. However, the testers tell that this stage is quite difficult... Probably we will have to simplify it ;)).

GGMania: What's the current status of the project, and what remains to be done? When will it be released? (what territories?)

Sergey Mironov: We are on a homestretch right now. At the moment we are on testing stage, polish the gameplay and are engaged in optimization. There is no limit to perfection but we try not to go too far in our "improvements". The main goal here is now is to deliver a complete project with tuned gameplay and that will smoothly run on different system configurations.

Speaking of the territories where there game is going to be shipped. We're targeting for each and every country as the shooter that we have in front of us looks pretty solid and will definitely well-received by players world-wide.

GGMania: What the current system requirements are for Neuro?

Sergey Mironov: Current system requirements go as follows -  a computer with Pentium IV 2.8 GHz or above processor, GeForce FX-class accelerator or above (GeForce 6 is recommended), 1 GB of RAM. The game can be launched on more modest configuration, but in this case you should lower graphical options.

GGMania: Is there anything else you'd like to add?

Sergey Mironov: We are grateful to all players who track the destiny of the project. We hope not to disappoint you, guys!