If we should point one particular genre that is in decline the last couple of years and faces a rather unsuccessful line of evolution, then this should be the real-time strategy genre. But it is good to see developers like Eugen Systems (the guys behind the Act of War franchise) and games like R.U.S.E. that keep trying to innovate the strategy genre. And going by what we have seen and played so far, this attempt at innovation must be a successful this time. We have Mathieu Girard, Senior Producer at Ubisoft, which was patient enough to answer all of our questions regarding this potential multiplatform strategy hit.


UGDB: Please, introduce yourself briefly – your current job position, your professional experience in the game industry, etc.

My name is Mathieu Girard, I am Senior Producer at Ubisoft. I have been working in the video game industry for 11 years. I have released 6 titles so far. R.U.S.E. will be the seventh one.



UGDB: Can you explain the core gameplay principles of RUSE briefly and why should we be hyped about the game?

MG: The core gameplay principles consist in making you live the experience of being a general: build and control an army, design a plan, gather intelligence, and fool your opponent. So the game is not just a collection of new features, such as a zooming engine, deception tools, a new combat system, or supply line management: all of these features have been designed consistently to support the experience of being THE chief in command.

UGDB: What can you tell us about the main campaign? Will it be story driven or it will be based around historically renditions of WWII battles, or it will be generally set during the WWII timeframe?

MG: I would say it is a good mix of all of that. We use historical battles, historically correct units, and integrate that into our main storyline. The story itself develops around the character of Joe Sheridan, a talented and impetuous officer who will learn all the tricks to become a full fledged and cunning general. We have around 40 minutes of CGI supporting the story, plus 3D mission briefings taking advantage of our headquarter system and finally in game CGI to support critical gameplay events.



UGDB: So, there will be 10 different Ruses to our exposure. Should we expect any sub-categories to them? Can you give us some examples of combinations between the different Ruses in real gameplay situations?

MG: There are four sub categories for the Ruses: some ruses create false information, like when you create decoy units; some ruses hide information, such as the camouflage net which makes your base invisible to the enemy; some ruses steal information from the enemy, such as the decryption plan which reveals enemy orders; and finally some ruses influence the psychology of units, such as terror which makes enemy units flee faster.
Some early beta testers have nicknamed Trojan Horse the fact of combining Camouflage Net (invisible units) and Radio Silence (invisible units). By creating an invisible forward base next to the enemy’s base, you can surprise attack him with invisible units.

UGDB: How many different unit types are there in RUSE and excluding the visual appearance how will they differentiate between the six factions?

MG: There are around 200 different units and buildings in the game, broken down into 6 playable factions: US/UK/GER/FR/IT/USSR. These units are divided into categories: defensive structures, infantry, tanks, artillery & anti-air, anti-tanks, airplanes, and prototypes. Even in these categories, you will find very different units. For example in the airplane menu, you will find recon planes (efficient to gather intel), fighters (air superiority), fighter bombers (tank destroyers), and bombers (area of bombing).
Each faction has a different taste which promotes some types of units or some way of using them. Germans have the best tanks, but they are expensive and require lots of research. British have a clear edge in air units. US have an advantage in terms of production, even though their units are not the best.



UGDB: Can you tell us a bit more about the economy and how will the production of units work in RUSE?

MG: I would say that the economy system reflects what RUSE is: simple to understand, yet very deep. There is only one resource to capture, credits, which you find in supply dumps. The innovation is the supply line system, which visualizes the roads used by your supply trucks to bring credits back to your headquarter. These credits are required to build structures, produce & research new units.

Since you visualize the supply lines, you can also visualize those of the enemy, and apply guerrilla tactics to destroy his supply trucks. Sometimes, it is more efficient to strangle your opponent rather than fighting him head front.

You decide how many supply depots you want to capture (it costs money to build the depot), to increase your economy flow, but at the expense of building combat units right away. You can also use a Blitz ruse to speed up your economy and earn more money.

UGDB: What about the different types of terrain in RUSE? Is this something that will be involved in the gameplay and should we expect navy battles?

MG: The environment offers gameplay opportunity that can be turned to your advantage: roads allow for faster movement for light units, forest provide invisibility and ambush attacks, city blocks provide cover and can be used by infantry to ambush tank units.
The game also offers different settings: Central Europe, Normandy, Tunisia, snowy Ardennes. Some of them even offer specific gameplay advantages such as swamps in Normandy which can hide your troops.

You will have battleships in support in some campaign missions, but these units cannot be produced.



UGDB: How much time we will need to complete the main campaign and which are the features that will drive us to replay the game after that?

MG: The campaign will take you a good 15 hours to complete. There is no boring tutorial at the beginning of the campaign, because the whole campaign is a big learning experience that will make you battle ready for multiplayer.

There are some secondary objectives that may make you want to replay the missions, and also some achievements are linked to the level of difficulty you are using.

UGDB: Let’s talk a bit about the multiplayer. Do you think that RUSE has the potential to become a multiplayer smash hit?

MG: Well, I would say that our VIP beta test made us think it is possible. We had very positive feedback, and our players only experienced a small fraction of the final game.



UGDB: Speaking of multiplayer, are you happy with the open beta test that is currently running and what are the main things that you learned from it?

MG: What we learned from the beta test was that people loved the game features and acclaimed its innovation. They were also very attentive on the game tuning, and this is something we will constantly improve, as well as all the matchmaking features to make sure the experience is seamless. There is one thing which is difficult to advocate, when people ask for control and options found in other games. You want to please people, but you do not want to parasite your creative vision with features from competing games. So you have to explain to the community that the decisions you make are for the best.

UGDB: In the last few years we are witnessing a decline in the RTS genre. Do you think that the problem lies in the fact that the strategy games are not so popular among the console owners? Or is it because of the control scheme that some people find odd and too complex or is it because the lack of innovation in the strategy genre?

MG: I would say the lack of innovation is a true problem and that was we tried to solve. Of course there is also a shift to the console market, and we will be there as well, though not at the expense of the PC version depth.



UGDB: Is it difficult to make something new and fresh these days and do you think that it is possible for RUSE to secure the future of RTS genre?

MG: Yes it is difficult, and it takes a lot of time and effort. In the case of RUSE, we have tried crazy stuff, dropped some features, and tried 3 iterations (sometimes) to find the right feature. But I think we now have an edge in the renewal of the RTS genre.

UGDB: We do not have much information about the ISISZOOM engine, which was described at one point as the Google Earth of gaming. What can you tell us about this new technology and is it true that it can handle more than a billion polygons?

MG: The game engine can indeed handle a billion polygons, if you add up every bit of geometry (trees, mountains, units, buildings) found in a playable map. But this could never fit in a computer’s memory, and this could never be processed by a graphic card. So there is a huge amount of work performed to stream data and polygons, dynamically reconstruct what you see for each frame of display. And this takes advantage of multicore processing.



UGDB: While we’re on the subject, can you tell us what are the minimal and the recommended system requirements of RUSE going to be?

MG: I will not give the final figures, as this will be confirmed later on, but the VIP Beta test has already demonstrated that the game runs great on weaker platforms (laptop for example), as it is very scalable. Owners of high end configuration will take the best advantage of deluxe graphics and effects, instantaneous display of geometry when you move on the battlefield, while low end users will have the same strategic experience (though a bit less immersive).

UGDB: Do you plan to use the ISISZOOM engine in future projects or maybe license it to interested third-parties?

MG: This is not in the works yet.

UGDB: Will there be any differences between the PC version and the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of RUSE?

MG: There was a huge work on the pad controls, and this is something we are very proud of. You can really play this game just as well on the pad as on the mouse and keyboard. In terms of technology, the visual experience will be great on every platform.



UGDB: In the announcement trailer we saw two people playing on a device similar to Microsoft’s Surface. As fans of the strategy genre there is one question we’ve been dying to get the answer to: are we going to see something similar to that after RUSE is released? We know that those screens are quite expensive now but do you have any ideas in that direction that might be brought to life once the price of this hardware becomes bearable to the regular consumer?

MG: Yes, you will get this experience while playing Ruse, and the multitouch devices are becoming affordable: 300$ for multitouch PC screen (you can connect to your desktop PC). Funny thing is that the multitouch was not part of our initial plan, but it integrated perfectly with our creative vision slick interface, headquarter background.

UGDB: When is the game coming out and can we expect a demo version on the 3 platforms before it hits the shelves?

MG: The game is coming up in Q2 2010, and a demo version may be confirmed soon.