It doesn’t feel like that long ago when World War II shooters were all the rage. Instead of modern-day struggles influencing both the combat and narrative of the biggest shooters, developers leaned heavily on an historical war ripe with gripping stories. We haven’t seen an honest attempt at an FPS within this era for quite some time, but Enemy Front creative director, Raphael van Lierop, believes that now just might be the perfect time to take another stab at the Second World War.
Speaking with Game Industry International, van Lierop admitted that the gameplay has to be more modern and original for people to care again. The linear model needs to go.
"One of the things we've focused on since I've been involved in the project has been to modernize the gameplay experience, take it out of that older style of really linear game, and embrace more of a combat sandbox approach," van Lierop said. "The levels are quite open, encounters are designed specifically so that players can approach them from various directions and use what we call 'the resistance fighter's toolbox' to get through them."
There are plenty of shooters with open worlds and more varied settings, but you can only produce so many games centered on modern warfare. Seasoned gamers are looking for something new, and the younger generations might not even know about the roots of some of their current favorite franchises.
"I think there are a lot of gamers who grew up on the 360 and PS3 who think Call of Duty was always about modern warfare and they never had a chance to play it as a WWII franchise," van Lierop said. "So I think there's an audience there–a younger audience, maybe–that's ready to go back and experience that. And there's an older audience like myself, people in their mid-30s who played all those franchises when they started out as WWII games, who are getting a bit burned out on the modern warfare thing because we've been doing that for a while."
Expect to see more of Enemy Front at this week’s Gamescom.
