The Multiplayer of Project: Snowblind

Welcome to the second installment of the Project: Snowblind development diaries. We are getting really excited about the game hitting the shelves soon, especially because we can’t wait to play with you guys online! I’m Patrick Connor one of the designers here at Crystal Dynamics, and I would love to share some of the Multiplayer features we have in store for you.

Plant that bomb

Picture this, you are running down the streets of Hong Kong, the brightly colored neon signs illuminating the sky above you. You nimbly avoid the husk of a previously destroyed car. Behind you is your best friend, with the bomb strapped to his back; the two of you are bravely traveling into hostile territory to defeat the enemy. The target is in sight. You slow down to let your buddy plant the bomb, and just as you see the bomb has been planted, your vision gets fuzzy—you’re snowblind! You quickly react and throw a gas grenade near the bomb to protect it from being defused, and immediately begin to search for the enemy with your Carbine at the ready. A rocket explodes behind you, and you see the trail of high-powered energy come through the wall and fly past your teammate. Enemies are everywhere! As soon as your systems come back online, you activate your Shield augmentation to give you some extra protection from this onslaught. Meanwhile, another teammate comes jumping through the window with his Electrical Storm augmentation active, disabling any nearby enemies’ augmentations. This is Project: Snowblind multiplayer at its best, with all sorts of unique augmentations, a multitude of weapons—each with a unique alternate fire, and five different grenades, there is no such thing as a quiet moment in Project: Snowblind.

Pick your fancy

With all the different options available to the player ranging from smart weapons to augmentations to player controlled vehicles, we knew we wanted to give a lot of opportunities for players to explore and use other tactics, which is why we created nine multiplayer modes. We were sure to include classic modes like Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, and Capture the Flag, but we also wanted to create some modes that showcased the variety of abilities available to the player.

Which is where Hunter enters the picture. The basic premise of Hunter is that one player is the “hunter”, all the other players are the “hunted”, and the objective is for the hunter to kill the hunted and vice versa. The twist is the hunter is permanently enhanced with the Cloak aug AND has every other augmentation, weapon, and grenade available to him, where the hunted have a limited inventory selection and are not permanently invisible. However, when the hunter dies, a token drops and the first player to pick it up becomes the new hunter. This creates a fun dynamic, as the instant you touch the Hunter token your former teammates are now your mortal enemies. Do you think you have what it takes to the Hunter? Or better yet, do you think you have what it takes to survive being hunted?

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