Kenn Hoekstra (Soldier of Fortune II) Interview

Yes, Raven developed the technology in-house and we own the technology behind GHOUL and GHOUL 2 but no, we haven’t licensed it to anyone.

The concept behind Soldier of Fortune was sort of a "one many army" approach and we felt that depending too much on Hawk would detract from that particular design element. We’ve kept that same philosophy, for the most part, in Soldier of Fortune II. There is a mission in Soldier II, however, that involves John Mullins infiltrating the Colombian jungles as an observer with a U.S. Marine recon team and taking orders from them. There is some teamwork involved on that particular mission, but for the most part Soldier of Fortune II is John Mullins’ show.

There are 14 in-view weapons in Soldier of Fortune II, broken up into categories ranging from knives/hand weapons to pistols to shotguns to assault rifles to heavy weapons, etc. Most of the weapons have a primary fire and an alternate fire as well as multiple firing modes for single shot, burst fire and auto. There are also weapon mods this time around, like the bayonet on the AK-74 and the silencer and laser site on the US Socom pistol. There are also 10 grenades from around the world, which are also now in-view weapons, rather than items. As far as equipment goes, we have implemented a tool kit that allows you to do things like pick locks and cut tripwires as well as night vision and thermal vision goggles. All weapons and items in Soldier of Fortune II are taken from real-world arsenals with names, descriptions and specifications taken from the Jane’s Guide To Weapons.

Activision suggested it to us as a tie-in to the storyline, involving the two-pronged virus John Mullins is sent out to track down. We liked it and ran with it.

John Mullins is much more involved in Soldier II than he was in the original game. We brought him on board from day 1 to talk to us about the types of missions he went on when he was in the field and also to consult with us about the weapons, enemies, equipment and environments in the game. John just visited Raven for a week, actually, to evaluate our Alpha build and offer suggestions for us to think about as we move forward towards Beta and Gold.

We’ve added several new systems to Q3TA, including a new, from scratch AI system (LICH), a weather effects system, the ICARUS 2 scripting system (updated and modified from Voyager – Elite Force), the new, more versatile GHOUL 2 modeling and animation system, the TORR terrain system for large outdoor levels and a dynamic sound and music system. Perhaps the biggest addition, though, is the Random Scenario Generator…a first for the FPS genre. Soldier of Fortune II is probably the most technology-heavy game Raven has ever done.

Soldier of Fortune II offers cutting edge graphics, superb gameplay and a unique blend of action and adventure in a modern day setting with real-world weapons, enemies and environments. Those elements, combined with the random scenario generator (for creating your own single player missions) make Soldier of Fortune II a must-have game for action fans everywhere.

The story credits belong to Raven Software. A team got together early on in development and hammered out the storyline as it pertained to the overall design document of the game. I wrote the script dialogue, actually. I’ve worked on Take No Prisoners, HexenWorld, Hexen II: Portal of Praevus, Heretic II, Soldier of Fortune (All Versions), Star Trek: Voyager - Elite Force and now Soldier of Fortune II and Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast.

I don’t know if there will be "less" music, but there are certainly a lot more ambient sounds and effects in Soldier of Fortune II than there were in the original. I really think it adds a lot of atmosphere to the game.

I can give you an example of a scripted event that’s both tense and humorous, though the humor part was far from intentional. There’s an in-game cinematic in Soldier of Fortune II where John Mullins is angrily confronting some gentlemen he’s working for. The dialogue and camera work was designed to make it an intense scene with much yelling back and forth. However… because the temporary dialogue for the characters was done by Raven employees (who are far from being professional voice actors) the first attempt at scripting the scene and viewing it in the game was extremely comical. We’re talking roll on the floor laughing your ass off funny, here. Eric Biessman as John Mullins doesn’t really cut it. A shame we can’t violate SAG rules and release the Raven voiceovers as a download or speech option in the game. ;)

I think Soldier of Fortune could work as an adventure/RPG. Probably not as a text adventure, an RTS or a flight sim, though…

You would not believe the amount of coffee consumed at Raven. My grasp of mathematics doesn’t even allow me to enumerate the quantity involved. In the simplest terms: it’s a lot.

Every time you get into the final stretch of a project (crunch mode), you get sick of seeing the people you work with and you don’t really feel like coming to the office after twenty-some odd days in a row with minimal sleep. Tempers flare up and emotions run high at the end of every development cycle. We’re all professionals, so it’s never a huge deal, but it does happen. The best cure? Finish the game. Then you can take your vacation time.

Since we’ve never given an official or final release date, it’s safe to say "yes," it’s still on target. ;)

Yes, all of those. Basically, the design document lists what locations will appear in the game. In the case of Soldier 2, these include Colombia, Kamchatka, Prague, Hong Kong and Switzerland, among others. We gather general information about the areas in books and on the Internet and create a knowledge database on our network. The missions are divided up into separate game levels with individual goals and locations in mind. The design team breaks everything up further into logical, smaller steps and the individual designers work out the finer details with the team leads. Once everything is planned out on paper, a sketch may be in order. After that, each designer is responsible for his or her individual levels and their content based on the overall instructions given to them at that point. This process can also vary from team to team and from game to game.

I’m all for it, of course. I enjoy downloading them and trying them out whenever I have time, which unfortunately isn’t as often as I’d like. I do my best to help promote mods through press releases and news updates on our website. We’ve even included user mods and maps in our games for Gold Editions, Expansion Packs and the like. It’s a great aspect of releasing games with modifiable technology.

After the smashing success of the original Mario Brothers, I can’t imagine why games about plumbers aren’t more prevalent.

Nothing has been signed to do Soldier of Fortune II for the X-Box or any other platform at this time. It’s always a possibility, but if it were going to happen, Raven would outsource the work rather than do a port in-house.

I’m going to guess Calgary, home of the NHL’s Calgary Flames. I’m guessing based on Brett "The Hitman" Hart who was a WWF wrestler I watched as a kid. The announcer always claimed he was from Calgary, Alberta Canada. No idea if that’s actually the capital, though.

It's actually, Edmonton.  And it would be the Oilers -- that guy Gretzky got his NHL start there.

Our review of Soldier of Fortune: Platinum Edition.

Raven's Official Site.

Activision's SOF II site.