Save the Universe as a Classic is Reborn – “Star Heritage 1: The Black Cobra”

by Louis Bedigian

“We try to maintain an atmosphere of full freedom.” 

There was once a time when encountering toad-like creatures meant you were in the peaceful confines of the Mushroom Kingdom. It could have also meant that you were playing Frogger, but he’s not as much of a toad as is Princess Peach’s loyal servant.

Times certainly have changed. It seems like you can’t even leave the house without being a victim of grand theft auto. True crime doesn’t pay, or so I’ve been told. Wanna fight back? Go right ahead – but you could get 25 to life as a result.

The minute you start to think it can’t get any worse is the moment the universe gets plunged into darkness. Toad-like creatures appear, and they aren’t the kindhearted friends of Mario – they’re vicious aliens from beyond our galaxy. Their technology is vastly superior, with ships that can dig deeper into space than we could imagine. If a hero doesn’t rise to action in this time of need, all of mankind could be taking its last breath. 

You control the one who can save the universe in Star Heritage 1: The Black Cobra, a remake of the 1995 classic. How will you do it? What lengths will you have to go to in order to save the universe from those evil, toad-like creatures? I don’t think the heroes of Battletoads can help, but anything’s worth a shot when survival is at stake.

Game Designer and Scenario Writer Iliya Chudakov was happy to share many details on this promising remake, as was Olga Komarova (PR Manager), who helped answer some of our questions and revealed that the developers already have plans for a sequel. 

The toad-like creatures that invaded Earth, are they the Artangs? Who are they and why did they invade?

Iliya Chudakov: The origin of Artangs will be revealed in the process of the game. Now let it be a secret. In fact nobody knows where they came from. To dominate [the] Universe is the main goal of Artangs’ invasion.

It's always assumed that if you're alien you have superior technology and automatically have the ability to take over our world. Is any of this explained in the game? How is it that these toad-like creatures are so much more advanced?

IC: From physiological point of view Artangs’ abilities don’t exceed human’s. But as a society they have a very strong hierarchical organization. That makes Artangs undefeatable. To top it off their technology overtakes ours. In the game it is shown as their weapon is very powerful, their buildings are much more impressive than human’s.

If the Artangs are the enemy, then who is The Black Cobra? Is he/she/it good or evil?

Olga Komarova: It is a space ship :) There is a great mystery in the game which is referred to it.

Also we have plans to create Star Heritage 2, and this ship is like a ‘bridge’ to the next part of the game.  

These guys look like hitmen.

As the player you'll control Earth's top secret agent. Tell us about him, his mission, and the mysterious planet he ended up on...

OK: Our secret agent pretends to be a common merchant while trying to fulfill different missions of the “center”. People are secretly preparing for the war against Artangs. We don’t give any description of the hero, because he is you. It’s you who had bad luck and encountered Artangs during one of the missions, who got to an unregistered planet and who had to escape from it choosing one of the possible ways. The planet will strike you with a variety of astonishing environments, ranging from mountainous regions and swamps to solitary beaches and modern cityscapes of the future.

What is this agent's name? Why is he "the one," as they say?

OK: They call him Dauntless. No one knows what is his real name and it is even not important. He just keep helping people in preparing for the war and there are many of them, secret agents, who just fulfill their duties. But our hero is one who was fated to find the powerful knowledge that can be used in the struggle against the Artangs. That’s why he is the hero of our game :)

How did he end up on the planet?

OK: During one of the missions, the hero encounters an Artangs’ patrol ship. They ask him to show the cargo, but the cargo is a secret weapon and the hero cannot show it. He decides to counterattack and destroy the enemy ship. During the fight both ships are fatally damaged and the only way to stay alive is to use the escape capsule…

Are you able to move about different planets in this game, level-by-level, or does the action take place in one part of the universe?

IC: Well, I would say that you are able to move about different towns of the one planet rather than different planets. Each town associates with a certain scenery and of course it reflects the status of the hero. Every new place suggests a series of interconnected obstacles to be overcome and there are only a few ways to be thrown into the next episode.

During the game you'll have to fight your way back to the war in freeing Earth -- can you give us an idea as what story development will occur along the way?

IC: To intrigue you with a game I will tell you a little bit about a storyline. Once hero found himself on the unknown planet his main goal became to find a way out. He wishes the island where he landed to be quiet and safe but in fact everything is on the contrary. Passing through the island you’ll have to decide whether you are a good or a bad guy. There are two essentially different storylines foreseen in the game.

After the island you are to visit such towns as Pulsar and Taran. You may notice that these two towns vary in their style of life. Pulsar still remains a center of human culture not like Taran which was dramatically impacted by Artangs’ invasion.

Escaping from Taran you’ll found yourself on the island, once you have fled from, again. But this time you’ll be lucky to find Black Cobra, an ancient space ship lost long ago.

Tempor will become a final zone of the game. It is a mysterious desert. You’ll need all your previous experience to find a way out of it and to accomplish the game. 

This is a remake of a classic game. There's new/updated gameplay, but what about the story? Has it been updated at all?

OK: Sure. We have added the alternative scenario branch. Our hero can choose the ‘side’ he like. Good or Evil? Artangs or people? There is a moment in a game when a gamer should answer  a question. Each of the branches have their own unique puzzles and plotline turns. That’s why we say one can pass the game 2 or more times.

How does the game's story differ from the novel? Does the novel reveal things that the game does not, or vice versa?

OK: Well, it is not exactly the novel, it is a short story telling us the prehistory of the events the game does. Reading it we learn, who  Artangs are, who our hero is, what happened in the Galaxy after Artangs came 200 years ago. You can read this interesting short story at our Web-site http://www.stepgames.com/projects/starheritage/story.php

How much freedom will the player have in deciding the fate of the game and the course of what happens to the characters?

IC: We try to maintain an atmosphere of full freedom. That’s why hero can easily die if he uses a blaster on himself for example. We endowed him with a power to ignore our alerts and travel through the bog in the night, which also leads to the hero’s death.

Relationships with characters are also very liberal. We can be friends or deadly foes with almost every character of the game.

Are there other important characters besides the main hero?

IC: Yes, there are. Main character is just a protagonist. Every game needs an antagonist. This role in Star Heritage is played  by Arbes Veres. He is a very important character. He is the person who causes lots of our problems.

Other important characters are mostly helpers and friends of the main character. For example, Lisa Taylor might tell the hero where the pass to the glider is and of course she tells a lot about Black Cobra for it is she whose ancestor once was the captain of this spaceship.

 
Now that we've talked about the story, let's get into the gameplay. Old fans will undoubtedly come back for this remake – what should they look forward to? What does Star Heritage 1: The Black Cobra offer gamers who have never played the series before?

IC: With your high permission I would afford myself to recite the lead programmer of the game and my colleague Alexander Gladysh: “Mu-ha-ha.” To be serious, modern players might encounter difficulties before they get accustomed to the gameplay in Star Heritage.

The reason is that the game uses old conception of player’s responsibility. Very often the price of a mistake could be very high. For example, if you have a rest near the busy road without the mask or the symbol of Artangs’ power, you may consider that you are sentenced to death. Modern players became disaccustomed to this severe kind of a gameplay. In the genre of quest they are awaiting that everything would be ok whatever they do. But Star Heritage is not a quest at all – it is a “quest-like adventure.” And second, this game is a pure remake of the old one.

But don’t worry, play tests showed that despite its severity the game is able to evoke player’s interest and a strong desire to see what will [happen] next.

Let's talk about the combat and the player conditions that we must pay attention to.

OK: With your permission, I begin to answer this question with the quote (from the preview based on playable demo version, published at worthplaying.com in January 2006): ‘Time of day, and the accompanying rest for the player, is a critical part of Star Heritage. The game includes aspects of a survival game, including Stamina and Health, both of which decrease over time as the player moves from area to area. It takes time to travel to each scene, and the player is forced to take their health into account and rest accordingly.’

Talking about the combat system I have to say it is straightforward, with only an attack move and a defense move available. There are some weapons in the game you can find and use. It is important that our hero is not a warrior, he is a secret agent pretending to be a merchant, that’s why all the fights in the game play subsidiary role and are easy to learn and to use.

I love solving interesting puzzles. Can you tell us about what this game will have to offer in that respect?

OK: All the puzzles in the game are based on a solid logic quest principle. We tried to make all the puzzles not very easy, but also not very hard: you won’t need  very much time to find the. Also I have to point out that some puzzles are influenced by the daytime (there are four daytimes in the game). But it doesn’t mean you’ll have to stay stranded before the sunset :) 

 
How do the weather conditions and night/day cycle work? Is it mission-by-mission, or real-time?

OK: Well, as I have told before, there are four daytimes in the game and different weather conditions also. All the time in the game world is divided into some parts, so we can say that night/day cycle works conditionally real-time. For example, you can have a rest in one of the locations and when you finish you’ll see that it has already got dark. Weather conditions cycle works location-by-location.

Star Heritage 1: The Black Cobra uses the same music the original used in 1995. Tell us how new sound technology has allowed you to re-create the game's distinct sound while taking it to a new level.

OK: Actually it is not always the same, there are a lot of new music in the game. We were just inspired by chiptune sound of an old game and we took some artists here in Russia, who are well known for their works in game developing industry: Manwe from SandS band, Sleepy Town Manufacture who makes great releases on Monotonik netlabel, known for their love to chiptune sounds, and Strategic Music guys, who made great game soundtracks already. They worked together, each one with their own style, with their own vision of how this game should sound, and it worked.

Thank you for your time.