Multiple Dimensions Unfold in “Perimeter: Emperor’s Testament”

by Louis Bedigian

“Psychoacoustics in our case means controlling the listener's mood by the track's rhythmic pattern designed in a certain way.”

Perimeter: Emperor's Testament, the update to one of the most unique real-time strategy games ever created, is daring to tell its story from multiple dimensions.

“The storyline of the original game was inseparably connected with the Chain of Worlds, i.e., the sequence of planetoids in Psychosphere connected consecutively by portals,” said Michail ‘ChSnark’ Piskounov, lead storywriter of the project. “The player only saw what was shown in the Chain of Worlds, i.e., three factions of the once integral Exodus, and their relations. By the way, it was our conscious decision to limit the eyesight, in order not to overload players' perception.” 

The introduction of the Net of Worlds in this add-on, he says, is a qualitative storyline expansion “which reveals that Psychosphere is not only the Chain of Worlds, but it is unlimited (just like the Universe).” Michail says that the history of Exodus, shown in the original Perimeter, is just a part of the game played by unknown forces.

“In many add-ons it usually goes about ‘what happened before?’ or ‘what happened after?’ We decided to speak about ‘what actually happened?’” 

What is the story about?

Michail Piskounov: A good question and the answer require a brief introduction. Perimeter is the game created on the basis of an original and global universe that started to take shape yet before development of Perimeter began.

The context is as follows. The mankind gets a gift from the Spirits – a key to a special subsphere, called Psychosphere, and the mankind enters it. After that plenty of global events and changes happen that eventually arouse such questions as: What was that gift in reality, if it looks more like a curse? Who are the Spirits? What are their real goals? What is Exodus? What is the role of humans? What other forces are involved in all of this?

Perimeter provides food for thought. The add-on is a new part of the general image, in which Spirits are represented not as despotic leaders of humans caged in Frames, but rather as Earth's saviors from the threat coming from some Infernals, who have never been mentioned before. It is possible to trace the connection between Infernals and the Empire (Exodus).

It is not possible to explain the whole image with the briefings of missions. But if we outline some key figures and their moves, a lot can be comprehended. 

Does the story have more than one path? Anything that's optional or that will happen depending on what the player decides?

MP: No, the story is consecutive and linear.

What are the Vice Frames and Mechanical Spirit? Do they affect gameplay as well as the story?

MP: Vice Frames are automatic analogs of Frames, invented by the Emperor with the aim to colonize the Psychosphere. There are only a few ark-cities in the game, these are unique constructions built on special dockyards in the beginning of Exodus. And the Emperor apparently needs more bases. From the point of view of the game play, Vice Frames are fully identical to Frames, i.e. command centers of the main base.

The Mechanical Spirit is not a game object. This is, so to say, the name of a Very Important Item.

Give us an overview of the gameplay. What new elements is Emperor's Testament bringing to the table?

MP: Perimeter offered players a lot of fresh and interesting ideas, while in add-on, we focused more on maximally successful use of the game play elements already known from the original game, not overcharging the project with novelties. We wanted to bring players back to the Universe they enjoyed and show the parties to the conflict from new angles, extend players' pleasure from the game without forcing them to master new tricks. Nevertheless, there is a feeling of novelty thanks to new units, new worlds. 

Each race has been given its own artistic style (buildings and units). Do these units fight differently than the others?

MP: Units of each race are divided into common and special ones. Common units of each race have the same functions.

However, there are differences in tactics for each race, created, firstly, by several special units that each race possesses, and secondly, by the transformation abilities of any unit.

What about the visual end of things? Do these units look more high-tech than modern-day tanks, for example?

MP: Exodus has very developed science and technologies, which allow it to exist in an absolutely hostile environment. That is why all of its military hardware is high-tech, and all units are robots.

Tell us about the new soundtrack, which is from composer Andrey Komarov. Is this his first game? Also, will the music follow the path taken by the original Perimeter?

MP: It is the first game project of this musician. But prior to that he had released a few albums on his own label and worked a lot on soundtrack music. The range of instruments that Andrey has mastered is extremely broad and varies from folk instruments to exotic synthesizers. The range of techniques he uses in making music is extremely broad, too.

The original game's soundtrack captivated players with its melodies and atmosphere. This line was kept in the new game. Alongside with catchy melodies, the tracks have a developed rhythmic and composition structure.  

The new soundtrack is based on the principles of "psychoacoustics." What in the world does that mean?

MP: Psychoacoustics in our case means controlling the listener's mood by the track's rhythmic pattern designed in a certain way. The basic principle is very simple – the rhythm controls the person. But the means of encoding these rhythms and creating the required pattern are the composers' know-how.

Can you talk about the new multiplayer maps?

MP: The multiplayer maps were designed taking into account recommendations of the Perimeter community, which, having played a lot, had worked out some principles and requests regarding the format of multiplayer maps for the terraforming strategy.

Thank you for your time.