THE SPY
The Spy signs all
forms in triplicate.
he thing they never tell you about
espionage is just how much
paperwork is involved. You’re
never just handed a watch-that-is-
also-a-gun or a pen-that-can-
hack-the-mainframe. There are
forms to be filled, requests to be
submitted and terrifying
spreadsheets – monsters
constructed from formulae and checkboxes – that need
to be logged. And while it’s tempting to call this
overkill, The Spy understands the need. Without the
full weight of bureaucracy backing your options, you’re
just a regular person crouching in the bushes, watching
what people are doing. Admin: it’s what separates the
professionals from the perverts.Still, The Spy is sometimes jealous of those who get to
operate without the need for such extensive
documentation. Criminals, for instance. The mob doesn’t
need to fill a 12-page health and safety questionnaire
before they can order a pair of concrete shoes. There’s no
analytics to track the number of people you’ve made sleep
with the fishes. You don’t have to go
on a three day training seminar before
you can take charge of a horse’s head.
This nascent crime envy is why
The Spy took notice of a new Kotaku
report suggesting that a fourth Mafia
game is on the way. Reportedly
codenamed Nero, this new project –
claimed to still be in early stages atdeveloper Hanger 13’s Brighton office – is said to be a
prequel to the existing Mafia trilogy. The plan, Kotaku
says, is for it to be made in Unreal Engine 5 rather than
the Mafia III engine that was used more recently for the
Mafia: Definitive Edition remake.
More than just a tease for a new game, though, Kotaku
details turbulence at Hanger 13 – a studio that has
reportedly been in a precarious position since the release
of Mafia III. Despite an incredible opening hour, the 2016
open world adventure quickly devolved into a fairly
tedious checklist of repetitive activities – a far cry from
the more story-led experiences of its two predecessors.
And following Mafia III’s release, Hanger 13 underwent
two rounds of layoffs in 2017 and 2018.
According to Kotaku, the studio subsequently made
multiple attempts to create a new series not tied to the
Mafia name – and all were subsequently abandoned. The
article mentions a Destiny-like co-op action game
code-named Volt – which was quietly cancelled by
Take-Two after a significant investment – as well as a
loot-based ARPG that was also dropped before it was ever
revealed. Another project, called Rhapsody, was said to be
a spy game set in 1980s Berlin.
If the core idea sounds strong, a Kotaku expose from
2018 revealed issues with its wildly shifting scope. One of
its proposed mechanics involved music – specifically a
‘detective mode’ that was triggered by listening to music.
It’s claimed that Hanger 13’s management team decided
that, actually, that should be the focus – changing it into a
superhero game where music was a weapon. One
example given was that, by listening to Eye of the Tiger,
and pressing buttons in time to the music, you could
summon an actual tiger to help you in battle. This, it was
claimed, did not help the studio’s morale.
You may think The Spy would decry this drastic shift
away from espionage and towards
rhythmic nonsense, but really it just
proves what The Spy has been saying.
Paperwork just isn’t an exciting core
mechanic for a videogame, and, if a
developer isn’t going to painstakingly
replicate every form, it’s really just
fantasy anyway. Spy out.
The Spy1
“Can The Elder Scrolls Online honour
its roots as an MMORPG?” That was
the question posed in our cover feature, as
we discovered how Bethesda planned to
transport the sandbox, freeform stylings
of their flagship RPG series into the more
formulaic structure of massively
multiplayer gaming. It’s debatable whether
TESO actually succeeded, but it remains a
popular genre staple today.3
“Another of the publisher’s titles,
Sudden Strike, was such a success
that the CEO decided that Divinity should
have alliteration,” says Larian founder
Sven Vicke in our feature on upcoming
RPG Divinity: Original Sin. “He called it
Divine Divinity. It sounds like a porn
movie.” Despite the Divinity series’
inauspicious start, it would go on to
produce one of the best RPGs of all time.2
Richard
Cobbett runs
us through the best
ways for getting old
games to work.
Despite his efforts,
devs still spent the
next decade
remastering their
old games.ISSUE
241, July 2012
ON THE COVER
The Elder Scrolls Online
IN THE CINEMAS
Men in Black 3T
This month in... 2012
HANGER 13
UNDERWENT TWO
ROUNDS OF LAYOFFS
IN 2017 AND 2018NEWS | OPINION | DEVELOPMENT
BUT WHO WATCHES THE SPY?The Spy