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4P: So you always wanted to evolve the Might & Magic franchise and they were just there and it was a perfect fit.Le Breton: Exactly. And first it was really hard to convince people, even within Ubisoft, that it was interesting to do a first person melee game in a fantasy world, but very soon we had a prototype which had shown that it could work. We started to present the game last year in Leipzig and the public became enthusiastic about the gameplay, so Ubisoft said: "Alright, people can appreciate this kind of game, so let's go for it.”

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4P: As far as I know, readers are still undecided about what to make of the game when they first hear "Might & Magic” and then "first person shooter”. What do you tell them what's unique about it, what are the main features?

Le Breton: I think the main experience you get from it is: It really gets you into this fantasy world. Immersion is one of its key values. I know everybody says: "My game is very immersive!” Bu for us immersion is not only nice graphics, nice music, first person. It's also the fact that all the physics in this game are here to make you feel like being in a real world. If in the real world you can grab a chair and throw it and burn it you can do it the game, too. Now that we are tweaking the last details we feel that we achieved what we wanted. We sell this game to people who like Half-Life 2 and Doom as well as to those who are more into online play, who like Battlefield or CounterStrike. So it's definitely a game for FPS players.

But when we showed the game at E3 we had a lot of fans, RPG fans, Might & Magic fans, who came to us. They couldn't get their hands on the demo, but they said: "Wow! It's not that different from Oblivion in terms of feelings and emotions. OK, the controls are FPS-like. I don't have a certain amount of hit points, I have to be quick and alert and I have to learn the controls and the mechanics of the game in order to win.” But we plan to do different difficulty modes – easy, normal, hardcore, insane *laughs* and we really feel that someone who is not into FPS but feels attracted to a fantasy universe and plays the game in easy mode should be able to finish it and really enjoy it a lot. Because there is this scenario that helps you discover the world, the plot, the different characters, different races, so you really are embarked on this high fantasy experience and you are being guided along the way. And the music and the graphics make you feel like you are in Peter Jackson's movies.

4P: You talked about the story before. How is it being told? By cut scenes or Gordon Freeman style?

Le Breton: In Heroes you have only cut scenes, but in Dark Messiah it's more immersive. That means you have about seven different cut scenes throughout the game and they are all very short. They

Again and again your way leads alongside impressive installations.

are mainly about the apocalyptic events that we can't show with the game engine. We had to use cut scenes for that. Other critical information is often provided through dialog with different characters, but you have to make sure that the player listens to them and understands. You can't have that with the concept of our game, because you are always in control and could kill the guy speaking to you or you cold move away – you could do hundreds of things that prevent you from getting information.

So you have a female spirit who, at the beginning of the game, is being fused with your soul by your master. She is supposed to be your guide and your guardian. She will help you, talk to you a lot – a little bit like Cortana in Halo, this embodied voice who tells you things about what's going on. She is one of the tricks we use to give you information. The other source of information is when you overhear people talking. Of course, you can kill everyone, trying to finish the game like that. But if you try to listen to people or enemies talking by trying to sneak or hide yourself you get more information. It is either flavor or bonus, because it can give you hints about sub quests, but it is not critical.