Unique Agents for the Forces of Justice

[[6thR.S.] TartanClad]

Hello Chaps and Ladies!

I just wanted to bring up a question regarding the appearance of the difference Forces of Justice we need to fight against in Evil Genius 2. As a bit of context for those of you reading that never played the original, there were multiple agencies representing the superpowers or alliances of the Cold War era.

SABRE was Western Europe and the Commonwealth (MI:6, DGSE, etc)
PATRIOT was the USA and its sphere of influence (CIA)
HAMMER was the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact (KGB/Stasi)
ANVIL was China and it's sphere of influence (CID)
SMASH was an alliance of neutral regions such as South America and North Africa.

One of the things I absolutely loved about Evil Genius was that the operatives of each agency were all uniquely dressed and equipped according to their national origin. For example, soldiers could be G.I.s, British Commandos, Sikh soldiers or Russian marines. Saboteurs could vary between frogmen, SAS, ninjas or a Lara Croft- type character. They were all tropes from either the super-spy genre or the Cold War era.

You really felt like you were taking on the world.

However, from what we've seen of the footage of Evil Genius 2, it seems at first glance that every agent type is sticking with a single appearance and simply recoloured to reflect their allegiance, with more uniquely 'national' appearances solely given to the super agents. I'm willing to suspend my disappointment for the time being as the game clearly has some time before it comes out but I would really like to ask the following;

What do the developers have planned regarding the 'uniqueness' of each agency in this game (either at release or post-launch)? Can we expect agencies to have their own unique character as they visit our island and foil our plans?

[Sagi]

hmm good point.
I really liked the alliance diffrences as well also in the tourists appearances.

[[6thR.S.] TartanClad]

Originally posted by Stylistic Sagittarius NL:

hmm good point.
I really liked the alliance diffrences as well also in the tourists appearances.

Fortunately I have seen a decent variety of tourists, including one wearing a formal kilt (which made me chuckle because I have actually gone to a formal casino on holiday wearing a kilt).

[Jedidiah]

Well, there should be a big difference in look and feel between getting visited by a CIA agent or a KGB/Chinese agent.

You're taking on the whole world simultaneously, Free World and Communist alike. And if you happen to, say, have a lot of heat with PATRIOT but not with HAMMER or ANVIL yet, then seeing "American" looking figures in your base should make you feel on edge, while seeing communist-looking inspectors can actually give you a breather. It's an immersion thing.

"It's just those guys, not THESE guys."

And if you're dealing with soldiers, you can take particular pride in driving out a specific nation's/culture's special forces with your own highly trained minions and characterful henchmen.

There can be some amusing emergent combinations. India's crack troops sent running in terror from a black New Yorker gangster with an afro and boombox. Sending your samurai henchman (if he's still around) to stalk the American G.I.s through your base (WW2 bunker combat all over again?). Or even having your Aussie weapons dealer blow apart anyone who even remotely looks British, as some kind of historical payback for the prison colony thing.

Great for you to bring this up. I liked the variety in the original as well.

[chunderclapped]

The game isn't out yet so I hope that the models get changed to their respective countries

[[6thR.S.] TartanClad]

Originally posted by Stop:

The game isn't out yet so I hope that the models get changed to their respective countries

It's not, but the marketing is intent on representing agents as simply recoloured to fit their allegiance, so it's not looking good I'm afraid.

I do wish we could get a response from the development team, though I don't know if they ever get involved on the steam forums.

[chunderclapped]

Originally posted by 6thR.S. TartanClad:

Originally posted by Stop:

The game isn't out yet so I hope that the models get changed to their respective countries

It's not, but the marketing is intent on representing agents as simply recoloured to fit their allegiance, so it's not looking good I'm afraid.

I do wish we could get a response from the development team, though I don't know if they ever get involved on the steam forums.

Though I only saw this on the soldiers, I remember seeing one agent with the American flag on his chest so maybe only some agents have a basic model while others have their own models according to their countries

[[6thR.S.] TartanClad]

Originally posted by Stop:

Though I only saw this on the soldiers, I remember seeing one agent with the American flag on his chest so maybe only some agents have a basic model while others have their own models according to their countries

True, that gave me some hope at first though I have a feeling he might be a super agent, rather than a standard one. Every agency will have a super agent or two as a representative character.

[chunderclapped]

Originally posted by 6thR.S. TartanClad:

Originally posted by Stop:

Though I only saw this on the soldiers, I remember seeing one agent with the American flag on his chest so maybe only some agents have a basic model while others have their own models according to their countries

True, that gave me some hope at first though I have a feeling he might be a super agent, rather than a standard one. Every agency will have a super agent or two as a representative character.

I doubt that Rebellion would just reveal their super agents before the game even came out

[chunderclapped]

Actually these red soldiers could just be exceptional patriot soldiers

[andyapolis]

Originally posted by Stop:

Originally posted by 6thR.S. TartanClad:

True, that gave me some hope at first though I have a feeling he might be a super agent, rather than a standard one. Every agency will have a super agent or two as a representative character.

I doubt that Rebellion would just reveal their super agents before the game even came out

They did at least one The guy who looks like the Shadow with a an American flag theme is Agent X and he's one of the Super Agents. There's a brief promo video of him they put on social media on 11/17. The guy in the luchador mask from the promotional art appears to be one too, they showed him with the Forces of Justice art in the first video.

Originally posted by Stop:

Actually these red soldiers could just be exceptional patriot soldiers

This would make sense, or it could be they're just showing what's done. People keep commenting on how it appears the forces from the different agencies all look the same. What they've shown looks really good, but the game was delayed because it's not finished. They could still be working on the models for the different agencies. Or it could be they just don't want to give too much away.

Rebellion's been posting lots of stuff on social media, but a lot of it isn't actually new content. It's stuff like detail on the minion types or rooms. If you go back and look at the first stuff they released, you can see those same minions and rooms in it. It's stuff that was already done a good while ago.

[[6thR.S.] TartanClad]

Originally posted by andyapolis:

People keep commenting on how it appears the forces from the different agencies all look the same. What they've shown looks really good, but the game was delayed because it's not finished. They could still be working on the models for the different agencies. Or it could be they just don't want to give too much away.
.

I really hope you're right. So far, based on what appears to be Sterling SMGs and Mk. III helmets, the Justice soldiers based on Cold War era British soldiers (and therefore should be Sabre). Now that might make sense to the setting as they feature heavily in classic Bond movies, (not to mention that awesome commando scene in The Man From Uncle) but it's jarring to see them represent Patriot or Hammer, etc.

[chunderclapped]

Originally posted by 6thR.S. TartanClad:

Originally posted by andyapolis:

People keep commenting on how it appears the forces from the different agencies all look the same. What they've shown looks really good, but the game was delayed because it's not finished. They could still be working on the models for the different agencies. Or it could be they just don't want to give too much away.
.

I really hope you're right. So far, based on what appears to be Sterling SMGs and Mk. III helmets, the Justice soldiers based on Cold War era British soldiers (and therefore should be Sabre). Now that might make sense to the setting as they feature heavily in classic Bond movies, (not to mention that awesome commando scene in The Man From Uncle) but it's jarring to see them represent Patriot or Hammer, etc.

Didn't sabre soldiers in the last game wear berets?

[[6thR.S.] TartanClad]

Originally posted by Stop:

Didn't sabre soldiers in the last game wear berets?

They did! They were based on Royal Marines. (As far as I could tell from uniform and beret anyway).

The justice soldiers I was talking about wearing helmets were the ones in the Evil Genius II trailers.

[andyapolis]

Originally posted by 6thR.S. TartanClad:

Originally posted by andyapolis:

People keep commenting on how it appears the forces from the different agencies all look the same. What they've shown looks really good, but the game was delayed because it's not finished. They could still be working on the models for the different agencies. Or it could be they just don't want to give too much away.
.

I really hope you're right. So far, based on what appears to be Sterling SMGs and Mk. III helmets, the Justice soldiers based on Cold War era British soldiers (and therefore should be Sabre). Now that might make sense to the setting as they feature heavily in classic Bond movies, (not to mention that awesome commando scene in The Man From Uncle) but it's jarring to see them represent Patriot or Hammer, etc.

The Forces of Justice units in the original varied in what they did by class but were basically just reskins for whatever agency they were representing. I imagine it's probably going to be the same in this one. Given the amount of detail there clearly is the what they have shown I'd be really surprised if this is the one area they skimped out on. I wouldn't be surprised if what they've shown are the models they did first and used as the default placeholders for the different unit classes.

In terms of priorities, just for example, they've got a bunch of unique henchman to do. They've said there are more henchman to choose from than in the original. I'm pretty sure they said each region on the map will have one with the new crime lord system. That's a lot of unique character models and, frankly, something people are going to focus more on. Since generic characters in the game - minions, tourists, forces of justice - are randomized in physical appearance, doing different clothing sets its probably going to be lower on the list of priorities.

[Sagi]

It where not just reskins.
The weapons from some agents where very diffrent from each other.
The ninja throwing star and the saboteurs harpoon guns where diffrent from standard rifle gun mechanics as well as the fist combat compared to sword combat.