ALIEN WEAPONRY - PATH OF THE FURON DEVELOPER DIARY

Sandblast Games talk about the weapons of Destroy All Humans! Path Of The Furon

Jon Knoles, Creative Director at Sandblast Games...

Pox: “I’ve created a new weapon called the black hole gun. It creates a localized singularity phenomenon which is created by the quantum interaction between...“

Crypto: “Pox! You had me at black hole!”

When setting out to Destroy All Humans!, any self-respecting alien has got to be armed to the teeth with the right equipment for the job. On his journey of destruction and enlightenment in the funked 70s, Crypto will have at his disposal updated old favorites like the Anal Probe and other classics, and some far out new weapons to destroy humans and their world in ways that simply were not possible before.

Using Brain And Braun

First of all, it’s important to note several fundamental changes we’ve made to ground combat, all of which make weapons more fun to use, and more useful in combat. Among them:

• All hand weapons now produce DNA when used to destroy humans. The more skill or risk a weapon requires in use, the more DNA it will produce. This means there is always a reward for destroying humans, no matter how you choose to do it. And every Furon knows Pox Mart only accepts DNA as payment for weapon upgrades!
• Streamlined controls allow new combinations that were not possible before, which offers more variety and choice in combat. Because Crypto’s psychokinetic ability (PK) has its own button, you can now combine hand weapons with PK, or with jetpack flight, or both. This encourages player experimentation and discovery in a big way.
• Mental lock not only performs mind control functions on humans like reading their minds or giving them a dose of Disco Fever, but can also be used as a proper “lock-on” targeting mechanic. Now when you mental lock human, you can strafe around them on foot or with the jetpack and concentrate your fire at the target. This is especially useful against tougher enemies like the Nexo Warriors who dog Crypto throughout the game.

Kicking New Weapons

In early brainstorms, we talked about giving Crypto totally new weapons, wiping the slate clean so to speak. We also talked about reducing the number of hand weapons from 8 weapons down to 4, combining some that we felt were redundant or not as fun as they could be if combined, and thinning out the arsenal to focus more time polishing the hell out of a smaller set. We had no shortage of wild ideas. The challenge was narrowing the list to the right ones for the game--and for those important things like schedule, budget, team sanity, etc.

Some alien weapon ideas that made it into the game, one way or another:

• Giant man-eating plant that you could feed by hand.
• A black hole that could be used as a nuke weapon, sucking everything around it into another dimension.
• The “super bouncy ball” – originally planned as a re-invention of DAH2’s groovy Dislocator, this would hit enemies and then send them bouncing all over the place.
• Time-distortion gun. This localized time slow down effect evolved into a global time stop effect which is now Crypto’s most powerful mental ability, Temporal Fist. This feature alone will need its own article to describe what it lets you do.

Some alien weapon ideas that did not make it into the game:

• A “super-sizer” gun, which would inflate humans into a balloon, float them upward and then explode them. Cute, but cut.
• The “collosamorpher” gun, that would grow a human into a 50 foot tall giant, which would stumble around and cause a lot of destruction on its own. This got out of control when we decided you should be able to body snatch it and be the monster. Cut.
• “Spider-bots” that would shoot out from a missile and swarm humans, latching onto their heads and yanking out their brains. Great idea, but cut.
• The “Cowitzer” launched a cow complete with a plaintiff “mooo,” which rag-dolled through the air, detonated and stunned enemies in a choking cloud of noxious gas. Of all the weapons that didn’t make it, this is the cut that stung the most.

After much discussion and (sometimes heated) debate, we concluded that the best approach would be to revamp the series’ signature core weapons and introduce a couple of “OMG” weapons that could never have been done on earlier systems. There are 8 hand weapons total: four updated classic weapons from the first game, three all new weapons, and one returning fan favorite from Destroy All Humans 2.

The Revamped Classics

The Goal: Hand-pick and improve on the best weapons in the previous games. Increase weapon usefulness within and outside of combat, give all weapons a next-gen visual and audio makeover.

Anal Probe
What would a Destroy All Humans! game be without the dreaded Anal Probe? The Anal Probe serves two important functions: One, it allows Furons to study humans in depth. Two, it’s a gas to see humans running around grabbing their behinds and yelping objections. Now the anal probe is easier to use and more effective in combat because it’s a multi-round, heat-seeking, fire and forget anal probe. You can target multiple humans by holding down the trigger and sweeping the crosshair over several humans or you can hold the trigger down while aiming at one human to fire multiple probes for faster head popping action. Once you’ve obtained a lock and release the probes, no rear end is safe. Know thy enemy, inside and out!

Zap-O-Matic
This trusty gun is Crypto’s base weapon. There are few things more satisfying to Furon than sound of crackling electricity mixed with the teeth-chattering cries of a human at the business end of the Zap-O-Matic. If you run out of ammo for your other weapons, you can always count on this gun because it will recharge itself between blasts. The Zap-O-Matic can be upgraded to chain to multiple targets, and when combined with PK as you move through a crowd of humans or swoop over them with your jetpack, it can really put the zap on people.

Disintegrator Ray
The disintegrator ray is Crypto’s all purpose “blaster.” This venerable staple of Furon weaponry has the capability of engulfing its target in fiery bursts of molten hot energy, disintegrating them into a pile of ashes. All few direct hits will completely vaporize them. You can upgrade this weapon in Pox Mart to fire multiple bursts in a devastating spread pattern, like a lava shotgun. If an enemy proves really difficult to hit, just pick him up with PK and then pepper him with the disintegrator ray.

Ion Detonator
This old favorite is basically Crypto’s grenade launcher, and it’s now his most versatile weapon. You can fire it and wait for it to detonate automatically after a few seconds, or you can press the trigger again to detonate it at will, instantly vaporizing anyone unfortunate enough to be caught in its blast radius. As with earlier incarnations, the longer you hold the trigger, the farther it will travel. Here’s where it gets interesting:

• It’s now a sticky bomb, thanks to a negatively ionized electro-magnetic…let’s not bore you with details: It will stick to anything it hits—even humans! Watching humans run away screaming “What’s what beeping?!” with a big alien time bomb on their head is pretty freakin’ funny, especially when they run toward a crowd of other humans.
• You can pick up someone or something with PK, or a group of people with PK Magnet, stick an ion detonator on them, then use your jetpack to fly them up high, throw them, then detonate them at will. Good times.
• This is also the only hand weapon that can be used in time stop. Normally, you can only fire and detonate one at a time, but in time stop, you can fire and detonate several of them. You’ll see a small flash with each detonation, and when normal time resumes, they all go boom together. It’s awesome. Great for use on Nexo Walkers and other really tough enemies. The myriad of possible uses for this weapon when combined with PK, PK Throw, jetpack flight, Timestop, etc-- is actually kind of mind boggling.

Dislocator
The Dislocator was ranked a fan favorite in DAH2, and for good reason! It’s great fun to enjoy the way it lifts up anything it hits and flings it around every which way—always unpredictably. Not only is it entertaining to watch, it’s very useful in combat, since it gets enemies and vehicles out of your way quickly. There actually wasn’t much we could think of to improve or change with this weapon, without changing its very nature, which we like.

The Brand-Spankin' New Guns

The Goal: Add new weapons to Crypto’s arsenal that emphasize bizarre alien technology, uniqueness, gameplay impact, and above all humorous results.

Superballer
This weapon fires out a supercharged ball of hydrohelium-infused polymer that homes in on humans and vehicles and sends them bouncing all over the place. With each super bounce, the victim takes damage, and it also causes an impulse with each impact that throws anyone and anything nearby. And in a little nod to one of the ubiquitous symbols of the 1970s: rainbows, the Superballer's vapor trail even creates a spectral refraction effect akin to a rainbow.

Venus Human Trap
The Venus Human Trap, or VHT is essentially a “turret” in game design lexicon. But it’s a pretty weird one. It‘s a spore launcher for a voracious species of carnivorous flora from the once lush planet Venus--before Furons turned it into a self-perpetuating inferno. It can feed itself humans that wander into reach of its spiny tentacles, or you can use PK to hand-feed it. The more humans it eats, the more tentacles it grows and the more DNA it spews out! As an added bonus, your generally perceive the VHT to be more of a threat than you, and will turn their guns on it instead of you. It’s a Furon’s Best Friend.

Black Hole Gun
If things get too hot, you can always use the Black Hole Gun to wipe out everything around you. Just hold the trigger down until the black hole forms and sucks anyone or anything around it into another dimension, except you – that would really suck. While nothing may escape from a “real” black hole, this one coughs up goodies for you: the spectacular show ends with a satisfying “Big Bang,” raining down brain stems for you to collect gobs of DNA at once.

That’s the skinny on the hand weapons featured in Crypto’s arsenal this time around. We hope you’ll have as much fun Destroying All Humans! with them as we have. You can see screens of some of these weapons in action in our Destroy All Humans! Path Of The Furon gallery.

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