Ubisoft Tells Oldest English Tale Beowulf with Latest Technology

Paramount Pictures and Shangri-La Entertainment used Comic-Con 07 as the venue to debut over 20 minutes of Robert Zemeckis� 3D computer-generated movie adaptation of Beowulf to about 1,300 of the 140,000 convention attendees. Ubisoft used the event to showcase the new PLAYSTATION®3 game that ships day and date with the November 16 theatrical movie, which will be the largest 3D film ever released with over 1,500 screens (additional 2D prints of the movie will also be shown worldwide).

Gabrielle Shrager, the writer of the Beowulf game from Ubisoft's Tiwak Studios, was on hand to witness the film adaptation and talk about the collaboration between Hollywood technology guru Zemeckis and the game publisher that has brought CGI films like Peter Jackson’s King Kong, TMNT, Open Season and Surf's Up to PlayStation®2, PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) and PLAYSTATION®3 gamers.

"We went in and met with Zemeckis and Steve Starkey and got their key vision for the movie," said Shrager, speaking at the after party on the rooftop of the trendy Stingaree nightclub in downtown San Diego’s gas lamp district. "We wanted to make a game and not an adaptation of the movie and the filmmakers were on board with that. They really understood the interactive medium and what we were looking to do with this game."

Shrager wrote a 500-page script for the game, but because there are three ways for characters to respond to every situation (heroic, neutral and carnal), a player won�t even hear three-quarters of the 3,000 lines of dialogue if they play through the entire game. While it makes her job harder, it makes the experience for the player much more individual.

"None of this depth would have been possible without PLAYSTATION®3," said Shrager. "It's opened up so much for this game. The new technology has allowed everything from the realistic lip syncing for the characters to speak in a lifelike way to the use of dynamic, systemic dialogue."

For anyone who hasn’t read the Old English poem, which has been required reading in high school English class for decades, the story of Beowulf focuses on a hero with the strength of 30 men who kills a demon named Grendel that has been terrorizing a town. The film, which was written by fantasy master Neil Gaiman and videogame fan and Hollywood scribe Roger Avary, expands that story by following Beowulf and his dealings with Grendel's mother, played by Angelina Jolie in the film.

"There's a huge span between the slaying of Grendel and the dragon battle at the end of the movie," said Shrager. "We used that 30-year period for the core gameplay of Beowulf. We call it 'The Monster Within.' It's about a hero fighting his own demons. Beowulf finds himself King of the Danes and the player has to discover what it means to be king."

The team behind the best-selling Tom Clancy�s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter™ franchise built this conflict into the actual gameplay. The legacy system allows players to choose to be a monster slayer or the hero king. It's a dynamic system that allows the player throughout the game to move from the heroic side to the selfish, carnal, brutal monster slayer side. Shrager said next generation graphics, audio and gameplay, are heralding in an era when we can hope to generate and experience emotion as--or even more--intensely than in a movie.

"It's very gratifying to play as the heroic king because the Danes give you positive feedback," said Shrager. "When you're in carnal fury, which is the ultimate attack as the monster slayer, you can't differentiate between your men and enemies. Graphically, everything gets red and you can slaughter your own men. They will come back to haunt you throughout the game as shadows. They treat you for what you are, a selfish man who doesn't care about his own men."

Shrager said this conflicting game system offers very different gameplay styles. Gamers can play with the button-mashing, arcade-style carnal powers or as the more strategic and tactical heroic side. In carnal, the combos are extremely graphic and gory. The game has a Mature rating and the team wanted to tap into the emotions of the player.

"We want there to be consequences to your actions," said Shrager. "In the same way, when you're heroic, we want you to feel proud. The combos are more difficult to master and there's a slower learning curve, but there's a reward for being heroic."

A diverse range of environments are featured in the game, including the hyper-realistic environments from the movie, and the dungeons, which provide some far-out settings like a frozen hell and a blood-soaked sacrificial pit where virgins are offered to the wolf god. The team worked closely with the filmmakers in expanding the story, even introducing new monsters to the game. Shrager studied Norse and other mythologies to bring new creatures to life for Beowulf to vanquish.

"The narrative will come as you're going," said Shrager. "We don't have cut scenes. We have in-game cinematics that last between three and 10 seconds. It makes it better for the gamers, because they don't have to stop and be forces to listen to the story."

Shrager is a fan of the God of War® franchise, but the Tiwak team wanted the player, as Beowulf, to always feel like he wasn’t alone in this fight. And they wanted there to be visual consequences for every action. The kingdom will fall or rise based on how one plays the game. The gamer must constantly chose between making the right choice and making the selfish choice.