Mythology has always been a favorite subject of mine, so I'm always excited to see new games come along that attempt to capture the subject matter. Given that the upcoming PC action RPG Loki draws inspiration from and combines four different mythologies into one gameplay experience, I'm obviously extremely eager to see how it all comes together when it's scheduled to ship a few months down the road. In the meantime, I was recently able to get in touch with Loki's developers over at Cyanide to find out more about the immense work their putting into the project, and was fortunate enough to have some questions answered by Art Director Tom Veauclin and Game Designer Yannick Fleurit.

Matt Litten: How did the whole idea of combining four different mythologies - Norse, Greek, Aztec and Egyptian - into one game come about?

Cyanide: For what is basically an action game, the various mythologies offer a wealth of characters. Not only are there plenty of "superheroes" but also their diverse characters give substance to the various subplots. So from a storytelling point of view, we knew that we could have a field day. As we studied the different mythologies, various gods and mortals came to the fore and Loki's storyline was developed.

Also, we've already had an incursion into the heroic fantasy world of elves, dwarves, orcs, etc with Chaos League. So from a creative point of view it was interesting to try something new. Characters like Horus, Zeus, Thor and creatures such as Fafnir, Medusa or the Sphinx were quite appealing.

ML: What is the general plot synopsis for Loki and how does the storyline and game structure weave together the four mythological eras?

Cyanide: It is the Egyptian god of chaos and evil, Seth, that brings the four worlds together. He has discovered a way to pass from mythology to mythology and he is bent on bringing wrack and ruin to whichever world he visits. In each world he allies himself with the local god of the underworld (Hel in the Norse world, Mictlantecuhtli in the Aztec world...) to further his ends. The hero or heroine, starting in the world of his/her mythology must pursue Seth through the different mythologies, in no fixed order, until the final showdown. To fully understand the story the hero(ine) must pass through the story 3 times, with 3 different difficulty levels (Mortal, Hero, Deity), before coming to the final showdown and the ultimate choice!

ML: In line with the four mythologies, Loki will have players choosing from one of four different characters. Who are these four heroes and what are some of the unique traits each has to offer?

Cyanide: There are two male and two female characters. The males come from the Norse and Egyptian chapters, the females from the Greek and Aztec. Each character worships 3 gods from his/her mythology, each of which bestows 17 different skills, making for a total of 51 skills per character. When you see the Norse character you'll immediately realise that diplomacy is not for him. He's more into close combat with a double-handed axe. The Egyptian is more slender, but his weaponry of fire & magic is just as potent as that of the Norse fighter. The Greek heroine is also a fighter, but she prefers to keep her distance. Her preferred weapons are the bow, the disk and traps of all kinds. Finally, the Aztec heroine has powers that derive from the spirit world. This allows her to summon creatures and to change form.

ML: The various mythologies have become famous for some of the most legendary characters and memorable creatures. What notable characters and creatures from myth will players be meeting and/or slaying in Loki's world?

Cyanide: Apart from a plethora of gods, the player will cross the paths of a vast array of mortals and deadly creatures. In the Egyptian world, for example, there are the pharaohs Akhenaton and Ramses II, as well as the sphinx and the obligatory mummies. In the Greek world, heroes like Achilles and villains like Minos will be part of the action and, after cutting a path through swathes of centaurs and harpies, the hero(ine) will come up against a serious client in Medusa. In the Norse world "friends" include Siegfried and the Valkyrie Brynhild, whereas the opposition comes in the shape of creatures such as Fenrir, the wolf, and Fafnir, the dragon. In the Aztec world there are fewer "characters" per se, but the various jaguars, tarantulas and cannibal tribes ensure plenty of frenzied combats. And, of course, there is Cortes who has embarked with his Spanish soldiers with the aim of destroying the Aztec empire. It should be noted that the various bosses that must be overcome have different fighting styles - and they adapt to the threat they face. This means that they will not react to the Egyptian in the same way as they react to the Norse fighter.

ML: Like any good hack-'n'-slash action RPG these days, Loki will apparently feature in-depth character and equipment customization systems. Explain the different ways in which players will be able to customize their character throughout the game, in terms of building a hero's stats and upgrading weapons and armor.

Cyanide: As in any game of this type, XP progresses as the character hacks and slashes his/her way through the various quests. Points that are gained can be allocated to 5 different attributes: strength, dexterity, intelligence, vitality (health points) and energy (mana points). However, all points do not have to (and must not) go towards attributes. A character's skill points are built up by worshipping the three gods of his/her mythology. Each god has a specific skill tree and the player has to choose which god to worship at a given time. When worshipping a god, a percentage of points that would normally go towards attributes, goes towards building up skill points. If a player wants to concentrate on XP over skills he can choose to worship no god at all.

Weapons and armour are collected along the way from dead monsters, or they can be bought from merchants. Customisation is done by the blacksmith in one of the many forges. Several operations are possible. First of all, weapons can be broken down into their constituent parts and then completely different weapons can be reassembled. For example, two swords can be separated into two handles and two blades and then the parts can be exchanged to make two different swords with different characteristics. Weapons and armour can also be upgraded using different metals. A basic item, made of iron, can be reforged in silver, for example. The silver can come from two sources - ingots picked up en route or weapons/arms made of silver recycled to recover the raw material. Finally, a multitude of magic runes can be added to weapons and armour to increase destructive or protective powers. All this makes for a huge variety of weapons and armour, the look and characteristics of which depend on the desiderata of the player.

ML: Speaking of customization, will each new piece of weaponry and armor directly reflect on the character model? Just had to ask to make sure J.

Cyanide: Yes. Right down to adjacent pixels! The whole game (decors, characters, monsters, items and the interface) was done in 3D. All weapons and armour were modelled and the 3D meshes are used when looking at a character or his/her inventory, giving faithful representations in both cases. It's TWYSITWYG gameplay - "The weapon you see is the weapon you get" - not some downgraded and disappointing copy. This meant a fair bit of painstaking work to avoid overloading the game interface and to guarantee that items were depicted with the desired visual quality.

ML: In terms of gameplay, how would you describe Loki overall? Does it basically stick to action RPG conventions with plenty of linear dungeon crawling and mouse-click hacking and slashing, or is there more to it than that, like environmental puzzles, non-linear level designs and/or elaborate quests to keep the pacing fresh?

Cyanide: An action RPG fan will easily find his feet and there are plenty of main and secondary quests to keep him busy. However, there are a few subtleties that give Loki its own identity. The highly developed system of weapon and armour personalisation, mentioned above, is something that sets Loki apart from many action RPG games.

The same goes for the skill system. There is very little that is automatic about skills, so a player will have to be very much involved in how they are built up and used. Each of the heroes worships 3 gods and each god confers a given set of skills. Skills vary from hero to hero, so, for example, within the Aztec heroine's 3 skill trees there are spells allowing her change shape or to move into the spirit world, whereas the Egyptian can call on an arsenal of fire and lightning.

It should also be noted that generation of levels, and their concomitant items and monsters, is random except for the final bosses. This means that the game can be played over and over again without ever following the same route.

ML: With mixing the different mythologies together it must be a ton of fun working on the various art styles and settings that make each unique and bringing them together into one experience. What can you tell us about the art direction and graphical work behind the game and some of the artistic inspirations that were during the design process?

Cyanide: I think everybody enjoyed going back over the ancient myths and legends. We spent ages going through books on the various mythologies. This enabled us to create the frameworks for the different game universes. Once that was done we went further afield, especially towards the cinema. We watched films like Clash of the Titans, Jason and the Argonauts, Gladiator, Conan, Star Wars, and even the animated Manga series Saint Seiya. More than a year's research went into the design process and players should find allusions to the above films as they advance through the game.

ML: Loki certainly looks impressive from both a visual and technical standpoint, that's for sure, so what range of system requirements are we looking at here? Will it take a fairly high-end gaming rig to run, or will it be fairly scalable to work with mid to lower range PCs.

Cyanide: We're hoping that as many people as possible can play, so we're making the game as scalable as possible. At the low-end, we're aiming for a GeForce 4 Ti 4600 64Mb, an AMD Athlon XP 2200+ or Intel Pentium 4 2 GHz and 512Mb of RAM.

ML: How is the game's audio being handled? What can we expect to hear as far as voice acting and music are concerned?

Cyanide: It wasn't worth investing heavily in visuals if the sound was not up to scratch. So we did plenty of research on instruments connected with each mythology/era so as to give each universe its particular atmosphere. We then tried to marry the music to the various decors in order to guarantee player immersion. Great attention was paid to the sound of the various weapon/armour impacts. Blunt or cutting weapons, for example, make different noises depending on what they are made of and what they are striking. All of the spell FX and the different monsters have their own sounds and, most importantly, all the quest dialogues have been recorded using professional actors.

ML: As far as length goes, approximately how long do you estimate Loki's single-player campaign will last? What sort of multiplayer and other replayability features will there be to further extend the game's lifespan?

Cyanide: If a player was to put on a set of blinkers and go hell-for-leather though the game, exploring nothing, it would take somewhere between 40 and 50 hours. That would be for the "mortal" difficulty level. There are another 2 levels, "hero" and "deity", after that. So to get through them, and fully visit all the levels, we're talking weeks! The added interest of going back through the game at a new difficulty level is that there is a huge percentage of random generation of decors, items, monsters... a player will never see the same item in the same place. And should a player ever get fed up playing on his/her own, then it's possible for up to 6 people to play in co-op mode. Moreover, there is an arena for PvP combats of up to 4 against 4 and individual challenges, such as holding out against a monster for a given amount of time.

ML: Where does the development on Loki stand at this juncture and when can we look forward to seeing the finished product on retail shelves in North America and Europe?

Cyanide: We're in the process of correcting a few remaining bugs and fine tuning the game, which will be released in mid-April 2007.

We'll definitely be looking forward to getting our hands on the game once it's finished! Thanks again Tom and Yannick for taking time out to discuss the game with us. Also, many thanks to Joe Ryan over at Cyanide and Ted Brockwood from Calico Media Communications for all their help in making this interview happen.

Previewed by Matt Litten for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).