Shadow Harvest: Phantom Ops

Viva Media shares Black Lion Studio's Martin Schwiezer's third Developer Diary. Take an in-depth look into the character Myra Lee, the game’s stealth and espionage expert.

In the second developer diary we focused our attention on Aron Alvarez and his character’s action role in the game.  Today we’ll shift our attention to ISA HUMINT agent, Cpt. Myra Lee - the stealth and espionage expert.  She is the prettiest character in the game, but don’t let her good looks deceive you.  She is a deadly force to be reckoned with.

Myra’s stealth skills are complimentary to Aron’s brute force and blazing guns approach, and at times better suited for the mission. Her specialty is stealth, quietly counter-balancing Aron by moving through the shadows and avoiding detection wherever she goes. She’s able to utilize her stealth shield quite effectively, temporarily making her invisible to her adversaries. Other skills include computer hacking, incredible athleticism, and a mastery of disguise. These talents rank her among the elite of the international espionage business.

It was clear to us from the very beginning that we wanted to make stealth gameplay an integral part of Shadow Harvest.  This feature alone would separate the game from the heavily populated  category of pure shooter games. Accordingly, a great deal of attention was dedicated to creating a detailed stealth mode. Myra's role is not just a sidekick role, but a core and integral component of Shadow Harvest.  We have devoted at least as much attention to designing Myra’s part as we did Aron’s.

At Black Lion Studios, we are all huge fans of the stealth genre and we’re convinced that Myra's gameplay will show just that. The details we find annoying in other stealth games, we approached differently in Shadow Harvest.  For example, there is no need to hide your opponent's dead bodies anymore using the optional injection of Nanites, which will turn them invisible for a number of hours. (Hey, it’s no fun to play as the dead body garbage service.) Along with other high-tech gadgets, this feature was one of the reasons why Shadow Harvest takes place in the future (2025).

Another great high tech gadget we introduced is an intuitive “awareness system” to our stealth mode.  This allows you to constantly monitor whether you’ve been discovered. The Tox sensors in Myra's stealth suit detect even the smallest quantities of evaporated stress hormones in the air (adrenalin, Cortisol etc.). A useful side effect of these sensors is that one can locate the position of an opponent, who may discover Myra from a distance, even through barriers (such as walls, crates, foliage, etc.).

A feature we think is  annoying in a lot of other stealth games is the fact that you can't just open a door, but you first have to peak through a keyhole, or use some fiber-optic device, or some other gimmick before you can actually enter. In some games you can even choose how you want to open the door - for example, open it silently, kick it open, etc. Thanks to our Stealth-Sytem, we were able to approach this in an innovative way. If Myra is discovered, even only for a second, she has the option of slipping into cover mode and hiding from a cadre of soldiers. This way, you can just open a door using OPEN DOOR and adapt accordingly.   

Naturally, Myra has the full repertoire of stealth action at her fingertips, which any experienced player expects from a solid stealth game: she can lure guards away by firing so called Attractor-crossbow bolts, sneak up on enemies and kill them silently, crack locks, hack computers, snipe from long distances, and everything else that goes into making stealth gameplay fun. If Myra gains control of her adversary from behind, she can even use his body as a "human shield" for protection. 

Last but not least, I would like to point out some details about enemy behavior.  In Shadow Harvest, your opponents’ audio and visual perception allows them to really see with their eyes and really hear with their ears. Of course, if an opponent has his back turned, as in all games, he won’t be able to “see” you move. However, Shadow Harvest takes it one step further. If your opponent’s body faces Myra, but he’s looking in another direction, he will not “see” her. His eyes must be locked onto Myra. Furthermore, Audio perception in Shadow Harvest works the same way. If you run towards an enemy from behind, he will hear you at a distance of 15 to 25 feet, making it difficult for Myra to get close. But if you calmly sneak up on him, he will not hear you and thus open himself up for attack.

If you’ve been discovered, you may still have a chance to escape or - if it is just a small number of opponents - kill them.  The enemy will not give up searching for Myra and they’ll try their best to find her, even if they have to search through large areas. As Myra can "see" them even behind walls - due to her stress hormone based detection system - she will quickly learn their behavior. They will search the largest area possible at any given time.  Myra's only chance is to try and increase the distance between her and her opponents, since she will not be able to fight such a large number of opponents with her stealth weapons. This is, after all, better suited for Aron Alvarez.