Hey all! This is Brandon Carbaugh, Narrative Lead on Section 13.
Up until now, we’ve been pretty tight-lipped about the narrative content in the final release version of the game, primarily because it’s one of the last major things to be added, and there just wasn’t much sense discussing it until you could get your hands on it. But with the launch date bearing down upon us, we figured now would be a good time to jump in!
So throughout this week, we’ll be giving you a whirlwind tour of storytelling in the new and improved world of Section 13.
- Today, I’ll be talking about our new Agent Casefiles system, as well as a general overview of how you’ll interact with story content in Section 13.
- Tomorrow, our friends at S2P will be sharing an investor briefing packet from a recent off-site meeting. Attendance is mandatory and your thought patterns will be monitored.
- On Wednesday, my cowriter Nicky will give you a behind-the-scenes look at the characters and world we’ve crafted, and the kind of stories you can expect to explore.
- Finally, on Thursday, I’ll be back to share our voiceover cast list for the game.
With no further ado, let’s get into it!
Where to Find the Story Stuff
The first thing to make clear is that the core of the game isn’t changing much. For the majority of the game’s duration, while you’re out in the base blasting zombies, you won’t be running into a bunch of dialogue and cutscenes all over the place.
At launch, you’ll find story in basically four places: the critical path of the game—which includes the new intro, agent recruitment, and bosses—and the all-new Agent Casefiles.
1) The Intro
The first time you boot up the game, there’s a new and overhauled prologue/tutorial to the game, where you’ll meet the characters, get comfortable with the setting, and be set on the path for the rest of the game.
If you haven’t played the game since the Blackout Protocol days, you’ll find this to be a wildly different first-time experience. If you’ve played the current placeholder version of the intro in the game’s live version, you’ll still find the release version pretty majorly different—the biggest difference being, you’ll get to meet the game’s big bad!
[A friendly meet-cute with a charming gentleman]
The intro takes most players about 20-30 minutes to get through, at the end of which you’re deposited at the Command Center. While we won’t be resetting save data on release, personally, I think the new intro kicks ass, so I’d recommend starting a fresh save if you want the full experience.
2) Agent Recruitment
Once you’ve reached the Command Center and the full game opens up, you’ll gain the ability to start recruiting your fellow agents, who you can find and rescue in Restricted Rooms on the Lobby, Office, and Deep Storage Levels.
Upon recruiting a character, they’ll be sent back to the Command Center. The next time you return, you’ll have a little onboarding interview with them, where you’ll get a quick taste-test of what their personal story is about.
[Interviewing your new Head of Grumpiness.]
After that, you’re free to switch characters and play as them. And you’ll want to, because…
3) Agent Casefiles
In the release version of the game, we’re unlocking the Agent Casefiles screen from the terminal in the Command Center. This is the main home for all unlockable story content. You can think of it like a vending machine that dispenses little snack-size servings of plot.
The currency you’ll use to interact with this system are USB security dongles, which you can find during runs by looting interaction points or buying them at Chillax Corners.
Each character has their own version of these, and they’re not shared. If you want to learn more about Boy Scout, play as Boy Scout. If you want to learn more about Beaker, play as Beaker.
[A buffet of dongles for your viewing pleasure.]
The next time you return to the Command Center, you can head to the Casefiles screen to spend your hard-earned dongles and unlock story files. These take three forms:
- Text documents
- Voiced audio logs
- Full visual novel scenes
[The casefiles screen.]
But you won’t be unlocking these one at a time (because that’s boring). Instead, you’ll decrypt packets, which unlock multiple files at once. A packet can consist of any blend of the above – sometimes it’s three documents, sometimes it’s two documents and an audio log, whatever.
Each packet consists of one major story beat in each character’s ongoing investigation into whatever personal mystery they’re pursuing at Section 13. For Boy Scout, that’s figuring out what the Nephilim is after, and why it crossed his path years ago. For Red, that’s digging into some surprising personal connections to S2P.
[Unlocking a packet of casefiles.]
These story beats are broken into 4 Acts, which are tied to in-game progress (and that is shared).
- Agent Casefiles system itself: Comes online the first time you return to the hub with at least 1 USB Dongle in your possession.
- Act 1 content: Becomes available for unlock, for each Agent, immediately upon recruiting them
- Act 2 content: Becomes available for all agents after recruiting the whole gang
- Act 3 content: Becomes available for all agents after beating the Exosuit for the first time (as anyone)
- Act 4 content: Becomes available for all agents after beating the Nephilim for the first time (as anyone)
Flipping through a new packet of story files will typically take just a few minutes – but there’s a lot of them. Each character’s storyline has about 15-20 packets total, and we’ve got just over 170 individual story unlockables in the game as a whole.
The goal is a story experience that threads into the core play loop without overwhelming it, giving you a little burst of intrigue between runs, to take some of the sting out of death and foster a deeper connection with the world.
4) Boss Dialogues
Last but not least, we’re adding Hades-style recurring boss dialogues to the game. Each time you face off against a boss, you’ll get a fresh, brisk little exchange of banter between them and whoever you’re playing as.
[Chattin’ with the baddies.]
There’s not a massive amount of these (because, unlike Hades, our game has 4 protagonists). But what’s there is pretty fun, and they’ll respond dynamically to various play triggers, including progress through each character’s personal storyline and the game as a whole.
Mainly, these are short, simple, and silly, focused on injecting the bosses with some flavor and personality. So instead of just big scary lifebars, they’re big scary lifebars with names.
That’s All, Folks!
That’s pretty much all I got for you today! Our hope with the addition of these elements is not to fundamentally alter the core gameplay loop, but to enhance it, making the world more immersive and the characters more interesting. Do a run, come back to the hub, snack on some story, then get back out there and do it again.
Oh, and in case you’re wondering how all this interacts with multiplayer, the short answer is: it doesn’t. While you’re in multiplayer mode, story stuff mostly just gets turned off. Because nobody wants to stand around while their friend reads a book or watches a cutscene.