As the son of an Air Force intelligence officer I was a bit
intrigued when I got the press release for the upcoming game Hammer & Sickle. Not only was the
game set during the early stages of the Cold War but instead of taking the role
as a spy for the NATO side you actually played the game from a Soviet
perspective. Intrigued I contacted
(he’ll say harassed) our PR person for CDV and he hooked us up with the
following interview.
GamingNexus: Can you
introduce yourself and your role on the game?
Hello, I’m Mario Kroll, the Associate Producer for Hammer
& Sickle. I’m also the PR & Marketing Director for CDV Software
Entertainment USA.
My role in the game was to primarily speak to the North
American audiences about Hammer & Sickle and to get them excited about this
very unusual title. I also work with the English-speaking online communities to
test the game and get the word out about it. Along with that, I collect
feedback from both gamers and editors and get it to the developers to help them
better adapt the game so it will hopefully resonate with the North American
consumer.
GamingNexus: Could
you describe the plot of the game and the timeframe of the game?
Mario Kroll: Hammer
& Sickle takes place in 1949, primarily in the British-American sector of
post-World War II Germany. In the Second World War your alter ego was a Special
Forces soldier that was very successful fighting against the Germans from
inside the enemy’s territory. The war ended, all seemed peaceful and you
retired, so to speak. Suddenly you get a summons from a former superior, now
deep within the KGB, asking you to return to Germany and build up a network of
informers to keep tabs on the new threat – the Western Allies. You manage to
infiltrate Germany,
but once you get there things go terribly wrong. Most of your former contacts
are imprisoned, dead or have vanished. You, stuck without money, paper and
limited weapons have few choices. To top it off, you stumble across a plot
where someone is trying to pit the two new super powers against each other in a
nuclear Armageddon. Your mission becomes to find out who is behind the plot,
why they are trying to accomplish this and, most importantly, how to stop it.
GamingNexus: As an
American it’s a bit odd to play the part of a Soviet spy, how did you come up
with the idea of having players see such a different side of the political
fence?
Mario Kroll: That’s
really what makes the game unique; getting to see the world from the side we
used to say was that of “the bad guys.” By playing as a Soviet spy, you’re not
confined to doing nice things or of fighting against conventional “bad guys”.
The game was developed in
Russia
and so, I suppose, from the developer’s perspective it was perfectly natural to
play the non-American. I think the concept is refreshing and lets you
appreciate “how the other side lives,” if you will.
GamingNexus: When people think of Cold War era spies, they usually think
of a character like James Bond, how does the main character in the game compare
to 007?
Mario Kroll: For starters, you are not confined to any one particular
character. You can create your own character in terms of appearance and
background (which translates into one of six specializations). While your
experience from a plot perspective is the same, how you look and what you are
naturally adept at is different based on your preferences. James Bond, in my
mind, is this sexy suave guy, almost with super-hero like charm and powers. Our
main character is a much more gritty soldier that happens to be good at both
killing and at spy tradecraft. How he develops and what he does after the game
begins is really up to you.
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