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Here is a concept skecth of Renee, who starts out as a Pawn and
must work his way up the ranks in the White Campaign.
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Souping up the gameplay wasn't enough for En Passant. It wanted to add the frills. "It's not about real-time or turn-based; it's about who has the most style, the most finesse - the best package," says Menard. With this creed in mind, En Passant took Chess to a new level with two full-featured branching single-player campaigns as well as a host of new multiplayer features, including a tactics phase and real-time speech support over the Internet. Menard is especially pleased with the campaign: "People have been playing Chess for years - and all these years, they say, 'What is it all about?' Now we will tell them." Without spoiling anything, it's safe to say that En Passant learned a great deal from Blizzard, with in-engine cutscenes, special characters, betrayal, and even a little comedy over the course of the White and Black campaigns.
The White campaign follows the story of the new recruit Renee, who you'll help rise through the ranks as pawn, squire, knight, and maybe even beyond. The Black campaign is told from the perspective of Queen Arnoux, and while the two campaigns are self-contained, certain details - such as Renee's complex relationship with Arnoux - will be revealed only after you've played through both.
"People have been playing Chess for years - and all these years, they say,
'What is it all about?' Now we will tell them."
--En Passant president Menard
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The missions, whose difficulty caters to the player's skill level, typically eschew the usual "destroy your enemy" objective and often demand you solve a situation in creative ways. For instance, in one mission, you must rescue your bishops before you can use them to persuade a powerful enemy knight to your side. Another mission forces Renee, now a knight, to fend off a powerful pair of rooks single-handedly. The campaigns are designed to offer substantial replay value, insofar as you must manage resources in between scenarios with which you'll hire new units and special characters as well as purchase "power-ups" and tactical reconnaissance about the forthcoming battle.
As for the multiplayer suite, Chess II lets you quickly set up servers or join games over the Internet or network, and you can either play using the default settings or set your game up how you like if the server allows the tactics phase. Turn time limits, unit restrictions (don't like the queen? leave her out!), and "skin" downloads all let you customize multiplayer chess to your liking. The real-time Internet speech option also gives you something to do when it isn't your turn to move. Chess II also includes a scenario editor, which lets you build custom missions using six different terrain tilesets, such as tundra and veldt. You can even design your own special characters, import sounds, and create branching campaigns. In fact, the Chess II campaigns were created using the very same tools included in the game.
Replayability will be enhanced with the ChEd editor, which
allows you to create all kinds of scenarios, including classic chess, shown
here.
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En Passant's Frederic Menard would be the first to tell you that creating a sequel to Chess is no simple task. He'll also admit that, even after almost a year of rigorous testing with a team of highly rated Chess players, he isn't satisfied that the game is complete, and its new pieces and rules change the game for the better. Nevertheless, Menard is confident that everything will fall into place in the final stages of testing. When asked how he expects the game to be received, Menard is to the point: "This is the sequel they've been waiting for since they played a strategy game for the first time." Let's hope so.
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