ECTS: Sean Dillon Revealed

British studio Pixelogic Limited, developers of The Italian Job for the PS, is creating a PlayStation 2 action-adventure game based on Jack Higgins' Sean Dillon character. This particular game will in fact be based on his latest novel, Day of Reckoning. GameSpot spoke with Brian Reynolds, studio manager at Pixelogic Limited, for the first details on the company's PlayStation 2 game. The game puts the player in the role of Sean Dillon, an ex-IRA member who is currently working as an operative for the British government. Reynolds describes the character as a "cool version of 007" - he is not the traditional good guy character and will use ant means necessary to get the job done.

Although the game will have plenty of sub-plots, the primary objective is to bring down the Mafia presence. It will be played mostly through a third person perspective, but it will transition into a first person camera view when using a weapon. Reynolds promises that there will be several weapons to choose from, including a shoulder-mounted bazooka. Also, the enemy's weapons and ammo will be limited, as Pixelogic wants to portray more realistic gameplay mechanics in the game.

Sean Dillon will primarily involve walking around lengthy levels, but Reynolds promises that there will also be driving missions. The company has solid experience with the racing/driving genre and Reynolds expects the driving missions in Sean Dillion to be an "integral part of the game." It will be anything but a peripheral throw-in mode.

Finally, Reynolds told GameSpot that there will be at least 15 areas in the game. He would like to include a variety of gameplay options as in Perfect Dark, but he would also like Sean Dillon's gameplay to last longer than Rare's N64 game. Other than the one player game there will also be a co-operative 2 player mode and what Reynolds called an anti-cooperative mode - here one player will control the protagonist and the other will try to stop him. Pixelogic is also considering network functions for the game. When asked of the prospects Reynold's said, "tentatively, yes."

Sean Dillon is being developed using Criterion's Renderware development environment. Pixelogic is currently in the advanced stage of negotiations with a few publishers and the game could be released in late 2001.