jim-sumwalt
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Prey 2 creative director sets the scene for an 'alien noir'
Prey 2 drew a lot of quick comparisons to games like Mirror's Edge and Mass Effect following Human Head's gameplay presentation at Bethesda's "BFG 2011" media event last week. Afterwards, I talked with Human Head co-founder Jim Sumwalt, creative director of Prey 2, about another big influence on the game -- film noir. Set in a futuristic, hyper-vertical alien city, Prey 2 features some essential nods to the kind of classic Hollywood film noir that was inspired by German Expressionism. "The obvious is the use of light to create dramatic, long shadows," Sumwalt pointed out. "There's a really awesome use of color and reflective surfaces and distorted images." He cited newer neo-noir films, such as Sin City, as the inspiration for Prey 2's use of shadows. In an alien city, with a confused protagonist (he's got amnesia!), this effect almost guarantees a frantic, stressful tone, which is exactly what Sumwalt and company hope to achieve.
