When Chris Avellone took the stage at Microsoft’s E3 2018 presser to showcase Dying Light 2, we knew it would be something special. What could he, better known for his role in projects like Fallout: New Vegas and Prey, offer the game in terms of choice and world-building? As it turns, quite a lot. VG247 had a chance to speak to Avellone, who serves as Narrative Designer, and Techland creative director Adrian Ciszewski, to learn more.

The E3 2018 showcase exhibited one simple fact in Dying Light 2 – your choices will shape the world around you. To that effect, the sequel is looking to create “an open story that complements an open-world game.” Avellone has been involved with the project since its planning stage, creating the lore and co-creating the storyline with other writers. The overall responsiveness of the “World System” was also created partly by Avellone. As the demo showcased, the player could benefit the Peacekeepers and increase their stranglehold on the city or weaken it, thus inviting unwelcome bandits from outside.

However, as Ciszewski notes, it’s not that there are just good or bad choices running through the game. “What’s interesting about what we showed at E3 is that neither choice is a ‘good’ one,” he said. “The Peacekeepers brutally punish any trivial misdemeanour, while the bandits use people for their own gain, but they have a different approach to punishing people.

“You could choose to do nothing and walk away, and that itself is going to have a different outcome, because the bandits are not going to be able to build their empire without your help. Or you could try and actually change those factions’ beliefs. For example, a new leader for the Peacekeepers may fundamentally change their entire legal system.

“Of course, what we’ve shown you is just one way this entire scenario could have played out – the protagonist enters the water tower with information about a Peacekeeper emissary. If the player had entered the tower with different information, the whole scenario could’ve taken a completely different course.”

Describing its choices as “shades of grey”, is there an underlying message that Dying Light 2 is trying to convey? What if players take no sides in this ensuing mess? Ciszewksi stated that, “There is a stream that runs through Dying Light 2; a common thread that ties together everything that we do. But I don’t want to spell it out. I’d prefer players to experience it at a subconscious level.”

Avellone looks at the game as another way to challenge pre-established notions and empower players to dismantle a foe’s entire philosophy rather than physically beating them. “I’m addicted to challenging a lot of tropes, and trying to flip them on their head and see what shakes out story-wise.

“I also tend to favor antagonists and rivals that have a higher agenda – not because it makes them superior, but because ideally players don’t just want to prove themselves physically superior, but they also want to challenge your enemy’s philosophy to the point where it breaks down…which I see as a far superior victory to simply punching an enemy’s lights out.”

Dying Light 2 will be releasing in 2019 for Xbox One, PS4 and PC. What are your thoughts on the approach of Avellone and Techland to the story and world? Let us know below.

Remember Chris Avellone, the man who worked on games like Planescape: Torment and Fallout 2 before co-founding Obsidian to work on Pillars of Eternity and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2 – The Sith Lords? He recently revealed via Twitter that he’s working with Arkane Austin on Prey, the first person shooter that’s a reboot of the franchise.

Avellone has quite the resume (he was the writer and director for the DLC on Fallout: New Vegas) and current workload. He’s working with inXile Entertainment on Torment: Tides of Numenera and with Larian Studios on Divinity: Original Sin 2. Avellone’s role on Prey hasn’t really been revealed but it will be interesting to see the game’s direction with him on the team.

Prey was showcased at Bethesda’s E3 showcase and takes place in a space station overrun by aliens in the year 2032. Fortunately, you have special powers to aid you, much like in System Shock. Prey is out in 2017 for Xbox One, PS4 and PC.

While it never arrived, that doesn’t mean it never existed. Obsidian Entertainment designer Chris Avellone, who worked on Knights of the Old Republic 2, stated that KOTOR 3 was indeed at pre-production at the studio. Speaking to Eurogamer, Avellone talked about why the game never went any further. “It was a matter of getting LucasArts to greenlight the title and I… To be honest I don’t know all the reasons that went into this, whether they wanted to have an internal team do it, whether they logistics didn’t work out…

“Ultimately, it felt like we were pitching and pitching and it just wasn’t going anywhere, and at some point people just drew a line and said ‘it’s just not going to happen,’ which made us kind of sad,” he continued. “But, OK – if that’s the business, that’s the business.”

Of course, with Bioware as one of the developers for one of the next generation Star Wars titles, as part of the agreement between EA and new owner Disney, a revival of the franchise may not be too far-fetched.

This includes taking the series to new locations, such as New Orleans, where a dam stretched around the city; San Franciso; the Erie Stretch briefly mentioned in The Pitt; and maybe some locations outside of the US. Fans are curious to know about the Fallout universe outside of the US, especially Russian and Polish games.

Avellone also talked about what he thought the series could do with next generation consoles. Taking the PS4 as an example, he believed that the Share button could be used to easily share video clips of all the crazy stuff people do in the game. Taking the example of New Vegas, Avellone says those videos helped shape a lot of the Fallout experience, and that encouraging them to be easier to share could give a lot of mileage to the games.

What would you like to see the next Fallout do? Let us know in the comments below.

Chris Avellone has said how challenging his career was in an interview with GI.biz. He also revealed why he hasn’t reached the same status as Warren Spector or Ken Levine.

“I suspect that what Levine and Spector do is more akin to what a project director at Obsidian does; they’re the visionary responsible for the guiding of a project and everyone else on the team looks to them to set the tone and the goals of the project,” he said.

“Since we have multiple projects going on at once, having someone dedicated to each rather than overseeing both is ideal.

“In my role as a creative director at Obsidian, my goal is to help project directors, designers, and other studio owners design and make ‘fun’ better at the company. I give advice and critiques when I can to help the process.”

You can read the rest of the interview over at the link. Tell us what you think in the comments section below.