Pacific Rim game idea (spoilers)

[Ihateregistering1]

Ok, I finally got around to seeing Pacific Rim yesterday (awesome) and something just hit me today. Ok, here's Pacific Rim's plot in a nutshell:

Hive Mind Aliens from another dimension, using technology far beyond ours, launch an assault on earth. The world bands together and creates a fictitious Military/Scientific organization with the bests minds and Soldiers to develop advanced ways to counteract these aliens (the Jaegers). The Aliens continue to send bigger and badder weapons (Kaiju) our way, and we need to continuously research new ways to defeat them and continuously upgrade our equipment. In the end, only a last ditch effort using our latest technology after tapping into the Alien hive mind allows us to prevail.

Is it just me, or is that practically word for word the plot for "X-Com: Enemy Unknown"?

So, I was thinking how awesome would it be if someone made a Pacific Rim version of X-Com? You are the Commander of the Jaeger program, and you have to research and build new and better Jaegers, conduct research on both Kaiju and new weapons tech, recruit pilots, handle budgets (which come from the various countries, and you have to keep them happy to continue to receive funding), build new laboratories and factories in your base, build new bases, build satellites to monitor Kaiju activity and any new dimensional rifts, and (of course) battle the Kaiju with your Jaegers when they attack (haven't really thought of how they'd implement that yet). Anyone else think this would be an outstanding way to do a movie tie-in?

 

[FPLOON]

I can imagine that, especially all of the non-combat elements... However, I can't imagine any of the actual battles to be fully turned-based, per se... and even if the combat was turn-based, I imagine it as when a Kaiju and and Jaager do duke it out, it becomes more in the realm of a standard fighting game like Street Fighter or Tekken, where you have to adapt the Jaeger's different battling styles, the Kaiju's movement patterns, and the different environments where these attacks are happening in order to survive for another day.


To add on to the research and upgrade portions of the game tie-in, just like in the movie, it's all being done during the countdown of the clock that tells you when the next possible attack is going to happen... So, choosing what to focus on more during crucial moments before pending battles adds to the challenge of managing your resources, your weapons, and your allies (which are willing to help you out during certain parts of a particular battle that you can use to your advantage as well).


Although, since this is still a movie game tie-in, there will be options to have some of the more complex forms of strategy building on auto-pilot and/or at a more general and easier pace to get into for those that are not too familiar with in-dept strategy games or just want to play the parts where the Jaegers beat the crap out of the different types of Kaiju...


Overall, I am all for this type of game based on Pacific Rim, hands down... and, if it does become a reality, I do hope that it's as awesometacular as the movie itself...

 

[Zhukov]

Ehhhh... call me dumb, but I think I'd rather a Pacific Rim game that centered around using giant robot fists to punch Godzilla in his toothy schnoz rather than a Pacific Rim-themed XCOM clone.

 

[IllumInaTIma]

Ehhhh... call me dumb, but I think I'd rather a Pacific Rim game that centered around using giant robot fists to punch Godzilla in his toothy schnoz rather than a Pacific Rim-themed XCOM clone.

They are actually making Pacific Rim game, it's gonna be a fighting as far as I'm aware.

As for OP idea, I like it! Management system in XCOM was my favorite part. Just imagine, being able to design Jaegers, to find suitable, drift-compatible pilots, to upgrade you Jaegers from Mark 1 to Mark 2! Damn! However, I don't think that would work in a Turn-based battle system, simply because of Pacific Rim's plot. Kaijus used to come one by one, and there isn't much fun in having a One vs. One Turn Based battle.

 

[Ihateregistering1]

Ehhhh... call me dumb, but I think I'd rather a Pacific Rim game that centered around using giant robot fists to punch Godzilla in his toothy schnoz rather than a Pacific Rim-themed XCOM clone.

They are actually making Pacific Rim game, it's gonna be a fighting as far as I'm aware.

As for OP idea, I like it! Management system in XCOM was my favorite part. Just imagine, being able to design Jaegers, to find suitable, drift-compatible pilots, to upgrade you Jaegers from Mark 1 to Mark 2! Damn! However, I don't think that would work in a Turn-based battle system, simply because of Pacific Rim's plot. Kaijus used to come one by one, and there isn't much fun in having a One vs. One Turn Based battle.

Who says it need be a turn-based system? This is more about capturing the X-Com feel and combining it with the best parts of Pacific Rim than following the X-Com formula 100% to a T, there's lots of ways you could handle the Jaeger/Kaiju battles, it wouldn't necessarily have to be turn-based. Real-time, turn-based, individual combat, maybe have it so your pilots fight largely on their own with only some specific inputs from you, etc.

 

[Nouw]

I think that's a really neat idea OP.

I reckon the combat could just simply be a straight action-game. I'm thinking of a third-person beat 'em up with a Space Marine feel, the sense of weight you had while playing was awesome, and added fighting-game elements. Extra fancy gadgetry and tech included because come on, we all want to make up our own crazy fighting move and then use it.

 

[josemlopes]

Ehhhh... call me dumb, but I think I'd rather a Pacific Rim game that centered around using giant robot fists to punch Godzilla in his toothy schnoz rather than a Pacific Rim-themed XCOM clone.

You could always have the combat part be more action oriented with the player actually taking control of the mech and fistcuff your way out but to be honest that XCOM influence on the "downtime" parts where you arent fighting would be a nice change of pace and a good new layer to it.

 

[47trollkill]

I personally think that you should customize the jaegers however you want with upgrades and such and let the AI fight the monster with input from you through special moves and boosts, and then if you win the nations pay you more money to upgrade in preperation for the next kaiju attack and you could upgrade your jaegers, etc.

 

[hazabaza1]

There's already a Pacific Rim game. Apparently it's real bad.

 

[BBboy20]

This has to be the series that can finally break Kojima/Productions away from Metal Gear spaming. Considering how non-story focused it is, they can easily made the best mecha game besides ZOE with production value all other without worrying much about lore or characters while showcasing an bonzanza of ambitious mecha gaming that would put everyone's eyes on even if they have no care for robos/monster genres.

Of course, you would think DICE would be the best choice since they know Frostbite the most but considering how much burning they caused to loyal fans with Battlefield 3 and the uncertainty of what their philosophy is these days, along with how much control EA has ever them, and based on how much of a connection Del Toro has with Kojima, they seem to be the best people for the job.................even if this might mean this will put ZOE even further on the backburner...

 

[Dryk]

Is it just me, or is that practically word for word the plot for "X-Com: Enemy Unknown"?

No it's the plot for XCom: Terror from the Deep... which was my first thought in the first trailer before the robots showed up.

But yes the perfect Pacific Rim game would be X-Com management coupled with some sort of third-person combat. Hell they already have the shadowy UN council withdrawing funding when you do badly part down.

 

[Smooth Operator]

It is actually pretty damn close to the whole XCom thing, hell XCom even with it's poor story is far more expansive on the "state of the world" thing then Pacific Rim.

Obviously you need to only take the concept for the IP into consideration and not the script, so instead of trying to recreate what seemed like the last two days of that movie scenario I'd go right to the start of the jager program with many more mech variations and also smaller monsters that would create different mission types.
Technical part I would build from the original XCom idea, where you pick a specific location on the planet for your base for maximum coverage, you also get to build multiple bases for greater effectiveness, your bases get to be designed tile by tile which is consequently also of great importance when a base gets attacked.
Then as the combat part you quite obviously need to go for the systematic brawler (much like Souls games), as both monsters and robots are lumbering beasts of burden that is the only proper fit, and for cover you get to use buildings and mountains putting terrain to good use, possibly using surrounding objects as extra weapons (cranes, ships, trucks, containers, statues, collapse buildings strategically, ...), heck you could even add some black market deals so they would deliver heavy machinery to the location of the fight.

And as the cherry on top they could finally do live action cut scenes again for the story part, because you don't get to deal directly with people in game that would totally work.

Sadly I can't think of a dev that could pull all this off, and certainly not someone to fund it either.