The Mummy Demastered Review and Interview with WayForward Games

 

I'm not sure the target audience for this game, but I am certain it flew under their radar.  I cannot think of any marketing for this game, it is tied to a reboot of a classic movie franchise, and somehow it extremely good.  That somehow is the talented folks at WayForward.  I find myself wanting to go back and play it just to listen to the incredible soundtrack and walk around the environments.

You start off with a small cutscene, and then you are thrown into the mix.  You're a random Prodigium soldier going after Princess Ahmanet.  Then you just start shooting.  Your main gun is not the strongest but has infinite ammo, which is an amazing start to a game.  Get out there and explore and shoot your damn gun.  It rules. You also get 2 grenades that can hurt enemies or blow up blocked entryways. You eventually get stronger guns that have finite ammo. You can replenish ammo, grenades, and health from destroying certain parts of the environment ala Castlevania lamps, or sometimes a drop from a killed enemy.  It replenishes your ammo at a rate I found to be perfect.  You don't always have the finite ammunition weapons and grenades, but it gives you enough to rotate between your guns and grenades at a super fun rate.

That's basically it.  They reveal your movement, guns, and grenade info right away and then you get to blast monsters relentlessly.  The sign of a good game is how quickly they let you get into the core gameplay loop, and The Mummy Demastered is quick with it.  They put you in this fun zone right away and all the upgrades you get from here improve on that formula.

Despite being short in total length and relatively simple, it is dense and succinct to perfection.  You master the movement and shooting, because it's all you have, and they scatter fun and interesting power-ups across the game that you unlock swiftly because of its size, leaving you always interested and always getting stronger.  Elite mechanics.  The unlocks are varied and unique.  The very first movement upgrade you get is that the soldier can hang from the ceiling.  I have never seen this done before in a metroidvania in such a way, and not as the first upgrade.  Getting a cool new movement upgrade very early unlocks so much more of the map while taking away that annoying part of these games where there are a ton of different unattainable rooms that you have to come back to later.  This still exists, but at such a smaller scale that it isn't a bother.  You then start getting more guns, ammo, and health upgrades.  The interesting thing about the upgrades is they figured out a way to make them all work thematically as well.  Some of the items you get are military, like rappel gear or a bandolier, and the more mystical ones like being able to run faster and jump higher, are from ancient Egyptian scrolls and trinkets.  It makes sense and it feels good to get supernatural power-ups without it feeling tacked on.  It doesn't need to be this way, but it adds a little extra flair that it works out.

The art style is amazing.  It is the best version of pixel-graphics I have seen.  They stylize it well, so it doesn't look like a jumbled mess of disgusting pixels.  It really captures a classic look that will hold up over time. The maps are designed expertly.  Diverse, compact, and interesting, with lots of movement and diversity in travel.  You start off jumping and climbing, but then you get a speed boost upgrade.  The coolest thing about the speed upgrade is that your speed grows over time and keeps momentum through rooms, which makes some areas of the game a legitimately unique run-and-gun segment.  You'll notice that two rooms away there is a jump that you can probably make with your new speed upgrade, since you can jump further.  You'll have to make it at least half of the way through the previous room to build enough speed for it.  You end up pre-emptively shooting at things that aren't on screen yet, so you can do enough damage to kill them and keep running, then enter the next room at full speed and get to a new area with the jump.  It's an incredible, unique mechanic.  

Near the end of the game I got 2 powerups that I don't think are required, but made the game even more fun.  You get a buff that prevents you from getting knocked back on hit, and you get a phase dash.  The phase dash sends you a short distance (in any direction!) and during the animation, you cannot take damage.  It's quick, fun, and streamlines movement at the perfect moment during the playthrough.  When you now reach max speed with your speed boost, and you have phase shift, you'll notice you glow red.  If you press the button for phase shift when at max speed, you'll dash in that direction until you hit an immovable object.  You destroy enemies, breakable objects, and at this point I discovered secret walls!  The pacing with which you get your items, get to experiment with them, and then discover the depth that they offer is, again, perfect.  You get a new ability, can use it on repeat, and it has more than one application.  The team at WayForward deserves incredible praise for this feat.

The game is punishing in interesting ways.  The difficulty doesn't come from an obnoxious method like enemies with no telegraph or too large a health pool.  In fact, some of the enemies are downright cannon fodder. It's simply the way that the maps and the enemy locations are expertly crafted and placed makes it a challenging experience.  There is a bug enemy that jumps backs and forth in a horizontal line only.  Combined with the platforming you must accomplish, and the knockback from hits taken, and plus the number of these enemies on screen at one time, and it's the perfect mixture.  They telegraph their moves on repeat, but having to balance jumping between platforms, shooting them, and also perhaps dodging other enemies on screen at the time, and you have a fun, difficult, but fair system.  It's honestly so well done I was astonished.  Repeatedly, this game is proven to be a masterclass in the genre.

I do have one thing I have to mention.  I am an extremely elite gamer.  My first and only playthrough, I never died.  I found out from reading about the game that there is a mechanic I missed entirely.  When you die, the soldier you were playing as is resurrected as a zombie, and you take control of another nameless soldier.  You have to go and kill your former self as a zombie, who now has all your gear and power-ups, to get them back.  I can't really say how I feel about this because I never experienced it, but on paper it sounds dope and I think anyone who whines about it is a punk bitch.  Should have been like me and not died, loser.

My favorite thing about the game is the storytelling.  Not that it has an excellent story, but the way that it is done.  There are basically no cutscenes, and since you are a soldier on a mission, all of the exposition is done via text blurbs from your commander.  They are short, quick, and infrequent.  You get just enough to keep the story progressing, and they take control away from the player for the shortest possible amount of time.  Not every game needs to be a deep, Homer-esque epic.  This game succeeds because it is not derivative, despite being a movie tie-in.  It is 99% action and 1% explanation.  The golden ratio to which metroidvanias/platformers should aspire.  

I legitimately could not tell you the name of a single character, even the powerful female mummy you are chasing the whole time.  Partly because I didn't care to remember it, and partly because they don't beat you over the head with her squawking at you.  At some point in gaming, some dickhead said that Banjo-Kazooie was cool and you need to have the final boss talking to you in quips every 10 seconds or they are not established enough as a foe.  Puke.  You start the game, your commander basically tells you "Go check this place out," then shit goes haywire and the rest of the game is "better kill that evil mummy before she kills us."  It's awesome.  She talks some shit to you every time you see her, but it lasts 10 seconds and then you pull your gun out and start blasting.  

Take a page out of The Mummy Demastered's book.  It was short, taking me about 3.5 hours to complete, but it's length is not a detriment.  The maps are small and well-built, so you don't get sick of exploring and backtracking.  The discovery of new items, upgrades, and bosses is so frequent that you don't have time to get bored.  You're going at an incendiary pace simply by playing.  The gun upgrades are varied, extremely cool and diverse, and powerful.  It does so many things right and doesn't allow you to become exhausted by them because it's suddenly over.  I would much rather a product like this, short, succinct, yet very well done.  You feel accomplished and satisfied at the end.

It's a little bit Metroid, little bit Contra, and a little bit Metal Slug; in tone, gameplay, and look.  WayForward Technologies developed The Mummy Demastered, and they deserve accolades for their design decisions.  They take a few specific mechanics, they craft them expertly and polish them well, and they don't try to do too much.  This is a movie tie-in game to the 2017 The Mummy.  It was not expected to be good, but it is.  It outshines most other metroidvanias by a large margin.

That is essentially the mantra of the game.  Awesome platforming, cool guns, always be shooting.  It's also accompanied the entire time by a completely dynamite soundtrack.  I went out and bought it right after the game.  For an unknown game tied to a movie, they made an incredible fucking metroidvania with an outstanding soundtrack.  This game is a compact, venerable, masterpiece.  It sets out a simple goal and achieves it with gusto.

The Mummy Demastered is ambient, it's interesting, it's fluid and precise.  The gaming is quick, constant, and always enjoyable.  It's balanced well and they give you a ton of fun options.  It doesn't get boring, it nails things that a ton of other games in the genre try to do but can't, and it leaves you wanting more, in the best way possible.  I honestly can't say enough good things about this game.  I would call it a metroid-lite, and in that regard, it is without flaw.

After completing the game, I reached out to WayForward to see if I could pick their brains about some questions I had.  They were kind enough to donate some of their time to answering them.  

Check out my Mummy Demastered Q&A

Questions by me (Alex Ferrence) and Answered by Adam Tierney (WayForward head of bizdev and publishing) and Tomm Hulett (designer on The Mummy Demastered)

How were you approached about this project, it being a movie tie-in, and how much involvement did the movie studios have in the production of the game?

Adam: WayForward has a great relationship with NBC Universal, and this was one of the brands they were looking for a game based on during our discussions in 2016. Although The Mummy was planned to be a major movie event for them, apparently there hadn’t been a game greenlit yet. With limited development time available, we pitched it as a pixel art Metroidvania game and they liked that idea. There was pretty comprehensive coordination between WayForward and NBC Universal in terms of elements based on the film, although there was also a great deal of secrecy, too (given the importance of the film at that time).

The game is short, but extremely polished.  Do you think the length attributed to your ability to craft a more well-done game, or would you attribute it more to your experience as a development team with a high amount of diverse games completed?

Tomm: When we start a project we try to find the right scope so the game can be an appropriate length, and have an appropriate amount of content, but we have enough time to polish it and make it feel refined. Of course, that is not an exact science, and many surprises can crop up during any development. In a Metroidvania-style game like The Mummy Demastered, this is, of course, intertwined with player abilities, how many weapons and items you have, and how they unlock new areas and environments. This is one reason I was brought onto the project - we were in a position where there didn't seem to be enough time to get all our planned levels in, so I stepped in to assist the director, Austin Ivansmith. He and I could split the areas that still needed to be designed and implemented, ensuring everything made it in with time left to polish.

Was there a lead director on the project? If yes: Were the gameplay decisions such as which power-ups to implement decided by them alone? If no: Who was responsible for crucial gameplay choices (power-ups and gameplay choices consisting of which power-ups to make, their placement, their balance, how often you receive them, and in what order)?

Adam: Yes, there’s typically a lead designer and director on most WayForward productions. Austin Ivansmith was director and Tomm Hulett (here answering questions with me) was the game’s designer.

Tomm: Both being directors, Austin had run some ideas past me before I was involved on the project, since I had worked on some Metroidvanias in the past, but it was basically his show. He had an idea for what weapons you would get when, and how the different areas linked together, how often you'd want to backtrack, and so on. Once I came on to help out, I did my best to download his intentions and ideas, and then work to make them happen. 

Who was in charge of level design?  Specifically, what factors went into creating the maps (deciding the tone, spacing, shape, length, difficulty)?

Tomm: When I came on, Austin had already placed each room so it was possible to play through the complete map - even though most of it was just empty rooms without enemies, platforming, etc. So then, for my areas, my job was to actually fill those spaces with fun gameplay. This was a nice change for me because as a director, I'm usually giving my design team the "big picture" view and the materials they need to craft a fun game experience. With Mummy, I got to focus on the moment-to-moment challenges since Austin handled the director part. Since the overall shape was taken care of, I had a lot of freedom to play around and come up with level challenges myself.

What would you consider your studios "biggest" game?  Either in regards to sales or the one you feel is most representative of you?

Adam: It depends on how you qualify that, but some of our most notable titles over the years have been the Shantae games, the River City Girls games, the Mighty Switch Force games, DuckTales Remastered, Contra 4, and Aliens Infestation.

How much freedom were you given in the thematic elements of the game?  For example, the stylization of the player soldier and enemies, the atmosphere and scope of the different map areas, and their relation to each other?

Tomm: Once the art style as a whole was approved by NBC Universal, they trusted us with the specific details. Austin watched all the classic Universal Monster movies to prepare, along with confidential info shared regarding the Dark Universe, and he came up with a lot of potential enemies. Many of these are in the final game, but there were a few cuts. As far as I'm aware (this might not be entirely correct) I believe Austin pitched the areas of the game based on what we knew about the film - but once the actual areas/themes were decided, we determined the details.

How was your relationship with Monomer in making the music for this game, and were they given the same amount of freedom to construct a soundtrack?  Were they chosen because their previous sound matched your vision for the music? How much oversight was involved on a track-by-track basis?

Adam: I believe the game’s director (Austin) was a big fan of Monomer, so he reached out to him about composing the soundtrack for us. The Mummy Demastered soundtrack came out great, and really matched the retro visuals and gameplay of the title. All tracks are available for streaming on Spotify and other services. As for oversight, we typically put a great deal of trust in our musicians and will give them some info on track use - like what the stage will look like, or how the boss will play - but don’t usually over-direct them too much.

Where did the decision come from to have the player have to kill a zombified soldier to get their abilities back upon death?  Were you worried about the game being too difficult in regards to this feature?  How do you decide how difficult to make it, and what challenges come with that?

Adam: This concept was in the first pitch doc I wrote that we presented to NBC Universal to land the deal. The Mummy as a brand is all about death and rebirth, so having the player’s previous lives come back to fight them just seemed like a cool idea. We refer to this as a “hook,” a memorable, unique gameplay element that will make the game stand out on release, and NBC Universal loved the idea. As for balancing this element against the game’s overall challenge, I’ll let Tomm answer that part of it.

Tomm: Yeah, Adam's idea was a core part of the concept. Shortly after I came on, we had a rough version working and Austin and I had some debates about what the best functionality would be. For example: How much do you keep with you versus how much is carried with your "zombie"? How many zombies could you have active at once? And so on. WayForward creative director Matt Bozon was a part of these discussions as well, so what ended up in the game was probably a mix of all our various ideas and preferences.

A massive thank you to Adam and Tomm from WayForward games for doing this interview. 

Go play The Mummy Demastered!