Automan II

Automan II is an  developed by  and distributed by  for the  and  released in 1997, and for the  and the  in 1998. Veratix Interactive released the game for the in 1999. It is a sequel to 1995 Automan game and is the second installment in the Automan game series. Similar to that of the first game, the player assumes control of a criminal in an open world setting and complete missions in order to progress the story. Automan II is also the first game in the series which do not have separate domestic and international titles, with the Seratofian label simply changed to what the game is recognized as internationally.

This is the first time the in-game map was modelled after a real life location. Ambrosia, Tiperyn (named as Ambratia in-game) was chosen by the developers to be the setting for the game. With the game being set in a specific location, this is also consequently the first time in the game's history where the story and quests are unique and tied to the setting itself, rather than multiple story lines clumped into one setting, bringing the story to a more linear and the more traditional format most Automan games are based on. It is also the last game in the 2D universe.

The game recieved moderate reviews upon release, but was generally a commercial success, selling as many copies as the first Automan game. The SP1 version of the game fared the best among critics while the GBox port recieved the most criticism. The game managed to recieve the 1998 Seratofian game of the year award.

Gameplay
Common to the theme within the Automan series, the game focuses on players controlling a character in-game who does various tasks and missions in order to progress the story. Each mission has its own set of objectives in order to complete, which is adapted to the story the mission wishes to depict. Unlike its predecessor, Automan II is set in a world based on a real life setting. Based on Ambrosia, the capital of Tiperyn, the map makes several clear references to the city, starting from the shape of the city to the names of certain roads and buildings. While not on a mission, the player is free to roam the streets of Ambratia (in game name of Ambrosia), and is free to do whatever the player wishes. Criminal activity such as carjackings, attacking pedestrians, shooting weapons, and blowing objects attract the attention of the Ambratia Police Department (APD), who assess different wanted levels to the player depending on the severity of the crimes committed by the player, with higher wanted leves (represented by stars in game) corresponding to a higher presence of law enforcement after the player. If the player is killed or arrested, they lose all their weapons, and a set amount of money is deducted from the player.

The game adds on several features not found in its predecessor, and removes several features deemed unpopular. The game now has a more robust environment with the addition of an in-game clock and a dynamic day-night cycle. The game also adds safehouses the idea of saving so that the player now has the ability to control the saving mechanism of the game, rather than the game saving after every succesfully completed mission. Automan II is also the first game to introduce spoken dialogues by the characters. The mission system has also been completely rehauled, being more linear and more detrimental towards the story of the game. All missions are related to one another, and there is a set progression of the story based on these missions, but the time in which the player wishes to complete the mission remains free and up to the player. The game also adds adds on a more interactive and responsive AI, the ability to store cars in garages, other criminals present in the game, and several side missions such as taxi, ambulance, vigilante, and rampages.

The player is given a wider assortment of weapons at their diposal in order to inflict damage to opponents. The melee system has been greatly overhaul, and the game now supports at least 6 different types of melee weapons which may be picked up from the environment. The and the  are new additions to the game, enabling the player to intentionally start fires or blow up certain objects or locations. Explosives were also rehauled in the game, supporting three different types of explosives, being the, , and. Weapons are obtainable by either killing an enemy or NPC with the said weapon and picking them up, buying them at illegal gun stores scattered throughout the city, or picking them up from the environment at selectt points across the map.

With a large body of water in-game, the player now has the ability to control boats and vessels in game. The player, however, is not able to swim, and exiting a boat without access to land will always result in instead death. Planes are still absent from the game, as the 2D technology does not support the visuals required for flight simulation. The variety of land vehicles in-game have been increased, and now different types of vehicles will spawn at different locations in the map depending on the environment the map represents. Players should expect to find an abundance of trucks and other industrial vehicles in the industrial area, and expensive and more high-end vehicles in the affluent district of Ambratia. Motorcycles have also been added to the game.

As the game is set in Tiperyn, several notable references to the country are made in game, starting from the story, environment which reflects the real-life Ambrosia, the embroidery and official logos of the Ambratia Police Department, and several buildings present in game. The language used in game is a combination of Tipsprek and. Subtitles are used to translate the dialogues into other languages supported by the game.

Plot
In 1997, local clergy Michael Stevens (Brendan Wilson) is betrayed and left for dead by his long-time friend Joshua Capricorn (Volga Fan Angeles) during a deal meant to set up Michael by turning him to the Federal Holy Guard. Michael is tried and sentenced to a federal prison for his crimes, and is transported to one on the outskirts of Ambratia. Two weeks into his stay, a massive prison riot erupts in the prison, enabling Michael to silently escape and make his way into Ambratia. Michael finds work at an industrial establishment run by Kim Il-Sung (Moon Jae-In) named "Democratic Ramen" in Kaya Town while laying low from the authorities at a safe house near the factory. One day, Kim Jong-Il (Lee Min-Ho), son of the industrial mogul Kim Il-Sung, is ambushed by a rival gang. He succesfully evades the police with help from Michael who snuck him out of the office through the ventilation system, and driving him to the airport to flee the country.

Michael gains the trust of Kim Il-Sung, and is now the company's henchman. Michael does several jobs for Democratic Ramen, including assassinating several important figures of rival ramen companies, and solicits drug trade deals for the establishment. Kim Il-Sung then instructs Michael to obtain several shipments of from Baileneu Ma, but before Michael reaches the agreed meeting point, Kim Jong-Il's messengers stop Michael, informing him that the whole operation was a trap meant to kill him, claiming that Kim Il-Sung grew anxious and paranoid of Michael after learning his past, fearing that he may be an infiltrator. Michael is taken to Kim Jong-Il's safehouse in the outskirts of the city, where he recieves a phone call from Kim Jong-Il detailing the situation. Michael immediately leaves Kaya Town for Downtown, where he is set up to meet with Harold Mackincheesy (K.N.A. Gradinska), a corrupt high-ranking member of the federal holy guard. During the same time, he also works for Drunk Otter (Cezak Heltici), director of the Ambratia Times, and Shah Jahan (Al-Beljiyum Al-Kardayns), a wealthy business owner from Nasiria.

Mackincheesy promises Michael to put Kim Il-Sung behind bars for a hefty amount of time. He instructs Michael to plant drugs in his office, framing Kim Il-Sung for massive amounts of and  found in his cabinet. Kim Il-Sung is sentenced to 25 years in prison, leaving his son in control in the business, pardoning Michael for all his doings. Michael does several jobs for the federal holy guard, gaining new safehouses across the city depending on where Michael is stationed. Mackincheesy offers Michael to kill Joshua as an act of revenge. Michael willingly agrees, plants a bomb beneath his car. However, Joshua returned to his car early and sees Michael sabotaging the vehicle. Michael eventually chases Joshua to the airport, and manages to kill Joshua, already inside the plane.

Development
With funds from both Árlja corporation and awards won by Automan, the team was able to increase its team size and upgrade its equipment, having as much as 40 people in the entire development team of Automan II. The project, still led by Árimjal Kžeščírnji, was meant to capitalize on the gains of the original Automan game. Game development began as early as late 1995. At this stage of development, team leads researched and analyzed on various aspects on the next Automan game, most notably setting. The developers wanted the game to feel relatable to every-day players, and hence a fictional location heavily based on a real life setting was chosen to be the setting for the next Automan game.

Developers also eyed the possibilty of introducing multiple maps into one game, but were met with technical, time, and resource limitations. Spoken dialogues were added in the game, consisting of at least 2,000 different audio files. Initially, Kžeščírnji experimented with 3D models and animations for the game, but due to the strict time table given by corporate, the idea was ditched early on, with 3D engine and gameplay being researched and experimented on in the backgrounds of development.

Open world design
Developers have felt that the environment in the first Automan game, while immersive, is pretty unrelatable to many as the locations featured in game were pure fiction, and due to the technical limitations of the time meant that creating a very relatable setting was difficult. Kžeščírnji along with two other core developers decided, in the winter of 1995, that the setting must be based on a real life location. Initially, the developers looked at a possibility of transforming the Seratofian capital Azxara in game, but was scrapped. A final decision was reached in January 1996, in which Ambrosa, the capital of Tiperyn, would become the next setting of the Automan game, due to its international recognizability and relatively easier street pattern when compared to other cities on the list of potential inspirations.

The team took several field trips to Ambrosia in the spring and summer of 1996 to study the city makeup and feel, recording the architectural styles and form of several buildings. The team visited the Ambrosia city planning department and obtained a city-wide street map, vital for the construction of the beta map of the game. The developers first laid out a street pattern inspired by the real-world city of Ambrosia, and placed important landmarks and buildings in the vicinity of where it stands in the real world first. Land formation and districts also mimicked Ambrosia. The map has a big bay named Ambratia Bay (reference to Ambrosia Bay), and the Ambratia Bay tunnel (Ambrosia Bay tunnel) connecting the two landmasses split by the bay. Districts were placed according to the overall layout of Ambrosia, with sprawling suburbs in the outskirts, a core area of the city, as well as large portions of industrial areas in the northern zones of the city.

Producer Lilijan Tačari describes the environment as "simple, yet deep." The graphics used in the game were not too different from the ones used in the previous game other than improved shading and some textures. Developers mainly relied environment immersion rather than graphics to propell the game forward. Tačari was noted to have said that "Ambratia is a living city full of character and personality," hinting at the revamped AI and collision detection system. The team was also able to put in more satirical comments and parodies of real-world issues in-game with the larger game map and the more in-depth story. Kžeščírnji also credited several documentaries and TV series as the main inspiration for the story line.

Story and characters
Developers designed the story alongside other major characters simultaneously. Kžeščírnji said that "in order to showcase what we have done differently than the first game, we use missions as a tool to expose players to such elements." Kžeščírnji noted that several developers disagreed with him in having a coherent story line for the game as the game should give players more freedom rather than sticking to a set storyline. The team finally agreed to have a simple storyline to help players get the feel of the game and its mechanics, as well as expose and highlight facets of life and crime in Tiperyn, something which could be a selling point to gamers. Kžeščírnji began to consult with Tiperyn experts and notable figures, eventually gaining an in-depth insight on a general flow of the story.

For the first time in the game series' history, dialogues were spoken instead of being filled with imitations of speech in either Tipsprek or depending on context. The team hired several voice actors to fill in dialogues for the game, and hired many more to produce extra noises for NPCs. The game contained at least 2,000 audio files. Cutscenes, while still in 2D, were more interactive and smooth, aided by the addition of spoken dialogues with subtitles for translation. The team decided to increase the amount of cutscenes in game mainly because of the clearer messages cutscenes deliver than outright gameplay, in addition to the easier level of difficulty in narrating a story through cutscenes. This was also the first time a player has no freedom in creating or selecting the protagonist.

Sound design
The sound team consisted of 4 people led by the same music and sound director for the previous Automan game. The team was responsible in stitching in together the 2,000+ audio files recorded for the game. The in-game radio present in select vehicles has also experienced an upgrade. There are four radio stations broadcasting different genres of songs, for a total of 81 licensed and non licensed songs of various artists played in a single loop for each radio station. Ambient noises were diversified and reenginered. Different variations of the same sound now play depending on the player's distance from the sound source. Different speeds result in vastly different sounds, and crashing into one results in different noises depending on the type of vehicle and speed of crash. Engine sounds have also been diversified.

Critical reception
The game went to win a diamond trophy from the Seratofian Gaming Association for its eventual accomplishment of 250,000 domestic sales for the Doors version. The SP1 version won a golden trophy from the same association for at least 100,000 sales. Internationally, at least 2 million copies have been shipped by late 1998.

Critics praise the game's boldness to expand on previous concepts of an open-world game, including the improved AI and story, however bashed the game's rudimentary graphics which many critics claim were just a polished version of the original game. GameRanx noted that "the game could have been better if the graphics didn't look like it came from the 1980s." Ralph Fileman of ING commented on the game's improved environment and immersion, as well as its attempts to recreate a real life location, but criticized the game heavily in its graphics, stating that "even games released before the first Automan had better graphics than this." Critics praised the game's improved soundtrack and ambient noises.

Controversy
The game recieved some controversy from some groups in Tiperyn for highlighting negative aspects and realities of Tiperyn life. Some groups launched lawsuits against the game, claiming that the game has ruined the "good standing of the institution already in place in Tiperyn" and is "degrading public trust in these institutions." Árlja games refuted the fact, claiming that they had no intention on degrading the institutions, and were solely recreated for entertainment purposes. In addition, the game never intended on making a parody of the institutions, rather a recreation, meaning that there is nothing in the act that could be considered "degrading."

The improved ambient noises and environment meant that several NPCs could lose their heads and limbs when shot. Some groups voiced their concerns over such depictions, calling for the game to be "shelved until they do not depict unspeakably vile amounts of blood and gore in their games", which they claimed "could affect the minds of young children playing the game." Kžeščírnji responded straight with these allegations and stated that "the game is purely for adults as evident in the SERB ratings for those in Seratof and the internationally-recognized ESRB ratings." If children get their hands on the game then the fault does not lie within the company or the developers themselves but the enablers which allowed people under the minimum age to play.