Review Fix Exclusive: Inside ‘Dick Wilde 2’

February 19, 2019 Patrick Hickey Jr. Video Games 0

Review Fix chats with Bo Bennekov, Lead Designer, Bolverk Games who discusses Dick Wilde 2, to find out what makes the VR Shooter a special one.

Review Fix: How was this game born? 

Bo Bennekov: Dick Wilde 1 was born out of a series of very funny youtube videos under the “Asian Carp Fishing” category. In the videos, we see people fishing for Asian Carp while carrying ridiculous homemade weapons. Couple that with our love of shooter games, and the franchise of Dick Wilde, Exterminator Extraordinaire was born. 

Review Fix: Why make a VR game? 

Bennekov: We feel that especially gun-play is infinitely better in VR than in traditional games. And we also just really love VR. It’s really immersive and great to get lost in. 

Review Fix: What makes the genre special for you? 

Bennekov: Being a top-ranked Unreal Tournament player back in ye olden times, and having several shooter aficionados on the team, we just generally like to shoot things up virtually. 

Review Fix: What was development like? 

Bennekov: Coming up with Duct Taped weapons and redneck slang is a lot of fun! Tackling low-level APIs, and making them all play nice between PC and PSVR not so much. All in all, we are happy to go to work every day! 

Review Fix: What makes this game special? 

Bennekov: Mostly the fireball throwing beavers, really, or the angry hippo. There are just so many things that make Dick Wilde special. If I had to pinpoint one thing I am proud of in Dick Wilde2, it would be the crossplay co-op VR. Teaming up with a friend is a blast and I am really happy we managed to get it so PC and PSVR can play together! 

Review Fix: What games influenced this one the most? 

Bennekov: We have always been inspired by the old classic arcade games, and games that you have to master to really get a feeling of pride and accomplishment.

Review Fix: Any fun stories or wild moments during development? 

Bennekov: We accidentally set the bloom so high that we actually made a kaleidoscope. We have saved that build for release as KaleidoscopeVR. 

Review Fix: Do you think preserving older gameplay mechanics in new games is important? 

Bennekov: Not preserving, really. But using the classic gameplay mechanics is always a good starting point, because they just work. 

Review Fix:  What’s your favorite memory as a gamer? 

Bennekov: I used to play competitive Supreme Commander. I was ranked about 17 in the world and chanced a one on one with the top dog, number one on the list. I was doing all right, I thought I had contained him to one corner, and it seemed like my offence had a fighting chance to reach his commander. Just when breaching through his defences, a massive army creeps up behind my main base. The reason he had been under pressure was that he secretly airdropped most of his army unseen behind my lines. I think the match was over in 30 seconds or less. Watching the replay afterwards it dawned on me that I had never really had him under any pressure and that he carefully appeared to be losing little by little while scheming to assassinate me late game. He planned the whole thing. The match lasted about an hour. He could have ended it in 5 minutes at any time. 

Review Fix: Who will enjoy this game the most? 

Bennekov: Gamers who appreciate a massive shooter. The game has 40 (real life 40) kilometres of river, and surviving all can prove to be hard.

Review Fix: Bottom Line, why must someone play this game? 

Bennekov: Because when would you and your friend get to shoot a mine-cart riding mole with a microwave gun ever again? That and giant enemy crabs… 

Review Fix: How do you want this game to be remembered? 

Bennekov: As the game that finally brought peace and unity to the gaming world, uniting PC and PlayStation gamers, breaking down barriers. 

Review Fix: What’s next? 

Bennekov: We will continually support Dick Wilde 2, and implement a few features that did not make the cut, there are a few things we have planned but I can’t say much more. After that, more VR games galore! (KaleidoscopeVR, of cause) 14) Anything else you’d like to add?

We hope you all love Dick Wilde 2! We had a blast making it and hope it translates to endless of hours of fun for players.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 13853 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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