Fox Hunt (video game)

Did You Know?

• The gameplay includes a time limit in many sequences, with a red box in the corner of the screen indicating when the player must act during quick time events.
• George Lazenby, who played James Bond in On Her Majesty's Secret Service, appeared in Fox Hunt.

Development and release

Fox Hunt was developed by movie studio 3Vision Gamers with funding from Capcom, and was the first project greenlit by former Capcom USA president Greg Ballard after he left Digital Pictures and witnessed Resident Evil's production in Japan. The budget reached up to $2 million. 3Vision consisted of writer/producer Matt Pyken, producer/lawyer Adam Berns, and director Michael Berns (Adam's brother). The trio had previously created the 1994 PC game National Lampoon's Blind Date. Michael Berns and designer/programmer Peter Marx had a singular cinematic vision for Fox Hunt, structuring it like a three-act feature film. Berns felt earlier FMV games focused on technology over good gameplay, and wanted Fox Hunt to be considered a full-fledged video game rather than just an interactive movie. The gameplay engine, designed by Marx, was based on his engine for Johnny Mnemonic, but he aimed for Fox Hunt to have the compelling time component of a motion picture instead of limited action and choppy movement. The game was shot on 16 mm film for improved resolution. Casting occurred in the second quarter of 1995, with newcomer Andrew Bowen as the protagonist, one-time James Bond star George Lazenby, and Timothy Bottoms. Filming took 35 days, mostly at the former Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, with four days for skiing footage in Aspen, Colorado. Lazenby noted scenes were shot quickly, with a new scene every hour. The production involved about 2,200 camera setups, around 20,000 edits, over three hours of live-action footage, 735 shots, and nine different endings.

Reception

Critics were split on Fox Hunt. Computer Game Review panned it as a prime example of an unplayable interactive movie. GameSpot was more favorable, scoring it 6.8 and calling it silly, amusing, and surprisingly well-developed. Ann Kwinn of Boxoffice rated the film version three out of five stars.