Live free or cry hard
15 CommentsJack Carver isn't here. The monstrous Trigens are gone and that tropical island from the original game is over a thousand miles away. Instead, we're on the sprawling plains of the African savannah, and our enemies are angry humans and hungry wildlife. Far Cry as you knew it is dead: long live Far Cry 2.
If it's not white beaches or slathering mutants, what is it?
In short, everything. Far Cry 2 is hugely, impossibly ambitious. It's Stalker gone on safari; it's Boiling Point with a budget.
"Our research with consumers showed that there was more interest in the earlier parts of Far Cry - the highly realistic parts where you were raiding mercenary encampments using planning, infiltration and then explosive action to win the fight," explains Louis-Pierre Pharand, Far Cry 2's producer.
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"Many people seemed to feel the game suffered a bit with the introduction of the Trigens, and the fantastical story that they brought with them. We agreed."
After just a glance, the different focus is clear. There are no nanosuits in Far Cry 2, and no mutant, alien or magical powers. "Neither the player nor the enemy have any 'powers' other than those that any individual human can summon up in extreme circumstances," says Pharand.
"The game takes place in two fully open worlds that are five kilometres on a side, with the second world 'unlocking' roughly one-third of the way through the game," he explains.
"This gives a playable area of 50 square kilometres, through which the player is allowed to freely travel at any time. The story's also non-linear, dynamic and procedurally assembled using a simple drama-management engine to populate the story with key characters and facilitate the convergence of the story toward major climactic events."
Er, okay. What does that actually mean?
The story - the procedurally assembled story, that is - charges you with killing a man who's allegedly responsible for selling arms to both sides of a conflict in a failed state.
Along the way you'll become embroiled in other stories and conflicts, while you either accept missions provided by the game's principal factions, or play both sides against the middle to further your own selfish ends.
The idea is to create a world in which you can plough your own furrow while the story shapes itself to enhance the drama of your actions. "Ultimately," says Pharand, "while several major climaxes will take place for all players, the characters involved in those events, the locations where those events occur and ultimately what they mean, is up to the player."
Far Cry wouldn't be Far Cry without a heavy dose of jungle. While you will be crawling on your belly through the forest, it's not all-consuming like before. The canopy opens up and there are large expanses of open ground where there's hardly a piece of bark in sight.
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"It was an absolute requirement that Far Cry 2 maintain the exoticism [of the original game]," explains Pharand. "The African savanna was a natural choice because there are several different kinds of plain in Africa. The grasslands are only one, and [allow] long draw distances, off-road vehicle pursuits and long-range shooting and sniping.
"Savannah woodlands, on the other hand, actually come to approximate the levels of density you saw in the jungles of the original Far Cry, but in some ways it can feel like urban fighting with small but dense clusters of trees behaving like small buildings. Of course, you can't typically shoot through buildings, while if you think the enemy is on the other side of a stand of trees you can hose it down with a light machinegun to find out."
Ubisoft are hoping that the game will satisfy those looking for the original's jungle combat, while still allowing the series to cover new styles of play.
Yet large outdoor expanses feel empty unless you have the people and wildlife to inhabit them, which is where the game becomes yet more ambitious.
"Our AI is needs-driven, and the main needs are Rest, Duty and Social," explains Pharand. "Scattered all around the world are what we call SmartTerrain Points - locations where NPCs can perform actions that fulfil those needs. For example, a Sleep point will fulfil the Rest need as long as the NPC is sleeping."
As an example, we're told how gazelles will trek to watering holes each morning, drinking water before heading out to eat and sleep in the plains in the afternoon. Enemy patrols, meanwhile, will converge upon their base-camps at night, which means that the experience of raiding a camp at night or during the day will be drastically different. Planning your assault is now about more than just spotting your enemies. It's about choosing your moment, too.
Of course, there's still a 300-pound gazelle in the room that we haven't mentioned. If you're wondering how the game compares to Crysis, the semi-sequel to Far Cry by the original developers, know that Pharand isn't worried. "From what we know the games are virtually incomparable, which is great. We expect PC gamers will be more than happy to have two incredible titles to play instead of only one."
And we certainly will. Just so long as they can pull this off.
