Far Cry 2 (PC) Preview
Posted by Theo Fraser on 03.24.2008
Vitals
Genre
Shooter
System
PC
Release Date
Q0 0000
Far Cry 2’s producer and narrative designer were on hand at Play.com LIVE last weekend to show 411’s Theo Fraser a special demonstration of the upcoming first-person shooter. How is it shaping up? Come on inside to find out!
Easily one of the biggest attractions at the Play.com LIVE event this past weekend at Wembley Stadium in London, England was Ubisoft's booth for Far Cry 2 on the PC, appearing in a curtained-off area, racking up 45 minute queues all day long. Far Cry 2's Narrative Designer, Patrick Redding, and Producer, Louis-Pierre Pharand, were on hand to guide attendees through a 15-minute video demonstration of the game, answering questions along the way.
Redding did the talking for the demo, whilst ‘LP' Pharand went behind the massive projection screen to play the game. It was noted straight away that the build on show was actually from November 2007, so we were told to expect a few bugs that have now been fully addressed. Redding added that development has progressed significantly since that particular build, but every time they create a new playable build, it takes away time and resources from the development team, so it's something that is simply not feasible to do too often. Gamers in attendance were hardly disappointed, as the build on show seemed very strong, despite the odd glitch that Redding had warned us about.
As the demo was loaded, Patrick Redding mentioned that an announcement regarding the official release date is coming in literally just a few weeks, but for the mean time they can reveal that it will be early Fall. The question was raised as to whether or not a demo would be released prior to the game's launch, either as a PC download or via the XBLA/PSN services, but it was revealed that the team had no such plans to release a demo.
Once loaded, the intake of breath from fans in attendance was almost audible. Far Cry 2 looks beautiful, even in this early build. Naturally, the question "Does it look better than Crysis?" constantly crops up, and it's tough to say. It looked fantastic, albeit possibly a notch below Crysis, but then again we were told that the textures had been drastically improved since November, so it's unfair to make an accurate judgement at this stage.
What IS fair to say is that the game world is absolutely gigantic. The in-game playable field will be 50 square kilometres. As a reference point, that is even bigger than free-roaming world of Oblivion. During the demo (which was set in a desert wasteland with a few sparse, rundown buildings scattered around), the player climbed to a high point in the level and did a scan over the surroundings. The draw distance was very impressive, and you could see for miles around. According to their statistics, what we could see represented 0.05% of the entire game area, which is almost impossible to fathom. With such a massive area to explore, there will clearly be times when you feel completely lost, which is why Ubisoft have made a ton of tools at your disposal, such as a map, binoculars, an anemometer (tool for measuring wind speed and direction) and more, available to you at all times. Wind plays an extremely important role in the game, particularly in combat, but we'll come to that in a moment.
One particularly awesome little attention to detail I noticed occurred when the player administered a shot of morphine (which is how you regain health). The player pulls out a needle and syringe, injects the substance into his wrists...and actual scars appear on the wrist where the needle went in! It's unclear how much these scars accumulate, but after an intense shootout, the player was forced to administer three successive doses, and three separate scars popped up. Now, I'm not easily impressed by graphical feats and that kind of stuff, as I always covet gameplay over looks, but attention to detail such as this really sucks you in and makes it a truly compelling experience.
Different factions and gangs are spread across the 50 square km environment, and it's up to you who you befriend and who you turn into mortal enemies. Walking around the wasteland area, the guards patrolling the area didn't seem very phased by the player's presence, carrying on with their everyday duties, and it was at this point that the specifics of the AI became obvious. It's evidently a very sophisticated system, as we were assured that the AI is totally non-scripted. Redding joked that the enemy AI is like "The Sims with guns," and it was clear where he was coming from. In the small preview we were shown, guards stopped to chat amongst themselves, went off for smoke breaks, and generally busied themselves about the area. They didn't look too happy when the player tried to steal one of their cars though! One guard in plain sight of the truck shouted out, and his comrades came running, forcing the player to hightail it out of there. Interestingly, the vehicles in the game have a detailed damage system, and you'll have to physically get out and repair them if they take too many hits. In the demo we saw, the player tried to hijack an abandoned vehicle, which was plainly kaput, so the player had to open the bonnet and use a wrench to fix various parts. We couldn't see LJ physically controlling this part, so I don't know exactly how interactive this portion will be, but it's a novel idea.
We were then introduced to the concept of a Buddy System, upon meeting one of the other ‘main characters'. At the beginning of the game, you'll select your character from a list of avatars, and the remaining characters will be put into the game, playing the role of your allies. These allies won't just be an extra pair of hands, however. In the section of the game we were shown, we met up with one ally, spoke to him for a short while, and then pressed on into a nearby village of straw huts, which was heavily guarded. In the ensuing battle, the player was gunned down, and it seemed as if it were all over. The screen turned red as your vision is blurred by your own blood, and then a hand reached down and pulled the player up. Who was this saviour? The same ally we had met a couple of minutes back, who had obviously followed closely behind us. The soldier drags you to safety, all the while spraying bullets at the enemies in the local vicinity. You regain control of your character once you have been safely tucked away behind a building or some form of cover. Pretty nifty feature to have, right? What's the catch? This act of heroism puts the buddy character in severe danger, and if THEY die, they don't come back- they're gone forever. It wasn't clear if you're able to directly control whether or not your buddy comes to help you, but I wager that you do have some kind of choice over the matter, thus adding a measure of strategy to the proceedings; do you risk potential death of a comrade and live to fight another day, OR accept your fate and have to start over from the nearest checkpoint? Those are the decisions you'll be making this Fall.
Going back to the matter of the AI, the intense gunfight around the straw huts revealed some interesting snippets about how enemies react to being shot. Location-specific damage is nothing new, but Far Cry 2 takes it one step further, as the goals and objectives of enemy AI may change according to where they've been hit. Shoot them in the foot, and sure, they'll hop around in pain, but they'll still be in good enough condition to keep plugging you with hot lead. But we were shown a scenario whereby an enemy had taken a bullet in the upper thigh/groin region and was obviously in a bad condition. His primary objective therefore changed to finding safety, and he could be seen limping off to hide in a building. Naturally, the player finished him off for good measure, but it's refreshing to see enemies that don't act like mere moving targets, rooted to the spot until either you die or they do. FPS fans often have to deal with this kind of AI logic, so it's good to see enemies acting more like actual humans with real thought processes and the like.
Things really got interesting when LJ brought out a new weapon; the Flamethrower! Might I add here that those straw huts I mentioned before had thatched roofs. Yeah, I think you can see where I'm going with this. Patrick Redding informed us that whilst it's perfectly acceptable to use the flamethrower as a direct weapon, it's particularly effective against dry materials, and in a desert wasteland such as the one we were shown in the demo, there's clearly a ton of potential for major destruction. Directing the weapon at one of the thatched roofs, LJ shot a burst of flames, promptly causing the roof to catch alight. With continued bursts, the roof eventually erupted in a blaze of fire, smoke billowing into the sky, which Redding pointed out would be a useful tactical tool to utilise, as you'll be able to create your own smokescreen to distract enemies.
This brought us onto the subject of the wind, as LJ had to quickly guide the player out of harm's way, due to the change in direction of the wind, which had made the nearby fire a real danger. Fire plays an important role in the game, we were told, so you'll always have to keep an eye on the wind indicator to see where the wind is coming from and if it will blow the hazardous fire in your direction. The smokescreen example I gave earlier will also naturally be affected by the wind, as a wind blowing in the wrong direction will make your smokescreen null and void. The wind will affect other factors, but the developers didn't seem willing to divulge any more secrets on this matter. It's an intriguing concept nonetheless, and if there's more to it than just the fire/wind dynamic, it could be an integral part of the gameplay.
The developers had more to show us, but at this point there was unfortunately a fault with the projector equipment, and we lost the feed. Due to time constraints and the matter of another massive queue already forming outside, we were ushered out of the room, cutting the demonstration short. Whilst this was a great shame, what we did see was extremely impressive, and I can safely say I'm even more excited about Far Cry 2 after seeing it in motion up close and personal than I was before.
That wraps things up from me in relation to last week's Play.com LIVE event. Thanks for bearing with me all week, and hopefully you've enjoyed getting a sneak peek at some of 2008's hottest upcoming titles. As always, I'll be back next Thursday with another edition of Nintendophiles, so be sure to look out for that.
