Far Cry 2 - Multiplayer Q&A Feature

With an accessible XP and class system, more fire than the More Fire Crew, and an arsenal of weapons that would make Rambo blush, Far Cry 2's multiplayer game is certainly set to rock the halls of PSN, Xbox Live and PC lobbies when it's released next Friday. We caught up with the game's Multiplayer Producer, Gaetan Richard, to get a lowdown on the standout features of this much anticipated FPS.

TVG: We noticed that Far Cry 2's multiplayer has a similar XP system to Rainbow Six: Vegas. Is that a conscious decision on your part or simply Ubisoft's house style?

Not really. I think many other games also do this, or many other companies. I think it's a really good way to get the players hooked up for a game. There are some players who just want to play for a few hours and have fun with their friends, and we know that some people are more competitive and really want to be the best in one specific game or play for a long time against others, and that's how we managed to do it in Far Cry 2 with our class system.

What we found with the standard progression (that was the first mechanic we tried, where you reach certain levels to unlock weapons) was that it's not fun for a newcomer because they'll be playing against guys who have really powerful guns while they have no experience and no good guns, so they'll lose all the diamonds for sure. Because of this, we tried to build a class system in which you can upgrade each class with three diamonds, so that in a couple of matches you have the best weapon for one class. It evens out the field and even if you're a new player against an experienced player, you can still have the same weapons after a brief spell of gameplay.

TVG: We've seen the health system at work in the single-player before and there's some pretty original touches to it, but it also works really well in the multiplayer as well (you almost have to limp into a corner and lick your wounds like an injured dog). Was the system multiplayer led or did it start off in the single-player game?

It was single-player led first and at the beginning we used the same system for multiplayer, with the syringes and then the long healing animation. This didn't work at all because syringes mean that you're full of health within one second, so you would fight against a guy and think you'd got him down and then he heals. You shoot him with another clip and then he heals again, so it was infinite battles like that.

So we said, 'Okay, we're going to cut the syringes from the multiplayer and just keep the long animations,' and now it's really working fine. It's like a risk-reward where you say, 'Maybe two more bullets will finish him and then I need to run and hide, heal and then go back into battle.' You always have to think about what your strategy is.

TVG: Last year we spoke with Clint Hocking (Far Cry 2's Creative Director) about the multiplayer when the game was unveiled at Leipzig. He didn't reveal much, but did say: "What we didn't want to do is to go 'Now that we have these African environments, let's put capture the flag in there.' We want the multiplayer to feel like you're a mercenary, gun for hire type, fighting in a bush war in Africa."

We certainly enjoyed the game modes we played here today, but the only other mode than capture the flag and deathmatches was Uprising. Did you have any other multiplayer modes in the pipeline that didn't work out, or are you hoping to bring some more in with DLC?

We thought about many more complex game modes. A good game takes a long time to tune and make sure it's perfect, and then we thought about the map editor that we were building at the same time. We said, 'If we come up with a game mode that is too complex then the user won't be able to create good maps for that specific mode, so we're going to go for the three standard game modes and then our Uprising game mode, which is a mix of VIP and control points.'

We think it's still pretty easy to make a map for that game mode and then the user can make thousands of maps with that game mode and the other modes as well. It's one thing to create a good multiplayer game and another to create a game that works fine for the map editor as well, so I think we've found a good balance there.

TVG: One of the things we instantly noticed in the multiplayer is that there are no weapons lying around the game world. This is presumably because if there were rocket launchers just lying around the place for anybody to use then it would cause uncontrollable carnage. Did you play with that idea at all, or did you decide there would be no weapon pick-ups at the very beginning of development?

All of the strategy with the weapons, upgrades, and class system is really something that came after a lot of testing. Originally it was a standard progression where you level up and get more weapons, and you would be able to pick-up weapons on the ground. At one point we even tried weapon crates that would randomly spawn and many other things as well, like crates for each weapon class and everything. We found that it became chaotic because a player's primary and secondary weapons would be too powerful together. The team really tried to balance it out with the class system and we think everything's balanced in that system and it works fine right now, but it was not the first stop, that's for sure. There was a lot of trial and error.

TVG: We know that DLC will be coming for Far Cry 2, but will any of it be for the multiplayer and, if it is, will it be more than just maps and weapons?

There will be many things. Obviously we don't want to reveal too much right now, but with the map editor we cannot come up with the package. It's just new maps - it wouldn't work, so we're working on a different strategy right now and I think it will be really interesting for the players.

TVG: We've been playing as the Saboteur class so we've had the silenced MP5, Assault Rifle with scope, and improvised explosives. What sort of weapons do the other classes unravel?

My favourite weapon comes from the Gunner class, where the PKM is the first big machine gun that you get there. I think it's really good for defending a control point or your base in Capture the Diamond. My second favourite class is the Sharpshooter sniper class where you start with the M1903, then you upgrade to a Dragunov, and the last sniper is an AS50, two bullets from which will make a vehicle catch on fire. The Commando class has assault weapons like the AK47, the FANFL, and as a secondary weapon you have the M79 Grenade launcher, which is also pretty effective.

The build you played is still a work in progress. In the last couple of weeks we've tuned weapons to make sure they are well balanced, because at some points the explosives were too powerful and at other times the shotguns were too powerful. We really worked hard in the last weeks to playtest a lot, with the dev team and outside of the studio, to make sure everything is in tune. No class is strong in everything or weak in everything. Some are better for a specific purpose and I think we have a good balance now.

TVG: The whole of the gaming press is rating Far Cry 2 very highly indeed. We've had it on our highest anticipation rating since last summer. With this in mind, I'm sure you'll have high hopes for the Xbox Live rankings, but do you think it can rival Call of Duty 4's multiplayer success?

Hopefully yes but CoD4 had a legacy, so it had something to build on. I think Call of Duty 2 was an amazing game when it launched on Xbox 360 and then CoD3 was done at another studio, but with CoD4 they had a really good engine and rankings system, so they just keep on pushing that game. I think Far Cry 2 is really different. Call of Duty is more about the military; everything's very clean cut; you need to know the maps to succeed in your class because then you know the sniper will always be at that point and the other team will always be at another point. You learn the maps and then you're good at it.

The dynamic weather in Far Cry 2 mixes things up. For example, if you're playing as a sniper and there's a lot of fog then the sniper is useless, or if you're playing at night then the sniper might not be that good but the assault weapons will be better. And with the fire, maybe the spot you like to go to is burning and you can't go there, so there are so many dynamic things in Far Cry 2 that it doesn't seem as clean cut and it's more about the wilderness. But maybe it's more fun for everybody as a result. You don't need to play 200 hours to have fun and master your level. It will be new because you will have thousands of new maps so nobody will be able to learn the maps as well, so I think it's great fun.

TVG would like to thank Gaetan Richard, Far Cry 2's Multiplayer Producer, for taking the time to speak to us about Ubisoft Montreal's upcoming shooter for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC, that's due for release on October 24th.