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Far Cry 2 screenshot

All the hype surrounding upcoming open world FPS Far Cry 2 has so far focussed on its stupendous-looking single-player campaign. But, as we found out during our hands-on play test of the game's multiplayer, the preview of which you can read here, the game has a hidden ace up its sleeve. We caught up with multiplayer producer, Richard Gaetan to lift the lid on one of the best kept secrets in gaming, and discovered why it might just turn out to be a better multiplayer FPS than Call of Duty 4.

VideoGamer.com: What was your approach to making Far Cry 2's multiplayer stand out, given that it's the single-player campaign which has garnered most hype?

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Richard Gaetan: At first we wanted to keep most of the mechanics that are in single-player. We wanted to bring them to the multiplayer side. The biggest challenge was really in the level design - to keep the Africa settings, open environment. We found it was pretty tough to make sure the maps were good for all the types of player. If you're more like a sniper then you want to have a few places where you can hide and snipe people; if you're more the kind of guys that go with assault weapons or shotguns, then you want a few areas where you can run from cover to cover. It's not a corridor kind of game, so it was a big challenge to make sure the floor is clear, so players can see where they have to go depending on how they play. As we have a dynamic weather system and a 24 hour day/night cycle it was a big challenge because we cannot just obviously place a light at the end of the corridor and know people will go there; it doesn't work this way. The environment is always changing. You have to make sure the vegetation is well placed, that the buildings are placed accordingly, that the rocks create a path - and just making roads doesn't work for everybody, either.

So it was a big challenge but I think we succeeded. We had all the single-player mechanics and knew they were working in single-player, but it was tough to bring them to multiplayer and to make sure they were good because the pace is always faster than in single-player. We had to speed up the transition from iron sight to normal view when you're shooting, and the reload animation is also a bit faster - but at the same time we wanted to keep the essence of Far Cry 2, so we didn't go as fast as Call of Duty pace or Quake. We changed things a bit from the single-player, but we wanted to keep the same feeling.

VideoGamer.com: With regards to elements like the weapon degradation and being able to rescue your pals, we imagine there must have been quite a lot of balancing there. With weapon degradation you want it to be there - but too much would have made it quite difficult because everything would end up breaking every five minutes...

RG: Yes. At some point the weapon jamming was at the same frequency that was in single-player, and it wasn't working. Everybody on the team was complaining, and the testers were complaining! So we said OK, maybe we have to tweak those numbers to make sure they're still there and they're fun but they're less frequent. I think we have a good balance now. If a player is really good and he lives longer then his weapon will get degraded and it will jam more often than a player that is a newbie and dies every 20 seconds. So I think it evens out, the feel, and it's really interesting. And as you progress you will also earn manuals that will make sure that your weapon won't jam so frequently.

VideoGamer.com: If I'm new to the game and I start playing Far Cry 2, there will be people who've been playing for a long time and who have access to upgraded weapons, like the scoped grenade launcher. Did you have to take steps to balance this out, so that new players don't get completely destroyed?

RG: At the beginning we had a progression where you unlock weapons over a long period of time, and we found the problem you just explained. Good players would earn better weapons and then they would just erase the newbies from the map. We switched to the class system in which you can fairly easily upgrade one class pretty fast, even in ranked match. After three, four matches you'll have three diamonds to spend, and if you make sure you specialise in one class then that class will be upgraded to the top. So you'll have the automatic rocket launcher if you want, or if you're a sniper player then you'll upgrade the sharpshooter class and then after three or four, maybe five matches you'll have three diamonds so you'll have the best sniper in the game. So that really is the strategy we wanted to go with - it means everybody has fun. After a few matches you can have the best weapon in one class, and this way you really bring cool weapons for everybody, even those who are starting. As you play more and more it will mean you'll have more classes upgraded so if you want to switch to the sniper, or to the commando class, then you will be able to do it because you have more diamonds to spend. We found in many play tests we did that at first players usually upgrade two classes that they want to play more frequently. People find that they have two favourite classes and usually that's about it.

VideoGamer.com: It's nice to have those options on the table in terms of the way you want to play...

RG: Yeah. And you can reset your diamonds if you're not happy. Say from the beginning you upgraded the gunner class and then you find out that, 'oh the last weapon is not really what I thought it was', then you can reset your diamonds and you can spend them in another class at any time. It costs you one diamond though, so you have to think about it. In the build you saw you were not able to see what the next upgrades were for each class, but in the final build you will be able to - so you can make better choices from the beginning.

VideoGamer.com: How are you hoping the map editor will be received by gamers? What do you hope the situation will be, say a month down the line from launch?

RG: The thinking behind the map editor was to make it real easy for everybody to use, on console or on PC. I'm not a map creator at all and after a few minutes I was pretty efficient with all the tools. We think we'll have all kinds of maps. For sure we'll have copies of other games' maps - I'm sure we'll have Counterstrike maps, Quake maps, Halo maps and then we'll have a variety of new Far Cry 2 maps that are using jungle settings, desert settings and savannah settings. So we built a strategy to make sure that when a player creates a map it's easily available for everybody. You will be able to upload it to Ubisoft server and then people can download your map, play on them and rank them - so it will be easy to find the best maps. Also, if you're just playing with friends and you say, 'OK I want to test my maps before I upload them to Ubisoft's server', you can just host a match and people who join your match will download the map from you. So we have a peer to peer strategy and we have the server strategy.

VideoGamer.com: We heard earlier that there will be quite a few maps available online on launch day. Is that correct?

RG: We have not decided. Internally, with testers and people on the team, we made a contest to make a maps for a trailer, but we have not decided if we're going to post them online on day one. But I'm sure the day after the game is released we'll have thousands of maps already. It will be pretty fast. A lot of people are expecting a good map editor because we haven't seen one in a long time, from a shooter especially. So I think it will be really fast and we'll have a lot of choices.

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