'Ghost Recon Future Soldier' interview: A shooter years in the making

Published Jan 26 2012, 17:00 GMT  |  By Matthew Reynolds

Ghost Recon Future Soldier has seen changes since its impressive E3 2010 showing, but its core elements remain intact, from camouflage suits to working closely with a squad of three. We chat to game director Eric Couzian and associate producer Yann Suquet about its prolonged development and the use of civilians in the game's more heated moments.

This game was first announced in 2009 and was meant to be out the following year. Why has it taken so long to come out?
Couzian: "It's because we've tried many, many things to… actually, we wanted to take the game further, while keeping faithful to the pillars of the game, which is not an easy task. So we have tried many new mechanics. We have redesigned the game, sometimes too much, so we have had to draw it back, and we have improved many new things in terms of technology, the mission system, the audio system and rewrite the engine a lot. It takes a long, long time to do it."

Suquet: "Video games are about experience and we wanted to stay true to GRAW and what made them strong, the pillars of the Ghost Recon franchise. When we presented it in 2010, we had a build that was good, but we couldn't go as far as we wanted into it. So it took us a long time because if you want to convey an experience sometimes you have to tweak, and sometimes it takes more than that from the ground up again.

"We stay true to GRAW but the games are completely different. It's really from the ground up; we've got the new systems, the new animations, so we reintegrate on those, we built on the pillars by building from the ground up again, and so that's why it's taken so long. It's actually quite hard to make a game. It takes a while. Conveying that experience, but in a different way adding some stuff, it's not just taking GRAW and tweaking here and there, it takes way more than that."

Was it a challenge sticking to that classic Ghost Recon gameplay, adding your own elements, and also trying to make it comparable to other shooters on the market today?
Couzian: "Actually we didn't want to be like the other shooters, we wanted to keep our own identity. Maybe that's why we took so long to achieve the game. Because even when you're working on the game, all the releases of the competition - we were sometimes influenced, but - by the way, we love the other games - we wanted to state that, okay, we have our own personality, and we wanted to keep the pillars of the game as the pillars of the game, it's why you can play the game you want. You have the Gunsmith, you can customise your weapons, you have open areas, it's not scripted, all the AI is systemic.

"We also wanted to have a credible world. For example civilians were missing from previous Ghost Recon versions. Because we have worked with many Spec Op supervisors they told us that civilians are a real part of the mission. When you watch CNN, you find that all conflicts nowadays [feature] civilians. So it was something that… we knew that the fans wanted civilians, to have a credible world, but we also wanted to have an impact on the gameplay. That's why you can interact with the civilians, you can kill them – but not too many - and that they have their own AI."

Was it difficult to integrate civilians into a game like this?
Couzian: "Yes, it was a real challenge. Because as I say, there are animations, AI, so it means that we have to optimise the civilians so that you can have crowded places with enemies that have their own AI, which are different to the civilians, there is the teammate AI… there are a lot of things, so it's a real challenge to optimise this for the console."

What about in terms of design? Was it a challenge to convince the player not to shoot them?
Couzian: "Actually if you kill too many civilians, it's a game over. We accept collateral damage, like in reality, but not too much. If you kill three or four guys at the same time, it's a game over. So yeah, you have to be very careful, but there is enough tolerance in the game. But sometimes it's surprising, you're peeking from cover and there's an enemy there, but you shoot and kill a civilian that is running in panic."

I'm surprised more games don't include civilians in this way. Why do you think that is?
Couzian: "Because it's a technical challenge. Today the standard of the enemies require many animations, strong and clever AI, and it takes up many resources of the computer. So adding civilians it means that you have to optimise your engine for it. But it's true, today it's what we expect from such operations, I mean if we want to be credible, it's not the second World War in which there are two armies. It always happens in cities or villages where there are civilians."


Something unique was the suppressive fire mechanic, which can see your aiming and view become staggered when behind cover. How did this idea come about?
Couzian: "The idea was like… when you're playing in multiplayer, when somebody's shooting at you, you feel this kind of [suppression], if I go out of cover I will die. We wanted in the campaign to feel exactly the same thing. So at first we said many weapons such as LMGs or standard weapons like big machine guns, if they shoot at you and if you peek you instantly die.

"That's why we use this camera shaking, to anchorage the player to play with team play. While you are suppressed, if you are smart you will order your teammates to shoot this guy, so that teammates takes the aggro, so you can flank and kill this guy. It's part of how to be smart when you don't have the advantage but because of your teammates you can win."

Suquet: "That's actually magnified in multiplayer when we have the same feature, you can suppress your opponents, so it gives you time because you can't aim properly. It's the same feature but it's magnified because it's human versus human and then you can flank them… in multiplayer it's one of the pillars. It allows you to assess the situation differently rather than just face to face, because you're suppressing him, I'm flanking him and 'bam', he's out."

Couzian: "Also our advisors told us on the battlefield when somebody's shooting at you, they can stay at cover for one hour or two hours, they won't take any risk to switch from cover if they don't know exactly where is the threat and who is shooting at you. They can stay for hours."

Speaking about realism, you say you've done plenty of detailed animation and looked at civilians in wars, but was it a challenge having these realistic elements based on real conflicts as well as this near-future setting? Was it difficult juggling those two?

Couzian: "Yeah. What we want is that Ghost Recon happens tomorrow, not the day after tomorrow. Maybe three years ago it was too futuristic, which is why today we offer something that is rather close to what could happen today, and all the technology that's here is inspired by US Special Forces. Some [already] exists and is used by these guys, but for example, the optical camera is based on US research. Two weeks ago there was an article published by a university that explains they are working on this kind of technology, so we are just anticipating what is going to happen.

"The research is based on two types of technology. We don't know which one is going to be the best, they don't even know right now, and they're working on it. Everything in the game is based by real research."

How did you approach Kinect for Ghost Recon Future Soldier, and what did you want to do with it?
Suquet: "We wanted to bring Kinect to prove that Kinect could be brought to hardcore games, because Kinect has that feel that it's mostly for casual players and we're proving that it can be used intelligently and relevantly for hardcore games, and the weapon customisation system just matched."

Couzian: "For sure we wanted to keep the reactivity in terms of controls while playing the campaign or multiplayer, to keep the reactivity of any [first person shooter]. So we don't use Kinect to play the game, it's only for the Gunsmith. You can play Gunsmith with the controller if you don't want to play Kinect. And you know, we had the idea for the Gunsmith and somebody on the team said, 'Oh, why do you control it like you do in Minority Report?' with moves like this, and we said why not, it's a good idea."

> Read our hands-on preview with Ghost Recon: Future Soldier

Ghost Recon Future Soldier will be given a beta on consoles in April before releasing on May 24 in Europe and May 22 in North America. A PC version will be available at a later date.