GDC 08: Patrick Redding on the Far Cry 2 health system |
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It may be a strange topic to bring up during a 2008 Game Developers Conference lecture on narrative design, but because it's crucial to the gameplay of Ubisoft Montreal's Far Cry 2 (PC, PS3, Xbox 360), Patrick Redding did it, anyway: the main protagonist in this particular shooter has been stricken with malaria.
According to Redding, our Far Cry 2 protagonist will have to rely on medicine (or health packs) to keep himself alive. The catch is that Ubisoft Montreal didn't scatter these medicines in crates across the game's levels; players will be forced to interact with civilians as the the health packs may only be obtained from them.
Despite being "the ultimate mechanical drawback," as Redding put it, players can still make the best of a bad situation. They may, for example, opt to exchange travel papers for a few doses of medicine. And therein lies Ubisoft Montreal's point: NPCs in the game are transformed from being mere "stores" into "micronarrative" elements who bring life to the world of Far Cry 2. How players deal with these elements is entirely up to the players themselves.
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Comments [refresh]
I kinda dig the idea. its something new, but I wonder how useful it'll be. You're in a firefight in the middle of a jungle areas.... what good is a villager?
I mean, it has possibilities. It sounds a bit RPGish to me, which is fine, but isn't Far Cry, just a shooter?
Well, villagers are good for times when you aren't in combat. ^^
Also, I think Ubisoft is trying to experiment a little.