Interviews// Ghost Recon Future Soldier

Everyone's doing a modern military game these days. If it's not Activision's Modern Warfare, it's EA's Medal of Honor reboot. But in developing Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, Ubisoft would like to kindly remind everyone that the publisher was the very first to the table in the whole futuristic soldier gameplay.

I had the chance to see a demo of the upcoming shooter at a Ubisoft bash, and spoke to the game's product manager Aziz Khater about what makes Future Soldier special.

While the demo was rolling, I was directed to the various types of combat; a ground soldier that had to use what little environment he could in the desert setting to sneak around foes, and a sniper that could be engaged to take out command posts for the scout to continue his mission.

It certainly seems to be a slower-paced, more technologically focused first person shooter, and Aziz was happy to explain the thought processes and design choices that helped make the game as it is today.


SPOnG: Ghost Recon: Future Soldier is coming out at a time where a lot of other publishers are bringing out updated modern twists on their war games. What makes this one different from Modern Warfare and the Medal of Honor reboot?

Aziz Khater: Well as you say this is one of the most competitive genres in the gaming market. Ghost Recon was one of the first games to cover up-to-date combat at the time, and we really want to take things a step forward with Future Soldier. We want to take it further than Modern Warfare 2, and offer realistic and potential future combat, 20 or 30 years from now.

Personally I feel there are some differences in the type of game we have other than this. Medal of Honor and Modern Warfare are all about high-speed action and bullets flying. In Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, you have to think before you shoot, and you can do this using multiple gameplay mechanics as well.

For example, we showed two specific experiences that will help you progress through the game. The Recon soldier, who travels slowly and silently to stealthily get the job done, and some long-range shooting using the Sniper. And you get two different approaches to playing the same level in that way. So I think that the game is quite different from our competitors, while offering a real squad experience. You're not just following one guy, you're a member of a team. That is quite unique.


SPOnG: Ghost Recon's always been a series known for its technology. How much of it is based on real stuff and how much is based on your own creations?

Aziz Khater: As with all of our Ghost Recon titles, we have been working with lots of military companies for this project, including multiple weapons manufacturers. So all of our tech and equipment that feature in the game are based on authentic technology. Not exactly things that are being used or are planned to be used, but technology that would be reasonably believed to be invented and on the battlefield in that time frame.

In fact, we liaise a lot with our military partners for information, and we are always finding that universities – particularly ones like Tokyo – are posting videos of really distinct devices out of materials that would be readily available for mass production in a few years time.

We have taken those concepts and pushed it a little bit to imagine what it may be in the next 30 years or so. So there is some imagination involved, but the roots have always been in the military.


SPOnG: How challenging is it to design a game based on wars that haven't taken place yet? What sort of inspiration do you get when focusing on enemies and allies?

Aziz Khater: For us, the conflicts of tomorrow won't involve huge armies of soldiers, it will be based around small teams of elite fighters – you could say that the guys in Future Soldier are the closest to supersoldiers. There is only one person in every million that is selected for this purpose but teams of these advanced fighters will be sent behind enemy lines to avoid and eliminate the threat before it happens.

The rest of these wars will be dealt with by technology – going to the game for a second you saw that there were a couple of remote drones that could be deployed, but devices like this already exist on the battlefield. Today, they're more like robotic guns that you can remotely control, but for Future Soldier we had to take that and push its evolution forward.

Tomorrow, we think these kinds of guns would be used to replace humans completely, to avoid casualties, and the only way to defeat them if you do not have the same kind of tech is to establish teams of elite supersoldiers to counter such a threat. For us, that's the imagination we have when building this game.


SPOnG: And you'll be able to control those drones in the game?

Aziz Khater: Absolutely, it's quite an exciting element to the gameplay.


SPOnG: What other features can we expect to find except for the controlling of the drones?

Aziz Khater: What I can say about that is some of the technical and graphical advances we've made. For example, there are no more complex orders when it comes to managing your squad, it's all been simplified and the rest is about the context.

Also, with the HUD, we've just given you the bare minimum of information on screen, allowing for more visibility. Some people say that the future will see soldiers equipped with all this information in front of their faces, but for us that's not the case.

We see it as more like the iPhone - one device that can contain all kinds of details and information relative to your needs. We have a similar device in game, inspired by the iPhone, which offers all the knowledge of the surrounding area that you could want - topography, for example, so you can find the best places to snipe and take cover.


SPOnG: You mentioned the iPhone, were there any other technological inspirations?

Aziz Khater: Not specifically, but we really get inspired by everything around us in technology. Mostly, of course, we look towards the high-tech weapons being developed by military companies.


SPOnG: Is it going to get harder to do the next Ghost Recon game after this one, now that you've established this future setting? Is it going to be more difficult for you to create futuristic weapons and settings?

Aziz Khater: Well, this game is coming 3 years after the last one, so we are really treating this like a major project. There has been lots of research into electronics, prototypes of the game itself that we've tested, thrown away and restarted, and the upcoming Beta that will further ensure this will be as good as can be.

The potential for future technology changes all the time - in fact, three years ago we would have a totally different idea of what a Future Soldier game could include. So I think we will be alright when it comes to any future projects, assuming we stick to the same work ethos that we have always maintained.


SPOnG: Have you put any thought into the dangers and impact of future war?

Aziz Khater: You get lots of ideas and scenarios from all kinds of media - movies, games and books for example - which put future warfare in a negative light. We try to project Future Soldier as a middle-ground - not that the future is or isn't scary, but rather 'this is what combat will be like in 30 years time.' So any dangers and impacts of future war would be told straight from the setting and the consequences, rather than the narrative.


SPOnG: So you're not of the opinion that advancing war technologies is a bad thing?

Aziz Khater: No, I don't think it is, really. From our point of view, the future is mostly about a way of weakening the enemy while avoiding loss of life, and I feel that's a benefit of unavoidable warfare. Rather than humans fighting in armies we completely avoid that scenario.


SPOnG: Do you think that this is now a case of history repeating itself, according to your visions of the future? Treyarch is developing Call of Duty: Black Ops, which has players doing exactly the same thing during the Cold War - small teams, doing undercover work to avoid large-scale warfare. Is there a parallel between those eras?

Aziz Khater: Perhaps. You talk about Call of Duty and its gameplay, and there is no parallel there in the product itself because we at Ubisoft own this kind of elite spec-ops theme. This is a type of game we know how to do right, and will continue to keep doing it while looking forward to the future.


SPOnG: You said you were one of the first to push the envelope in the future or modern warfare gameplay setting. Do you think that Activision and now EA owe Ubisoft something for following in your footsteps?

Aziz Khater: Maybe so (laughs). The point is that these are two different games in style and feel, and we are pushing that envelope further than Modern Warfare 2 in seeing right into the future of combat. Right now lots of competitiors are doing this, but we have to step it up further to maintain our originality.


SPOnG: Thank you for your time.

Aziz Khater: Thank you.