Interview: Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier

What we wanted to push was this experience of not playing by yourself, and giving orders to some kind of bots, but also trying to [recreate] the experience or feeling of being a Spec Ops, with a team of friends – trying to set up some strategies, tactics, to overcome your enemies, just like the scene you saw where the guys were trying to stab the guy. This is kind of the thing we would like guys to experience in life with players.

You'd think those chaps would notice all that military typescript hanging round their heads.

Will there be system link or splitscreen play?

It’s still under discussion.

Do you think co-op is an especially important area to invest in right now? Crackdown 2 has just been released, which is obviously a very co-op-oriented game, and Splinter Cell: Conviction had a standalone co-op storyline….

To us, in order to have the players living the experience of a squad not a solo player, it’s something we really wanted to push in this opus, and we think that the real experience of Ghost Recon, this new Ghost Recon, you’re going to have the best of it if you play in co-op.

Can you tell me anything about the locations for the game?

You’re going to have multiple theatres of war, not just Mexico or something like that. This demo took place in Northern Europe, but being harnessed to a Clancy franchise, you’re going to move all over the world to different theatres of war, places where you think the next conflict may happen.

Never bring a helicopter to an RPG fight.

Have you given any thought to 3D integration?

It will be compatible with 3D, with the new devices. We already have lots of versions running on 3D, and we hope to show everything soon.

I think it’ll be interesting to see this functionality in Ghost Recon – since Advanced Warfighter there’s been an emphasis on dynamic HUD information, tagged to real-world objects, and having that extra sense of depth might help the player differentiate these elements better…

With the 3D devices it will be more easy, but even without it… This is one of the things we wanted to focus on with this one, not overloading the screen with useless information. Just like what you’ve seen, the screen is pretty pure, not so much information, information only as far as you need it, so if you activate the Cross-Com, you’re going to have specific information on what you spot, and this is the kind of the thing that we want, to add some clarity and visibility.

OK. Last but not least, any clue as to who the main antagonist will be?

I can’t talk about it right now!

Thanks for your time, Aziz.

The game lands on PC, Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PSP and DS in Q1 2011.