Speaking at Eurogamer Expo this afternoon, Ubisoft Montreal’s Jamie Keen described Far Cry 3’s outpost system, in which players can claim new territory for the tropical island’s natives and ‘clear’ sections of the map, which will subsequently no longer spawn bads.
The system was developed after players of Far Cry 2 suggested that its world was too “static”. And by “static”, they meant “relentlessly hostile”.
“In order to keep people engaged over time, this needs to be a world you can really affect – it needs to change,” said Keen. “We do that by placing outposts in the world and when you take one over they dictate the kind of encounters that are going to spawn around it.
“Far Cry 2 was a little bit static in that respect. We got a lot of feedback about the respawning checkpoints and that kind of stuff, so it was very important that we felt like this living world reacted to what you do.
“So when you go in and you take an outpost, the world changes. It goes from being a hostile place to being a much friendlier place.”
What do you think? Will it be enough to satisfy those who quickly tired of Far Cry 2’s endlessly aggressive savannah?