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Interview

GRAW 2

15-Dec-2006 On the battlefield of the future with Content Producer Olivier Dauba

Signalling the end of our week of Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter goodies, we sat down to chat with the game's content producer at Ubisoft Paris, Olivier Dauba.

In our interview Dauba reveals more details on the Clancy sequel, shares his experiences so far developing the follow-up and reveals what its like competing with that other 360 tactical shooter.

So without further delay, here's what he had to say...

You've turned around a sequel very quickly. Has it been difficult to come up with an follow-up in such a short space of time?

Olivier Dauba: I think it was more difficult to do the first game than to do this one. For the first game it was very difficult to be very early in the life-cycle of the console because we had to learn a lot of things about the console. For this one we started with a very clean technology baseline; we learned a lot of things and made things work in the first game, this time we just have to improve them and that is much easier than building it the first time.

Regarding the content, there were quite a few things we were trying to do in the first game that were not able to make it in, so we're using some of the stuff that didn't make it into the first game to create some new assemblies.

How has GRAW 2 benefited from your experience on the first game?

Dauba: From a technology point of view there are a lot of things in the rendering that we're doing that we didn't previously. Everything is moving in real time now; the lights and the shadows - this time there's a day and night cycle. The weather will evolve as well - it's very dynamic. So depending on the situation the weather could chance from pretty nice weather to a sand storm to a rain storm, this makes the game and the world much more believable.

The other part of the rendering that's evolving is the special effects; they were pretty well received in the original in the big set-piece moments like the embassy. This time we wanted to make them more believable and life-like, and in real life if you look at a battlefield everything is moving depending on what's going on across the battlefield - the cars that are burning won't blow smoke in the same direction, if there's a helicopter passing by it will spread the smoke in other directions, it will swirl - this makes the surroundings life-like and dynamic. We believe we can achieve this.

How does the story pan out?

Dauba: It follows on from the first game; the remaining rebel Mexican forces are gathering along the US border - the situation is extremely critical in the area of Juarez, which is a town on the border of the US in Mexico. A lot of industrial capabilities are located in Juarez (the original Xbox was manufactured there). Most of the remaining civilians are there and the US government has gathered intelligence that a weapon of mass destruction has possibly been sent there by rebels from Panama.

So while the player is battling in the US and central America you'll learn by the end
that some form of WMD is coming to Juarez and you'll have to stop it there before it's used against the US.

Moving the conflict towards the United States isn't a very big challenge for us; Juarez is only a stone's throw from El Paso, Texas. During some parts of the game the player will have to cross from Juarez to El Paso and back that'll create some very interesting tension.

What does GRAW2 have over the first game in terms of gameplay?

Dauba: We wanted to address all the issues that had been raised at the end of GRAW; some of the AI we really wanted to improve. Basically we had to get the basics running for the first game and this time we could truly work on the engine.

There's a new character class as well, the medic class, who will be able to heal anybody at any time. In the previous game when somebody was shot down lying on the floor you were able to heal him. Now, if somebody's lost say two-thirds of their life you can heal him there and then. It's good when you're in a critical situation yourself as well - let's say your life is red, you can call your medic and he'll get you back to full life.

What about the new drone technology?

Dauba: The new first-person drone view was something missing from GRAW. Whether it was a drone, a helicopter or your teammates they only gave you feedback through a very small window and we found that it could have definitely been improved, it lacked details.

You saw detail but you didn't know if objects were behind walls or behind something - you can get a much more detailed view in first-person, you can really change the way you play the game. If you get a view from above that changes your perception of the action, you can evaluate your teammates more efficiently. It really adds another layer to the tactical choice of the player.

It's all about having more moments like the big embassy explosion in the original, isn't it?

Dauba: A war zone has to be stressful and it has to be believable. The embassy was a very good example of something that was designed to really stress the player; the way the music started, the way as soon as the music started the special effects were triggered - everything was designed to make feel something truly wonderful and we learnt a lot by designing this moment and how to recreate a lot more of them.

On the other end of the spectrum we had a couple of moments in GRAW when you were in total control - you were able to destroy the enemy without being in danger yourself so that's another end of the spectrum we're trying to improve as well by alternating these kinds of moments where you're in total control and the moments when you feel totally lost - GRAW was good for these moments but GRAW 2 will have more of them and push them further.

It's one of the things that we do better in my opinion than Gears of War - Gears of War is always the same to me, from one moment to another I'm always shooting the same guy in the same fashion and I tend to get bored if I don't get this spectrum of action and this spectrum of emotion.

If you don't want the player getting bored after a couple of hours you have to make them experience these different emotions and you have to change the pace of the game from time to time. Your job as a designer really is to make the experience as enjoyable as possible and you should alternate the spectrum.

Co-op and multiplayer was a big part of the first GRAW. What are your multiplayer plans for GRAW 2?

Dauba: All I can say is that multiplayer will be much bigger than in the predecessor. The co-op part will be much bigger as well.

And what's going on in the soundtrack department?

Dauba: Tom Salta did an absolutely amazing job on the first one and was nominated for a few awards, including the MTV Video Music Award for Best Original Video Game Score which he lost to Oblivion. This time he's really motivated to get the awards; we've been working with an orchestra in Los Angeles and it's been recorded in the last couple of weeks and is being mixed right now. It wouldn't sound out of place in a Jerry Bruckheimer production.

Are there any plans to implement something similar to Vegas's Vision Camera face-scan feature in GRAW 2?

Dauba: Not necessarily that same feature but you'll recognise something.

Has Gears of War had any influence on GRAW 2's development?

Dauba: We've been following Gears for a long time. Even before we released GRAW, Gears of War was supposed to be the 'next big thing' and we were actually thinking they would be releasing the game around the same time as GRAW 1, but they saved it for later on.

We see each other as competition; we set the benchmark in March with GRAW and Gears of War is raising the bar this Christmas and obviously we have a later target for taking it the next step after Gears of War.

Gears of War is a very good game to be honest; I like lots about the stuff that they are doing but at the same time it is in my opinion a very different experience. We're aiming for realism, they aimed for sci-fi - some of their character design is over the top and influenced by artists. We're looking for photo-realism.

The core gameplay of Gears of War is very simple, a very simple action sequence loop; you take cover, you aim and basically that's it. Ghost Recon in my opinion has a much deeper layer of tactical choices and the environments are actually different as well; Gears of War looks more or less the same to me - this type of destroyed city and destroyed environment.

We're designing our game as a more long-term experience. In my opinion if you play ten minutes of Gears of War it's an absolutely awesome ten minutes, but if you play 20 minutes it doesn't bring anything new. They've made something perfect for ten minutes but we try to go beyond that and making something that lasts for quite a few hours. It's a different game maybe but in my opinion we're aiming for something deeper and wider with a bigger scope.

Do you think Gears will affect the sales of GRAW 2 at all?

Dauba: No, Gears of War is the game that is selling Xbox 360 right now and that's very good for us. Obviously when we release GRAW 2 the install base for Xbox 360 will be much larger than it was when GRAW launched and Gears is hugely responsibility for this. I mean, thank you Epic - thanks to them there is maybe 10 million Xbox 360 consoles out there so it's good for us, we'll be benefiting from a much larger userbase.

Andy Robinson