Ubisoft Montreal studios is taking the first person shooter in a different direction. According to narrative designer Patrick Redding, the story is all up to you and how you interact with the environment and Non-playable characters. An enormous 50 square kilometer world is yours to explore with missions ranging from taking missions from two different factions set in Africa. The actual premise is the main character is sent to War-torn Africa to hunt down and destroy “The Jackal”, who has evoked conflict between warlords, putting thousands of lives in danger.

From the beginning, your character contracts Malaria (no thank you), and you must seek out a cure from a NPC to increase your health and diminish the affects of the disease. If you preform an action that causes your infamy to rise, characters will stop interacting with you, stunting your health. From then on, you have to rely more on reputation and firepower to help you overcome obstacles.

Redding wants to capture player’s attention, but not show them how the actions move along, seamlessly weaving scripted activity into the game-play.”For us the story isn’t just about the data, it’s really about the system that we are going to have to sit underneath the game and manage the delivery of that.”

With this chosen path, the actual gamer controls more of what they want to accomplish instead of performing specific actions to move the plot along. Actions as killing NPCs and taking missions will impact the entire game world. According to Redding, “[the premise] that’s been plastered on the back of the box [players] forget about that after probably an hour after turning on the console.” Without common constraints found in many titles, Far Cry 2 is shaping up to be a title where every action is decided by the player. If Ubisoft Montreal can deliver, this title should take the gaming nation to a new level.

[Also see: Far Cry 2 gallery]