In the past year, five of the 10 top-selling console games were open worlds, like Grand Theft Auto V or Watch Dogs. That fact wasn’t lost on Ubisoft, which is unveiling a new open world game, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands, at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles today.
The title is a the latest in the long-running futuristic soldier combat series, and it is set in as complete an open world as Ubisoft can build, said Yannis Mallat, head of Ubisoft Montreal, in a press briefing.
The title has systems, down to the flora and fauna system, that allow players to interact as they wish and tell their own stories, Mallat said. Far Cry 4 was the fruit of multiple years of investment in open worlds, he said, but this game goes further than that one. In seven years, Ubisoft has built nine open world games.
“We create the game’s story through the player’s agenda,” he said. “We like to consider ourselves world builders. This is the latest, most advanced, and largest open world game that Ubisoft has ever created.”
Four of the ten games that Ubisoft is showing at E3 are open worlds. There’s no word when this game will be released.
Nouredine Abboud, senior producer of the game, and Eric Couzian, creative director on the title, showed off the first taste of the game. It is set in Bolivia, at least for part of it, and it is intended to give you the thrill of exploration of air, land, and sea, they said.
“This is a refreshing new direction,” Abboud said. “You can play it co-op up to four players. It is the largest action adventure world we have ever made.”
It has nine full environments from arond the world, and you can travel in vehicles over the land, air, and sea.
“It’s an authentic world, living and breathing,” Abboud said. “You will be given total freedom of choice. There is no script at all. The missions have a non-linear story. Every player will have a different experience.”
But your actions will have consequences, and once you make choices, you will set certain events in motion.
“We wanted to make the world as real as possible,” Couzian said. “We sent the team to Bolivia for two weeks.”
Each enemy has their own back story, personal life, and faction allegiance. The environment in the game has its own weather system and day-night cycle.
“We’ll have spectacular emergent game play,” Couzian said.