For all that Ubisoft advertise their games for being ‘open world,’ the fact of the matter is that they’re really very formulaic and defined in how players progress through them. Go to a high spot on the map, unlock a new portion of the map, unlock new quests and sidequests that you can undertake, rinse and repeat.
However, as much as the ‘Ubisoft Tower’ has become a meme, the company seems to actively be trying to distance itself from that system of progression in its new games. So when GamingBolt got a chance to sit down with Dominic Butler, Lead Game Designer of Ghost Recon Wildlands, we decided to ask him the one question on everybody’s mind: how will progression in this game work? Surely not more Ubisoft towers, right?
“We’re going to be making a big announcement about that very soon,” Butler said. “The idea is that the players from the beginning are able to, basically the freedom of choice I talked about earlier – it starts right from the moment you turn the game on. You will customize your ghost, the look, the gear, the weapons they have, all that kind of stuff. From the beginning the kind of loadout you want to take with you and in overtime you’re going to get new weapons new attachments; everything is authenticated by the military, by different weapon companies. You’ll be able to grow as a character as well. You’ll have access to new abilities, tools you can modify them.
“So everybody has a drone for example. This is a key part of the player’s toolset. It’s not like it’s just for the recon guy. You can used it in recon to identify threats, and opportunities that are there in the camps. But over time you can find that you can keep it in the air longer, you can get offensive, you can get defensive, you can use it to distract people, you can use it to take out targets, you can use it to disable electricity systems. There are ton of different ways, but the point is we’re not limiting to you to just one thing, there are lots of different ways to play. The progression system is super long, it takes place over the whole course of the game. Whatever you’ve learned you can take those in and out of the sessions with your friends.”
It sounds like Ubisoft will be presenting the player with a lot of options in this upcoming game- which should be more than just the illusion of choice that they usually end up giving players, even when their games are ostensibly open world.