Skills and Takedowns Give Far Cry 3 Players Tactical Freedom

Jamie Keen, who is the lead designer working on Far Cry 3, has talked about the way the upcoming first-person shooter will tackle the issues of upgrades and player choice, explaining the philosophy that’s powering the development process.

Speaking to CVG he stated, “we've gone for a skill tree system, so we have three different branches tied to this concept of the path of the warrior. You have the spider, the heron and the shark, which loosely translate into stealth, long-range and assault. Within those different sections there are sub-branches of abilities that the player can choose - so one might be upgrading your health, another might be treading silently through the world.”

Players will have a choice between exploring one branch of the skill three in its entirety in order to make sure that they get the best abilities they have or they can spread their points around in order to have a balanced character.

Keen says that the team likes the second approach because it makes the entire Far Cry 3 experience more interesting and gives players themselves more variety when it comes to tackling game challenges.

The entire skill system is also linked to takedowns.

The leading developer added, “The first one you do, you're kind of crap. It's a bit of a struggle. As you progress, you become a more effective hunter, and can end up chaining takedowns and essentially handing a gang all by yourself. You become this super-advanced killer.”

Far Cry 3 will use the same core concepts as the previous game in the series, giving the player a lot of tools and allowing him to choose how he wants to approach each game situation.

The title will be launched on November 29 in Europe and December 4 in North America on the PC, the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3.