Interview - Ghost Recon: Future Soldier's Justin Drust

We weren't sure what to think when Ubisoft announced yet another entry in its Ghost Recon shooter franchise, but after seeing the game in action at E3, we reckon Ghost Recon's well worth getting excited about.

After all, in what other game can you turn invisible, knife a guard until he can legally be classified as a pin cushion, and then prop his lifeless form up while another guard walks right on by, completely unaware that his buddy's nothing but a body?

Certainly, the game's brimming with potential, but one demo's hardly enough to sell everyone on a game not called "Crackdown." We wanted to know more. So we engaged our active camo, took associate producer Justin Drust captive, and did a little interrogating. Which is our sleep-deprived way of saying we asked him a few questions during E3. Click past the break for Drust's thoughts on Future Soldier's PC version, the recent delay into 2011, the upcoming multiplayer beta, and tons more.

VG247: In the past, Ghost Recon games' PC versions have been completely separate experiences from their console counterparts. How about Future Soldier? Will we see something similar there?

Justin Drust, associate producer: I can't talk about that right now, but I can say that PC is always [a priority for us]. I mean, that's where Ghost Recon started, you know, on the PC. We definitely want that to be awesome. That's kind of the roots of Ghost Recon. So I can't get into too many details about it, but it will be awesome.

But will it be different?

I can't say anything about that.

Future Soldier seems very deliberately paced. It's not like a lot of other modern shooters, which are basically just Gears of War by another name. You know, it's all about moving in, positioning, coordinating, etc. Do you the mass market – the Gears/Halo generation – still wants that kind of experience?

I do. You know, we enjoy playing those games as well, but we also enjoy playing these. You can play four-player co-op, so you can get some of your friends in there and go through as a squad and do all the stuff. So it's more stealthy. It's more interactive. There's a lot of different things you can do.

And I think you're absolutely right. It's more of a “set up the targets, make sure you're making the right shots, make those decisions” [experience]. Because that's the whole thing of the Ghosts – what they want to do. They want to get in, get out quick. So you don't want to get in and cause a huge hailstorm, and someone's like, “Ah, it's those guys!”

So I definitely think there's places for both in the market, and we enjoy playing all the other games that are out there. We just hope people enjoy playing this one too.

Can you give us any reason for the recent delay? Wait too long and it won't be the future anymore, you know.

One thing you'll see is the optical camo, as well as a lot of the other stuff that's in here. Those are kind of real world prototypes, so a lot of developers that we talk to of those pieces of gear and weapons are prototyping them all the time, and that's the same thing that we're kind of doing. We put new things out there – prototype it. We're trying to maintain the quality, basically. Make the best game that we can. So we didn't want to push anything out before it was ready or we don't want to wait too long. We just want to make sure that we have the best game, and the quality's there – that it's ready to go.

Ubisoft's big thing at this year's E3 conference was “Games You Can Feel.” In that vein, do you have any plans to add Kinect or Move support to Future Soldier?

Right now, I don't know about that. I don't have any information on that.

Is there any DLC in the cards for Future Soldier?

Currently can't say anything about that as well.

You guys mentioned a beta test a while back. What's the status on that? Did the delay affect it at all?

The delay has affected it a little bit. There will still be a beta. If you had pre-ordered Splinter Cell Conviction, those guys got the beta. Right now, there's no current official date with it, but it's still happening.

Is it still on track for “this summer”?

No official date right now. But we want to get it out there because we want the feedback. So we definitely want to make sure it gets out there.

How about the Wii version of the game? Is it going to be a “separate experience” from the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions?

Can't say anything about that [laughs].

The Driver people could! Why can't you? Maybe Ubisoft doesn't like you as much.

[laughs] I don't know any of this stuff.