Far Cry 3′s Main Story Will Take At Least 20 Hours To Beat

In addition the the announcement of the Assassin’s Creed 3 release date, yesterday saw the early release of the brand new Far Cry 3 trailer as well as its release date. Fans now have a better understanding of the story of Far Cry 3, its protagonist Jason Brody and one of its key villains who was the highlight of the E3 2011 trailer that announced the game.

Two weeks ago we had the opportunity to visit Ubisoft Montreal to preview the single-player campaign of Far Cry 3 where we had a chance to talk to the developers, including Level Design Director Mark Thompson, who answered some of our questions about the game.

If you’ve read our Far Cry 3 preview, then you’ll have a better understand of what differentiates Far Cry 3 from its predecessors and nearly every other shooter on the market. In essence, it’s an open world shooter with RPG elements, fused with narrative-driven moments. Since the island the game takes place on is so large, we wanted to know what fans can expect from its main story, so we asked Thompson about the game’s main campaign, side quests and environments.

How big is Far Cry 3 compared to the previous games?

“We have the same technology, so there’s no restriction on us to have a world the same size, but I want it to be more than a number because a number doesn’t mean anything. It’s about what you can do, it’s about meaningful experiences inside that space.

There seems to be this arms race in open world games to be bigger and bigger. I remember I saw a map comparing the different sizes of worlds and some of them are so big, I wonder how much value is there actually in that. How many meaningful experiences will I have in a world that size?”

What we wanted to was make a world that was interesting, that was compelling, that was full of things to do and explore and find, and if at any point we ran out of things to do, the size of the world would be a problem.”

There will be an accessible fast-travel system in addition to a variety of vehicles. During the demos at the preview event, we saw the player driving a truck, a boat, using zip lines and we know there are a few others as well.

How long will it take players to beat the game?

“If you just main-lined the missions, it’s probably like 20 hours. But even then, it’s hard to say how it can take for someone to play a mission.”

As an example, we discussed the Medusa mission from the demo where Jason must attack a beached ship to get to the radio tower on top. Someone can hang-glide their way in and do it in 2-3 minutes whereas players who take the time either by being stealthy or tagging all of the enemies to snipe – so the campaign length can vary substantially depending on the player’s style.

“It’s just up to you. If you want to get the XP from killing every guy, if you want loot every body for cash and resources – what’s more valuable to you? Is it time or is it the actual resources?”

Thompson emphasizes the idea of quality over quantity in player experiences on the island,  and considering the game will be physically massive, larger than Far Cry 2, players may have another Skyrim on their hands, this time with fleshed out characters, less snow, and more guns. A lot more guns.

Keep and eye out for our full interview with Mark Thompson.

Far Cry 3 will releases on September 6, 2012, for the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360.

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