We hired Susan O’Connor – one of the writers of Bioshock – to help us bring all these characters to life in the nearly infinite number of permutations possible in the script. It was an immensely difficult creative, logistical and technical challenge that required among other things hiring the best writers in the industry to ‘fill in the blanks’ of a truly massive script. That means that major characters, such as the Warlords, Captains, Lieutenants, and the Buddy characters can live or die based on the actions the player takes and the story will dynamically change based on who lives, who dies, and who the players friends are at any given moment. Patrick Redding – our narrative designer – is tasked specifically with making sure the story adapts to the player’s actions and decisions. In order to do it, we more or less invented the field of narrative design.

Hocking: To tell a meaningful and engaging story in an open, non-linear world, we decided we needed to tell an open, non-linear story – a story that adapts itself to the player’s actions the same way the non-linear gameplay experience adapts to the player actions. RPS: Can you tell us a little about how you've approached telling a story in a non-linear game world? What kind of problems did you encounter with this during development? This is a game worth paying attention to. Read on for a verbal monsoon of all things Far Cry 2. He's a clever sort, and was patient enough to talk about how non-linear storytelling works, how your NPCs buddies operate in the game world, how bits of a car can be your undoing, the potential for exploration in a 50km tract of videogame Africa, the 'visceral punch' of the injury system, and how people will overlook the awesomeness of a guided missile system. So I dropped a line to Mr Clint Hocking, a creative director at Ubisoft Montreal, and the lead brain on Far Cry 2. I don't know about you lot, but all that Far Cry 2 coverage left me with a few questions about the game.

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