Ghost Recon: Future Soldier to be compatible with Kinect – cause for excitement or a marketing gimmick?
The revelation that Ghost Recon: Future Soldier will have Kinect compatibility does two things. Firstly it raises the level of anticipation for the game as gamers cannot wait to see how Microsoft’s motion sensing peripheral will be incorporated into the
game and secondly, gives the sceptics more to reason to be, well, sceptical over whether or not it will be a feature that will actually help the game instead of being a marketing gimmick.
Before one dives into that particular debate however, one needs to understand the developers and the game itself. Ubisoft are the development team as well the publishers for the title, and the majority of every game that has the Tom Clancy tag attached to
it.
Major players on the gaming market, Ubisoft are responsible for titles such as Rainbow Six Vegas 2, which was one of the best games out at its time, the Assassins Creed series, the Splinter Cell series as well as the predecessor to Future Soldier, as they
were the studio that brought everyone Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter.
With plenty of experience in the bag with high-tech stealth gameplay and third person shooter experience, it seems only fitting that Ubisoft would take the leap into ‘Kinecting’ (see what it did there) the shooter.
However, apart from one of the most impressive game trailers which mixed both live action and computer graphics together, there has not been much news regarding the Future Soldier.
The game had been announced in early 2009 but since then seemed to disappear, with Ubisoft on the end of various delays that has seen the game in and out of the spotlight.
That is up until recently when Xbox.com got a post with a picture of the game’s box art with the Kinect branding for all to see. This does go a long way in explaining why the game is not out yet, two years after its announcement.
What the box art did not reveal was how and to what level Kinect would be incorporated into the game. Would there be a specific mode just for the peripheral? Would the game be playable both with the Xbox controller and the Kinect interchangeably? Would there
be the need of an extra peripheral e.g. a gun?
Like any brilliant marketing move, the recent post raised many more questions than provide answers. While half the gamers flipped head over heels at the news, others seemed less excited.
In fact, if the PlayStation Move is anything to go by, then the sceptics have a case. While it was incorporated into a number of AAA titles with Killzone 3 and SOCOM 4 just to name a few, it did not bring the ‘revolution’ in gaming, which players were expecting.
Yes the Move did give another option to players, and yes it was fun to play with, but the effects did not last and players soon went back to the trusty controller.
The question now is whether or not the Kinect can succeed where the Move left gamers with a sense of not feeling fully satisfied.
It seems that Microsoft are serious about Kinect as they are reported to have opened a studio in Vancouver who will be responsible for developing hardcore titles for the Kinect.
In the meantime one can only hope that Ubisoft has something on offer at next month’s Electronic Entertainment Expo, to answer some of the many questions about Ghost Recon: Future Solider.
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