Preview: 10 Ways That "Far Cry 3"'s Multiplayer Stands Out

Although the single-player campaign will likely remain Far Cry 3's main draw, especially for fans of its predecessor, the multiplayer gameplay available for sampling at PAX East has proved that the game's no slouch in that area either.

Ubisoft Massive is developing the multiplayer components separate from Ubisoft Montreal's work on the story mode, and we had a chat with Massive designer Daniel Berlin to help flesh out exactly what sets Far Cry 3 apart from other online shooters on the market.

When I first saw the multiplayer footage detailing how the top player from the winning team can determine the fate of the opposing team's MVP, I was confused about what impact that decision would have on the game. Berlin told me that there is none: it's purely emotional.

"We wanted to create a feature where [the top player] gets to be the start of the show," Berlin said. "It's a matter of bragging rights, really."

As the MVP, you can choose whether to honor or punish the opposing player, and you can even customize your actions for either choice with different moves that are unlocked the more you play.

Far Cry 2's environments were lush and dense, and Ubisoft's bringing a similar approach to FC 3's tropical locales. The level I played at PAX East featured indoor and outdoor locations, ridges from which to snipe, choke points and hiding spots, and everything else you expect from an online arena.

But it was also gorgeous—you can see it for yourself in the video that came out last week.

Far Cry 3 continues FC 2's tradition of visceral, weighty movement and shooting. Sliding into cover, vaulting over it and mercilessly driving your knife into an enemy's throat feels great, and any game in which your character actually moves his arms when you're underwater gets bonus points from me.

Though it's not playable at PAX, Firestorm is being touted as one of Far Cry 3's most unique new modes. Each team has to light the opposition's ignition points while defending its own. Once the points are ignited, both teams compete to capture a radio in the center of the map; if the team whose supply drops are on fire reaches it, they call in a water-drop to extinguish the flames. If the other team reaches the radio they call in planes to douse the area in gasoline, ensuring victory.

The most compelling part is that you have to cooperate with your teammates to ignite both ignition points at roughly the same time, or the fire will go out. "It's possible to do it yourself, but it's a lot harder. And that's our most heavy teamplay game mode that we have," Berlin told me.

The cooperation required in Firestorm is indicative of how the rest of the game plays. You can revive your teammates, unleash different battle cries to give them various boosts (like increased reload speed, health or accuracy), and "tag" specific enemies for your buddies to focus on.

By reviving teammates, "you keep that pack going and you just keep on pushing on as a team," Berlin said. The battle cries are also "encouraging to pack behavior," he said. "If you just want to run around and shoot, you can do that, it's totally fine, it's not going to break it for anyone else, but you're probably going to get less points."

The best part is that these helpful actions are encouraged by a simple rewards system—check out the next slide.

Rewards are the opposite of kill streaks, Berlin told me. "We didn't want to award someone who went on a lot of kills by giving him a tool to get more kills," Berlin told me. "We wanted to award someone who captures points, revives his friends, battle-cries his friends, and stuff like that."

Barrel bombs or Psyche gas are only a couple of the support weapons available to particularly team-oriented players.

Psyche gas can be unleashed by skilled players to turn the battlefield into a nightmare for anyone who comes in contact with the orange gas. When you're affected by the stuff, enemy/friend markers are removed from other players and friendly fire is switched on, making it impossible to tell friend from foe.

"We thought it was fun to just like—how do we make gameplay out of insanity in a multiplayer world?" Berlin told me.

Like other online shooters, Far Cry 3 allows you to create and save multiple "classes", configurations of weapons and equipment that give you an edge in different situations.

Unlike in other games, though, these items are unlocked while you're not playing (more on that on the next slide). Equipping multiple items from the same "set" can provide extra perks and boosts, and you can trade items with your friends to attempt to make full sets.

At the end of each match, there's a random chance that you'll receive a flash drive, the data on which can be decoded when you activate the process from a web browser or smart phone. It's unclear at this point whether there's anything more involved in the process, but once the data is decoded, you'll receive new weapons and items for use in-game.

Ubisoft's built on Far Cry 2's map editor to make an even more accessible In-Game Editor in FC 3. For example, it's easier to add random elements to a map or edit existing variations.

Like in Halo's Forge Mode, there's a large selection of pre-made objects and structures to aid in map creation. And like in LittleBigPlanet, you can easily view, sort and rate community map creations.