Ghost Recon: Future Soldiers devs "felt like fools" taking to military consultants

The Navy SEALs Ubisoft brought in to consult on Ghost Recon: Future Soldier helped the development team strip back the game's science fiction leanings in favour of a more realistic approach to the battleground.

"When you take a boot camp with former Navy SEALs you get a feel for how they're strong, and how they are intuitive, how they're trained. When we were done and we presented our ideas to them, we felt like fools," creative director Jean-Marc Geffroy revealed in the latest issue of Xbox World, as reported by CVG.

"The game was too sci-fi, so we stepped back, and they helped get us where we needed to be. They showed us the physical and technical side of how they work."

The consultants helped Ubisoft realise their ambition of realistic soldier behaviour rather than heroic run and gunning.

"If I have four guys - four Ghosts - and we kill 50 enemies with our guns, we're superheroes," Geffroy said.

"But if I have four Ghosts and I kill 50 enemies because I have used synchronized shots, because I have flanked enemies, because I have focused my fire, because I have gathered intel, then I am a soldier. That's what we realised, and that's really what we wanted at the beginning."

Ghost Recon: Future Soldier is due in May on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, with a PC release expected but not dated; the free-to-play PC exclusive Ghost Recon Online is also due this year.