Far Cry is a series of first-person shooter games. The first game was developed by Crytek Studios and published by Ubisoft in March 2004 for Microsoft Windows. Since then, Ubisoft started to take care also of the development of the game, using Dunia Engine, a software fork of the CryEngine, used to develop the first episode of the series.
Six main games have been developed in the series, all of them share a theme of placing the player in a wilderness setting where he must help fight against one or more despots that control the region as well as surviving against wild animals that roam the open spaces.
The main point of strength of these games is the single-player mode, which features awesome narrations and stories, as well as magistrally designed maps and landscapes.
Lens 2: The Lens of Surprise
Far Cry plots are full of surprises and twists that make these titles enjoyable even when played for the third time. Most of the games of the series include different possible ways of ending the game. For example, in Far Cry 5 there are two possible endings for the storyline, depending on whether the player decides to arrest the main antagonist of the plot, Joseph Seed, or to ignore him and let him continue his practice of terrorism on behalf of the extremist religious terrorist cult organization “Project at Eden’s Gate”.
When first experiencing this, the player is surprised by the possibility of not arresting the enemy and just walking away and he feels like having the ability of shaping his own storyline for the game. By allowing this, players are also encouraged to play the game again and try out how different choices can influence the plot.
Lens 4: The Lens of Curiosity
In Far Cry games curiosity plays a core role in the process of keeping players stuck to the screen. Players have at their disposal an entire environment to explore and tons of challenges to face, as well as a wonderful story to discover.
At any time during the gameplay the player is bombarded with dialogues with AI characters and interactions with the environment that stimulate his curiosity and aim to always offer him new things to do in the game. The game is designed to push him to explore and to go further the main storyline by rewarding him with special weapons or additional resources.
Lens 5: The Lens of Endogenous Value
In every Far Cry game, hunting represents a core mechanic: by opening the map the player can understand the place to go in order to hunt a specific species of animal. Once there, it’s possible that he has to wait for some in-game hours in outposts before being able to see the animal he is looking for. Players can also kill an inoffensive animal to use as a bait to lure a predator, such as a bear, a tiger or a leopard. Hunting rewards the player with animals’ skin or other items which can be used to upgrade items or to craft new ones. This mechanic also tend to reward more “fair” ways of fighting an animal, like using a bow or bear fists, instead of weapons and explosives.
By doing this, the player is encouraged to exploit the maximum amount of resources from fights with animals, trying to fight them in the most difficult way. Hunting represents a great example of how Far Cry puts endogenous value in side-challenges through its open world.
Lens 7: The Lens of the Elemental Tetrad
Technology:
The first Far Cry was developed using the CryEngine game engine, designed by Crytek. Thereafter, all the other titles of the series were developed using Dunia Engine, which is a software fork of the original CryEngine, containing some modifications made by Ubisoft Montreal to include destructible environments and a more realistic physics engine. The last version of Dunia Engine, Dunia 2, includes features such as ray tracing support on the PC version and support for AMD’s FidelityFX. The series has been distributed on PC, Playstation and Xbox.
Mechanics:
Far Cry features some mechanics in common with every other FPS, such as fights using rifles and explosives, or healing the player using medications. However, it introduces tons of innovative mechanics like vehicles or animals riding, animal companions, hunting, fishing, powering up equipment using different collectibles, applying beautiful skins to weapons.
Story:
Each Far Cry game has its own self contained story. However all the titles of the series share a theme of fighting against one or more despots that control a region, collaborating with the local population. Moreover some characters, particularly appreciated by the community, appear in more than one title. One example is Pagan Min, an autocratic self-proclaimed king of the kingdom of Kyrat and the main antagonist of Far Cry 4, who has been recently announced to appear also in a DLC of the latest Far Cry 6.
Aesthetics:
The series is set in different locations: Himalaya mountains, Montana countryside, Caribbean islands, etc. All of them are transposed in beautiful in-game landscapes and detailed maps. Also the characters are extremely detailed and curated, not only in their aspect, but also in their attitude and behavior. One aspect I’ve always truly appreciated about the aesthetics of Far Cry is the outstanding appearance of animals. I think that 3d models and animations of Far Cry animals are the best among all the other AAA titles.
Lens 15: The Lens of the Toy
Like every respectable open-world game, Far Cry isn’t just the main campaign. When a player enters the game, it’s attention is drawn by tons of things to do other than just completing missions. Hunting, fishing, side-missions, mini-challenges, clearing outposts are just some of the infinite possibilities that a player has to enjoy the game even when the main campaign is finished. In my opinion this is critical not only to keep players playing the game even after the end of the storyline, but also to complete the main plot with tons of side aspects that can be known only if the player spends time taking on these side activities.
In the latest titles Ubisoft also introduced some DLCs to feed players with some wonderful challenges and mini-stories, so that they can continue enjoying the title even months after it has been released.
Conclusion
Thanks to this analysis I learnt to appreciate one of my favourite games from different points of view. I also really understood the deep reasons behind the success of Far Cry, and how developers are continuously trying to improve the features of this series by listening to the community of players. I think I won’t look at a AAA game like Far Cry with the same eyes as before, after having realized the incredible work behind it.