The Far Cry series is one of my favorite shooter franchises, and so I hope Dave is right. The video, which is still just sitting there with a crackling fire and some ominous sound effects, shows some prehistoric graffiti, and the rumor circulating is that Ubisoft is building a cave-man Far Cry game. Ubisoft themselves have polled gamers on what sort of Far Cry they'd like to see, and dinosaurs was one of the options.
That sounds awesome! There's been a sudden influx of dinosaur games, including the very cool looking PS4 exclusive Horizon: Zero Dawn which has robot dinosaurs.
So let's talk about what a prehistoric Far Cry would look like, as well as five other ideas for the franchise.
Prehistoric 'Far Cry'
This is such a no-brainer, to be honest, it's no wonder everyone is guessing at cave-men. While you wouldn't have guns, you could have a variety of bows and blowguns and the like. Hunting is a huge part of Far Cry and our prehistoric ancestors were nothing if not hunters.
Plus, if Ubisoft bent history a bit (cave-men didn't co-exist with dinosaurs) they could include more than just woolly mammoths. A full spectrum of dinosaurs would be awesome to hunt and be hunted by. And since Blood Dragon was amazing, we know that dino-like monsters already work in the franchise really well. Meanwhile you'd have villages to protect or capture, stealth, and all the other things that make Far Cry what it is today.
Here's five more ideas for future Far Cry settings:
1. 'Far Cry' in Space!
I'm not thinking serious science fiction here, or a second take on Blood Dragon. I'm thinking more along the lines of shimmery silver space suits and laser guns. UFOs and little green men. The whole vintage space opera thing.
Crazy guns, wacky aliens, scantily clad space divas. Maybe you, the Intrepid Space Explorer, are wrecked on some alien planet and have to find a way to repair your ship. In the meantime, you have to hunt alien beasts, navigate perilous relationships with the strange planet's alluring princesses, and fight off hordes of evil space men. Oh, and you'd have to climb crazy space towers to unlock the map.
I would play this in a heartbeat.
2. Medieval 'Far Cry'
I'm thinking here of something very Robin Hood-esque. Maybe Ivanho. An evil tyrant rules the land, and you're the latest (perhaps reluctant) addition to the rebel cause. Whereupon you go out and climb watch towers, take out knights and men-at-arms with bows, crossbows, knives, and so forth. You'd have horses mostly, rather than vehicles, though Ubisoft could go full-on fantasy and include dragons and griffons and all the rest. Imagine a Far Cry game where you rode on the back of a wyvern. It'd be sweet.
3. Cthulhu 'Far Cry'
Vampires. Terrifying beasts. Maybe you're a reporter or a tourist or a researcher in the 1930's, just as war is breaking out in Europe. You find yourself in some crazy nightmare, unearthing terrors no man or woman can truly survive with their sanity intact. Old, abandoned buildings. Graveyards. Haunted streets.
A horror setting could be pretty sweet, whether it was set in the 30's or present day. Or even late 19th century or early 20th century. Though I personally like the idea of a bit of Indiana Jones and the Nazis thrown in on top of the scary stuff.
4. Middle East 'Far Cry'
Alone in the Far Cry series stands Far Cry 2 which plopped players down in the middle of war-torn Africa. While the first game was set on a crazy island with monsters and the third and fourth in somewhat less crazy, but still kind of far-out, locations on a pirate-infested island and a Himalayan civil war, the second game was a much more serious affair.
I wouldn't mind a return to that form---just one more time. The Middle East or Afghanistan, the civil war in Syria. A fictional Middle East country or a parallel to Afghanistan could be fascinating, dark, and politically charged. It's not as fun as the other ideas, but I'd still like to see it.
5. Clint Eastwood 'Far Cry'
There's been talk of a Western version of Far Cry, and I can't get behind that idea enough. As a huge fan of all things Western, from Clint Eastwood to John Wayne to Red Dead Redemption, it's high time we got a new cowboy game and Far Cry is the perfect franchise for it.
That being said, Ubisoft already publishes Call of Juarez, which isn't a bad Western video game in its own right. I wonder if this would make them a little less likely to go this route. (If only Assassin's Creed had better combat, I could see a Wild West version of that franchise, too.)
Other ideas? Post-apocalyptic Far Cry, Samurai Far Cry, Super Hero Far Cry, World War I Far Cry---really the possibilities are endless.
What would you like to see happen with the franchise? What do you think today's mysterious Ubisoft announcement will be?
