Far Cry At 20 – How Ubisoft’s Open World Shooter Evolved And Transformed An Entire Genre

With Ubisoft’s long-running, open-world shooter celebrating its twentieth anniversary this year, it can perhaps be a little too easy to assume that Far Cry has always existed in the form that it does now – a massive, content-stuffed first-person shooter that is emblematic of the studio’s broader approach to open world game design. However, it wasn’t always this way and it’s certainly the case that the latest entry in the series, Far Cry 6, is profoundly different from the very first instalment in ways that folks who are new to the franchise might not readily appreciate.

With Ubisoft’s long-running, open-world shooter celebrating its twentieth anniversary this year, it can perhaps be a little too easy to assume that Far Cry has always existed in the form that it does now – a massive, content-stuffed first-person shooter that is emblematic of the studio’s broader approach to open world game design. However, it wasn’t always this way and it’s certainly the case that the latest entry in the series, Far Cry 6, is profoundly different from the very first instalment in ways that folks who are new to the franchise might not readily appreciate. 

Releasing back in 2004, the same year as such genre giants as Half-Life 2, Doom 3 and Halo 2, it’s fair to posit that the original Far Cry had its work cut out for it. A first-person shooter, it puts players in the blood-stained boots of Jack Carver, an ex-special forces operative who is tasked with rescuing an investigative journalist by the name of Valerine Constantine, who it transpires became shipwrecked on a mysterious tropical island after investigating some dodgy goings on there. Well, as it turns out not only are there hostile mercenaries aplenty, but also all manner of terrible monsters and a nuttier-than-squirrel-poop scientist that has been experimenting on the fauna to create said terrible monsters. The Island of Dr. Moreau you say? Never heard of it. 

Anyway, though the later Far Cry titles would all be these massive, open-world extravaganzas (except for the fairly risible Far Cry: Instincts which itself was a somewhat misguided remake of Far Cry for the original Xbox console), the very first Far Cry would instead be a much more narrowly focused first-person shooter with levels that boasted open-ended design, allowing players to wander around a much broader environment and tackle objectives however they saw fit. Perhaps the most illuminating aspect of the original Far Cry’s creation was that it was developed by Crysis and Hunt: Showdown studio Crytek, rather than Ubisoft, which would take over the IP just one year later. Crytek meanwhile, would take its CryEngine technology that debuted with Far Cry and would instead focus on creating the Crysis games – sci-fi first-person shooter games which also boasted similarly open-ended gameplay.