This is a summary of Edge's coverage of Farcry 4 in their magazine this month. A lot of it is old info, but a common focus in the coverage is how ubisoft is seeking to fix mistakes made in FC3. I've bolded new or interesting information
The overall consensus at Ubi montreal is that they understand the flaws of FC3, and what people liked about it. They are doubling down on emergent gameplay, making sure they do not have a repeat of Jason Brody and have made a huge focus on letting players tell their own stories.
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Figuratively to ubisoft. The team noticed the response Jason Brody got in FC3, the white saviour critiques, and went through measures to make sure they don't repeat the mistakes they made with Jason BrodyJason Brody is dead.
- With Ajay Ghale (FC4 protagonist) Ubisoft wanted to create a character who essentially became a vessel for a player to easily inhabit without people feeling offended, but not so bland that people don't realize he is there.
- Ajay Ghale was designed as the antithesis of Jason Brody and the of "The American". He is polite, respectful and his background story frames him at the center of the events of the story, rather than it being the fact he is a foreigner.
- The structure of the main missions and the story are designed to support the idea of the open world, rather than feel like linear, compartmentalized levels placed in an open world game.
- FarCry 4 has a branching narrative Choices you make in the game will change the story. They claim they have jammed in "as much choice and anecdote-generated branches into the main narrative as they could"
- This was inspired by talks with the people who liked Farcry 3. People who liked Farcry 3 never praised the story or characters (except Vaas), but rather all the things they did in the open world. This is what ubisoft is really pushing in Farcry 4, for players to create more of their own stories in their game, rather than force one on them.
- It was also designed as a callback to FarCry 2. In FC2 a lot of people felt the choices in that game felt meaningless, however in FC4 according to Alex Hutchinson " You are not filling up a bar, there are no rewards attached to it, you are just making choices and changing the game"
- There are 7-8 endings in FarCry 4
- Clearing a fortress doesn't make the area safe. Kyrat is in the middle of a civil war, thus enemies never leave. As the game progresses squads will come back into liberated areas and try to take over the outposts (although not to the extent of FC2's checkpoints), in some cases, Pagan Min will send armored death squads to liberated areas, but they are not after you. Instead they are there to kill civilians, animals and destroy as much as they can. These are very tough encounters, that are optional to the player to engage in.
- There is a form of karma system with the NPC's. If you help the locals out, they will fight along side you and give you discounts at shops, etc. Hutchinson explains it like this "if you are offered the gloves of power in a game, and all you need to do is shoot a baby, he'd probably shot the baby". The NPC relationship is designed to make you care about NPC's rather than just ignore them.
- You can call on AI allies to help you out. Example, you call a guy to help you take down an armored car. If you steal the car, the AI will take over the turret and start shooting down enemies. If there is no turret, he will get in the passanger seat and will cover you in there.
- Blood Dragon had an influence on FC4. Cyber hearts have been replaced with bait, and now you can call animals and draw agro from the enemies.
- The team felt silly because they chose to make the AI unable to do some of the basic movements that Jason could do in FC3 (ex: climb Ladders) In FC4, enemies will be able to take advantage of most of the tools and verticality Ajay can.
- Edge calls FC4 the first ubisoft open world game to feel fully complete since Assassins Creed 2, and goes further calling it "farcry perfected"
The overall consensus at Ubi montreal is that they understand the flaws of FC3, and what people liked about it. They are doubling down on emergent gameplay, making sure they do not have a repeat of Jason Brody and have made a huge focus on letting players tell their own stories.
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