The next few years in games will see a shift towards the live service genre, and Ubisoft has made its intention pretty clear with at least one of its biggest franchises and in which direction it’s headed. The nextAssassin’s Creedis seemingly calledAssassin’s Creed Infinity, and it will be a live service game that Ubisoft continues to expand upon in subsequent years. While there’s no announced intentions beyondAssassin’s Creed, Ubisoft’s other flagship franchise,Far Cry, might also go in a similar direction with its next entry —Far Cry 7.
Far Cry 6is scheduled to launch later this year, and is already shaping up to be quite a departure from previousFar Crygames in several ways. For instance, players can now choose to play either as a male or female protagonist, both of which are voiced and appears in the cutscenes. While details onFar Cry 7are obviously non-existent at this point in time, there are plenty of reasons as to why it may walk the same road asAssassin’s Creed Infinity.
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Far Cry 7 Could Embrace the Live Service Design
Far Crygames have always been about surviving the atrocities of a charismatic villain, whilst exploring an exotic sandbox world, and this will likely carry over inFar Cry 7. Every subsequentFar Crygame seems to thrust players into an even bigger and denseropen-world settingthat offers ample opportunities to cause mayhem in a wide array of ways.Far Cry 6takes it one step further and features an open-world map spanning across an entire fictional Cuban country that features both rural and urban environments. The addition of an urban playground in aFar Crygame for the first time is a notable shift, one which could be foretelling of what awaits inFar Cry 7.
WhereasAssassin’s Creedgamesshifted from its Assassins-Templars ongoing conflict to focus more on exploring various mythologies,Far Crygames have transitioned from being a fun and frantic adventure in exotic locales to political and religious conspiracies. The transition has been a long time coming, and it fits perfectly into the idea thatAssassin’s Creed Infinityis pursuing, something thatFar Cry 7may end up going for as well.
Strangely enough, Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier recently also discussed how the nextFar Crygame afterFar Cry 6would go in a “radically different direction.“Far Cry 7might be in early production at this point in time, so it’s difficult to pinpoint what exactly Schreier’s comment actually means, though it only increases the chance of what could be a live service game.
If therumors aboutFar Cry 7are indeed true,Far Cry 6will go all in to be the last of its kind open-world game that fans have come to expect from the franchise. So far, it seems that is true. Featuring an entirety of a country as its open-world map is a solid indication of “this is as far as it goes in this direction” as something bigger than an entire country could feel bloated. Ubisoft games have often been criticized for being too filled with content, so a change in direction makes sense.
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How Far Cry 7’s Live Service World Should Look Like
A live serviceFar Crygame that evolves exponentially by adding new exotic locations to explore, new enigmatic villains to conquer, new intriguing storylines to discover, paints an interesting picture of a next-gen platform forFar Crygames.
A smaller, more condensed open-world sounds like the way to go, something that could keep things fresh in the long run. There are seemingly endless possibilities in here, and in the long run, it could resemble something similar toHitman 3, which seamlessly blends the maps, weapons, and equipment of pastHitmangames into one cohesive ecosystem.Far Cry 6seems to be incorporating a lot of stealth elements, and as such,could take inspiration fromHitman 3’s stealth mechanics, which it could also implement in the ever-evolvingFar Cry 7.
Guns for Hire has been an integral part ofFar Cry’s gameplay, and while it doesn’t return inFar Cry 6, there will still be fangs for hire that serves the same purpose. However, an advanced and more complex version of Guns for Hire would make sense in an ever-evolvingFar Cry 7. It could take inspiration fromMetal Gear Solid 5’s mother base, where players could build an evolving arsenal of an army in which every recruit specializes in a particular skill. InFar Cry 7, it would be a lot more interesting if something similar is implemented where players collect and hone an army of recruits over various expansion packs and season passes and then use them in missions in the way they seem fit.
Speaking of missions,Far Cry 7has the advantage of bringing back more hand-crafted campaign missions, something akin to the expeditions fromFar Cry New Dawn. While the traditional open-world doesn’t have to go away, expeditions-style missions are a great way to keep things fresh, especially if these are added time to time on a quarterly basis or in a similar time frame. WhileFar Cry 7could be radically different from the depiction above, there are still a wide array of directions it could go and yield a next-gen reinvigoration that the series needs. Fans would likelyget a taste ofAssassin’s Creed Infinityfirst before they get to hear or see anything aboutFar Cry 7, which in itself is still a few years away at this point.
All in all,Far Cry 7, although not confirmed, could head in a direction that is seemingly framed as the future of AAA video games. While games likeDestiny 2,Fortnite, andGrand Theft Auto Onlineare already thriving in an ever-evolving space, it would be exciting to see how more traditional franchises such asAssassin’s CreedandFar Crytake this inevitable leap.
Far Cry 7is rumored to be in development.
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