Ubisoft officially announces its decision to drop co-op and multiplayer altogether in the forthcoming action-adventure release known as Far Cry Primal.
According to Ubisoft's Community Manager, Jason Paradise, the game publisher and developer has decided to focus solely on single-player gameplay with its pre-historic title, Far Cry Primal, by nixing any and all multiplayer features. The news comes from a comment made by Paradise on Steam, as he explains that Far Cry Primal's development team wanted to create the “best possible experience” for fans by ensuring the elements from the franchise remain fresh.
Although the Far Cry series has contained multiplayer in the past, the games have never really been famous for having the feature. As many folks would argue, the main draw of the action-adventure franchise's most recent entry with Far Cry 4 was its solo campaign that presented a controversial, albeit fictional story of the Nepali Civil War.
As detailed in our hands-on preview for Far Cry Primal, the title and its open-world gameplay is geared more toward a single-player experience. Taking all of this into consideration, Ubisoft's resolution to drop co-op makes perfect sense. As it happens, Paradise presents a clear-cut case for scrapping the feature, writing:
“Bringing the Stone Age to life and providing players with a strong gameplay experience based off of the Far Cry legacy meant we had to reinvent our core gameplay loop. This was definitely not a small undertaking. Our focus was on delivering this fantasy which required clear priorities for the team. Therefore, in the early stages of the project, we made the difficult choice of focusing our efforts on the single-player experience.”
While Far Cry Primal could have definitely benefited from the option of co-op features — a potential mode allowing gamers to work together in the vein of hunter-gatherer tribes would have been spectacular — Ubisoft's sole commitment to single-player gives developers a sharper objective. Bearing that in mind, it should result in a more finely tuned solo campaign.
If anything, Far Cry Primal's status as one of the most anticipated games of 2016 ought to remain intact due to the fact that the title is now hinging entirely on a single-player experience. Plus, with FCP's creators taking a risk by also removing modern technology from the game, the project's final outcome will likely be interesting to say the least.
At any rate, if the action and beautiful-looking environments depicted in the gameplay trailer at The Game Awards 2015 is any indication of the quality for the entirety of Far Cry Primal, fans should end up being pleased once it releases. Despite that, though, there will surely be a small segment of folks disappointed by the game's departure from co-op, as some would assert that the rise of online multiplayer games could very well outpace titles that lack the feature.
What do you think about Far Cry Primal's lack of co-op? Will Ubisoft's decision to axe the feature dissuade you from buying the action-adventure title once it releases? Let us know in the comments below.
Far Cry Primal is set for release on February 23, 2016 for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, while its PC version will come out on March 1, 2016.