The Far Cry franchise remains one of the most popular and lucrative in Ubisoft's entire library of games. With Far Cry 6 confirmed to be in active development, fans of the series are looking forward to the freedom and chaos that these games are so renowned for. Although Ubisoft is recognized for following a certain gameplay pattern with its many releases, each new installment does offer something new, mechanically or stylistically. Far Cry in particular tends to hop from location to location, introduce new villainous factions to fight or provide small but significant gameplay changes to keep things interesting.
While details on Far Cry 6 are currently limited, theories are already mounting as to how the game can spice up a series already containing half a dozen entries (not counting spin-offs). Considering how most of Ubisoft's current releases seem to follow a similar RPG style, from Assassin's Creed: Valhalla to Immortals: Fenyx Rising, the video game developer is settling into a comfortable baseline across all its products. Based on this consistency between releases, it seems only natural and logical that Far Cry 6 will adopt this trend when it comes to its own features and mechanics.
The Ubisoft Formula
While some naysayers would be swift to dismiss the repetition seen across many Ubisoft titles, the company has still managed to strike a chord with a huge player base. The gargantuan open world environments littered with an endless list of objectives has proven to be addicting for many. Sales for Assassin's Creed: Valhalla kicking "franchise fatigue" comments to the curb, providing Ubisoft with strong revenue flows in 2020.
Valhalla additionally marks the third installment in the modern RPG style that the Assassin's Creed series has reinvented itself as, beginning with Assassin's Creed: Origins back in 2017. This reboot came after 2015's Assassin's Creed: Syndicate released to a mixed response, with many gamers and critics alike feeling that the franchise was beginning to run out of inventive new concepts. After taking a two year hiatus to return to the drawing board, the aforementioned Origins marked a strong return to form for the franchise and has since become the new blueprint from which later installments work upon.
This newfound success doesn't seem to be exclusive to Assassins' Creed alone, as Ubisoft clearly took notice of this new RPG approach resonating with gamers and wanted to replicate this with its other series. Sequels in established franchises like The Division 2 implemented more RPG elements to help enhance the experience and give player's the denser and grand scale adventures that seem to be growing increasingly popular.
The company's newest IP Immortals: Fenyx Rising appears to be the ultimate proof of Ubisoft's new mindset regarding game development, with much of its layout, objectives and combat mechanics very clearly borrowing from the new Assassin's Creed model.
The Definition of Insanity
While other Ubisoft franchises new and old alike are adopting these RPG elements to further compliment the open world, Far Cry remains a series relatively untouched in this regard. Far Cry 3 helped solidify the series current interpretation, in which a lone soldier takes on a corrupt warlord, complete with hostile wildlife and trippy drug sequences.
The Far Cry games are no stranger to innovation, with Far Cry 2's destruction physics being ahead of its time, and Far Cry 5 tackling some particularly heavy narrative themes. However, just as Vaas famously declared in one of the most iconic moments of Far Cry 3: "...the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again," a notion which literally translates to gameplay loops as well. Surely Ubisoft knows this itself and is working on ways to keep the series fresh as it goes on.
In fact, evidence is mounting that Ubisoft has already been testing the waters for including more RPG elements into the series, with Far Cry: New Dawn released back in early 2019. Far Cry: New Dawn included light RPG mechanics to spice up the formula and add an interesting layer to the already frantic shooting and satisfying world exploration.
Released barely a year after Far Cry 5, and with early development on Far Cry 6 sure to have started at this point, Ubisoft could have been testing out its new formula in a subtle fashion before fully incorporating it to the extent in a game like Assassin's Creed: Odyssey. Nothing is confirmed as of yet, but it would make sense for Ubisoft to want to ease longtime fans into a larger gameplay transition by carefully planting these seeds in a prior game.
With many of the other franchise conventions already looking polished, especially with Giancarlo Esposito playing the villain, these added tweaks would only be icing on this explosive cake. It remains to be seen just what Ubisoft is cooking up for the next mainline Far Cry release, but considering the company's overall pattern with recent games, it wouldn't be a surprise to see Far Cry 6 follow suit. Seeing the success this brought Assassin's Creed, a deeper focus on the RPG experience could be on the horizon and in this case, that doesn't just refer to rocket propelled grenades.
Far Cry 6 is in development for PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.