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By now, Far Cry games have practically become an institution. With each entry somehow both familiar and varied enough to stay interesting at the same time, Ubisoft has managed to create a repertoire that's got more variety to it than virtually any other franchise/game series, and in record time, at that. Over the years, we've visited contemporary jungles, prehistoric wastes, the Vietnam, Montana, post-apocalyptic Montana, Mars, and a slew of other locales - all through sticking with this one particular franchise. With as erratic a game series as Far Cry, however, it's pretty hard to figure out what the next step might be.
We know for a fact that Ubisoft has got a new Far Cry game in production, though there's been no hint as of yet on what its setting might be. With this piece, we'll take a look at some of the potential options that Ubisoft may have gone with, or some that they might opt for sometime down the line.
Ever since the days of Far Cry 3, one of the most prominent features of any given Far Cry title has been its pandemonium of vengeful beasts that are hell-bent on taking the player down at any cost. While this sort of kamikaze behaviour isn't exactly true-to-life far as animals go, it does make for (mostly) fun gameplay experiences. To name but a few, Far Cry games have had us face off against Komodo dragons, insanely aggressive Himalayan eagles, vicious turkeys, bears, and honey-badgers. Hell, Far Cry Primal pitted the player against pre-historic giants such as mammoths and saber-toothed tigers, and we've even taken down alien monstrosities in one of the Far Cry 5 DLCs, but there's one key thing missing from the list: dinosaurs. While we'll let Ubisoft come up with the premise themselves, dinosaurs of all types seem like the perfect creatures for the developers to feature in a Far Cry title. And honestly, let's face it - it's only a matter of time anyway.
More mindful readers will note that we've not yet had a proper cityscape in any Far Cry game, either. While Far Cry 5's Montana does feature some small town-like places, this is a far cry (apologies) from a full-on modern-day urban hell. While wildlife would certainly have to take a backseat for a quick bit, a Far Cry game that focuses on gang warfare in some crime-riddled super-city would definitely make for an interesting change of pace. The argument to be made here is that Far Cry games exist to showcase exotic locales, but if Ubisoft could make small-town USA as interesting as it was in Far Cry 5, they could probably pull off a fully-fledged cityscape as well.
A more likely candidate than either of these, however, would certainly be Australia. Not only does the continent feature an abundance of murderous wildlife, but neither the climate nor the map-type would be out-of-place in a Far Cry game, either. Indeed, we could see ourselves running for our lives from a particularly angry kangaroo, or gunning down baddies amidst an ostrich stampede. A visit to some South American jungle would work just as well, and maybe even harken to the franchise's not-so-humble beginnings as well. Nostalgia is a powerful sales driver, after all.
In any case, Ubisoft has certainly shown that they're not averse to trying to iterate on what makes Far Cry as successful a game series as it is. Whether New Dawn's RPG-lite elements will translate into the inevitable Far Cry 6, we've got no clue, but it would be an understatement to say that the franchise hasn't got a rather promising future.
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