UBISOFT
Far Cry 5 release date nears and Ubisoft talk villains, dogs and gameplay in new game
Open world sandbox games are hard to get right: giving players the freedom to do what they want whilst pushing a narrative forward is a tricky balance to get right, but Ubisoft are proving experts in the field.
Far Cry 5 will be the latest in a series of games that push the definition of sandbox, giving players not only a living, believable world to play in, but a cast of honest, gripping characters to bring it to life too.
In part one of our interview with Far Cry 5 director Dan Hay talked to us about pushing boundaries, about redefining the idea of the sandbox and the engine that powers the game.
In the next part, Hay continues to talk about Far Cry's evolution, and explains the purpose and creation of the game's charismatic villain, as well you character's connection to the rich countryside you find yourself fighting to save.
You can read our interview with Dan Hay below.
Far Cry 5 Screenshots
Far Cry comes to America in the latest instalment of the award-winning franchise. 
The studio seems very aware of Far Cry as a brand: there was a history of people debating whether 3 was a satire or problematic – the same with 4 – and with the setting of Far Cry 5 it looks like you’re pushing that further?
We’re really focused on trying to build a world that leverages what we know about from the real world, and that is complex. The real world is multi-faceted: there are people in this world that you like, and there are people in this world that you don’t like.
There are people whose opinions you agree with, and there are people whose opinions are abhorrent to you. What happens in games, in entertainment, is that we only usually end up with cliches of those opinions, or a facet of those people.
As we mature, as we get better and better at making games, we’re able to show more facets, we’re able to show characters that are deeper.
A lot of people walk around the world thinking that other people are characters in their book, but they don’t realise that they’re actually just a secondary character on page 186 of someone else’s book. People don’t get that, and that’s OK, because it’s a complex idea.
So we make a game where you have an opportunity to meet characters that are interesting, that have their own agenda and you can go and be a part of that – you can help them and they can help you. And maybe they can join your cause.
Far Cry 5 Gold Edition (PS4)
Far Cry has a history of well-defined, charismatic villains. Will that continue with Far Cry 5?
I think that making a good villain is not easy. When you think about what a villain is, people so often just think ‘dark, brooding, does evil things’. That’s true, that’s an element of it. But a great villain is multi-faceted, has great depth.
The first time that I watched Star Wars and saw Darth Vader and I didn’t know what it was: I see him kill some guy. I’m a little kid watching this and I’m like ‘oh my God’.
But as you go deeper into the story you realise what it takes to make that character, and you see there’s a human being locked inside of that character. There’s a projection on the outside of what this thing is, but there’s somebody locked inside.
That’s not dissimilar to all of us. Who we are inside, behind our eyes, might not necessarily be what we show everybody. There’s a way to look out at the world and see beyond what people are showing, what’s really underneath.
Think about how harrowing it would be if we could actually hear each other’s thoughts. I think that a great villain, sometimes, just lets you hear their thoughts.
There’s complexity, there’s depth, with our character The Father. He’s unique and interesting from the standpoint of him having a purpose. He’s not just there to serve as the opposite of you, of the protagonist.
He’s not just there to be the antagonist, he’s there to say ‘I have a belief’, I’m doing this for what I believe in.
In truth, for him, the ends justify the means. This makes him a very complex character, and whilst we’ve done that before, this feels more interesting.
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Did your implementation of character creation – giving the player a blank canvas to work from – change the writing of the project at all?
Oh yeah, for sure. And it’s not easy to do right. Building that system and allowing the player to author what’s in their head, as much as we can, was a priority.
Some of the most frustrating times I’ve had in gaming are when something happens and I scream at the TV and my character says something completely different. That’s not my voice, that’s not my intention, that’s not my character.
But if I’m responsible for building that character, I play a role in creating the aspects of how they operate in that world, I’m responsible for that.
And what’s interesting from our point of view is building a world that reflects that.
One thing that’s really cool about the protagonists we’ve made is that they’re believable characters in unbelievable situations.
We don't start you off as a superhero in Far Cry 3, you fall into the situation, from the position of a kid younger brother that goes from nothing to something.
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We do that again in Far Cry 4: where you’re going to a place you should be connected to but you’re not, where you’re rediscovering it again.
So in Far Cry 5, what we’re trying to pursue and discover and look at was this: each of us has had our first job. Far Cry 3 – you take your gap year off.
Far Cry 4 maybe you do something in your life that sends you in a different direction.
Far Cry 5 is that first job you have where someone gives you way too much responsibility for the amount of knowledge you have. You end up in over your head and you fake it til you make it.
So giving the player the situation where they’re under-experienced but where they have the bravado to go ‘I can do this, I can do this, I can do this’ and in the end, to varying degrees, being right.
Leveraging the player’s power fantasy as an actual mechanic – that’s an interesting concept. Finally, can I ask you to share any moments that have really stood out to you in terms of emergent gameplay so far?
I absolutely have an answer, I don’t know if I’m allowed to answer… there are moments where… Guns for Hire who are running along with you will do things I didn’t know we let them do.
So Boomer, OK. There’s a time where I was playing and I hadn’t really explored Guns For Hire that much and I was watching Boomer do his thing. Then I took a step back and somebody else took control.
This was somebody that had said ‘perhaps that’s not what we should do, that’s not where we should spend our cash.’
It’s not that they didn’t like the dog, it’s that they didn’t appreciate him. Anyway. They were running around, they got into a bit of trouble, and there was a moment where this [mounted 50 .cal machine gun] pulls up and there’s gunfire everywhere and it’s all happening real fast.
Boomer comes out out of nowhere and kills the guy on the machine gun. The player shouts ‘GOOD BOY’ and we completely changed his opinion because we saw him do something we didn’t know he could do.
If we get that kind of collision of systems where the Guns for Hire, the Fangs for Hire, the Friends for Hire can come in and alter your experience in a way you couldn’t predict… we win.
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