It’s what Jordan Mechner did with Prince of Persia, he argues, and they want to capture that. Yohalem says they’re aiming for ”Stranger in a Strange Land” for Far Cry 3, stalking your prey.
The role of the player as a hunter remains as it’s a core pillar of Far Cry, but most everything else is a ”complete refresh” from the team.
”We’re really trying to take the player on a journey and we’re trying to subvert expectations in the same way that Mechner did in Prince of Persia,” explained Jeffrey Yohalem in an interview with MCV. ”You can see the protagonist’s psychology when you’re in the dreamlike levels where you’re playing through what’s going on in his head. It’s very much a psychological action game.”
“I’m working with Far Cry 3’s creative director Pat Plourde, who is an absolute genius. Our visions are very much in parallel and we push each other in both directions, so for us, the core of the game was this sense of a Stranger in a Strange Land,” he continued.
“You get put into a location which is unlike anything you’ve seen. The second idea is stalking prey – the way the combat works is that you’re going through trees and coming upon people who are unaware of you. Far Cry 2 then added the notion that you can control things like fire to your advantage.”
“So that was what we took to be the core of Far Cry, and the rest we’ve reinvented.”
The Far Cry 3 team have even taken some cues from another major Ubisoft series: ”You can think of it like an Assassin’s Creed game in first-person. We’re talking about a first-person shooter action adventure game. Some levels don’t even have shooting in them at all,” said Yohalem.
Far Cry 3 releases on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC September 4th in the US, 6th in EU. Check out the full interview between Jeffrey Yohalem and MCV, discussing what level of insanity lies within in Far Cry 3.
