Far Cry 6 is scheduled to launch later this year, and is already shaping up to be quite a departure from previous Far Cry games in several ways. For instance, players can now choose to play either as a male or female protagonist, both of which are voiced and appears in the cutscenes. While details on Far Cry 7 are obviously non-existent at this point in time, there are plenty of reasons as to why it may walk the same road as Assassin’s Creed Infinity.
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Far Cry 7 Could Embrace the Live Service Design
Far Cry games have always been about surviving the atrocities of a charismatic villain, whilst exploring an exotic sandbox world, and this will likely carry over in Far Cry 7. Every subsequent Far Cry game seems to thrust players into an even bigger and denser open-world setting that offers ample opportunities to cause mayhem in a wide array of ways. Far Cry 6 takes it one step further and features an open-world map spanning across an entire fictional Cuban country that features both rural and urban environments. The addition of an urban playground in a Far Cry game for the first time is a notable shift, one which could be foretelling of what awaits in Far Cry 7.
Whereas Assassin’s Creed games shifted from its Assassins-Templars ongoing conflict to focus more on exploring various mythologies, Far Cry games have transitioned from being a fun and frantic adventure in exotic locales to political and religious conspiracies. The transition has been a long time coming, and it fits perfectly into the idea that Assassin’s Creed Infinity is pursuing, something that Far Cry 7 may end up going for as well.
Strangely enough, Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier recently also discussed how the next Far Cry game after Far Cry 6 would go in a “radically different direction.” Far Cry 7 might be in early production at this point in time, so it’s difficult to pinpoint what exactly Schreier’s comment actually means, though it only increases the chance of what could be a live service game.
If the rumors about Far Cry 7 are indeed true, Far Cry 6 will go all in to be the last of its kind open-world game that fans have come to expect from the franchise. So far, it seems that is true. Featuring an entirety of a country as its open-world map is a solid indication of “this is as far as it goes in this direction” as something bigger than an entire country could feel bloated. Ubisoft games have often been criticized for being too filled with content, so a change in direction makes sense.
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How Far Cry 7’s Live Service World Should Look Like
A live service Far Cry game that evolves exponentially by adding new exotic locations to explore, new enigmatic villains to conquer, new intriguing storylines to discover, paints an interesting picture of a next-gen platform for Far Cry games.
A smaller, more condensed open-world sounds like the way to go, something that could keep things fresh in the long run. There are seemingly endless possibilities in here, and in the long run, it could resemble something similar to Hitman 3, which seamlessly blends the maps, weapons, and equipment of past Hitman games into one cohesive ecosystem. Far Cry 6 seems to be incorporating a lot of stealth elements, and as such, could take inspiration from Hitman 3’s stealth mechanics, which it could also implement in the ever-evolving Far Cry 7.
Guns for Hire has been an integral part of Far Cry’s gameplay, and while it doesn’t return in Far Cry 6, there will still be fangs for hire that serves the same purpose. However, an advanced and more complex version of Guns for Hire would make sense in an ever-evolving Far Cry 7. It could take inspiration from Metal Gear Solid 5’s mother base, where players could build an evolving arsenal of an army in which every recruit specializes in a particular skill. In Far Cry 7, it would be a lot more interesting if something similar is implemented where players collect and hone an army of recruits over various expansion packs and season passes and then use them in missions in the way they seem fit.
Speaking of missions, Far Cry 7 has the advantage of bringing back more hand-crafted campaign missions, something akin to the expeditions from Far Cry New Dawn. While the traditional open-world doesn’t have to go away, expeditions-style missions are a great way to keep things fresh, especially if these are added time to time on a quarterly basis or in a similar time frame. While Far Cry 7 could be radically different from the depiction above, there are still a wide array of directions it could go and yield a next-gen reinvigoration that the series needs. Fans would likely get a taste of Assassin’s Creed Infinity first before they get to hear or see anything about Far Cry 7, which in itself is still a few years away at this point.
All in all, Far Cry 7, although not confirmed, could head in a direction that is seemingly framed as the future of AAA video games. While games like Destiny 2, Fortnite, and Grand Theft Auto Online are already thriving in an ever-evolving space, it would be exciting to see how more traditional franchises such as Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry take this inevitable leap.
Far Cry 7 is rumored to be in development.
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