Crytek Retrospective: Far Cry 3 – Confirmed!

Far Cry was a very special game to many of us. Released back in March 2004, it’s quite an old game, but revolutionary in what it achieved. The first and most obvious fact is the incredible graphics it had on show (thanks to the CryEngine) and secondly, the amazing ‘open world’ concept in a First Person Shooter game. It was spectacular for many reasons, but after the first Far Cry, Crytek started to quiet down. I’m well aware that they sold their rights to Ubisoft, but to avoid confusion I will focus on Crytek seeing that it all began with them, their game and their engine. They weren’t in hiding, of course, as they had begun work on their second PC project, Crysis. Think back to when you first saw in-game screenshots of Crysis, how your jaw immediately dropped to the floor upon seeing such oustanding and photorealistic visuals. Once again, thanks to Crytek’s CryEngine. Crysis was dubbed the Far Cry sequel, since both games were a lot a like, mainly because of their settings both being beautiful tropical islands.
Following the success of Crysis, came Crysis Warhead which took an alternate path in the story of Crysis.

It seemed then that Crytek’s games had adopted the formula of incredible graphics, physics, the open world tropical setting and aliens, but many knew that change had to happen soon enough. That’s where Farcry 2 came in, when it was first announced it was quite questionable as the game had adopted an African Setting rather than a tropical island and the game got even more questions when it finally was released. Before I go on, might I add that Crytek’s boss was happy with what Ubisoft were doing regarding Far Cry 2 – as a side note.
Alright, back to the topic, for starters, there was the African Setting to go on. It was a nice change, and still proved to be amazing in the graphics department. However as more gamers experienced it, they found it was a really different experience than normal. It was still, fundamentally, an open world First Person Shooter, but there were big changes like realism being added to the mix. What I mean by that is not realistic AI or gun battles, but rather the entire game. There are no aliens in Far Cry 2, no advanced Nano-Suits to buff the player up and no advanced weaponary. That said, it was still a great game, but many found it to be lacking compared to Crysis in terms of fast paced action. Still, it managed to be a great game and still true to the impressive technology behind Crysis and Crysis Warhead.

Let’s take a brief look at the evolvement of Crytek’s games, dating back to the beginning. It might also shock you at how impressive graphics of today have become.

Credit to eurogamer and gamershell for the Far Cry, Crysis and Far Cry 2 screenshots

FarCry – March 2004

Crysis – August 2007

Crysis Warhead – September 2008

Far Cry 2 – September 2008

Far Cry 3

It seemed barely after Far Cry 2 was released, the developers already had plans for Far Cry 3, and now I’ll move on to the actual point of the article. The unnamed sequel to Far Cry 2 remains in the African setting as far as the developers are concerned, as they have plans to work more with this environment and world they’ve created. Apparently the team has made some form of ‘commitment’ to the African setting. Some of the reasons being that it saves time to design a completely new location, it’s a place that many don’t get the chance to see and experience for themselves even in television and gaming and the fact that it’s a great setting to live up to the Far Cry standards of a dangerous and exotic environment (hmm, questionable, because it’s Africa? :D)

Quoted from: Far Cry 2 narrative designer Patrick Redding.
“There are still things we want to do with the African setting, and I think it’s safe to say we’ll continue to explore it,”
“That said, we might find something new and compelling about the Antarctic setting that wants us to make the next game there, but honestly, we’re still at the preliminary stages.”

Either way, to conclude, what we have is a clear confirmation for Far Cry 3 and it’s definitely a title to be excited about. There is no official release date, but expect it to be on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox360. The question is – Ready for more Far Cry? I say bring it on, along with Crysis 2 – the inevitable (and well known as confirmed) sequel in the making.

Source: blogwired
Source and more info from developers at: VG247