The level of research and detail will equal that of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, though the map itself will be smaller
Far Cry 6 will take place on the fictional Caribbean island of Yara. Unlike previous series entries, in Far Cry 6 players will get to experience an entire country.
Yara is brought to life with striking flora and fauna, gorgeous architecture brought to a state of ruin, and a tense atmosphere as guerrilla revolution stirs among the people: a precarious revolution set against the background of a tropical paradise, with clear Cuban inspiration. Yara is filled with culture and character despite the oppressive state inflicted by dictator Anton Castillo.
Ben Hall, who served as a senior-level designer on Assassin’s Creed Syndicate and went on to become the World Director for Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, is well equipped to bring Yara to life. In an interview with TechRadar, he talks about the similarities in the research part of the development of these two games.
‘We went to similar lengths of reference and research as we would for an Assassin’s Creed game, so bringing that same philosophy into it was important.’
Assassin’s Creed games have always been lauded for their detailed environments and historically accurate depictions of different locations and time periods, so the claim that Far Cry 6 maintains a similar level of intensive research is saying a lot! The accuracy of Assassin’s Creed’s environments is so highly acclaimed that the world maps are offered as educational tools for schools.
After the tragic burning of the Notre-Dame cathedral in 2019, Ubisoft even offered their 5,000 hours of research on the building to aid the rebuilding efforts. Fourteen months had been spent by the team, studying the cathedral to create an accurate in-game model for gamers to do parkour among the pews or eagle-dive off the spires.
Hall told TechRadar, “From an overarching philosophy, it remains somewhat the same in terms of the process of building, the level of detail – going into that research was something that was important that we put into this world for Far Cry. We went to similar lengths of reference and research as we would for an Assassin’s Creed game, so bringing that same philosophy into it was important.”
Hall also acknowledges that working on a first-person game has been different to his experience with a third-person series like Assassin’s Creed: “Spatial awareness becomes slightly different … that’s where the support of the team that I’ve been working with has been phenomenal because they’ve helped me with that. They’ve got that experience from previous Far Cry games and we’ve been able to fuse the two philosophies together to try and build the best worlds we possibly can for players.”
Though the team did do intense research on Cuba, this time the research is purely inspirational. Unlike in Assassin’s Creed, where maps are direct recreations of real-life settings, Yara is a fictional setting with some key differences to Cuba. Hall points out that you wouldn’t find any alligators hanging out in pools in Cuba, but you will in Yara!
I personally can’t wait to see Far Cry’s fictional country with the same level of detail and research as AC Odyssey.
Far Cry 6 is available now for Pre-Order. Grab it here!
Standard and Gold editions are available on PS4, PS5, and Xbox One / Series X
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